And Thereafter (Hosup Lee, USA/South Korea, 2003) "Grandma" Young-ja Wike cracks a genuine smile exactly once in this heartbreaking documentary: a tired, bittersweet grin the day she takes the precious chile peppers she's grown and dried to be ground. Wike, a Korean American war bride, gradually reveals jarring tidbits of her lonely life to filmmaker Hosup Lee, mostly while she is tending her beloved garden outside the small New Jersey home she shares with her husband and two useless grown sons. Speaking fragmented English, Wike feels estranged in the United States, barely able to communicate with her family, but has ugly "mountains" of tragedy to tell Lee in Korean. Lee's approach is intimate, though nonintrusive, as, for example, he uses the sounds of falling rain and Wike's hands folding laundry to echo her isolation and sadness. Wike's sons are ungrateful losers, but we find out her husband is worse, as she describes his atrocities in the dark shadows of the basement, gently laying out her peppers. Sat/12, 5 p.m., PFA; Sun/13, 4:30 p.m., Kabuki; March 19, 12:15 p.m., Camera 12. (Laurie Koh)

Butterfly (Yan Yan Mak, Hong Kong, 2004) The experimental style of Hong Kong film Butterfly (the festival's other lesbian feature besides opening-night film Saving Face) liberates it from American cheeseball counterparts, but it also entangles a narrative already crowded with butterfly metaphors, politics, and confusing subplots. Married school teacher Flavia (stunning actress Josie Ho) is drowning in memories of her high school lesbian relationship with feisty rebel Jin. These memories are triggered when she falls for young singer-songwriter Yip (Tian Yuan), who's both implike and unfortunately a wisp of a character. Flavia and Yip's initial interactions feel like Amélie-style happenstance, but in contrasting 8mm flashbacks, teenage Flavia and her lover share an authentic intensity that far outdoes that of the grown-ups. Choppy editing between the two relationships almost knocks the story off course, but the kinks work themselves out, optimistically even, as the older womens' emotions evolve. Sun/13, noon, Castro; Tues/15, 9 p.m., Kabuki. (Koh)

Ethan Mao (Quentin Lee, USA/Canada, 2004) "That was the first time I got fucked," Ethan Mao (Jun Hee Lee) recalls early in this drama from Quentin Lee (Shopping for Fangs); it's a matter-of-fact statement from the teenager turned hustler, booted onto the street after his father discovered he was gay. After learning his family (violence-prone pops, vampy stepmom, bullying stepbrother, and nerdy younger brother) will be road-tripping on Thanksgiving, Ethan and his best-only friend and roommate, Remigio (Jerry Hernandez), break into their house to retrieve, among other things, a sentimentally prized necklace that belonged to Ethan's late mother. When the brood returns unexpectedly, chaos, violence, heartfelt exchanges, and overwrought shouting continues into the night. As a writer, Lee aims for emotionally wrenching results from his high-stakes conflicts, with some success – but he proves less successful in directing his actors, several of whom deliver distractingly weak performances. Fri/11, 7 p.m., PFA; Sat/12, 7:15 p.m., Castro. (Cheryl Eddy)

From a Silk Cocoon (Satsuki Ina and Stephen Holsapple, USA, 2005) From a Silk Cocoon explores the lives of codirector Satsuki Ina's parents before and after World War II. Months after they married, the couple was separated and taken to Tanforan Assembly Center under Executive Order 9066. The documentary gently narrates this tale of love, despair, and injustice by weaving old letters, artifacts, and Japanese haikus written by Ina's father during those tough times. Underlying the love story is the family's decision to renounce their U.S. citizenship in hopes of starting fresh in Japan and their subsequent fight against deportation. Cocoon is presented with the short "Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story" (Casey Peek, USA, 2004), which documents a part of internment history that is often untold. Like more than 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese ancestry, Japanese-Peruvian Shibayama was forced to move to a Department of Justice camp in Crystal City, Texas. These internees, unlike Japanese Americans, were essentially kidnapped from their countries by U.S. troops in collaboration with Latin American governments and were exchanged as prisoners of war. The fascinating tale shows how Shibayama faced racism in Peru as well as in the United States and his continuous struggle to gain equitable redress from the U.S. government. Mon/14, 6:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Momo Chang)

