#6
The Modern Legacy of the Ancient Asian Civilizations
And, when speaking of the Asian film, we must mention the critic’s and the film chronic-writers’ notion that the nations neighboring China overtake the strong mythical and metaphysical film poetics of this great country, that is in a strong expansion in the last decade or so, bringing along the hope for global film-art-and-culture healing process. Except those fascinating screening of the ancient legends and myths that sharpen the modern audience’s senses of the subtle and unpredictable transformations of the human spiritual and higher dimensions, of the young lovers, or of the cult heroes, etc., Korean film also undertook the challenge to analyze the deviant phenomena in the society, the militant divisions, wars and national confrontations. Among all those – maybe mostly successfully – the Korean film brings to us astonishing, shocking and lucid vivisection with vivid images of the moral deviations and decay in the modern world. Besides the above mentioned Family Ties, in the Independent Film Section of the Festival, as always, one can really find a genuine, but not (yet?) acknowledged master-piece, as the film Between Days by the young film director So Yong Kim. She is the graduated student in film directing at the Art Institute in Chicago. It is a subtle analysis of the relations between the Korean immigrants in America (USA), like the youngsters Emi and Tran, in the country, which not only determines their new model of citizen behavior, but it seriously undermines the very bases of their moral and emotional integrity. This film also brings us the problem expressions within the spiritual world of the characters, as well as a benefit for the narrative expression of the film as many other films from this region. And the other Korean films like The Peter Pan Formula, by Chou Chang-Ho, or the film Boss, by Bong Jun-Ho, a tragic moving image that treats the student protests in Korea and the extremely cruel and inhuman response of the police authorities. Another film that deals with the tragic of the conflict between the Eastern traditional morality and the imported Western civilization norms, is the film that came from Singapore – the film Fifteen, by Royston Tan. The bizarre and melancholic image of the two teenagers’ deviations in life. Those two youngsters make the choice to explore all modern evil on their skin personally, fully surprised as their domestic, as well the foreign audience and critics, all unprepared to see the dark side of the technological progress brought up in a different civilization’s context. The Royston Tan’s vision isn’t some trendy flirt with the ‘evergreen’ themes of the rebellion, moral degradation and solitude at all, but a dangerous agent that undermines the very bases of a very old, rich and great culture. This notion is proved by his other film shown at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the film 4.30, whit the action ‘playground’ are the premises of the knowledge and progress, but also of the evil and violence – the premises of the school institutions.
#7 The claim that all of the neighboring cinematographies of China influenced the Chinese film poetics – would be a little excessive claim, but the fact that this influence isn’t ignorable, stays. Even those above mentioned films weren’t immune to this film poetics with unwiden metaphysical and lyrical plots and visualization. But, although the contexts between China and its neighbors aren’t the same, this way of film expression isn’t only mechanically copied from the Chinese authors, because it doesn’t ‘fit’ the same in South Korea, for instance, or in Singapore. But the similarities exist, as for instance: the principle of wisdom within the film action, the sustained lyricism of the spoken word or emotion and the sharpened analogy between the landscapes of nature and the spiritual world of the film characters, are more than obvious. This year, the China representative was the film Trouble Makers, directed by Cao Baoping, a drama from the China contemporary society milieu, but conceptually very close to the classic differentiation of Good and Evil. The conflict among the diabolic community of the Xiong Brothers and the bold Party Secretary Ye Guangrong in the ‘by God forsaken’ town named Black Well, evokes the well-known narrative structures, as in the ancient legends – as with the classic manifestation of the Evil, as with the classic way of weaving the conflict’s plot. These schemes we can recognize in the traditional Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese film production. Although in the Competition Section at the Festival, Trouble Makers simply couldn’t – in my opinion – to stand side by side with the others Chinese films, as for instance, with the film The Road by Jiarui Zhang, or Dreams May Come, by the former Eastern Asia film-star Xu Jinglei.
#8 From the other Asian countries, Iran enriched the Festival program with the nice example of their realistic film poetics. That’s the feature film debut of the young female film-director Mona Zandi Haghighi – On a Friday Afternoon. It’s a heart-breaking and tragic story about the sufferings of the lonely, sensitive and bold middle-aged Iranian woman Sogand: not only that she carries the yoke of the social norms repression upon the female individuals in her home country, but also, she feels even worse because of the emotional distance and the bad treatment by her son, to whom she gave all of her love, devotion and energy. The documentary-like film scenery and the authentic, not enforced brutality of the everyday’s images rescue this film from overdoing with the sentimentality shadows and the artificial sensitivity.
The other Iranian film Fireworks Wednesday, by Asghar Farhadi, speaks of the vivid and picturesque ambient of the New Year’s Festivities, which in Teheran, traditionally, takes place in March. The young Roohi, waits for her wedding day even more than the New Year’s Eve. But she can’t have the complete happiness – even after all of her efforts and fights against the laws that place the Iranian women in a position of the servile servants. A vision of a bold fight against the dogmas of the society – that in the name of religion purity – proclaims cruel restriction upon the one’s strive for human happiness.
What Happens with the Latino-American Cinematography?
#9 On the other side of the world, in Latin America, the place where – ‘just until yesterday’ – the film masterpieces were emerging one after another, the film situation is obviously in stagnation. That is, at least, the impression after this Festival programs. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, etc., didn’t find the worthy replacement for Hector Babenco, Marco Bechis, or Alejandro Iñárritu.
The Mexican film Drama/Mex by Gerardo Naranjo, although in the Competition Section, didn’t make any strong impression nor in its content’s originality, nor in its conventional style that is even close to be imitation, judging by the known clichés of the love triangles – so close to the Hollywood film taste. The more significant step into the clearing of the film poetics in the issue of solitude, also wasn’t really successful in the intimate drama Born In Tremble, where the leading character, after the lost of his family in a car accident, falls into a deep solitude and self-isolation. The Argentinian director Pablo Tanero, who – at the beginning of his film career – was promising to revive and continue the tradition of Cinema Nuovo, seems to fail that expectations with this film. The only curiosity and attraction of the film are the fascinating photographed landscapes of Patagonia… Since the Robert Flaherty’s master-piece – The Man From Aran, such beautiful film photography hasn’t occurred until now.
The conventional contents, the routine directing, all with the full and correct professionalism and beautiful actor’s performances in which we can see the spirit of the old temperament of Latino-American film stars that conquered the film world – are the qualities enough to praise the film Dog’s Heart by director Manuel Nieto Zass, who comes from Uruguay. The same can be said for the Mexican melodrama The Violin by the director Francisco Vargas, the Winner of many film Prizes in Cannes, San Sebastian, Mexico City, and in Finland.