Netflix will invest 52 billion yen (500 million dollars) to build up Korean content even more. I feel like the Korean film industry is on the rise, even more so than before, when I wrote the previous installment for this series. This time around, I’m going to talk about the Osaka Asian Film Festival, which I’ve been keeping an eye on since I started this series of columns. The 16th Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF2021) was from March 5th to 14th. In the first installment, I wrote:

“There are various criteria when it comes to judging any given film festival. One such criterion is taking into account the numbers of films that were distributed to theaters after its initial film screening. Another thing to consider is the ratio of films that later became moderate to major hits in theaters. These two factors are consistent when it comes to OAFF and it can be said it’s one of the few Japanese film festivals that are the real deal.”

What’s more, OAFF has streamed the screened films online for the first time through Osaka Asian Film Festival Online (February 28th-March 20th). Allow me to introduce some screened and streamed films while relating them to other works and topics I’ve spoken about in previous articles.

The screening of Taiwanese and Indonesian horror films

Previously, I wrote about Korean horror films. However, it was Taiwanese horror films that stood out at OAFF2021. If I were to write about Taiwanese horror films, Get the Hell Out (2020) by I-Fan Wang is a film I’d focus on, as it’s just as thrilling as Detention (2019), which is going to be in Japanese theaters from July. Get the Hell Out is a comedy/action film about a pandemic; it follows the protagonist, a politician, and his secretary trying to escape the parliamentary building infested by zombies.

Gwan Gung Vs. Aliens (1976) by Hung-min Chen is streaming online outside of Hong Kong for the first time. Director Ho-Cheung Pang bought the rights to the film and digitally remastered it. “Gwan Gung” refers to Guan Yu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It’s about a sculpture made by the protagonist who comes to life to fight against the aliens invading Hong Kong. Think of it as a combination of the famous Japanese trilogy Daimajin and sci-fi.

At the end of my previous article, I wrote a little about Indonesian horror films. The exciting Indonesian director Teddy Soeriaatmadja’s first horror film, Affliction (2021), was shown at OAFF2021. You can read more about him in this interview, “Cutting into the Taboos of Indonesian Society: Film Director Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Here-and-Now.” His masterpiece, Lovely Man (2011), will be streaming online. The story follows a transgender woman, and in Indonesia, where it’s difficult to make and show queer cinema, this film is a valuable piece of work.

Shedding light on independent Vietnamese films

In the fifth installment of this series, I spoke about two multi-language films that depict the reality of immigrants confront in Japan; Along the Sea (2020) and Come and Go (2020). These films were screened in Osaka for the first time at OAFF2021. Moreover, Ròm (2019), a debut feature film by Tran Thanh Huy — the Vietnamese director is from the same generation as the director of Along the Sea, Akio Fujimoto, and shares a similar sensibility with him — was screened too. Coincidentally, the festival showed the films back-to-back; Along the Sea was at 4:20 pm on March 9th, and Ròm was at 6:35 pm on the same day. If anyone involved with the two screenings is reading this, I’d like to thank you for your considerate scheduling. For those who would like to watch Ròm, a short prequel titled 16:30 (2012) is on YouTube. Watching this beforehand will enhance your viewing experience.

Tran Thanh Huy and Pham Hoang Minh Thy, (the director of The Graduation of Edison, which OAFF screened as a part of “Special Programs < New Action! Southeast Asia >”), were featured in “Contemporary Voices: The Past and Present of Vietnamese Cinema,” held at Athénée Français Cultural Center this February. Both are young directors and peers who carry the future of Vietnamese cinema with them. It’s unfortunate these independent Vietnamese directors, Akio Fujimoto, and other directors from the Indie Forum Section, couldn’t meet one another.

Another Vietnamese film screened at OAFF is the feminist thriller for ages 18 and older, Sister Sister (2019) by Kathy Uyen. I wrote the Japanese description for this film, so please take a look if you can.

OAFF, a film festival with variety and diversity

One appeal of OAFF is the variety of films they show, as evident in how they screened two distinctly different films- Ròm, which was edited to abide by censorship standards, and Sister Sister, the entertainment film featuring Vietnamese popstar Chi Pu. You can sense the program director, Sōzō Teruoka’s desire to promote films that portray bonds and sisterhoods between women in cinema, such as House of Hummingbird, the Korean film that got critical acclaim last year. Among the Vietnamese films that OAFF screened, two of the directors are women; Uyen and (Sister Sister) and Thy (The Graduation of Edison). The opening film of the festival, Keep Rolling (2020) by Man Lim-chung, is a documentary on Anna Hui, a director who represents Hong Kong. The woman director behind the Mongolian film, Black Milk (2020), Uisenma Borchu, won the Most Promising Talent Award for Don’t Look at Me That Way in 2016. Zero Chou, the director of Wrath of Desire (2021), is an openly lesbian filmmaker. Along the Sea, the film about three Vietnamese technical trainees in Japan is a story about sisterhood.

While the variety of films is one appeal of OAFF, another aspect is its diversity. OAFF is a festival that loves variety and diversity, qualities that involve a mixture of different things. In a sense, Lim Kah Wai’s Come and Go might be a film that symbolizes OAFF because it’s set in Umeda, where the venue is.

Focus on Thailand and Philippines new films

Here and There (2021) by JP Habac, produced by TBA Studios, a Filipino film production and distribution company I wrote about in the third installment of this series, was screened at OAFF. It’s a “remote love” story in Manila during the coronavirus lockdown. JP Habac’s debut feature film, I’m Drunk, I Love You (2017), is available for free on TBA Studios’ YouTube channel.

Also, The Con-Heartist (2020) by Mez Tharatorn was released through the film production company, GDH556, distributing films of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, who I wrote about in the first column. Tharatorn is a filmmaker who makes comedic hits, and in 2013, ATM, which has a Vietnamese remake version too, was screened at OAFF. I Fine… Thank You… Love You, starring Sora Aoi, was screened in 2015, and Tharatorn won the Most Promising Talent Award. TBA Studios from the Philippines and GDH556 from Thailand continue to create new films despite the pandemic, and that fills my heart with joy.

Also, The Protector (2005), starring Tony Jaa and P-047 (2011) by Kongdej Jaturanrasmee, one of the screenwriters for the drama series Girl from Nowhere, is going to be streaming online. Similar to Thamrongrattanarit in the past, Jaturanrasmee’s films haven’t been shown in Japanese theaters yet, but he’s a highly respected director in Thailand. Incidentally, he plays the role of a teacher in Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013), directed by Thamrongrattanarit. I recommend his coming-of-age films. It’s unfortunate Tang Wong (2013), which won best film, best director, best screenplay, and best supporting actor at the 23rd Subhanahongsa Awards (a prestigious award show akin to the Academy Awards), and Where We Belong, starring Jennis and Music from BNK48, haven’t been shown in theaters here. Where We Belong won best picture at the 29th Subhanahongsa Awards in February. Jaturanrasmee won best director, Music won best supporting actor, and the film won best screenplay, best editing, and best soundtrack- six wins in all.

That’s the end of my introduction of films re OAFF, but because there are 63 films from 23 countries in total, I couldn’t talk about them all. Also, Kontora (2019) by Anshul Chauhan, an Indian director living in Japan, is going to be released in theaters on March 20th. Derek Tsang’s Better Days (2019) is coming to theaters soon. As such, OAFF’s momentum from last year still hasn’t slowed down. It would be a waste if you don’t experience this film festival that celebrates variety and diversity. I hope you can take a look at their festival, even if it’s online.