The Grace Lee Project (Grace Lee, USA, 2005) A natural extension of the stereotypical Western perception of those inscrutible "Orientals" – "they all look alike anyway" – The Grace Lee Project finds a Columbia, Mo., filmmaker of the same name tracking down model-minority amazing Graces throughout the country in this humorous and, well, graceful exploration of Asian American women's identity. Digging below typical descriptors like nice, smart, and quiet, the moviemaker happily discovers that Graces are far from predictable as she learns about an octogenarian Chinese American activist in Detroit's black community, a Korean American TV news reporter in Honolulu, and an overachieving firebug who once tried to burn down her S.F. school. Fri/11, 7 p.m., Kabuki; March 16, 8:45 p.m., Kabuki; March 19, 7:15 p.m., Camera 12. (Kimberly Chun)

The Green Hat (Liu Fendou, China, 2003) A pair of cheatin' hearts – both female – set events in motion in Shower scripter Liu Fendou's directorial debut. The film's intense first half traces the increasing desperation of a heartbroken bank robber whose long-distance gal has strayed; the film then takes a more introspective turn as it follows an unhappily married police officer home from the crime scene. It's the cop's wife's birthday, but all she wants is a divorce – so the distraught husband confronts her lover (cheesy ponytail and all), echoing the film's earlier hostage-taking situation. A top prizewinner at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, The Green Hat offers a memorable (yet low-key) take on men emasculated by their loved ones, as well as a probing exploration of love itself. Fri/11, 7 p.m., Castro; March 20, 5 p.m., Camera 12. (Eddy)

I Was Born, But ... (Roddy Bogawa, USA, 2004) Combining the patient eye of Chantal Ackerman and the musical jones of Darby Crash, Roddy Bogawa's memoir casts a long, lingering glance back at a life of punk rock, Los Angeles strip malls, and Hawaiian school breaks in this feature-length diary (which references in its title Ozu's classic silent on childhood and community). Searching through footage of Seam and Joe Strummer, flipping through old music mags, and musing on Japanese American identity, the filmmaker riffs off the changing concrete landscape of the City of Angels, the shifting ground of fringe and pop culture, and recurring questions of assimilation, hinging his meditation on the death of Joey Ramone, which occurred on Bogawa's birthday. Come's Chris Brokaw brings the post-punk via an evocative original score. Sat/12, 7 p.m., Kabuki. (Chun)

Monkey Dance (Julie Mallozzi, USA, 2004) Three Cambodian-American Massachusetts teens confront life after high school in Julie Mallozzi's doc, shot both conventionally and via handheld cameras operated by the subjects themselves. A traditional Cambodian dance troupe links the trio, who are otherwise incredibly different: car-obsessed Linda feels the pressure of not turning out like her older sister, in jail for killing an abusive boyfriend; gifted gymnast Samnang has his sights on the Ivy League; and spiky-haired Sochenda lives in the moment, stretching his grocery-store salary to support his materialistic lifestyle. Meanwhile, memories of the Khmer Rouge still haunt their immigrant parents, who universally hope their children will make the most of the opportunities available to them in the United States. Mallozzi – who filmed Monkey Dance over a period of three years, even accompanying Linda on an eye-opening visit to Cambodia – demonstrates remarkable commitment to her subjects, making for an insightful end result. Sat/12, 5 p.m., Kabuki; March 20, 12:45 p.m., Camera 12. (Eddy)

