San tiao ren (1999)

The protagonist is Asano who has had an amazing memory since his youth spent in Okinawa. Words have tangible shapes, tastes and colours for him. This goes so far that he is not even able to... See full summary »

Director:

Christopher Doyle

Writers:

Christopher Doyle, Tony Rayns

Stars:

Tadanobu Asano, Georgina Hobson, Christa Hughes

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tadanobu Asano	...	Asano Takashi (adult)
Georgina Hobson	...	Georgina
Christa Hughes	...	Christa
Takanori Kubo	...	Asano Takashi (boy)
Kevin Sherlock	...	Kevin
Mavis Xu	...	Susie

Storyline

The protagonist is Asano who has had an amazing memory since his youth spent in Okinawa. Words have tangible shapes, tastes and colours for him. This goes so far that he is not even able to forget words once he has heard them. He travels the seas and because 'Hong Kong' feels wonderful, he goes ashore there. He chances upon the Dive Bar, that soon turns out to be the haven of comfort he has been seeking since his youth. The bar is run by the flamboyant, hospitable Kevin, who is also an alcoholic, eclectic lover and a perfect confidant to Asano. But Kevin keeps forgetting all kinds of things and that gets him into trouble sometimes. Words seem only to stand in the way of the relationship between Asano and Kevin...

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Plot Keywords:

gay interest | gay bar | independent film | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The role of Kevin was written specifically for the director and co-writer Christopher Doyle's friend Kevin Sherlock, who stated that he simply played himself.

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Connections

Featured in Orientations: Chris Doyle - Stirred But Not Shaken (2001)

User Reviews

10/10

I saw this film at the Sydney Film Festival, and there were three things I loved about it:

• Christopher Doyle directing his own cinematography - what a visual treat (especially the bar scenes).

• It was a film about linguistics, which Doyle being (at least) bilingual would be bound to be interested in. Basically if the title interests you, you'll probably enjoy this aspect of the film.

• The blur between fiction and reality in the character of Kevin, playing himself I suspect, so real as the carefree scamp you love to have around/chronic alcoholic you want to get out of your life (depend on your point of view).

In the Q&A, I found the director unintelligible. Maybe he's a bit of a man's man because his gift to the audience in Sydney was Christa in an orange pantsuit, singing some breathy Monroesque tune. That was OK but he also did another Q&A for a different film later in the festival and Christa did her number again, although it had no relevance to the film. It was an annoyingly blatant free plug for Christa.

Details

Country:

USA Japan Hong Kong Singapore

Language:

English Japanese Cantonese

Release Date:

7 August 1999 (Japan)

Also Known As:

A Way with Words

Company Credits

Production Co:

Time Warp Inc., TimeWarp

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1