September 18, 2007
AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CINEMA
Work in progress...
Asia has been providing some of the richest and most culturally reflective films of the last 20 years. The U.S. is catching on to this and has been importing and "borrowing" a lot of the pivotal elements that comprise this cinematic culture recently. This reaction is similar to 40 years ago when French New Wave hit our shores, resulting in the "New Hollywood." I am not sure whether this is a good thing or a warning of the dire need of support of creativity in this country; it is probably both. Needless to say, as far as large-scale filmmaking goes, the U.S. has not been at the forefront for quite some time.
It is difficult to say the word "Asian Cinema"; given the diversity of the cultures and countries that comprise Asia and the fact that cinema is self-reflective, its true meaning as wide and varied as its topic itself. Because of this, the cinema is as dynamic as any in the short history of the art form. Not only does culture demands this, but the nature of artistic expression does as well; art never stands still. It is important to venture into a concept like Asian Cinema carefully, taking into consideration its limitations. With this in mind, I present a brief survey which is based more on what we are able to learn about the specific regions described through the individual films. Once separated by country or region, we can start making more general observations and recognize patterns and the effects of the various circumstances impacting these countries. Some have tight censorship laws that prevent them creating as many works of art as you would expect them to: this makes the socially and ethically aware films that are able to be made much more important and impressive. Others are confined by poverty that the direct entertainment of the lower class and the young is pivotal for its own existence: this brings us the gangster/martial arts films; the pop romance films; the high school drama/suspense films; the glossy horror films; and the martial arts fantasy films such as Shaolin Soccer, Battlefield Baseball, ect.. Finally, in other, more self aware countries, we can observe focus on culture and religion which permeate through the film's frames. Tradition and setting become important characters themselves in these films. Despite this, there are always exceptions.
Getting back to the point, there are some great elements in these films whether narrative, technical, or political, that brings one into their worlds; this is a characteristic of important cinema. Though it does not compare to actually visiting these countries, it allows those of us without the means of travelling to get to know a large portion of the otherside of the world. This is vital for "independent" countries such as the U.S.
CHINA
Da Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Gua
Raise The Red Lantern - 1992
Drop-dead gorgeous Gong Li stars in what is esteemed as one of the great modern films. This is a story of the concubines of a wealthy lord and the undercurrent of issues and emotions that exist within their own world in China during the early 1900s. Raise the Red Lantern is about people with generations of real historical counterparts. Director Yimou Zhang employs a stunning use of color and set design that acts as both a feast for the eyes and as a metaphor for the beating hearts of women that are more alive than their culture will ever accept. As we watch the 4 wives compete for the company of their husband each night, we become the spectator of world within a world that has its own class structure and power struggles. Some of the women do terrible things to the others but Zhang ultimately has a deep sense of compassion, admiration, and pity for each. Though slightly over dramatic for westernized tastes at the end (this is a Chinese film after all) the points this film makes on gender, society, and most importantly, the fact that it makes those points, will resonate forever. Needless to say, this was originally banned from being shown in theaters. A masterpiece.
HONG KONG
Chung Hing Sam Lam
Chungking Express - 1994
Post new wave from master director Wong Kar-wai. His In the Mood For Love may be one of my all-time favorite films, but I would have to recommend Chungking Express as a primer for Asian cinema. This quirky and extremely likable film revolves around the lives of 4 lonely people. Two are cops that are dealing with the heartbreak of being dumped. They both end up meeting one of two vibrant (yet also lonely) women and get caught up in the whirlwind of their energy. Their stories are completely different but are interlocked by the emotions of love, thoughts on fate, fascination with America, and also by subtle actual crossings of all of their paths. It is impressive to think that Christopher Doyle, with whom Kar-wai frequently collaborates, goes on to become one of the most important directors of photography in cinema today. He virtually represents Asian cinema photography with his work ranging from In the Mood For Love, Infernal Affairs, to Hero. An Australian adopted by Asia, and a drunkard, he is utterly magnificent.
Hak Se Wui Yi Wo Wai Kwai
Triad Election - 2006
I want to be a little more modern here since the action films of the 90s, and now the Infernal Affairs series, are so well known. Johnnie To is the perfect segway to the re-animated Hong Kong gangster (triad) film style. Run by tradition that establishes a new godfather to the family every four years, problems arise when there is competition for the title from within the group, foreign soil, and from the current reining godfather. To clearly has American cinema in mind as he blends Coppola storylines, Scorsese grit, and Mann visuals to create this new contemporary gangster series. His now signature style of extreme darks with sharp spot lighting creates a slick cosmopolitan look to his work. The violence and subtle humor feels especially sinister as it always lies partly hidden in the dark. There are some surprisingly some good jabs at China and America's use of power. There is even a ninja attack. I've always wanted to type that.