Pictures provided OSAKA ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Translation Lena-Grace Suda

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“Asia, a Horror Film Paradise” (Kaiki Eiga Tengoku Asia) refers to Inuhiko Yomota’s book on Southeast Asian horror films. The power dynamics of horror films in Asia, including East Asia, are changing. In this installment, I’d like to take a glance at Korean horror films from 2020.

An abundance of Korean horror films in 2020

Every year, I look forward to Asian film lists that come out around New Year’s. The ones on Asian Movie Pulse are especially out there, unique, and intriguing. 2020 was the year of Korean cinema, as one can gather from The 25 Best Asian Films of 2020. Aside from Tsai Ming-liang’s Days, which I touched on in the fourth installment of this series, four of the top five films on the list are Korean. Another list of theirs, The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020, mentioned multiple Korean films. I’d like to focus on this list first.

The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020 had films from the following countries:

Korea: 7 films
Indonesia: 4 films
Taiwan: 2 films
The Philippines: 1 film
Malaysia: 1 film

In fourth place is Joko Anwar’s film titled Impetigore, co-produced by CJ ENM, the company which produced and distributed Parasite.

If we were to count this as partially Korean, then half of the films (7.5 films out of 15) on the list were involved with a Korean production company. Let us look at another. On American horror website Bloody Disgusting’s The 10 Best International Horror Films of 2020, two out of the ten films are from Korea: The Call (2020) and #Alive (2020), both of which are now streaming on Netflix. Impetigore is also on this list, so perhaps we could say there are 2.5 Korean films on the list. Meaning, 1/4th of the films on the list are involved with Korean production companies.

Compared to the progress of Korean horror, as evident in such lists, there are zero films from Japan and Hong Kong, countries that have been known for horror. Regarding Japan, the animation film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train was the biggest domestic hit. If you include animation films, the momentum of J-horror isn’t slowing down but is speeding up. The anime series Jujutsu Kaisen, now on TV, and Chainsaw Man, the soon-to-be adapted anime, are on the verge of becoming hits. But with live-action films, the power dynamics between Asian countries are changing thanks to the advancement of Korean horror cinema.

Let us now turn our attention to the seven Korean horror films from The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020:

The Closet (2020) — third place

Metamorphosis (2019) — fifth place

The Call (2020) — sixth place

Peninsula (2020) — eighth place

#Alive (2020) — ninth place

Warning: Do Not Play (2019) — 12th place

Lingering/Hotel Late (2020) — 15th place

Despite the pandemic, various Korean horror films have been released in Japanese theaters recently; this is a testament to its popularity. The depth of religion is integral to these Korean horror films. The Closet by Kim Kwang-bin is about a father (Ha Jung-woo) looking for his daughter who goes missing in their new home. The film opens with a shocking scene involving a Mudang, a Korean shaman. A mysterious man approaches the father, and he too has a close connection to the Mudang. Shamans play a massive role in many Korean films. Io Island (1977) by Kim Ki-young, The Hut (1981) by Lee Doo-Yong, and The Wailing (2016) by Na Hong-jin would’ve lacked its flavor without shamans.

Metamorphosis by Kim Hong-seon is about a priest, traumatized from an exorcism failure, and a family who gets possessed by an evil spirit. In countries where Christianity and churches aren’t widespread, exorcist films lack realism. However, exorcisms have a history in Korea, much like the Philippines. They have many films on the topic, such as The Priests (2015) and The Divine Fury (2019). In fact, in Metamorphosis, the priest asks Filipino priests to help him with the exorcisms.

The term “compressed modernity,” coined by sociologist Chang Kyung-Sup, might help us understand how Mudangs and exorcists co-exist in Korea. As the term suggests, Korea underwent rapid economic development and social modernization in a short time. Meanwhile, some traditional “vernacular cultures” like shamans, cut off from such modernization, remain to this day. This compressed modernity has brought both prosperity and distortion to Korea, and tales of horror lie in the corners of this distorted darkness. Aside from Korea, Asian countries that have experienced dictatorships and compressed modernity, such as Indonesia under the Suharto administration, the Philippines under the Marcos administration, and Thailand under military dictatorship, have produced numerous horror films. In such places, horror films are in full bloom.

“Compressed horror” from Korea

How did Korean horror films come this far? I’d like to think about this as I go through some films from The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020. The Call, which came in sixth place, is an ambitious psychological thriller about a mysterious phone that connects the past and present. The film is filled with twists and turns because of the time travel paradox.

Peninsula, in eighth place, and #Alive, in ninth place, are both zombie movies. It’s not a stretch to say that zombie movies feel the most relevant right now because they target the anxiety and fear of becoming infected. Sidenote: this isn’t a film, but the Japanese zombie TV series, Love You as the World Ends, made by Nippon Television Network and Hulu, is now showing.

Train to Busan (2016), the previous film Peninsula, changed the game regarding Asian zombie movies. Train to Busan is innovative because it’s a combination of a zombie pandemic, disaster film, and family drama. Korean horror films are skilled at adding new elements onto a blockbuster format and compressing it in a manner that’s enjoyable to the viewer. Perhaps it’s apt to call these films “compressed horror” because you can enjoy not just two but three films in one.

However, there are two issues with compressed horror. First, because there are so many components in one film, it can crumble apart. Second, the budget might be more exorbitant than other types of films because of the need to cover the plot holes so that the film doesn’t come undone. The Korean film industry doesn’t have a big domestic market like China, so to secure enough funds, they found a solution: to enter markets abroad. For example, Peninsula was sold to 190 countries. One reason The Call and #Alive are on Netflix might be to reach a global audience. The TV pandemic series, Sweet Home, adapted from a manga on Naver webtoon, is now streaming.

Also, 22 million international Netflix subscribers watched Sweet Home during four weeks since it started streaming. Compared to Korea, Japan is behind in terms of entering the global market. If the respective film companies behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man decide to adapt them to live-action films, perhaps it might be realistic for them to work with Netflix.

Further, while working on distributing Korean films abroad, companies such as CJ ENM also work with Southeastern Asian companies. By doing so, they could spread their brand of compressed horror. Impetigore, fourth place on The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020, is the result of a Korean company and an Indonesian company joining forces.

Although I’d love to break down the film while introducing Indonesian horror films, this article will be far too lengthy. Next, I’d like to write about Impetigore or the film that came in first place of The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2020, The Queen of Black Magic. This film is directed by Kimo Stamboel, one half of the Mo Brothers, who directed films such as Macabre (2009) and Killers (2014). Alternatively, I might write about the sequel to May the Devil Take You (2018), May the Devil Take You Too (2020), which came in second place of the list above, and is directed by the other half of the Mo Brothers, Timo Tjahjanto. When one of these films is released or streaming in Japan, I’d like to go through another horror film paradise, Indonesia.

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Two multi-language films that confront the reality of immigrants in Japan

Conversations in foreign languages at convenient stores or on the streets — this phenomenon is fast becoming the norm. According to OECD, in 2016, Japan was the fourth country with the largest migrant population. The increase in varying languages should come as no surprise. However, perhaps there are quite a few people that pay no attention to foreign languages besides English. Even if people converse with foreigners, they’re bound to stay nameless in people’s memory. Tokyo International Film Festival screened two films that shine a light on and give a voice and name to such foreigners: Along the Sea (2020) by Akio Fujimoto and Come and Go (2020) by Lim Kah Wai.

