Prize-Winning Student Films Show Creators’ Early Promise

The Pan-Asian Filmmakers Foundation presents “Defining Moments in Asian American Cinema” (20th Century Fox’s Little Theater, 10201 W. Pico Blvd., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.), a decidedly overstated title for a program composed of just three prize-winning student films: Ang Lee’s 43-minute “Fine Line” (New York University, 1984), Kayo Hatta’s 16-minute “Otemba” (Tomboy) (UCLA, 1988) and Tsukuru Imanishi’s 37-minute “Jirohachi” (Loyola Marymount and Kyoto Film Institute, 1995).

Nonetheless, it is a splendid offering, assembled to benefit the foundation, established last June to foster Asian American filmmaking talent.

A gritty yet tender Lower Manhattan comedy, “Fine Line” shows that Ang Lee had what it takes well before “The Wedding Banquet,” “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Sense and Sensibility.” It’s a lively, sly tale of two desperate people on the run whose paths will inevitably cross with mutual consciousness-raising a result.

They are a lovely young Taiwanese drama student (Ching Ming Liu) fleeing immigration because her student visa doesn’t permit her to work, and an Italian American truck driver (Pat Lupo) who has flipped out over his wife’s infidelity and been ensnared by his pal (Chazz Palminteri, no less) in a Mafia deal gone wrong. “Fine Line” is a gem from start to finish.

So is “Jirohachi,” a tale of honor and self-sacrifice in the grand tradition of the Japanese period film. Filmed in ancient Kyoto buildings, it is an “Enoch Arden” story set in the 16th century that finds two young samurai, Jirohachi (Takashi Taniguchi) and Chikuma (Yoshiro Matsuda), dispatched to enemy territory to retrieve a sacred sword.

Separated during a skirmish, Chikuma sadly returns home alone while Jirohachi returns two years later, sword in hand but faced with the fact that Chikuma has recently married his fiancee. What happens next is beautifully expressed, at once suspenseful and unpredictable.

With “Otemba,” Hatta, who made a promising feature debut last year with the memorable “Picture Bride,” created a brief but perceptive sketch of a free-spirited young girl (Kimi Nakaba).

Hatta subtly suggests that even in the most loving Japanese American families the notion that girls are inferior to boys lingers still. Hatta will appear in person.

Information: (310) 396-6697.