Capsule Reviews of AFI Film Festival

Following are capsule reviews of a selection of the screenings today and Sunday at the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Cenutry Plaza Cinemas.

SUNDAY

‘Woman Demon Human’

China, 1988, 106 minutes Noon Huang Shuquin, one of China’s few women film makers, finds complex meanings and considerable ambiguity in her story of an actress coming to terms with her life and career in this exquisitely nuanced and strikingly original film. Her heroine has from her youth defied convention in insisting on playing male roles in the Chinese opera which require mastery of martial arts and gymnastics. There’s an interplay between Qiu’s fascination with a demon in a popular opera and in her own independent nature that gives the film a strong feminist spirit. RECOMMENDED