S. Korea family drama wins at Busan
Philippines’ politics-stained cinema in Busan spotlight
BUSAN, South Korea, Oct 13, (AFP): A thrill-a-minute actioner from China and a moving South Korean drama about a unique family reunion have taken the top prize at Asia’s largest film festival, with judges lauding both for their “original” takes.
“Savage”, from first-time Chinese director Cui Si-wei, pits a forest ranger against gold thieves in a snowy mountain range and won praise from the New Currents award jury at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) for being “strikingly accomplished and riveting”.
South Korean production “Clean up”, from debut feature director Kwon Man-ki, charts the tale of a struggling woman who is offered a salvation of sorts when she meets someone from her past.
It is a film with “perfect control and masterful psychological development,” the jury statement read.
BIFF’s New Currents award comes with prizes of $30,000 for the two most impressive efforts from firstor second-time Asian filmmakers and there had been a buzz around town after screenings of “Savage” in particular. The film now looks certain for wide commercial release in China and beyond.
Veteran South Korean director Kim Hong-joon, who led the New Currents jury, said the judges were unanimous in their decision to award “Savage” its prize.
“[It shows] a mastery of genre cinema, with multidimensional characters and thrilling action sequences,” said Kim.
Other highlights of this year’s BIFF included a documentary section that featured films that scratched away at the region’s political and social scars.
The gripping Taiwanese effort “Opening Closing Forgetting”, from director James T. Hong, looked at how Chinese farmers survived human experimentation by occupying Japanese forces during the Second World War, but have never really recovered from the horrors they were put through.
It took the BIFF Mecenat Award for best documentary – winning praise from the award panel for its “profound dedication to its story” – along with Kelvin Park’s “Army”, which shed light on lives led by South Korea’s military conscripts.
BIFF draws to a close Saturday night with the gala world premiere of martial arts master Yuen Woo-ping’s “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy”, a branch off from the franchise of Hong Kong-produced box office hits which were centred around the life of the man famous for teaching Bruce Lee.
This time the story focuses on one of the men Ip Man fought, played in the film by rising martial arts star Max Zhang who must face off against an evil drug lord played by Hollywood’s David Bautista (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), among others
It will be the first time in its 23-year history that BIFF has brought the curtain down with a martial arts or action film. It is a fitting tribute to the 73-year-old Yuen, the man who added the action to the likes of Oscarwinner “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), and both “The Matrix” and “Kill Bill” franchises.
Honour
“It is a great honour,” said Yuen after a press preview screening of the film. “Film has always been my life. I think that martial arts films are full of humanity and I hope to share that with the world.”
The Busan festival will by its close on Saturday night have screened 324 films from 79 countries across its varied programmes – including 115 world premieres – and just over 195,000 people attended over the ten days, a boost for organizers who came in to this year’s event having shrugged off a few years of political pressure and controversy.
It all started in 2014 with the screening of a documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster of that year – which resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people.
It was critical of the then government and both funding cuts and sackings followed its screening but the air has now cleared under the government of President Moon Jae-in.
The Philippines’ rich history of political and socially conscious cinema was on display this week at Asia’s largest movie gathering, shadowed by the controversy over President Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly drug war.
Busan International Film Festival delivered a record number of features from the nation, which has a turbulent political past, widespread poverty and is in the international eye due to condemnation of the president’s narcotics crackdown. The 19 offerings gave an unflinching dive into the country’s frailties and obsessions, including its political landscape.
As the event that closes Saturday kicked into high gear on Oct 5, Duterte’s leadership was fiercely criticized by Filipino director Mike de Leon, whose latest was screened at BIFF.
“My country has hit rock bottom... again,” he wrote on Facebook. “We have de facto become a dictatorship again, in everything but name.”
He was referring to the rule of Ferdinand Marcos who used martial law from 1972-1981 to shutter the legislature, muzzle the free press and jail or kill opponents.
While Duterte has sky-high approval among Filipinos, according to polls, opponents charge he has resorted to similar abuses since taking power in 2016.
De Leon, whose politically pointed family melodrama “Citizen Jake” made its international premiere at Busan, said he made the picture to document the nation’s condition.
It is an “indictment of the unchanging nature of Philippine society that, in my opinion and as shown in the film, is almost irredeemably damaged,” he posted.
Duterte, however, had his supporters among Filipino film-makers who made the trip to Busan, including Cannes-honoured Brillante Mendoza.
The director best known for his hyper-real depictions of the Philippines’ dark underbelly of crime and poverty has defended Duterte’s leadership and effort to eliminate drugs from the nation.
His Netflix series “Amo” sparked controversy earlier this year with a tale of a young man swept away by his involvement in narcotics that critics called an argument in favour of Duterte’s crackdown.
“Cinema is addictive. It can change your life,” Mendoza told journalists. “It became clear to me that films have a purpose. They can make a difference.”
The directors were reared in a nation with a deep tradition of movies that plunge into its troubled past and current social ills like sex trafficking.