WHERE Landmark’s Century Centre (2828 N. Clark), River East 21 (322 E. Illinois), and Thorne Auditorium (375 E. Chicago)
LISTINGS ONLINE chicagoreader.com
A 17-year-old travels from village to city looking for his father in this first feature (2005) by mainland Chinese director Ying Liang, who used friends and relatives as his cast and a borrowed video camera. In Mandarin with subtitles. 100 min. aRiver East, 4:30 PM
Flannel Pajamas
A 2005 South Korean feature by writer-director Shin Dong-il (The Holy Family) about the friendship between a divorced film teacher and an evangelist who’s a conscientious objector. In Korean with subtitles. 92 min. aLandmark, 5 PM
God Willing
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R The novelty of writer-director John Cameron Mitchell’s bittersweet comedy drama is that it’s full of hard-core sex, including such stunts as a guy giving himself a blow job, yet it’s basically concerned with feelings and is touching throughout. The film grew out of the actors’ improvisations, with the main focus on one straight and one gay couple who turn up at a New York salon called Shortbus, hosted by drag queen Justin Bond. The movie’s main limitation is that each character seems formed around one idea, endlessly reiterated–a sex therapist who’s never had an orgasm (Canadian broadcaster Sook-yin Lee), a dominatrix who wants to settle down and have a family, a lover in an open relationship who wants fidelity–so it runs out of energy before the end. 102 min. (JR) aRiver East, 8:30 PM