Along the Sea, directed by Akio Fujimoto

Along the Sea is a narrative film that follows three “technical intern trainees” from Vietnam named Phuong, An, and Nhu. The young women run away from their harsh workplace one night in search of a new one. When dawn breaks in snowy Aoyama, a Vietnamese broker takes them to a fishing harbor, where they work for the fishers and have a place to stay. Like before, the labor there is demanding, and they’re now illegal workers, which puts them in a perilous position. Phuong becomes ill, but the hospital refuses to take her in because her former workplace withheld her papers. With no medical attention, her health further deteriorates —

The two layers of “coldness” throughout the film are hard to ignore. The first layer is Aoyama’s bleak, cloudy scenery, and painful cold, and the second is society’s attitude towards the three women. It’s not just the Japanese residents and authorities that give them the cold shoulder, but their fellow Vietnamese people too. They mercilessly corner Phuong, An, and Nhu. Fujimoto expresses the young women’s isolation and despair through shots of Aoyama’s winter landscape and society’s cold attitude towards illegal workers. In the latter half of the film, the camera closely hovers around one woman. The long take, taken by a hand-held camera, brilliantly depicts the hopelessness she feels from being thrown into a foreign environment. It also shows the uncertainty she has about her future. Along the Sea is a minimalistic film that doesn’t have a lot of dialogue. Nonetheless, Vietnamese is used as the primary language, aside from Japanese. It wouldn’t be strange if a Vietnamese audience thought a Vietnamese director directed it.

This is Fujimoto’s second film on migrants. In response to the question, “are you going to continue filming immigrants in Japan?” he replied, “my life’s work is thinking about migrants; this comes before shooting films.” In his previous narrative film, Passage of Life (2018), he confronts the predicaments foreigners living in Japan go through, a la a Myanmarese family in Japan. In this film, the spoken language aside from Japanese is Burmese. Fujimoto’s signature style consists of a hand-held camera that follows the subjects closely and realistic dialogue from immigrants in their mother tongue. His films feel so lifelike that they come across as documentaries. They’re reminiscent of Hirokazu Koreeda’s work in some ways. Regarding how language is applied and how closely the camera follows the protagonists, Along the Sea is deeper than Passage of Life.

From the spring of 2021, Along the Sea is going to be shown in theaters nationwide. I am hopeful it’ll make its way to other countries, especially Vietnam. If the film ends up being shown in Vietnam, I would love to ask for Vietnam’s innovative director, Trần Dũng Thanh Huy’s thoughts. The director is currently filming his next film, Tick It, which is about young Vietnamese people attempting to enter the U.K. in a refrigerated container in quest of a better life. One could say this film was inspired by a case that transpired in October 2019, where 39 Vietnamese people’s bodies were found in a refrigerated container. Tick It and Along the Sea have two things in common: the theme of “coldness” and the focus on young Vietnamese people who choose to migrate. In Huy’s Ròm (2019), his impressive debut feature-length film, a young boy fights tooth and nail to survive the alleys of Ho Chi Minh. The hand-held camera shots are worth noting here. Another similarity between Fujimoto and Huy is their age. Huy was born in 1990, while Fujimoto was born in 1988. More importantly, the acting in both directors’ works are intensely realistic, and both directors try to tell the stories of society’s often-forgotten people.

Come and Go, directed by Lim Kah Wai

Lim Kah Wai’s Come and Go (2020) is set in the Umeda district of Kita, Osaka, during the springtime of 2019. This ambitious film with a big cast is roughly 158 minutes long. The unique part about Come and Go is that about half of the main characters are from other Asian countries: nine Asian countries, to be exact.
For instance, a porn addict comes to buy adult entertainment merchandise from Taiwan. Lee Kang-sheng, known for his roles in Ming-liang Tsai’s films, plays this role.
The rest is: Liên Bỉnh Phát, the actor who played the protagonist in The Tap Box (Song Lang) (2018), plays a Vietnamese “technical intern trainee” that escapes a printing factory that refuses to let him go back to his home country. Nang Tracy plays a student from Myanmar who works at the same factory and a convenience store. David Siu Chung Hang, known for his role as Ting How-hai in Hong Kong’s legendary TV series, The Greed of Man, plays a Chinese tour guide. JC Chee plays the part of a Malaysian man who comes to Japan to discuss his Halal business. Mousam Gurung, a famous singer from Nepal, plays a refugee who has an affair and works at a café in Nakazakicho. Lee Kwang-soo plays a Japanese-Korean broker who brings young Korean women to Osaka for work. Gouzi plays the role of a middle-aged Chinese tourist who visits Japan for the first time. Further, Seiji Chihara plays a police detective who’s working on a case that involves the discovery of the skeletal remains of an old woman. Makiko Watanabe acts as a Japanese language teacher who’s married to the detective and is having an affair with the Nepali refugee. Manami Usumaru plays a woman who comes to Osaka from Tokushima and gets scouted to do porn, and the person who scouts her is an Okinawan man who runs a porn production company, acted by Shogen. Orson Mochizuki plays a young part-time worker who gets involved in a dangerous job related to a gang. Jakukaju Katsura plays an elderly man who works hard at being a “middle-aged man for rent” (Ossan Rental) and lives close to where the skeleton was found. This myriad of characters goes beyond nationality and class in Kita, and some of their lives intertwine, while others don’t.

Come and Go is Kah Wai’s last film of his Osaka trilogy. His first one, The New World (2011), is set in Shinsekai, the old district around Tsutenkaku, and illustrates China-Japan relations. Kah Wai’s second film, Fly Me to Minami (2013), is set in the Minami district of Shinsaibashi and portrays a romance between Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. From The New World to Come and Go, he starts at the very south, Shinsekai, and makes his way to the north side. Throughout his trilogy, he goes through the entertainment district, Shinsekai, and Minami in Naniwa and Shinsaibashi, and Umeda in Kita. The director listens to the foreign languages heard in convenience stores and on the streets and shows Osaka from a pan-Asian perspective. Naturally, the Osaka dialect and different Asian languages are spoken in his trilogy. In Fly Me to Minami, Japanese (Osaka dialect), Mandarin, Cantonese, and English are used. In Come and Go, per the increase of characters, the number of languages is larger too; Japanese, English, Beijing dialect, Korean, Nepali, Vietnamese, and Burmese. Kah Wai’s passion for incorporating many languages can be seen in his Balkans trilogy too, such as No Where, Now Here (2018) and Somewhen, Somewhere (showing at Cine Nouveau in Osaka from January 2nd, 2021 and at Cinema Rosa in Ikebukuro from January 23rd, 2021).
He is sure to be regarded as one of the top directors in the world, in terms of using different languages. Perhaps his home country of Malaysia influenced his multi-language films, a nation with a wide range of languages. For him, a society with multi-nationalities equates to the use of multi-languages. Originally from Myanmar, Midi Z is a director based in Taiwan. His short film, The Palace On The Sea (2014) incorporates Mandarin, Burmese, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese and shows Taiwan’s diverse languages. It’s not a stretch to say that both Kah Wai and Midi Z are like-minded “cinema drifters” who carry the view of “multi-nationalities mean multi-languages.”

Both Fujimoto and Kah Wai diversify their multi-national and multi-language films by putting subtitles on foreign languages that usually get drowned out by the hustle and bustle of daily life and by giving a name and voice to foreign nationals.
Perhaps the spread of both directors’ films will help Japan come to terms with its growing migrant/immigrant population. I can’t help but pray for Along the Sea and Come and Go to show in theaters here.

