Inspired by the Themester theme of “Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World,” this semester’s East Asian Film Series offers three film co-productions between filmmakers and film industries in East Asia and the larger Asia Pacific. Representing an increasingly ubiquitous mode of production in the region, the co-productions of this series offer glimpses into contemporary concerns with encounter, exchange, survival, and everyday life that resonate among South Korea and Indonesia; Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China; as well as Japan and the world. Sponsored by Themester, East Asian Studies Center and IU Cinema. Special thanks to Professor Stephanie DeBoer. East asian Film sEriEs Odayaka na nichijô (2012) Directed by Nobuteru Uchida October 1 - Tuesday - 7:00 p.m. Odayaka is a fresh and award-winning take on the story we all remember from the headlines, exposing the audience to the experiences of average Japanese people in Tokyo-adjacent communities immediately following “3/11,” the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Amid the harsh economic recession and escalating fears of nuclear fallout, Yukako and Saeko struggle against a host of social and psychological pressures that most others around them ignore. Through fluid hand-held camera work, the story takes on an intimate realism. In Japanese language with English subtitles. (HD Cam. 102 min. Not Rated.) Beautiful 2012 (2012) Directed by Changwei Gu, Ann Hui, Tae-Yong Kim and Ming-liang Tsai November 5 - Tuesday - 7:00 p.m. This omnibus package of shorts by leading East Asian directors offers four takes on the theme of “beautiful.” Kim depicts a closeted young man who hires a girl to play his fiancée for the benefit of his dying father. Tsai’s episode follows a barefoot man moving through Hong Kong at a haunted pace. Gu centers on a candid family conversation about pregnancies, wanted and unwanted. Hui empathizes with a middle-aged office worker who has finally decided to act on his conviction that he’s actually a woman. In Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin languages with English subtitles. (HD Cam. 90 min. Not Rated.) Hello Goodbye (2012) Directed by Titien Wattimena; November 19 - Tuesday - 7:00 p.m. Set in Busan, South Korea, Hello Goodbye is the story of an unlikely romance that begins between two people who meet far away from home. One is a sailor, the other works for the Indonesian consulate. More than just a romance, the film deeply explores the two protagonists and their divergent life views. The film is rich with conflict, life lessons, and love, and features award-winning cinematography and a soundtrack by Korean singer Eru. In Korean and Indonesian languages with English subtitles. (2K DCP. 110 min. Not Rated.) cinema.indiana.edu East Asian Film Series 31