A decade is a long time in festival years. Ten years ago, when Far East Film Festival launched with an inaugural event celebrating Hong Kong cinema, commercial Asian filmmaking was almost impossible to see in the West. These were the dark days before widespread availability of the Internet and subtitled DVDs, when the best of commercial Asian cinema was most easily found in Chinatown rental stores or in hidden rooms inside suburban Korean supermarkets. FEFF was one of several festivals that launched with an increased focus on commercial East Asian cinema. But it’s proved to be the only one big enough to present the trends as they have emerged over the past decade.
In 1998, South Korean cinema was just emerging as an exciting force, with debut features from Kim Ji-yoon (The Quiet Family), Hur Jin-ho (Christmas In August), Im Sang-soo (Girls’ Night Out) and E J-yong (An Affair). Kim Ki-duk was still learning on the job, but made a creative breakthrough with Birdcage Inn while the horror boom kicked off with Park Ki-hyung’s Whispering Corridors. There has been a generational shift that has not only left Im Kwon-taek in the dust, but also pushed aside important directors such as Park Kwang-su and Jang Sun-woo who may go down in history as transitional directors who created a space for modern Korean cinema.
In Japan, the biggest film of 1998 was Motohiro Katsuyuki’s Bayside Shakedown. It’s a wonderful piece of entertainment that has a lot to say about the Japanese psyche and we proudly presented it in Udine. But it also marked a damaging new direction for Japanese cinema. The high-concept police comedy grossed US$100m and encouraged producers to take a formulaic route to box office success. The result is that the biggest budgeted movies in Japan are often the worst directed, even when celebrated filmmakers are attached. Meanwhile, many gifted filmmakers are starved off funding and never managed to achieve their potential.
It was also about ten years ago that a new generation of directors began to emerge from Thailand’s world of advertising, notably Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Wisit Sasanatieng. All three have remained relevant over the past decade, with exciting new projects expected this year even as a new generation
of directors has emerged. Among the most interesting new filmmakers to appear in the past five years are Chookiat Sakveerakul, Kongdej Jaturanrasmee and Kongkait Khomsiri, who each have their newest films in this year’s lineup. The three have a diverse range as writer-directors, whether pushing boundaries in the horror genre or making gay romances.
Chinese cinema has grown from just 82 licensed feature films in 1998 to over 400 last year. 1998 marked the debut of Shi Runjiu (A Beautiful New World) and Jin Chen (Love In The Internet Generation). But it wasn’t until 2001-2 that an exciting new generation of directors emerged in the form of Zhang Yibai (Spring Subway), Teng Huatao (One Hundred...) and Chen Daming (Manhole). Each receiving their international debut at Far East Film Festival. In the past two years, as new producers entered the industry, they’ve had the opportunity to direct their follow-up features alongside a new generation of debut directors. Meanwhile, the most interesting underground directors are now working in the mainstream.
As China’s prospects have risen, Hong Kong’s fortunes have declined over the past decade. There was just too much money on the table in China for Hong Kong producers to invest in their own industry. If the talent disappeared to Hollywood in the 1990s, it has now moved to China. China needs Hong Kong stars and technical talent to grow, but perhaps only in the short term. Local Hong Kong films that have a strong local flavor - such as Infernal Affairs and My Life As Mcdull - are harder to find outside of nostalgic films about the past. Perhaps the only consistently interesting local director to emerge in the past decade is Pang Ho-cheung, who returns to Udine for the fourth time.
Between them, the film industries of South Korea, Japan, Thailand, China and Hong Kong produced over 1000 feature films in 2007. About 60 of them make their way to the town of Udine this year, including tributes to Japan’s Miki Satoshi and South Korea’s Shin Sang ok. For the first time there are films from Indonesia and Vietnam, areas where the festival must do better. Perhaps in ten years time we’ll look back at DVDs and think them as antiquated as we do VHS tapes today. Perhaps film festivals themselves will be antiquated. In the meantime, enjoy this year’s lineup of the best of East Asian commercial cinema.
Stephen Cremin