Low-key Asian film business heads to Cannes

By Andrew McCathie May 3, 2011, 14:28 GMT

Cannes, France - The Asian movie industry is likely to be in a rather subdued mood when it arrives in Cannes next week for the world's largest film festival. The industry had high hopes of a big presence again on the Croisette, the beach-front boulevard cutting through Cannes.

In the end, however, only two Asian films - from Japanese directors Takashi Miike and Kawase Naomi - are to be screened as part of the 19-movie race for the festival's Palm d'Or, one of cinema's most prestigious prizes.

Last year there were five Asian films vying for the Palme d'Or with Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's fantastical Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives emerging as the surprise winner for the festival's top award.

But some 30 years after Asian filmmakers burst onto the world cinema a change appears to be under way in the movie industry across the region.

Indeed, film producers in big movie markets like China, Indonesia and Japan appear to becoming more focused on the enormous potential of their own burgeoning national box offices rather than breaking though into the more competitive and sometimes less-than receptive international cinema world.

There is no doubting that having a movie selected for a festival like Cannes is still a big deal for Asian filmmakers. But said Jacob Wong from the Hong Film Festival: 'Now it's the box office; it's the return. The local market is just so big.'

Miike and Naomi's films also stand in sharp contrast to the normal type of fare that is turned out by the Japanese film industry, where the nation's giant television companies have been turning popular TV series into major box office hits.

'Japanese directors don't have too much problem making money in their domestic market,' said Kim Ji-Seok from the South Korean-based Busan Film Festival. 'This is the reason why they are surprisingly careless when it comes to the international market.'

Kim also estimates that films produced by the national movie business in South Korea, Japan and Indonesia these days average about 50 per cent of each country's annual box office. As a result, they are even holding their own against Hollywood. Unusually, no Chinese film is to be screened in any of Cannes' main sections this year. Movies from China were also in short supply at the Berlin Film Festival in February, which is the first major European film festival of the year.

'It would probably be right to say that the cycle of production caused the absence of Chinese and Korean films in Cannes' main competition this year,' said Kim.

But he went on to say that the problem is 'the number of the directors seem to be limited, who can be expected to join the race.'

This year, however, Asian directors have carved out a strong representation in other key sections of Cannes with three Korean movies along with Singapore's Eric Khoo included in the festival's Un Certain Regard category, which is aimed at promoting a new generation of filmmakers.

Three South Korean films will screen in the Un Certain Regard category are Hong Sang-soo's The Day He Arrives, Kim Ki-duk's Arirang and Na Hong-jin's box-office hit The Yellow Sea.

The inclusion of Khoo's animated tribute to Japanese animator Yoshihiro Tatsumi helps to underline the new wave of independent filmmaking that is emerging across South East Asia in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Hong Kong will also be making its mark at this year's festival. Hong Kong-based director Johnny To and producer Shi Nansun have also been selected to join the nine-member jury that is to be headed up by Oscar-winner Robert De Niro.

In addition, Hong Kong director Peter Chan's new 20-million-dollar action film Wu Xia will screen in the festival's Midnight Screenings segment. The film stars action topliner Donnie Yen, Japanese-Chinese pop sensation Takeshi Kaneshiro as well as China's Tang Wei.

This will leave Miike, the enfant terrible of Japanese film and Naomi, who won Cannes' Grand Prix in 2007, as the main standard bearers for Asian cinema in Cannes this year.

The 50-year-old Miike's epic Ichimei (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) is a 3D remake of Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 classic Seppuku about a samurai during the 17h century Edo period. Ichimei stars Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo and veteran actor Yakusho Koji.

Hanezu no Tsuki, which is the 41-year-old Kawase's fifth feature film, tells the story of the transformation of the Japanese town of Asuka.

Cannes will also showcase the Hindi film industry by screening out of competition the documentary Bollywood - The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, which brings together the most memorable moments in the history of Indian musical films. The movie was produced exclusively for Cannes.

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