Kah Wai tweeted: “I was thinking of making a spin-off, rather than a short story. The spin-off could follow each of the characters in the epilogue [of Come and Go]. For instance, the Chinese character could go to Taiwan to visit Shiokan, Mayumi could go to Malaysia to find William and bump into the porn director that’s on the run, the Korean character and Hong Kongese character could start a nightlife business.” I’m anticipating the spin-off version of Come and Go. I’m also interested in Kah Wai’s collaboration on “Sumimasu Asia Geinnin.” This a project by Yoshimoto Creative Agency, which is the agency Seiji Chihara is signed to.

One last thing. At first, I didn’t think the two had any connection to each other, but it turns out that they’re long-time friends. Fujimoto has even worked on-set with Kah Wai before. For more details, go to TIFF’s official YouTube channel and watch 『カム・アンド・ゴー』リム・カーワイ監督ｘ『海辺の彼女たち』藤元明緒監督 スペシャル対談 TIFF Studio 第67回 (A Special Talk Session between Lim Kah Wai (Come and Go) x Akio Fujimoto (Along the Sea)/67th TIFF Studio). Watching the two reunite at TIFF made me think about Kah Wai’s trilogy, and I felt a warm feeling in my heart.

Akio Fujimoto
Akio Fujimoto is a film director and was born in Osaka in 1988. After studying psychology and sociology of the family in university, he enrolled in Visual Arts College Osaka. While Fujimoto was still a student, he worked on-set for Lim Kah Wai’s film, The New World (2011). After graduating, he created his debut feature-length film, Passage of Life (2018), and won The Best Asian Future Film Award and The Spirit of Asia Award by the Japan Foundation Asia Center at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival. He then directed the short film, Bleached Bones Avenue (2020), which was screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival and Along the Sea (2020). He’s currently based in Myanmar and takes on the theme of migrants.
https://twitter.com/akio_fujimoto

Lim Kah Wai
Lim Kah Wai is a self-proclaimed “cinematic drifter” born in Malaysia in 1973. He graduated from the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University. After graduating, he worked in telecommunications, but then enrolled in the Department of Directing at Beijing Film Academy. In 2010, he independently directed and produced After All These Years post-graduation and made his debut. He then directed Magic & Loss (2010) in Hong Kong, The New World (2011) in Osaka, and Fly Me to Minami (2013). After directing the commercial film, Love in Late Autumn (2016), which was shown nationwide in China, he directed No Where, Now Here (2018) and Somewhen, Somewhere (2019). He continues to create films, drifting to various corners of the world.
https://twitter.com/cinemadrifter

Pictures provided Tokyo International Film Festival
Translation Lena-Grace Suda

The post The Reality of Immigrants in Japan Face in Along the Sea and Come and Go “A Film Trip Around Asia in the Internet Age” Vol. 5 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Coronavirus is having a massive impact on film festivals. Two film festivals that represent Tokyo the most, TOKYO FILMeX and Tokyo International Film Festival, moved the opening dates to almost the same timeframe. TOKYO FILMeX took various measures to prevent the spread of the virus, their most noteworthy being their online screening that took place after the festival itself.

2020, the year that people could watch films that film festivals screened

Until this point, even if I were to write a lengthy essay on a film that a film festival screened, it was difficult for the reader to watch said film (more so if it was from abroad). The reason is essays and reviews are usually published after the film festival is over. So, we write these essays with the small hope that our readers could watch the films at a movie theater. But domestic movie theaters only show a limited amount of Asian films.

This time is different, though. The unique thing about TOKYO FILMeX is the fact they started screening films online from November 21st, two weeks after the film festival (November 7th). TOKYO FILMeX is planning on continuing the screening until 11:59 PM on November 30th, only in Japan. The space between the festival and the online screening allowed people to read articles on the screened films before watching them in their own time. The way they planned the schedule is generous. Though TIFF’s “Asia Lounge” Conversation Series was a good project, it was inconvenient for the audience. They streamed it at the same time as the festival, and it overlapped with the nighttime schedule. They also didn’t have archived streams or videos on platforms such as YouTube. The viewer had to choose between going to the film festival or joining the Zoom meeting for the “Asia Lounge” Conversation Series. Isn’t hosting an awkward virtual meeting missing the point?

Going back to TOKYO FILMeX’s online screening; upon the commencement of “TOKYO FILMeX for the bright future of cinema” on November 3rd, the director of TOKYO FILMeX, Shozo Ichiyama, said “depending on whether the distributing company was from Asia or the West, the way they handled online screenings was different.” Because Western companies were familiar with online screenings, most of them gave permission, but most Asian companies didn’t give the green light because of their lack of familiarity with the medium. Now I’d like to introduce five Asian films that are streaming online.

Prioritize watching documentary films

Most films at TOKYO FILMeX are fictional, so it was rare to see three documentary films online this year. The documentaries that are showing online are a Filipino film called Aswang (2019) by Alyx Ayn Arumpac, which I touched on briefly in my previous article, a Chinese film called Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue (2020) by Jia Zhangke, and an American film called Denise Ho: Becoming the Song (2020) by Sue Williams. I recommend you all to prioritize watching these documentaries because it’s rare for Asian documentaries to be released in Japan. Although the situation has gotten better thanks to the emergence of the streaming platform, Asian Documentaries, Asian documentaries are still scarce outside of film festivals. For instance, The Master (2014) by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, which I spoke about in part one, is a masterpiece, but I haven’t had the chance to re-watch it. You could say that Asian documentary films are the “ones that got away.”

Aswang shines a light on people struggling amid president Duterte’s war on drugs, and it’s a challenging film that enters the dark side of Filipino society. Instead of focusing on law enforcement a la ON THE PRESIDENT’S ORDERS which was aired by NHK BS in April, Aswang zooms in on the victims of extrajudicial killings and their families. The close-up shots of the faces of surviving families and relatives communicate the absurdity and irrationality of killing people for no reason.

If Aswang tells a story using faces, then Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue is one that uses narration. In this piece, four Chinese writers from different generations look back on China’s recent history. The people that stood out to me were the original writer of Zhang Yimou’s film, To Live, Yu Hua and the writer of China is Here, The Crowd of Poor People, Rian Hon.
I had the chance to talk to the translator of China is Here, The Crowd of Poor People, Masahisa Suzuki, after the film screening. It surprised Suzuki-san to see how heavy Rian Hon’s older sister’s Henan dialect was after watching the documentary. From the impression he got from translating the book into Japanese, he presumed the sister spoke standard Chinese. So, the disparity between the book and the way she talked in actual life struck him. I didn’t notice it because the Japanese subtitles didn’t reflect her dialect. Towards the end, the director asks an individual if they know how to speak the Henan dialect, and it appears Rian Hon’s older sister’s heavy dialect is supposed to preface the generation gap that exists regarding dialects.

Denise Ho: Becoming the Song is a documentary on Denise Ho, a singer and democratic activist from Hong Kong. There are many excellent elements about the film, such as her scene with her teacher, Anita Mui, her talking about how she came out as a lesbian, Denise’s revelation that she supports the Umbrella Movement, her unwavering beliefs unaffected by Chinese suppression, and her all-around outstanding singing. It’s a music documentary film that makes you want to watch it again.

