ANIMATION IN THE EAST – CINEMA CYCLE 

5 OCTOBER
AUDITORIUM
15:00

Cinema
Price: € 3,00

ANIMATION IN THE EAST – CINEMA CYCLE

THE EMBRACE
Director: Sang-Hui Lee
South Korea, 2007, 4’ 20’’
Format: 3D Animation
Subtitled in Portuguese.
Cert. 6+

In the middle of a desert, there is a father cactus and a daughter cactus. The daughter notices that other desert families embrace closely and she asks her daddy to embrace her as well. However, he cannot embrace his daughter out of fear that he might hurt her with one of his sharp spines. Father cactus thus rejects this request and his daughter then gets upset and sad, becoming a rather taciturn child. Her father is then forced into taking the difficult decision over how to make his daughter feel better.

THE VOYAGE OF CHIHIRO (Sem to Chihiro no kamikakushi)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 2001, 122’
Subtitled in Portuguese.

Chihiro and her parents set off on a voyage to their new house out in the suburbs of the city. On the way, her father decides to take a shortcut along a deserted secondary road. At some point in time, they set off on foot along a path that takes them to an open air restaurant, laden with specialities but without any staff or customers in sight. Her parents show no hesitation and sit down and tuck in. Chihiro, however, refuses out of a looming sense of danger. When night falls, she is horrified to find the entire area roaming with faceless spirits. Chihiro runs back to her parents but on reaching there finds they have been turned into pigs. Haku, a mysterious youth, meets Chihiro and promises to help her. He gets her a job in a nearby building that turns out to be the bath house for Japan’s thousands of gods and spirits. While the work is hard and the clients strange, Chihiro strives to do her very best. However, her parents remain in the restaurant pigsty and the daughter still has to seek out a means to break the spell before they get served up to the next clients.
Winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film and the Berlin Festival Golden Bear.

2 November
AUDITORIUM
15:00
Cinema
Price: € 3.00

SOEYOUN
Director: Kim, Jin-Man
South Korea, 2007, 10’
Technique: puppet, plasticine and object animation
Subtitled in Portuguese.

Scientists have discovered that air pollution is worsening because a nearby forest is releasing CO2 instead of consuming it. This phenomenon is causing an abnormal rise in temperatures and the trees are mutating their internal systems in order to adapt to the higher temperatures. Correspondingly, the food chain undergoes change, inverting established cycles.

GALAXY EXPRESS

Director: Taro Rin
Japan, 1979, 92’
Subtitled in Portuguese.

A journey to the stars and beyond. We accompany Tetsuro, an adventurer out seeking the director of his dreams. With Matael as guide on this voyage through the galaxy we visit new and striking planets inhabited by extraordinary characters and terrible villains.

7 December
AUDITORIUM
15:00
Cinema
Cert. 6
Price: € 3.00

LOTUS
Director: Duan jia
China, 2005, 10’
Subtitled in Portuguese.

The film begins with the traditional aesthetic concept of how the Lotus “remains perfect when extracted from the mud” and ends in evoking the spirits of the “Phoenix in flames”. Like a narrative poem with symbolical meanings, life itself is replete with temptations and moments of purification which some may succumb to while others rise above.

HOLS, THE PRINCE OF SUN
Director: Isao Takahata
Japan, 1968, 82’
Subtitled in Portuguese.








Hols, the Prince of Sun, is considered by both critics and audiences as an unprecedented film. Hols is a courageous boy and son of a fisherman. Armed only with an axe, he engages in a ferocious fight with a pack of famished wolves before being saved by Rockoor, a giant made of rock and earth. Hols wins the giant’s confidence when removing the "sword of sun" that he had lodged into his shoulder. Rockoor predicts that the sword will help the little warrior when having to confront a terrible being.

Co-production: Fundação Oriente/Casa da Animação