The First short Magical Coincidence ( Keith Locke Canada 2012: 22 min) was put together by the 2011 Reel Asian pitch winners.
We meet director Benjamin showing his short film at Cine Cycle. The film ends and he asks the audience for questions but they have none. His friend Max has made it as a director and is taking meetings with industry heavyweights and flaunting his success in front of Ben and to impress their friend Amy.
Max heads out to a meeting and Ben and Amy spend the rest of the day together. They find a strange mushroom containing special information that eventually leads them to a local where they are presented with a dollar coin (loonie) that predicts the future based on each flip of the coin.
*** out of four
Guang focuses on an autistic man who lives with his younger brother who directs him in his daily life activities. Wen Guang is obsessed with different size wine glasses. With the bills mounting Guang is sent out by his brother to interview for a courier job. Not successful his brother arranges a for another opportunity with a close fiend. Wen Guang has the information he needs for the interview etched on his hand but is distracted by the sound of the ultimate glass he's been seeking dragged down the street amongst an elderly lady's garbage and does not attend which has expect consequences for his relationship with his brother and their financial and living situation. While his brother fumes Wen Guang sets the glass in the long vacant spot and now has a complete set for his obsessed endeavour.
**** our of 4
Queck Shio Chuan Malaysia 2011 14 minutes
Obake Ghosts
A Young Hawaiian man and woman discuss her impending move to Japan. She is nervous that she will not speak as good as the natives.
Switch to an old man in the country who is visited on a regular basis from his grandson. He spends most of this time sitting in a chair on his porch staring at a lush native Hawaiian tree. The story revisits the young man who promises the woman that he will leave this country area and travel then back to the old man Lenny who we find out never has been out of North Shore of Hawaii the and has turned reflective in his final days.
*** out of 4
Christopher Makoto Yogi U.S.A. 2011 14 Minutes
That Which Once Was
Set in the not to distant future 8 year old Vicente is amongst a group of orphans that have lost their families in a devastating world wide flood. Vicente has nightmares and any time water is introduced he is paralyzed with fear. He is treated in a very adult way by a visiting doctor given a full set of adult sleeping pills in a Ziploc bag to treat his malady and told to take only two at a time.
He notices an Inuit man across the street and becomes interested in his shop. After an incident Vincente goes to help out at the shop and appears to forget his fears. Vincente sees the shop owner as a replacement father figure.
He discovers that the shop keeper also has the number of a refugee on his wrist and feels betrayal. The only place he could forget the flood has been compromised. They both take out their frustrations with one great act of release of pent up frustration.
*** 1/2
Kimi Takesue USA 2011 19:50
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