Challenging oneself to watch Days, a film with no subtitles

Perhaps Days (2020) by Tsai Ming Liang is the most unfit film to watch online. First, there are zero subtitles. Next, there are a lot of long shots. And there are almost no lines. Days is an art-house film in the strictest sense of the word. The story follows the daily lives of Kang, played by Lee Kang-sheng, a middle-aged man who suffers from chronic neck pain, and Non, a young Laotian immigrant living alone in the city. Eventually, their separate lives intertwine when Non meets Kang in his hotel room in the city as a masseur. For those not accustomed to watching art-house films, it would be difficult to get immersed in their daily lives. But if you sit still and keep your eyes and ears open, you will eventually see the film’s every detail. It is once you get over that hurdle, when the richness of this minimal film reveals itself to you. I feel like watching Days is akin to getting into a sauna. At first, you must be very patient, but as the two characters meet each other, you too might feel a sense of release and pleasure.

This piece isn’t among the roster of films being screened by TOKYO FILMeX, but The Work and Days (of Tayoko Shiojijri in the Shiotani Basin) (2020) by C.W. Winter and Anders Edström is an eight-hour film about Kyoto’s four seasons and watching this is also similar to taking a sauna. The Work and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) is planned to be released in movie theaters nationwide in 2021. If an eight-hour-long film can be shown in theaters, then perhaps Days, which is less than two hours, has a chance at being shown in theaters too. However, this isn’t confirmed yet, so I would highly recommend you to watch it. On another note, Days received the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, while The Work and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) got the Encounters Award for best film at the same festival. Perhaps this film festival has an affinity for films that give the viewer a sauna-like experience.

Watch the unsettling film, The Silent Forest

At the Taipei Film Festival this year, the closing film was Days while the opening film was Ko Chen-Nien’s debut film, The Silent Forest (2020). You can watch both films through TOKYO FILMeX’s online screening, which allows you to experience how Taiwan is like today. The story is about a hearing-impaired student named Chang who moves to a new school for the hearing-impaired. On the school bus, Chang witnesses the “game,” where the male students sexually assault one girl called Bei Bei. It’s a shocking plot, but it is based on a case that happened at a school for deaf children in Taiwan in 2011. Derek Tsang’s Chinese film, Better Days (2019), is also a film about group violence in school, and it won the Audience Award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020. Just like how this film was shown in theaters, I have a feeling that The Silent Forest is also going to be released in movie theaters too. The Silent Forest is a mystery film that makes the viewer think about the ringleader Xiao Guang’s motives and who is pulling the strings behind his actions. It depicts the difficulty of stopping the cycle of abuse. I would suggest you watch this unsettling film that doesn’t give a simple solution to a serious issue before it’s released in theaters.
That was my recommended way of watching TOKYO FILMeX’s online films, but there are various ways to do it. I hope you could use this rare chance to watch films according to your taste and preference.

TOKYO FILMeX: https://filmex.jp/

Pictures provided TOKYO FILMeX
Translation Lena-Grace Suda

The post Bringing TOKYO FILMeX Online for the First Time “A Film Trip Around Asia in the Internet Age” Vol. 4 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

TBA Studios, a Filipino film company distributing films on YouTube

Despite including “…in the Internet Age” in the title, I spoke about films that can’t be viewed online in parts one and two of this series. This time, I would like to talk about Filipino films available for free on YouTube. The company behind this is TBA Studios from the Philippines. The acronym derives from the first letters of Tuko Film Productions, Buchi Boy Entertainment, and Artikulo Uno Productions; TBA Studios is an aggregation of these companies. It’s one of the leading, innovative film companies in Southeast Asia alongside Thai company GDH 559 (Bad Genius, Happy Old Year, and others) and Studio68 from Vietnam (Song Lang, Furie, and more). Vietnamese film companies upload past films from time to time, but the rate at which TBA Studios releases films is unprecedented with known Southeast Asian film companies. Unfortunately, there are only English subtitles and no Japanese subtitles. The following are introductions to two films I want you all to watch online.

The psycho‐thriller directed by Jerrold Tarog that almost became an X-rated film

Bliss (2017) | Full Movie | Iza Calzado | Ian Veneracion | Jerrold Tarog | TJ Trinidad

Bliss (2017)Directed by Jerrold TarogStarring Iza Calzado, Ian Veneracion, TJ Trinidad, Shamaine Buencamino, Michael De Mesa, Audie Gemora, Stephanie Sol, Ad…

www.youtube.com

Bliss (2017)

Popular actor Jane falls into a coma after getting into an accident on-set for a new film. She wakes up in bed to a paralyzed abdomen and discovers that her husband has kept her locked inside the house. She then spirals into a sequence of bizarre occurrences. On top of this, there is no explanation when the audience is shown several characters having flashbacks. This causes the viewer to grow confused, as what’s happening to Jane becomes convoluted. Towards the end, the scattered puzzle pieces come together, and after the whole picture is made clear. The last cut is one of malice and dark humor. One can feel the influence of Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, and Satoshi Kon. The main actor, Iza Calzado’s acting is brilliant. At the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017, she won the Yakushi Pearl Award, which is given to the best actor of the year.

Because of long nude scenes, extreme violence, and masturbatory depictions, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) deemed Bliss as an X-rated film when it first came out. After production complained, they lowered the rating to R-18. Though it was only temporarily X-rated, the fact that TBA Studios posted this salacious, controversial film on YouTube is surprising.

The director of Bliss, Jerrold Tarog, was born in 1977. At the beginning stages of his career, he worked as a musician and also made the soundtrack for Brillante Mendoza’s first full-length film, The Masseur (2005), which won the Golden Leopard Award in the Video Competition category at Locarno International Film Festival. After that, he worked on the 12th, 13th, and 15th installments of Shake, Rattle, & Roll, which is a horror anthology film series, as a director. He polished his craft as a horror filmmaker with this series. This anthology is brought up often in Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay (2011) by Antoinette Jadaone, a mockumentary on a beloved Filipina scream queen. It won Best TIFF Film in 2019 for Eiga Hiho magazine.

His romance film If Only (2013) and his historical films, Heneral Luna (2015) (available on Netflix) and the sequel, Goyo: The Boy General (2018) were major hits. Jerrold secured his spot as one of the big hitmakers. Although the Japanese subtitles are unavailable, TBA Studios has released Heneral Luna for free online.

TBA Studios’ new film, Crisanto Aquino’s Write About Love (2019), is about men and women who are screenwriters for romantic films, and it has been gaining attention. It won this year’s ABC TV Award at Osaka Asian Film Festival, which is a festival that gets mentioned a lot in my series. Jerrold Tarog worked on the music here too. Because it’s still new, it’s sadly not out on YouTube yet (however, Asahi is planning on showing it on TV in the Kansai region before the start of OAFF in March 2021). Also, Jerrold’s newest ongoing project is a film adaptation of Darna, a Filipina heroine equivalent of Wonder Woman, created by the master of Filipino comics, Mars Ravelo.

A documentary film on Filipina housekeepers working in Hong Kong

Sunday Beauty Queen (2016)

Oliver Siu Kuen Chan’s Hong Kong film starring Anthony Wong, Still Human (2018), was released in Japan in February. It shows the relationship between a middle-aged man who became paralyzed from the waist down in an accident and a Filipina live-in domestic helper who takes care of him over one year. Sunday Beauty Queen (2016), directed by Baby Ruth Villarama, is a documentary film that sheds light on Filipina domestic workers working in Hong Kong. NHK BS1 aired the 26-minute version of the documentary on September 1st, 2015 as “Colors of Asia 2015 Sunday Cinderella.” The following is a quote from the website of the channel:

“Hong Kong is home to 190,000 Filipino maids. On Sundays, the maids congregate in a square and reminisce about their families back home. A beauty contest for maids is held each June where they dress in their finest in the hopes of winning the crown. But what really lies in the hearts of these Filipino maids?”

