Asia offers rich menu to Cannes' selectors

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Festival Opinion

The 65th Cannes Film Festival (16-27 May) is due to announce its official lineup a week from today, on Thu 19 April. The independent Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Realisateurs) sidebar reveals its own selection a few days later.

With Marco MÜLLER no longer at the Venice International Film Festival, and the power of the International Rome Film Festival under his tenure still unproven, there's never been a better time for Directors' Fortnight to step in as Cannes' arbiter of Asian cinema. Müller's maverick approach was somewhat out of place at an A-list event. It was better reserved for a festival — or sidebar — biting at the heels of the establishment.

For a decade Cannes has had a particularly weak programme of Chinese cinema, precisely Müller's greatest strength. Cannes has shifted to focus almost exclusively on independent Chinese cinema, which holds the moral high ground if not always the artistic one. Would the Cannes of 2012 have the courage to present a film like JIANG Wen 姜文's Devils on the Doorstep 鬼子來了 (2000) in competition? Probably not. Just as it had no room for Jiang's Let the Bullets Fly 讓子彈飛 (2010) or LU Chuan 陸川's City of Life and Death 南京！南京！ (2008).

In contrast to the (relatively weak) Chinese blockbusters that opened in September and December last year — that fed the Venice and Berlin selections — Directors' Fortnight is blessed with a feast of upcoming films from Chinese auteurs. Showing a handful would elevate Directors' Fortnight as the new gateway for Chinese language cinema in Europe. A decade ago, these films would have debuted in Udine. Now their producers want and expect a bigger platform, ideally with a market attached.

Upcoming films include NING Hao 寧浩's Guns and Roses 黃金大劫案 (opening 24 Apr in China), YANG Shupeng 楊樹鵬's An Inaccurate Memoir 匹夫 (24 Apr), GUAN Hu 管虎's Design of Death 殺生 (28 Apr), ZHANG Yang 張楊's Full Circle 飛越老人院 (8 May), Wuershan 烏爾善's Painted Skin: The Resurrection 畫皮Ⅱ (28 Jun), Lu Chuan's The Last Supper 王的盛宴 (5 Jul) and LI Yu 李玉's Double Xposure 二次曝光.

Under the two previous heads of Directors' Fortnight — Olivier PÈRE and Frédéric BOYER — such a bold move would be unimaginable. Although both men took Asia seriously after assuming their positions, and upped their own travel to the region, neither were completely comfortable navigating its cinemas. But the new Fortnight director Edouard WAINTROP (pictured) has already championed a diverse range of Asian cinema at his previous post at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland.

While Waintrop's programming at Fribourg suggested that he was most at home with the cinemas of Japan and South Korea — notably with the impressive "The Curse of the Korean Kings" retrospective in 2010 — he has also embraced a range of Chinese films. At his final 2011 edition, he dared to open with DING Sheng 丁晟's Little Big Soldier 大兵小將 (2009) starring Jackie CHAN 成龍 and put FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛's earthquake melodrama Aftershock 唐山大地震 (2010) in competition.

And within the comfort zones of South Korea and Japan, there are equally rich pickings ready for Cannes, whether for inclusion within the Fortnight, International Critics' Week or the main festival's Official Selection. 

Films from Korean directors likely to be available include PARK Chan-wook 박찬욱 | 朴贊郁's English-language Stoker, HUR Jin-ho 허진호 | 許秦豪's Chinese-language Dangerous Liaisons 危險關係, HONG Sang-soo 홍상수 | 洪常秀's multilingual In Another Country 다른 나라에서 starring France's Isabelle HUPPERT, IM Sang-soo 임상수 | 林常樹's (sort-of-sequel to The Housemaid 하녀 (2010)) The Taste of Money 돈의 맛, and KIM Jee-woon 김지운 | 金知雲's co-directed end-of-days science fiction omnibus Doomsday Book 인류멸망보고서.

In the field of animation, there's YEUN Sang-ho 연상호's violent social drama The King of Pigs 돼지의 왕 (2011) from South Korea and HOSODA Mamoru 細田守's fantastical Wolf Children おおかみこどもの雨と雪 from Japan. The former was well-received at the Busan International Film Festival 부산국제영화제 last October, but has been suspiciously absent from other international events. Wolf Children, due out in Japan in mid-July, is from the director of the critically acclaimed Summer Wars サマーウォーズ (2009) that was in competition at the Locarno Film Festival | Festival del film Locarno.

Other established Japanese directors with new films available include ISHII Gakuryu 石井岳龍 (formerly known as ISHII Sogo 石井聰亙) with Isn't Anyone Alive? 生きてるものはいないのか (2011) (released 18 Feb), NAKAMURA Yoshihiro 中村義洋 with Chips ポテチ (12 May), WAKAMATSU Koji 若松孝二 with 11.25 The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate 11・25自決の日　三島由紀夫と若者たち (originally 2 Jun; now delayed), NINAGAWA Mika 蜷川実花 with Helter Skelter ヘルタースケルター (14 Jul) and YOSHIDA Daihachi 吉田大八 with The Kirishima Thing 桐島、部活やめるってよ (11 Aug 2012).

Titles available from the rest of Asia include Nonzee NIMIBUTR นนทรีย์ นิมิบุตร's psychological thriller Distortion คน-โลก-จิต (17 May) from Thailand, Anurag KASHYAP's crime epic Gangs of वासेपुर (Wasseypur) (19 Jun) from India, YANG Ya-che 楊雅喆's gay drama Gf*Bf 女朋友 男朋友 (17 Aug) from Taiwan, Australian director Cate SHORTLAND's German-language Lore and Iranian director Abbas KIAROSTAMI's Japan-shot Like Someone in Love ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ.

French sales agency Wild Bunch recently confirmed that WONG Kar-wai 王家衛's The Grandmaster 一代宗師, starring Tony LEUNG Chiu-wai 梁朝偉 and ZHANG Ziyi 章子怡, will still be shooting in May. A Chinese release date of the martial arts film is expected to be announced by Jet Tone Films Ltd 澤東製作有限公司 on 18 April, but the timing is surely a coincidence.

Two other anticipated projects, HOU Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢's The Assassin 聶隱娘 and JIA Zhangke 賈樟柯's In the Qing Dynasty 在清朝, have officially yet to shoot.

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