Louis Vuitton Hawaii International FIlm Festival 2008

Adapted from the John Boyne's best-selling novel, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is a fictionalized story told through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II. This unforgettable tale follows a forbidden friendship that forms between Bruno, the son of a Nazi commandant, and Shmuel, a Jewish boy held captive in a concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed-wire fence, their friendship grows and their lives become inescapably intertwined.

The story takes place four years after high school, and Tsukasa has just proposed to Tsukushi on national television. When Tsukushi and Tsukasa are alone in Tsukushi's cavernous hotel suite, a thief brazenly breaks in and steals the tiara right from under their noses. Tsukasa gives chase, but the thief is too quick and wily - and has powerful, unseen allies. After failing to grab him at the hotel, Tsukasa gets word that the thief and tiara are in Las Vegas. Together he and a determined Tsukushi fly to America - and the start of a strange and dangerous, if giddily romantic, adventure that leads to Hong Kong and other exotic locales. His best buddies lend their support, though Tsukushi begins to suspect one, the tall, silky smooth Rui Hanazawa, of being in cahoots with the bad guys. --Mark Schilling

After the grandmother she has been taking care of dies, 'thirtysomething' Karen needs to look for a new job and pick up the pieces of her life.

Brutus is a fictionalized retelling of facts about the environmental degradation of Mindoro: two kids are paid by illegal loggers to smuggle wood to the lowlands. They hide them underneath a bamboo raft and float them for several days through dangerous white water. What follows is a journey that tests their friendship and their values; and opens up their eyes to a world new to them; a world dictated by ideologies and material need. Ultimately they find themselves caught in the conflict between the Military and Rebels. Brutus is an adventure film that has a lot to say about vanishing culture threatened by man's abuses. It explores the struggle of a people who aspire to live well, with dignity and in harmony with nature.

CAFE ISOBE is a Japanese comedy about Yujiro, a dim-witted tradesman, who, after inheriting a small fortune, quits his job and imprudently decides to open his very own cafe. His teenage daughter Sakiko, who has been caring for the poor schlub since her mother split, is mortified by the idea of her clueless dad running a trendy cafe. As expected, the cafe's grand opening is dismal and Yujiro can't understand why business isn’t booming. Things turn around the day he hires (and instantly falls in love with) an alluring but air headed part-time worker named Motoko. Could a new romance be the key to Cafe Isobe's success? Perhaps, but this strange state of affairs worries Sakiko, who has no choice but to keep dear dad out of trouble! --Jason Soeda

Aga left Hengchun for Taipei in the hope of becoming the singer in a band. After ten years of hard work, he returns home, his dream unfulfilled. Tomoko is a Japanese model who is asked to put together a local warm-up band for an upcoming Japanese super star beach concert to be held in Hengchun. However, recruiting the band members proves to be as difficult a task as the search for the famous seven samurai. Together with five other ordinary Hengchun residents with no hopes of fame, they form an unbelievable band.

Inspired by the Pink Floyd song, this black comedy focuses on a boy with a strange curiosity of his father's very sharp axe, when chopping wood for the first time.

Four women filmmakers tackle four different stories about lives of marginalized women in Indonesia: in "Chant From an Island", a midwife in a deserted island sacrifices her dying health to rescue a mentally challenged woman; in "Chant From a Tourist Town", a high-school student toys around with an overwhelming access to free sex, which may put her life in jeopardy; in "Chant From a Village", a single mother is forced to see her daughter and her best friend fall victims to women and children trafficking syndicate; and in "Chant From the Capital City", a middle class Chinese woman is about to be separated from her only daughter because of an HIV threat.