There’s an article, “‘Real-life Cinderella’ film delves into plight of Hong Kong maids” on Reuters, and it is still available online today.

“The story of Goliava, a Filipina domestic helper, and her fellow workers is the subject of a new documentary that seeks to shatter stereotypes about the millions of women employed in households across the world. Directed by filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama, “Sunday Beauty Queen” follows five domestic workers as they gear up for the annual Miss Philippines Tourism Hong Kong, a pageant organized by the maids in the Asian financial hub since 2008.”

To add to this description, Sunday Beauty Queen isn’t focused only on the domestic helpers that enter the beauty contests; it also portrays the women who run them too. The film illustrates the helpers’ situations in a multifaceted manner and attempts to show both sides of the beauty contests. The contrast between the helpers’ daily hard work and glamorous beauty contest is stark. In this way, the documentary masterfully shows the trials of these Filipina women living in Hong Kong. This subject is significant in Filipino films, with the current highest-grossing film being Cathy Garcia-Molina’s Hello, Love, Goodbye (2019), which is about a Filipina domestic worker and bartender falling in love in Hong Kong.
It could be said that Sunday Beauty Queen is the film that connects Still Human and Hello, Love, Goodbye together via the theme of domestic helpers. Another film by Baby Ruth Villarama, Jazz in Love (2013), is out on YouTube: it’s about a long-distance relationship between a young gay man from Davao and his boyfriend in Germany.

The women directors holding the Filipino film industry together

It is interesting to note that the directors of Sunday Beauty Queen and Hello, Love, Goodbye are both women. And so is the director behind Still Human. The Philippines is ranked 16th worldwide in gender equality, and within ASEAN nations, it’s ranked 1st. As a country where women have a powerful presence in the workforce, women filmmakers are active in the film industry too. For instance, among the Filipino films that are scheduled to be screened in Japan, the director for Fan Girl, which is set to be screened at TIFF, is Antoinette Jadaone (Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay). Alyx Ayn Arumpac is also a woman director who created Aswang (2019), a documentary following those fighting against the Duterte administration. This film is scheduled to be shown at TOKYO FILMeX. One of the prominent forces driving recent Filipino films forward is women directors.

TBA Studios is one to watch, as the company is an Asian trailblazer in terms of delivering films created by women and sharing past films on YouTube for free. TBA Studios is planning on uploading more films onto their channel, so I recommend you to subscribe to them.

TBA Studios: http://www.tba.ph/

Translation Lena-Grace Suda

The post TBA Studios, the Pioneer of Sharing Films for Free “A Film Trip Around Asia in the Internet Age” Vol. 3 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Anocha Suwichakornpong, the brilliant director creating forward-thinking and beautiful films

With Thailand’s anti-government activism gaining more momentum, the Japanese media has started to frequently broadcast videos of high schoolers raising their three fingers in the air. The three finger salute, created by sticking the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger together, was made popular thanks to “The Hunger Games” (2012). The gesture’s quickly turning into a symbol of protest amongst the youth. On August 24th, as a response to the rise of anti-government protests, the government successfully applied pressure on Facebook to shut down “Royalist Marketplace,” which was a private Facebook group used for criticizing Thailand’s monarchy. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at Kyoto University currently residing in Japan, is the person who created the Facebook group. A pro-monarchy group paid a visit to the Japanese embassy in Bangkok on August 25th and requested the Japanese government to deport Pavin to Thailand.
In the midst of the anti-government movement in Thailand, Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival (September 20th~24th) is going to host a special screening for the works of Anocha Suwichakornpong.
Much like Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit from Vol. 1 of this series, her films are shown at film festivals every season, but they sadly haven’t made it to nationwide theaters yet. I’d like to write about Anocha’s radical and beautiful cinematic universe, as well as the Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive, which has a collection of her films. Writing about these two things is my own way of supporting her screening in Fukuoka. Let me start off by writing about her full-length feature films in order (co-directed films included):

Narrative film, “Mundane History” (2009 ／ Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival 2010）
Narrative film, “By the Time It Gets Dark” (2016 ／ Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017)
Narrative film, “Krabi, 2562” (2019 ／ Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2020)

※Co-directed with Ben Rivers

Including one co-directed film, she has three full-length feature films in all and compared to Nawapol, her filmography is quite small. The biggest reason for this can be attributed to the lengthy filming period of “By the Time It Gets Dark.” I’ll touch on this subject a little later on.
Titled “Anocha Suwichakornpong Shorts,” seven of her short films are going to be screened at Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival. Amongst the films is “Graceland” (2006), her thesis film for an MFA film program at Columbia University. It was the first Thai short film to be selected at Cannes International Film Festival.

Picture this scene: Bangkok, a parking lot at night, a woman in a red shirt smokes a cigarette in the passenger seat of a BMW while a young man wearing white overalls sits in the driver’s seat. The two go on a drive to the south. All of a sudden, the car stops in the middle of the woods. The woman in red leaves the car after saying that she’ll be right back. The man follows her but…… The characters and backstory are vague and the story rapidly progresses in an unexpected way. This sense of obscurity and unpredictability are Anocha’s primary characteristics and it can be seen in her very first film. The viewer is sure to feel anxious and confused about not knowing where the film is headed as it moves forward. By the way, “Graceland” is about Elvis Presley’s former home.

The level of mystery and surprise is brought up a notch in her debut full-length film, “Mundane History.” The following is the synopsis of said film on Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival’s website:

“Ake is paralyzed below the waist from an accident. Then Pun, a caregiver, is hired to care for Ake, who lives on the 2nd floor of his mansion. Unable to escape from his negative emotions, Ake is always in a foul mood and hardly talks to his father…”

In an interview she gave at Locarno International Film Festival, she stated that the story of Ake represents the political and social unrest and instability seen in Thailand today. The conflict between his father and him reflects the conflict that exists between authority and citizens. The director’s idealized vision of the future for Thai citizens can be seen in the evolution leading up to Ake’s eventual acceptance of his disability. “Mundane History” is in fact, not a mundane film due to its metaphorical take on contemporary Thailand as well as its Buddhist themes such as the eternal flux and cycle of life and death.
In order to emphasize this theme, she got rid of the chronological scenes as much as possible and edited the scenes in an associative and repetitive way for the latter half of the film. Instead of following the “introduction, build up, twist, conclusion” structure, it has a “introduction, build up, twist, twist” structure. By making the story deviate even further from the original storyline, Anocha manages to pull the rug out from under the audience’s feet. The utter thrill felt from this mixture of instability and bewilderment is what makes Anocha’s work just so good.