I would also recommend Johnnie To's Exiled as a quick study of the western/gangster genre. He is clearly having fun and brings his whole gang out in this quick outing before returning to his more serious work. The western/gangster genre was one that I was personally trying to explore and I am happy others think it is worthwhile.
JAPAN
Wandâfuru Raifu
After Life - 1998
The premise of Hirokazu Koreeda's After Life is simple yet novel and deeply poignant: when someone dies, they find themselves in a waystation where a film crew from heaven will re-enact one's selected favorite memory so that they can take it, and only it, to the after life. Throughout the film, we watch 20 people from different cross-sections of life tackling the processes of selecting their memory and finding some significance in it and in their past lives. Koreeda interviewed roughly 500 actors for his film and the stories that made it into the film are the actual ones the actors told him as their favorite memories. He makes a brilliant decision in letting these real people simply talk about their lives since poets can ultimately only make so many generalities. Why not hear the voices of humanity instead of putting words into their mouths? It all almost comes across as a documentary. After Life presents a very personal account of modern Japanese life since it actually does dig into the culture with such a probing question. A country whose primary religion was a mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism right up until WWII surely still has a connection between the living and the dead. We also cannot ignore how much that war also compounded the notion of death onto the country's own identity. Modern writers like Murikami show us how deeply embedded this notion is. In all, this is just as much a personal story of the director himself as it is of his country. Koreeda had a difficult time dealing with his grandfather's Alzheimer's disease. He also probes his own life as a filmmaker and uses film making itself a way to immortalize memory within the film and in real life.
Hana-bi
Fireworks - 1997
It may surprise many that comedian "Beat" Takeshi Kitano is one of Japan's best directors. Many of you know him from the great Most Extreme Elimination Challenge television show. Hana-Bi translates into fireworks in English but it also has the literal and omniscient meaning of “flower fire”. This is a work of great humanity yet brutal violence. Hana-Bi is the story of a former cop whose life is crumbling apart at the seams and must confront the Yakuza in violent bursts in order to ensure his wife and himself moments of solace. He is paralleled by his former partner whose life is also devastated by tragedy. However, the partner contrasts the protagonist by taking up painting in order to remove himself from the his turmoil. Hana-bi is beyond a vigilante or revenge film. Any specific narrative description cheapens the authentic humanity portrayed in this film so I will leave it at that. I don't know of any director who can, or has tried to, juggle empathy, slapstick, and carnage in the manner that Kitano does. The violence is necessary in the context of the situations Nishi finds himself in. He is a broken man that must act. Kitano does not hide the cathartic implications of Nishi's actions, though it is clearly not a motivating factor. The film’s narrative is shattered at times to highlight and counterpoint the emotions. This is a deeply personal film conceived while Kitano was recovering from an accident in real life. The credits show that he wrote, directed, starred, and edited this film. While recuperating from both great depression and physical trauma, Takeshi took up painting. Many of the works he created during this time are tastefully used throughout the film.
Mononoke-hime
Princess Mononoke - 1997
Princess Mononoke is a staggeringly rich animated film with themes of the environment, gender rights, love, war, and justice pervading throughout it. It is the story of the journey the dying Ashitaka takes in order to rid himself of a curse put onto him by an angry and vengeful boar god. He meets a myriad of people and creatures that are all dealing with their own dilemmas, yet by the end of the film, are all tied together. The animation in this is second to none and is 95% hand drawn. I personally consider this to be Hayao Miyazaki's best film, though most, if not all, of them are well worth watching. I only regard the great Akira as a better anime film. It seems to me that Miyazaki always places an homage shot to it in his films. In this one, it is a shot of San being enveloped into the boar god. Even the English dubbing of this film was done extremely well, Billy Crudup, Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Claire Danes doing a fantastic job. Essential viewing.
KOREA
Yeogo Goedam II
Memento Mori - 1999
Part coming of age story, part supernatural thriller, and part lesbian romance, Memento Mori can be a confusing ride. Set in a Korean secondary school, the narrative follows Min-Ah as she discovers and ruminates through the diary of two classmates. Suspiciously, one of them end up committing suicide. In turn, the increasingly complex relationship between the two girls pulls Min-Ah further into their haunted, secret world. Tae-Yong Kim and
Kyu-Dong Min's insights into these young girls' lives are extremely sharp and distant at the same time. Perhaps this is because I am a western male. The concept of a young girl's profoundly adorned notebook is spellbinding to me and I feel captivated by watching the intimate lives of people completely different from me in so many levels including culture, gender, sexuality, and nowadays, age. The overall aesthetics and presentation captures the challenges of adolescence as well as the literal meaning of the title of remembering someone close yet so far away.
