03/07/2015 5:00pm – 6:45pm
Asia Society
725 Park Avenue, New York, NY
Return to Burma
Directed by Midi Z
2011.Taiwan/Myanmar. 84 min. DCP. English subtitled.
Cast: Wang Shin-Hong, Lu Jiun
Preceded by short film
The Palace on the Sea
Directed by Midi Z.
2014. Taiwan/Myanmar. 15 min. DCP. English subtitled.
Cast: Cast: Wu Ke-Xi, Wang Shin-Hong
Post-screening Q&A with director Midi Z and actress Wu Ke-Xi.
Return to Burma
Myanmar holds its first parliamentary election in two decades. Many Myanmar natives living overseas return home in anticipation of peace and prosperity. Xing-hong, who has worked as a construction worker in Taiwan, arrives home to find his brother getting ready to go to work as a laborer in Malaysia. As he looks without much luck for business opportunities in his hometown, a sense of disillusionment and alienation pervades. It seems as though nothing much, after all, has changed. Midi Z’s directorial debut feature, Return to Burma, symbolizes the filmmaker’s personal homecoming in 2008, ten years after he moved to Taiwan to pursue an education and career.
The Palace on the Sea
“The Palace on the Sea” was once a luxurious floating restaurant in Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan. Now it’s an abandoned vessel sadly chained to the dock without a purpose. A woman in a Myanmar traditional dress makes a ghostly entrance and dances with the past. This experimental short makes an interesting counterpart to director Midi Z’s feature films, which adhere strictly to reality.
For more information, please visit
http://asiasociety.org/new-york/events/return-burma-palace-sea