“By the Time It Gets Dark,” a cutting-edge film that leads the audience astray

Her second full-length film, “By the Time It Gets Dark,” is a controversial piece of work that challenges the “Thammasat University Massacre,” which is a taboo subject in Thailand. On October 6th of 1976, right wing citizens and state forces brutally attacked left wing students and activists during an occupation at Thammasat University. There’s one photo from the massacre that was famously taken by Neal Ulevich. In the photograph, the eyes of spectators are glued to a certain man that’s just about to hit another man, who’s hanging from a tree, with a chair.
The film starts off with a scene of mourning where people light up incense sticks (a Buddhist funeral custom) and put their hands together in a praying gesture. The next scene is a meta one, as it shows a film crew documenting half-naked students being forced to lay on the ground by armed soldiers. After the film credits roll, the film follows a young woman director visiting and interviewing a woman who survived the massacre and later became a writer. Like Anocha’s other films, the audience is given very little context in regards to the scenes and characters. From the interview scene onwards, the film starts to erode away by deviating from the original storyline.
Compared to “Mundane History,” the twist takes place earlier and once the film passes the midway point, the characters are replaced and some scenes get repeated. The line between what’s real and unreal gets extremely blurry. Further, in “Mundane History,” the story is seen through a man whereas “By the Time It Gets Dark” is told through the eyes of a woman. What can be said about the two is that both perspectives have a certain warmth to them. However, the way the latter film pivots from one point to another is truly unprecedented and will probably create a clear divide between those who like and dislike the film. It’s not a stretch to state that some people will laud “By the Time It Gets Dark,” saying that it has transcended the twists and turns of David Lynch, Jacques Rivette, and Alain Robbe-Grillet. On the contrary, other people might leave the viewing experience with a sense of frustration and confusion. It’s a film that could cause chaos at a screening. After having witnessed the cinematic equivalent to an unsolved mystery, I couldn’t help but feel as though “Krabi, 2562” was lacking the arcane, unexpected quality seen in her other works. I get the impression that Anocha’s radicalness and refinement aren’t as prominent here.

“By the Time It Gets Dark” won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing at the 2017 Suphannahong National Film Awards. It also got a special mention at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017. However, the screening of the film at Doc Club Theater on the 41st anniversary of the massacre (October 6th of 2017) got cancelled due to authorities’ orders.

Asian films that deal with taboo subjects excluded from official history

In Asian film history, there’s a pattern of filmmakers creating films about taboo subjects kept in the dark. By doing so, they in turn reinvent the history of films in Asia. Some examples are:
“A Brighter Summer Day” (1991) by Edward Yang (White Terror in Taiwan)
“Peppermint Candy” (1999) by Lee Chang-dong (Gwangju Uprising in Korea)
“S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine” (2003) by Rithy Panh (the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia)
“The Act of Killing” (2012) by Joshua Oppenheimer (Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966)
“Dead Souls” (2018) by Wang Bing (Mao’s Anti-Rightist Campaign)

Of course, there are more provocative history films aside from these ones. Some other recent examples are Korea’s “A Taxi Driver” (2017) and the film adaptation of an indie horror game about the White Terror period in Taiwan, “Detention” (2019). I personally think countries that have a lot of contentious films with taboo subject matters have a richer variety of films in general.
However, because such taboo films don’t align with the country’s own version of history, the majority of these films are met with severe criticism and thus, have difficulty getting shown in theaters. Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive collects Asian films/materials, including Japanese ones, that have a deep relationship with Fukuoka city. Controversial works that can’t be shown in their own respective countries are included in the archives too. Anocha’s “Mundane History” and “By the Time It Gets Dark” are amongst the collection.
Even if these films get banned and destroyed in their home country, the data is safely kept at Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive. They also have opportunities to hold screenings. Perhaps the existence of such an archive gives some sense of ease and encouragement to trailblazing Asian filmmakers that fight hard against censorship. Also, “Saturday Afternoon” (2019), which was banned from Bangladesh due to its provocative nature, and “The Tree House” (2019), which still hasn’t been released in Vietnam, are going to be shown at Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival. At any rate, these films are bound to be archived at Fukuoka City Public Film Archive. Unfortunately, Anocha won’t be able to come to Japan due to the pandemic, but the fact that there’s going to be a special screening for her radically beautiful films in Fukuoka is so wonderful. I hope this will lead to her sensational films being released in nationwide theaters.

Anocha Suwichakornpong ｜ อโนชา สุวิชากรพงศ์
Born in 1976 in Thailand, Anocha Suwichakornpong is a director, screenwriter, and producer with an MFA from Columbia University. Graceland, which was completed in 2006, was the first-ever Thai short film to be selected at Cannes Film Festival. She founded an independent film production company called “Electric Eel Films” based in Bangkok in 2006. She also produced Wichanon Somumjarn’s “In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire” (2012) and Puangsoi Aksornsawang’s “Nakorn-Sawan” (2018/unreleased in Japan).

Pictures provided Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival
Translation Lena-Grace Suda

The post The Radical Beauty of Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Cinematic Universe “A Film Trip Around Asia in the Internet Age” Vol. 2 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Nawapol, the Unlucky Director Whose Work Hasn’t Been Released in Japanese Theaters

The following films are gaining momentum thanks to their nationwide release in theaters this year: “House of Hummingbird” (2018) directed by Kim Bora, “Malmoe: The Secret Mission” (2019) directed by EOM Yoo-Na, and “On the Edge of Their Seats” (2020) directed by Hideo Jojo. What do these films have in common? Well, all three films were shown at the 15th Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF 2020) this March. There are various criteria when it comes to judging any given film festival. One such criterion is taking into account the numbers of films that were distributed to theaters after its initial film screening. Another thing to consider is the ratio of films that later became moderate to major hits in theaters. These two factors are consistent when it comes to OAFF and it can be said it’s one of the few Japanese film festivals that are the real deal.
This year at OAFF, “Happy Old Year” (2019) by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit won Best Picture. Nawapol’s films have gained the interests of OAFF as well as Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). Everytime he comes out with a new film, it’s shown here at film screenings too. Unfortunately, none of his works have made it to Japanese movie theaters. With the word “unlucky” as the keyword, I’d like to introduce Nawapol to you all. This quality is something his protagonists have in common as well. I’m going to kick this off by writing about his full-length feature films in order.

Narrative film, “36”（2012 ／ TIFF2014）
Narrative film, “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy”（2013 ／ TIFF2013）
Documentary film, “The Master”（2014 ／ OAFF2016）
Narrative film,“Heart Attack”（2015 ／ OAFF2016）
Narrative film, “Die Tomorrow”（2017 ／ OAFF2018）
Documentary film, “BNK48:Girls Don’t Cry”（2018 ／ TIFF2018）
Narrative film,“Happy Old Year”（2019 ／ OAFF2020）

I’d firstly like to focus on the era his films were made in. In 2013, there were many protests against the Thai government and in May of the following year, there was a coup d’état carried out by the military, which led to the beginning of Thai’s military administration. This ended only nominally in March of 2019 after there was an election in regards to shifting from military rule to civilian rule. Even during this time, Nawapol continued to create films. Recently, it’s been reported that the Japanese cartoon character, “Hamtaro” has become a symbol of democracy seen in anti-parliament protests led by students. There’s still a long way to go in terms of reaching equilibrium. Further, it can be said that the post-2014 circumstances for filmmaking is unfortunate, due to the limits of self-expression. It can also be said that this doesn’t only apply to Nawapol, but to other artists and young people in Thailand.

The second point I’d like to focus on is how the word “happy” is used in two out of the seven films he’s made. The word is shown twice in the title of the film, “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy” In general, his films are comedies that depict an unlucky yet likeable protagonist struggling to be happy in their own way. His works’ brilliance lies in the laughter and pathos born from the protagonist’s struggle. In a sense, his films are a sort of anthem that reaches out to viewers living in restricted and unlucky times.