The Motel (Michael Kang, USA, 2005) Closing night at this year's festival comes in a bittersweet flavor with a coming-of-age-without-grace story. Plump Chinese American Ernest Chin (Jeffrey Chyau) learns about sex and identity in the contextless rooms of his mother's motel, an environment that feels like a Percy Adlon film without the pastels. First-time feature filmmaker Michael Kang builds an alluring blankness around his troubled preteen that matches the impersonal surroundings, where drunk-happy couples check in for three-hour shifts and our young protagonist's job is to clean up the messes after he finishes his homework. With a crush on an unattainable older Asian American girl, a bullying white boy following him, and a motel full of fallen men as role models, Ernest heads for trouble that brings unspoken family tensions to a roiling boil. March 17, 7 p.m., Kabuki. (Susan Gerhard)

Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003) Though it's due for a regular theatrical release later this year – and a Hollywood remake to be directed by Better Luck Tomorrow's Justin Lin – fans of no-holds-barred filmmaking are advised to see Oldboy at the earliest possible opportunity. The premise: a seemingly average (if drunken) man is kidnapped and stashed in a private jail for 15 years. After he's suddenly released, the only purpose in his now-ruined life is to find out who imprisoned him (and why, oh why, did he or she or they?) – and exact tasty revenge. Star Choi Min-sik turns in a heartbreaking-yet-scary performance as a ruined man so focused on his quest that he'll nonchalantly perform crude dentistry (using a hammer, no less) on an adversary who's withholding crucial information. Oldboy is the best and most brutal mystery yarn in years, with a climax so brilliantly outrageous it provides a fitting finale to a near perfect movie. Fri/11, 9:30 p.m., Kabuki; Sat/12, 7 p.m., PFA; March 20, 9:30 p.m., Camera 12. (Eddy)

Saving Face (Alice Wu, USA, 2004) Can a comely, workaholic medical resident (Michelle Krusiec) survive the frantic matchmaking of her haranguing mother (Joan Chen) and find love with a gorgeous dancer (Lynn Chen)? And what happens when the tables turn and a mother ends up knocked up and on her own daughter's doorstep. Director Alice Wu goes fishing for Wedding Banquet-style madcap comedy, with mixed results. The narrative arc is all too predictable in this Will "Hitch" Smith-coproduced venture, as enjoyable as it is to see a wide-screen beauty like Joan Chen play against type as a dowdy, fussy dowager, and as charming a pair as Krusiec and Lynn Chen make. Thurs/10, 7 p.m., Castro. (Chun)

Swades (Ashutosh Gowariker, India, 2004) Ashutosh Gowariker's first film since his Oscar-nominated Lagaan lacks the period details that made that film so remarkable. Swades is so modern, in fact, that leading man Mohan (Bollywood heartthrob Shahrukh Khan) works at NASA, drives a Jaguar, and is never without his cell phone. But after a soul-stirring trip to his homeland – where he reunites with his long-lost nanny, falls in love with a comely schoolteacher, and helps an isolated hamlet enter the 21st century, both technologically (via a new electricity-generating system) and culturally (by urging the castes to unite for the common good) – Mohan must decide what he values most. Viewers hoping for a repeat of kaleidoscopic musical Veer-Zaara, another recent import starring Khan, might be disappointed, as Swades features surprisingly few song-and-dance numbers. Fortunately, Gowariker's more "realistic" filmmaking style doesn't come at the expense of entertainment (even at three-plus hours). Seriously, where else are you gonna hear Khan crooning an undubbed bathtub rendition of "I've Been Waiting for a Girl Like You"? Fri/11, 9:30 p.m., Castro. (Eddy)

