Asian cinema scoops up awards in Cannes (News Feature)

By Andrew McCathie May 23, 2010, 22:15 GMT

Cannes - The curtain came down on the 63rd Cannes Film Festival Sunday with Asian cinema emerging as a major winner in the awards at the world's leading movie showcase.

Bangkok-born director Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the festival's coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for best film for his controversial movie Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat (Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives), with two South Korean directors also awarded top prizes.

The recent media coverage of Thailand might have shown a country in turmoil. But Weerasethakul showed another side of the nation's life in his film, which was inspired by a Buddhist monk's sermons.

Known for avant-garde filmmaking, Weerasethakul took the festival to Thailand's remote north-east jungle, where people believe in ghosts and human beings taking on animal forms.

Speaking at a press conference, the 39-year-old director said that his country was in a very serious state.

'Thailand needs some kind of hope,' said Weerasethakul, who is often known by the nickname Joe.

Uncle Boonmee's win was something of surprise, with the quirky story leaving some festival goers perplexed, while others were enthralled.

Animism and nature are themes that often run through Weerasethakul's movies.

In Uncle Boonmee, the main character's son returns as a ghost monkey - a black, guerrilla-like animal with red, iridescent eyes. His dead wife also returns as a ghost.

In another scene in the film, a Thai princess has sex with a catfish in a pool at the foot of a waterfall.

US director Tim Burton, who headed up this year's festival jury, described Uncle Boonmee as 'the type of cinema you don't usually see.'

'You always want to be surprised by films, and this film did that for most of us,' Burton said.

Weerasethakul has gained strong recognition at film festivals around the world over the years, wining the 2004 jury prize in Cannes for Tropical Malady about gay lovers and a trek to find a metamorphosed tiger. Two years earlier, he gained the festival's Un Certain Regard section's top prize for Blissfully Yours.

Uncle Boonmee was one of 19 films vying for the Palme d'Or, one of the most prestigious awards in cinema. It was only the sixth Asian film to win Cannes' top prize in the festival's seven-decade history.

'This is very important for Thai cinema history,' Weerasethakul said.

The Cannes' jury awarded South Korean director Lee Chang-dong the best screenplay prize for his moving film Poetry, about a grandmother trying to find poetry in life as her world unravels.

Another South Korean director, Hong Sang-soo won the prize for one of the festival's key sections for his comedy Hahaha about two men who meet and realize they've have met the same people during their travels.

The award was made as part of the Un Certain Regard section, which showcases new and emerging filmmakers.

This year's Cannes Film Festival included a strong lineup of movies from Asia across all its sections, with five films from the region entered in the top category.

Among the Asian movies was Im Sang-soo's remake starring Jeon Do- yeon of the 1960s thriller The Housemaid by Kim Ki-young.

Wang Xiaoshuai spearheaded China's presence at the festival with his Chongqing Blues, which is set against the backdrop of the grey, sprawling metropolis of Chongqing.

Wang's inclusion in the race for the Palme d'Or comes five years after the 43-year-old filmmaker won Cannes' jury prize for his movie Shanghai Dreams, about a family's attempts to return to its Shanghai hometown.

Images of the new China emerged from a string of movies shown during the 12-day festival.

Chinese investors were 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 triggers a string of events in Mahamat Saleh Haroun's Un Homme qui Cri (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.