Next, allow me to introduce his works in order. His first full-length film, “36” won the New Currents Award at Busan Film Festival in 2012. The synopsis is as follows: a location scout called Sai meets art director Oom on-site and starts to have feelings for him as they begin working together. She records every important detail in her digital camera for work. Two years later, Oom changes jobs. Then, her computer breaks and she loses all of her photo data. The photos she took of Oom were amongst the lost data. On the surface, it’s a common love story but the way the film is constructed is interesting; it’s made up of 36 static shots. In an interview he gave at TIFF 2014, Nawapol said that the film was shot by taking photo by photo, and one roll of film consisted of 36 shots. He also said that the method was something big production companies would’ve never allowed him to do. It was something he could do because he made it independently. Nawapol added that he wanted to create a watchable film, even though it was an experimental one at that. It can be said that he wanted indie film enthusiasts, regular people, as well as young people alike to enjoy the film.

His second film, “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy” is somewhat of a girly film about Mary, a senior in high school that’s about to graduate. She helps her friend pickpocket and works on creating the graduating grade’s yearbook. It’s a coming-of-age story but right in the middle of the film, an unfortunate event happens out of nowhere and this is when the mood of the whole thing changes completely. This might be mere coincidence but the heavy mood of the film is not unlike that of the anti-government protests that happened during the same time the film was released, which was November 2013. While the structure of “36” was based on one roll of film, “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy” took on the challenge of incorporating the use of Twitter. Mary’s tweets, which exceed over 400, appear on screen in rapid succession and the film progresses in this way. The pace does change during the latter half of the story but in general, the film moves at a slow, gentle speed. Nawapol creates a unique groove by juxtaposing the slow pace with rapid fire tweets.

His third film, “The Master” is a unique documentary that looks back at a bootleg VHS shop that influenced people like Banjog Pisanthanakun, who directed the highest grossing film in Thailand, “Pee Mak” (2013). The store also inspired pioneers of Thai New Wave directors. Because there were no arthouse theaters in 90’s Thailand, it was hard to access foreign arthouse films. However, thanks to the opening of a bootleg VHS shop in a maze-like marketplace, cinephiles found a way to quench their thirst for rare foreign films. These people consumed the works of Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar Wai, Shunji Iwai, Takeshi Kitano, as well as J-Horror films. This served as the preface for Thailand’s New Wave movement, which started in 1997. If it weren’t for the owner of the VHS shop, the Thai New Wave movement might’ve been founded much later. I think this film is a masterpiece about cinephiles.

Nawapol’s fourth film, “Heart Attack” is a romantic comedy that follows Yoon, a freelance graphic designer that developed rashes all over his body due to overworking. He goes to get it checked out and ends up falling in love with the dermatologist that examined his condition. The Thai title translates to “freelancer, don’t get sick, don’t get rest, don’t fall in love with a doctor.” “Heart Attack” was distributed by a mainstream film studio company called GTH and it features popular actors. For instance, Davika Hoorne, who plays the dermatologist in the film, also stars in “Pee Mak” “Heart Attack” is narrated by Yoon and the relationship as well as the disparity between the narration and the visuals are just right. In an interview with Ginmaku Kanwa, he mentions how the way he uses disparities in his films is similar to Takeshi Kitano. Yoon’s situation gets worse as the story progresses and yet, there’s humor in the black comedy. This film might be similar to Takeshi Kitano’s works in the sense that tragedy and comedy are two sides of the same coin.

His fifth film, “Die Tomorrow” was made after Nawapol got inspired by newspaper headlines from 2012 to 2016. The film is an anthology with six stories centered around people living their last day on earth. It’s part fiction and part nonfiction; some stories are told from many perspectives such as those that are going to die, rivals, and friends while other sections are interviews about death. Loss and death are running themes in Nawapol’s filmography and he’s explored this theme thoroughly before. “Die Tomorrow” asks the audience about death but at the same time, it makes the audience think about life itself. It’s reminiscent of one part from “Essays in Idleness,” a collection of essays written by a Japanese monk named Kenko (Hoshi) between 1330 and 1332. In passage 155 he writes:

“…Not so the time of death. We do not always see its approach; it can come upon us from behind. People know that they will die, but death will surprise them while they believe it is not yet close. It is as if we gaze at the far-off ebb-tide flats while even now the sea is rising to flood the rocks we stand on.”
(‘Essays in Idleness,’ passage 155)

His sixth film, “BNK48: Girls Don’t Cry” is a documentary about Bangkok-based BNK48, the sister group of AKB48 that rose to fame. He said that he wanted the film to go beyond the “idol/popstar” genre; he wanted to make a coming-of-age film. A large portion of the documentary includes one on one interviews with 26 first-term members, which were conducted over the course of a year. The interviews show the girls in an authentic and vulnerable light, as some girls express the reservations they have with AKB48’s “Senbatsu” Election system while other girls show how they’re struggling. There are tears involved too. According to the director, the title has two meanings; “get yourself together” and “there’s no need to be discouraged.” The last shot is simply amazing.

Will His Seventh Film Finally Be Released in Japanese Movie Theaters?

Nawapol’s seventh film, “Happy Old Year” portrays a woman who challenges herself to clean up her family home’s cluttered living space in order to turn it into an office space via following Marie Kondo’s “The KonMari Method” However, things don’t go smoothly. Jean, the protagonist, doesn’t see eye to eye with her mother, who wants to keep pieces of furniture that reminds her of her husband who left the family. Jean also can’t let go of the things she borrowed and kept from her friends and ex. So she decides to return the belongings she kept to their owner, including her ex. This film also shares some things in common with “Essays in Idleness,”

“A collection of vulgar objects looks bad, while good ones will suggest a futile attachment to worldly things.”
(‘Essays in Idleness,’ passage 140)

In “Bad Genius” (2017), Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying plays Lynn, a character who struggles to come to terms with how “letting go” doesn’t only apply to material objects; it also applies to intangible memories. He depicts the conflict of letting go in a meticulous way. This film explores the theme of memories, like Nawapol’s debut film “36” The way he treats the subject matter is a testament to his maturity and growth, seen in the way he captures the antagonism between Lynn’s parents and her. The emotional performances are cleverly restrained and subtle, which enable the audience to come up with the emotions themselves. Further, because Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying had a brilliant performance in not only “Bad Genius” but in “Happy Old Year” as well, the latter film became both Nawapol and Chutimon’s representative work.

The director hasn’t had luck in regards to his films being released in Japan but people are anticipating the nationwide release of “Happy Old Year” Also, it can be said that his work is Thailand’s answer to “Essays in Idleness,” as his films focus on unlucky yet lovable protagonists that provide the viewers with pathos and laughter about their immediate surroundings. I reckon his films will give Japanese people happiness and joy during this time where people are held back by coronavirus. I’m excited to see the impact his Japanese release will bring about.

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit ｜ นวพล ธำรงรัตนฤทธิ์
Born in Thailand in 1984, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit is a director and scriptwriter. He began creating experimental short films and documentaries as a student in Chulalongkorn University. In 2008, he co-founded “Third Class Citizen,” a Thai film and video activist group that hosts film screening events. He’s also one of the scriptwriters of the hit, “Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story” (2009), which was shown at Kyoto International Film and Art Festival 2019 and “Seven Something” (2012), which is the 7th anniversary film from GTH.
https://twitter.com/ter_nawapol

Pictures provided OSAKA ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Translation Lena-Grace Suda

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