'3rd I South Asian International Shorts 2005' A few laughs poke out of this mixed-bag program – curated by the venerable 3rd I South Asian Film Festival – which otherwise seeps with blood, guts, and disillusionment. Amit Kumar's "The Bypass" is an exceptionally violent (not the fun kind) tale about desert thieves, in which a shot of a hand being hacked off cuts to that of a goat slaughter mid-thwack. Richie Mehta's "Amal" features the fable-like exploits of a New Delhi rickshaw driver. G.D. Jayalakshmi's "Arranged Marriage" is as set up as its title, while Keshni Kashyap's "Waxed Poetic" is basically a music video about hair removal. Kashyap also directs "In Good Thing," which is about an appliance store salesperson who thinks the baby he is expecting will only add to the garbage in the world and has a slightly annoying but somewhat amusing existential crisis. Nilesh Patel's "The Waiter" unintelligibly floats by, but "Call Center," by Amyn Kaderali, is a lively take on East-West customer service relations. Lastly, "Holly-Bolly" is director Dishad Husain's so-so narrative effort to critique cultural mishmashing in Britain's indie film industry. Sun/13, 6:45 p.m., Kabuki; March 20, 7 p.m., Camera 12. (Koh)

Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Gohbadi, Iraq/Iran, 2004) The children so familiar to Iranian film have never been quite as animated, engaging, and endangered as they are in this incredible, magic realist war story, set on the eve of the United States' latest invasion of Iraq, by Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Gohbadi (A Time for Drunken Horses and Marooned in Iraq). Led by a Kurdish orphan nicknamed "Satellite" (he buys and sells sat dishes to the locals to feed his troop of tent-living, parentless cohorts), the children dig for land mines, sometimes losing limbs, and trade them in at the arms market for necessities. A boy orphan with no arms, a sad sister, a baby, and extrasensory powers upset the balance as a community waits for the U.S. onslaught, or "liberation." The film's witty scene-setting (an army of children on a mountain holding up old antennae with their bare hands) is reminiscent of a Makhmalbaf film, but Ghobadi parts ways with his mentors Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf with a more adrenaline-fueled storytelling style. Sun/13, 6 p.m., PFA; Tues/15, 6:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Gerhard)

What's Wrong with Frank Chin? (Curtis Choy, USA, 2005) This film from Curtis Choy (Fall of the I-Hotel) is both a documentary about ornery writer Frank Chin and an exploration of what it means to be Asian in America. Chin wrote and produced 1972's Chickencoop Chinaman, founded the Asian American Theatre Workshop, and created the Day of Remembrance, but he's perhaps most famous for his continuous berating of fellow yellow writers like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, and David Henry Hwang. In a scene that shows letters exchanged between Chin and Kingston in 1976, it's clear there is some love behind the hate. He's part anal-retentive historian – obsessively gathering files on every single Asian actor and white actor who played Asians, for example – and part hippie, anti-model minority who's constantly confronting stereotypes. Beneath the sarcasm that is his trademark, there is an underlying level of pain and passion, and the film hints at some of the reasons. Choy's low-tech, handheld shooting style highlights his storytelling and interviewing skills; slowly, we start to realize that Chin has loudly and quietly been perhaps the single greatest influence on Asian American identity. Mon/14, 7 p.m., Kabuki; March 19, 2:30 p.m., Camera 12. (Chang)

Yasmin (Kenny Glenaan, U.K., 2004) Every day, as Yasmin drives to work from her north England town, she strips off her traditional Pakistani wear and shimmies into tight-ass jeans and a Western alter ego. Later she returns, hair covered, to cook dinner for her father, brother, and arranged-marriage husband. Writer Simon Beafoy (The Full Monty) and director Kenny Glenaan enter the flood of post-9/11 narratives with this solid portrait of the rising tensions between Muslim and Western communities in England. Yasmin, as played by Archie Panjabi, is smart and sassy. Though she's not very clued in to the events of 9/11, she is nonetheless unwilling to take the bullshit harassment she begins to encounter after the fact. Her peers' jealousy slides easily into hatred, so Yasmin and her younger brother adopt more traditional values. The story gains complexity as Yasmin deals with the unraveling of her family relationships and begins to sympathize with the FOB husband she can't stand, but the film's very British, arms'-length vérité style keeps the drama in check. Sat/12, 7:15 p.m., Kabuki; Mon/14, 9:15 p.m., Kabuki. (Koh)

Jump Shot: The Year of the Yao digs into the life, times,
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Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images.