Oldboy - 2003
The centerpiece of Chan-wook Park's revenge trilogy is something I will never forget. This film is bluntly visceral and it truly explores the subject of revenge to levels we do not necessarily want to know about. Ho Dae-su is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years for no apparent reason and finds himself inexplicably released one day. He proceeds to find out why this all happened and to seek revenge. Park is a maverick filmmaker and the technical wonders of this film are worth the price of admission. The camera work is inspired, with choreographed long tracking shots and beautiful set pieces. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the extreme cinema that has been coming out of Asia the last 15 years but there is a certain sense of journey that is conveyed in this film that separates this from that film style. I find this very appealing. Park is clearly trying to explore the concept of revenge and is not just aiming at presenting it on a silver, blood-stained platter. Old Boy is orchestrated to be more mentally sadistic than outright violent. This is not for everyone.
Gwoemul
The Host - 2006
It has been a while since I have seen a big budget action/horror movie with a solid mix of suspense, heart, and extremely sharp social criticism. In the world of Michael Bay, it wouldn't sell. Korea finds itself under attack by a mutated monster that was created by man by accident under lazy and pathetic circumstances. As the creature manifests itself in small river community, eating people as it runs amok, it kidnaps the youngest member of the out of luck Park family to munch on at a later time. The dysfunctional family realizes that it must somehow come together in order to save the young girl. Sure the group here bands together but camaraderie alone does not automatically resolve the crisis. Here, the problems lie not just with the creature but within ourselves --independently and together as a society. The monster is just a metaphor for the metaphor. The cinematography and the cast in this are spectacular. Hie-bong Byeon is a wonderful character actor who plays a clumsy yet lovable patriarch and Hae-il Park steals every scene she is in as the young heroine. I watched this and Pan's Labyrinth the same week and am glad to see the strength of the often overlooked young girl. A treat.
(I am sure an inferior remake will be made in America soon enough.)
TAIWAN
Ni Neibian Jidian
What Time Is It There? - 2001
A lot of people in America have a hard time with Ming-liag Tsai films. This has been pretty well understood from the onset. However, it is usually not from the sometimes outrageous escapades the characters get into (one in particular involves a watermelon), but because of the pacing and feeling of his films. Tsai is originally from Malaysia and many Americans do not understand the type of environment the natives of this country and neighboring ones live in. These countries have some of the most hot and humid cities on the face of the earth. Tsai has mastered the ability to capturing the thick, sticky feeling that swelters over his characters. It is completely natural for them to just want to lie in bed and let the time pass by. If it is a good day, they get to fuck as well. That said, Tsai couples this with loneliness, boredom, and tradition that creates an environment that is not to distant from the work of Robert Bresson.
THAILAND
Fah Talai Jone
Tears Of The Black Tiger - 2000
Wisit Sasanatieng brings us this extravagantly stylized western. Here, poor gunslinging bandit Dum and a wealthy young lady Rumpoey find themselves in love and have a plan to run away together. However, Dum gets caught up in his lifestyle and is held up from getting to Rumpoey on time of their arrangement. As this happens, her father sets her up to get married to someone from her own class. Dum has to break out of his gang's grip in order to get to Rumpoey in time to finally be together but we all know that it won't be easy. All the cliches are covered and they run with it. The acting, situations, locations, and action are all exaggerated. Sure, it is a bit fruity, but then anything that is part soap opera melodrama and part Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has to be. However, the sheer fun the set designers and cinematographers are having cannot be ignored. Anyone else want to believe that behind the black and white photography of German expressionistic films lies saturation like this? Once again it goes to show that in order to be heard in the tough business of film, one has to be loud.
VIETNAM
Mua He Chieu Thang Dung
The Vertical Ray Of The Sun - 2000
Anh Hung Tran has a talent for capturing the environments most families on earth live in. Tight-nit and lacking of privacy. When large families so close together for most of their lives, issues certainly arise. Tran has a very compassionate view of the home Americans are used to going to for peace and quiet. He has a sublime way of capturing the lush environments of Vietnam and incorporating them into his shots in order to further convey mood and emotion.
Posted by Fran at September 18, 2007 8:10 PM