Imagines of new China emerge in Cannes movies (Feature)

By Andrew McCathie May 17, 2010, 17:09 GMT

Cannes - China's role on the world stage might be still taking shape but already new images of the Asian economic powerhouse have emerged in a string of movies shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Chinese investors are now at the high table of US capitalism in Oliver Stone's Wall Street remake and a Chinese firm's takeover of a smart Chad hotel kicks of string of events in Mahamat Saleh Haroun's Un Homme qui Crie (A Screaming Man).

Meanwhile, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Bituful puts the spotlight on the Chinese caught up in Europe's grey underbelly of illegal immigrants and counterfeiting.

But Asian filmmakers appear to be having less luck in selling to global moviegoers their vision of the changes underway across their region.

It's now more than two decades since Asian filmmaking burst on to the global cinema stage.

But so far the Asian motion picture business seems to have failed transform itself into the type of dream factory producing films that capture an international audience's imagination and generate global commercial success.

This is despite Asian directors' successes at the world's leading film festivals like Cannes and the region's booming domestic cinema markets.

China has big ambitions to emerge as global movie superpower. But the time for Chinese films making regular appearances in cinemas around the world still does not appear to have arrived.

Last year China produced about 450 films which turned it into the world's third biggest movie production nation. But some of those films never make even into the country's cinemas and only 48 were sold overseas.

In Indonesia, the fall of dictator General Suharto helped to open up the chance for filmmakers to explore previously forbidden subjects such as sex, religion and class.

'Every week we have two new films in the box office,' said Gope T. Samtani from Jakarta-based Rapi Films about the domestic-driven revival.

In 2000 the nation produced just 6 movies. But by 2009, some 90 feature films were produced in Indonesia.

Despite a lack of screens across the nation, more than 100 movies are expected to be produced this year, with the popularity of locally made movies even challenging big Hollywood blockbusters.

In the meantime, a fault line has emerged in the Asian film between those movies winning acclaim at big international festivals like Cannes and those that turn in solid domestic box office hits.

'It's a split industry,' said Jacob Wong from the Hong Film Festival. 'Internationally it now comes down to handful of big name Asian directors who have made their mark on the film festival circuit.'

This includes Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien, Malaysian-born Tsai Ming- liang as well as Hong Kong's Wong Kar-wai and China's Jia Zhang-ke.

Indeed, as a sign that Asian cinema is now an established part of the film festival life, a strong lineup of movies from the region have been selected for the race for Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm).

This includes two films from South Korea along with one each from mainland China, Thailand and Japan.

Certainly, many Asian filmmakers want to break away from their domestic audiences and to find a home for their movies in cinemas around the world.

But the risk is that they could lose their uniqueness in chasing international markets possibly by copying western filmmakers.

As a result, the industry's path to global commercial success for the moment appears to be focusing on building up a domestic market base.

Despite a string of Hollywood blockbusters, homegrown films grabbed more than 40 per cent of the box office in South Korea, China and Japan last year.

'More filmmakers seem to recognize that they don't have to win awards to sell tickets,' said Taipei Film Commission Director Jennifer Jao.

'Young filmmakers are more practical,' she said. 'What they first have to do is to make good commercial films,' she said.

This seems to have already born fruit in Taiwan with two local mega hits climbing the nations' box office charts - Wei Te-Sheng's war drama Cape No 7 and Doze Niu's gangster movie Monga.