Heroes of the big screen

A LIST OF the best Asian films of all time was published this week, as the region’s vibrant cinema scene celebrated another bonanza at the Busan International Film Festival.
The South Korean fest marked its 20th anniversary with a poll of noted Asian filmmakers and critics, who were all asked for their top 10.
Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-Hsien said the release of the “Asian Cinema 100” was a reminder to fellow filmmakers of their obligation to “seek the truth”.
“Sometimes as a filmmaker you have to show things that people don’t want to see,” he said.
Hou’s breakthrough work “A City Of Sadness” was ranked fifth-best of all time on a list that was topped by Japanese master auteur Yasujiro Ozu’s seminal family drama “Tokyo Story” from 1953.
Hou’s latest film, the atmospheric martial-arts epic “The Assassin” is among the early favourites for this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar. It picked up 11 nominations for Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the most prestigious given to Chinese-language films.
But its mood and mysticism are a far cry from the harsh realities of Taiwanese history portrayed in “A City of Sadness”, which follows the destruction of a family under the “White Terror” campaign under martial law in the late 1940s.
It is widely acknowledged that the film was the first to confront this dark period of the Taiwan’s past and “A City of Sadness” was a major critical success, winning the Taiwan its first Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival.
“If it had not been for the awards overseas it would not have been screened in Taiwan,” the 68-year-old Hou recalls. “It was a turning point for me. If not for this film the work that has followed would not exist and it allowed Taiwanese filmmakers to look at our history.”
The poll also rated Asia’s top directors of all time with Japan’s Ozu coming out ahead of Hou, and Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami, whose highest-ranked film was 1994’s “Close Up”, coming tied 10th with the highest-ranked Korean film, Kim Ki-young’s sexually charged drama “The Housemaid” (1960).
Festival organisers said they had created the list of the region’s greatest films to widen the world’s knowledge about its cinematic history. They are this week screening a selection of the films chosen. Updates are expected every five years.
Asia’s most successful film in terms of global box office, the Oscar-winning Ang Lee-directed martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) from Taiwan which collected an estimated US$128 million, was voted in joint 18th position.
Japan accounted for 26 films on the list, followed by Iran (19) and Korea (15). The oldest film chosen was Ozu’s “I Was Born, But...” from 1932, which was ranked 48th of all time.
The top animated film to make the cut was Hayao Miyasaki’s “Spirited Away” (2001) from Japan, also an Oscar winner, which was joint 18th.
“We wanted to re-write the history of Asian cinema with an Asian perspective, different from the western ones,” the festival’s Asian Cinema programmer Kim Young-woo said.
“We want to discover and value Asian films that might be relatively less known to the world.”
 TOP FIVE ASIAN FILMS
 Here are the top five entries of the Busan International Film Festival’s “Asian Cinema 100”:

1. “Tokyo Story”, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan
When an old couple head to Tokyo from the countryside to visit their children they find themselves unwanted – even unloved – by all but one, played by a soulful Kyoko Kagawa. An indictment of the self-centred nature of modern life as it was back then in 1953, the heartbreak comes when you are left wondering if that’s how things still are today.

2. “Rashomon”, Akira Kurosawa, Japan
A twisted tale of death and deceit with each character (including the one played by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune) allowed their own take on how a murder occurred. The result is that you won’t know just who to believe. A Golden Lion followed at Venice, as well as an honorary Academy Award.

3. “In the Mood for Love”, Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong
A richly evocative tale of longing and simmering passions in 1960s Hong Kong. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai play the would-be lovers whose affair simmers through glances and stolen moments but never fully bursts into flame. The way cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s cameras seems at times to invade their most intimate moments will almost make you blush. The film was nominated for the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2000.

4. “The Apu Trilogy”, Satyajit Ray, India
Loosely based on a series of three famous Indian novels, the trilogy traces the coming of age of the impoverished Apu who struggles – almost silently – to rise above his situation. Made in the mid-1950s on a next-to-nothing budget with non-actors, Ray’s lyrical representations of the life of the common man in his country changed the very notion of Indian cinema. Between them, the three films collected awards from all the world’s major festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

5. “A City of Sadness”, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan
The very human face of the White Terror campaign launched across Taiwan following the arrival of Kuomintang forces who had fled China following the civil war there. The focus is on the Lin family, each member of which suffers horribly at the hands of the authorities, and it includes a standout turn by Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as the deaf-mute brother fighting for justice – and some semblance of sanity amid the mayhem. It was the first film from Taiwan to win the Golden Bear at the Venice Film Festival.