THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Asia on the riveria

Asia on the riveria

Few Asian films made it to Cannes this year but those that did delighted the audience

DESPITE SOUTH KOREAN director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” scoring the Palme d’Or at the just-ended Cannes Film Festival, Asia had an unusually poor showing at this year’s prestigious event, with very few Asian titles selected for screening.
Of the 21 films in the main competition and 18 in Un Certain Regard, only five Asian movies made it to the Cannes screens. Siebar sections like the Director’s Fortnight had three, while International Critics’ Weel had one, a Chinese production.

Asia on the riveria

In the latest film from the Myanmarborn Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z, Wu KeXi, who has starred in almost all Midi Z’s films plays Nina Wu, a young actress who fights to survive in the tough Taiwanese entertainment business.

One of those, which along with “Parasite” showed in the main competition, was “The Wild Goose Lake”, the fourth feature by Chinese filmmaker Diao Yinan whose 2014 oeuvre “Black Coal, Thin Ice” won the Golden Bear from Berlin International Film Festival.
The film, a Chinese-French co-production, marked Diao Yinan’s debut at Cannes and saw him again working with “Black Coal, Thin Ice” cast members, Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-Mei (“Blue Gate Crossing”) and Liao Fan (“Ash is Purest White”) alongside Chinese actor and singer Hu Ge and actress Regina Wan.
“When I chose the actors, I didn’t base myself on their physical appearance. You don’t need someone who looks like a gangster to play a gangster. It has far more to do with the acting ability of that person to become the character,” Diao Yinan told The Nation. 
“Actors can change their existence. In cinema, there are quite a number of actors who can play any kind of role with any kind of director. Take Alain Delon. He can play in an arthouse film or even a new wave or gangster film with credibility and ease. I’m very open,” Diao adds.

Asia on the riveria

In Diao Yinan’s latest film “The Wild Goose Lake”, Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-Mei plays Liu Alai, a sex worker in a town near the lake who is sent to help Zenong, a gangster on the run. 

In “The Wild Goose Lake”, Hu Ge plays Zhou Zenong, a gangster who comes to meet with Alai (Gwei Lun-Mei), the bathing beauty (aka prostitute) sent by his wife to help him. Zenong killed a policeman. He is injured and has to find a place to hide from Liu, the policeman who is hot on his tracks. 
“In my film, I don’t consider that I have a message to convey. I simply try to show all the facts so that each spectator can enjoy his or her own experience when watching the film,” says Diao Yinan, who describes the film as a crime noir that shows the underground world of China.

Asia on the riveria

Actor-turned-director Zu Feng, whose first feature was selected for Cannes, also portrays the main character in the film ABin, a policeman who becomes involved with a strange murder case when a fisherman finds a human arm floating in the river.

“I was very happy to work again with director Diao,” says Liao Fan who won a Silver Bear for Best Actor for “Black Coal, Thin Ice” from Berlin in 2014. “In the film, I play the character of the inspector, just as I did in “Black Coal, Thin Ice”. However, the two films have a very different style. In “The Wild Goose Lake”, the characters speak in the local dialect of Wuhan.” 
For the Mandarin-speaking actors, getting the dialect right meant a long stay in Wuhan. “Gwei Lun-Mei was in Wuhan for two months before I arrived. I also went to police station to see how they work and live,” says Liao.
“When I observed the local police station, I chose one policeman there as my model. That helped me understand my role in the film. I didn’t have much knowledge of the local dialect but thanks to this period of observation, I was able to learn more than just the way of speaking,” he adds. 
“We thought about shooting the film in Guangdong in Southern China. We wanted to find a place with lakes and a city nearby. Finally we found a place in the north, in Yinchuan where there is a lake though it is not so close to the town. Then we came up with the idea of shooting the film in the area that’s home to the highest number of lakes in China, which is near Wuhan. That’s why the actors had to learn the local dialect,” Diao Yinan explains. 

Asia on the riveria

Despite being selected by the most prestigious film festival in the world, “Summer of Changsha” faced problems with Chinese censorship and the producers were forced to pull the film from the festival. It did eventually screen but without any formal presentation.

Two Chinese-language films were selected for Un Certain Regard. One of them “Nina Wu” is the latest movie from Myanmar-born Taiwanese |film director Midi Z, and is the first |of his works that is not about Myanmar. The story is set in Taiwan and is about the country’s entertainment. His usual collaborator, actress Wu Ke-Xi plays Nina Wu, a young woman whose family is in debt. She is trying hard to become an actress, but the path is not easy and the more successful she becomes, the higher the price she has to pay. “Nina Wu” will open the Taipei Film Festival later this month. 
The second Chinese film in Un Certain Regard has not been so lucky. Actor-turned-film director Zu Feng’s first feature film “Summer of Changsha” is a crime-drama about a policeman who is investigating the case of a body that’s been mutilated and thrown into the river. Rumours indicated that the film had problems with Chinese censors forcing the producer pull it out of the festival resulting in Zu Feng cancelling his trip to Cannes. 
Although the film was eventually screened at the festival, no member of cast or crew was on hand to present it. Again the rumour mill was rife, with speculation that some of the cast were already in Cannes but couldn’t show up at the screening. After Cannes, it is difficult to know where and when this film will play next – or, of course, even if it will.

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