The 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival will open tomorrow. From "Plums In the Rain" to "Midsummer Night's Dream", good movies are still there.
The "4K Restoration" unit starts from the exemplary text of film history and restores the classics that make fans unforgettable with the latest research and technology
Revelation Now (1979)
In my limited understanding, the first thing that many viewers want to see this year is a film that has been shortlisted for the Golden Jubilee Competition. Although the final judging and awards have been cancelled this year, the fact that the "shortlisted films" themselves are fully respected is enough to comfort a considerable number of award fans. Japanese director Shuichi Okita, who nearly turned the Shanghai International Film Festival into the "Okita Shuichi Film Festival" (every work of the director from his debut to the present has been screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and perhaps also become a record), the latest work "Children Don't Want to Understand" focuses on a pair of high school students before the summer vacation, which seems to be a continuation of the director's past works focusing on the shining and secret life of the proto characters; from "Antarctic Chef", "Yokomichi Seinosuke" to "Mohican Back to His Hometown", Shuichi Okita's silent and life-motivated video narrative has finally been recognized by the Golden Jubilee Competition, and for me as a Okita fan, it is undoubtedly the most exciting news for this year's film festival.
A considerable part of my own wish list comes from the signature section of the Shanghai International Film Festival in recent years, "4K Restoration". As a unit focusing on the restoration of the world's latest classic films, it is an important function of this unit to present the latest film history research and text restoration techniques and concepts to the audience starting from the exemplary text of film history. This year, as the highlight of the "classic restoration of the film", is the director Sang Arc's 1956 classic work "Blessing", which is adapted to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Lu Xun's death, which brings together sang arc, Xia Yan, Bai Yang and other most heavyweight choreographers, directors and actors in the Chinese film industry at that time. This unit contains two Zhang Guorong film restorations, it is worth mentioning that Yu Rentai's 1993 "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", whether in the film sequence of Rentai or Zhang Guorong, this magnificent style film surrounded by cold colors from beginning to end, quite cult martial arts temperament, is underestimated, in the stylized expression, the actors in the peak period adapted to the upgraded lens with magnificent exaggeration, showing a basically completely reconstructed jianghu, which has a specific meaning for the Hong Kong film market that was already booming and declining at that time.
Humpback City (2003)
This year, the 4K unit also brings together two outstanding anti-Vietnam war films in the history of new Hollywood films, "Apocalypse Now" and "Deer Hunter", which can be re-watched in the current increasingly chaotic international environment, and seems to be able to smell different meanings. It is worth mentioning that "Apocalypse Now" with a final editing version of 183 minutes plus the "4K repair + Dolby Vision" configuration, restores several shocking scenes in the film that have gone down in history, which is quite attractive to watch. In addition, the 4K restoration also includes a number of relatively unpopular countries or directors, such as Alfred Reddor's anti-fascist work "The Distant Journey", which was rooted in his world war II upbringing, and the Thai film "Black Silk", which was nominated for the 11th Berlin Golden Bear Award.
This year's festival will also screen two films written by Japan's internationally renowned master director Kanehito Shinto, "The Beast of Tranquility" and "Tattoo". The former is directed by the high-volume genre film Yuzo Kawashima, and the latter is directed by Yasuzo Masumura, a representative of the Japanese New Wave, and the significance of the exhibition of these two works may be more to break the closed loop of "Kokuro Guzo" (Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, kenji Mizoguchi) that was difficult to jump out of in previous years of Japanese classic film screenings, and to take a relatively comprehensive step to show the best works of Japanese film history.
In addition, the film history masterpieces scattered in units such as "Midnight Surprise" and "Film History Recommendation" are also worthy of attention, and South Korean director Kim Ki-yong's 1960s horror classic "The Next Girl" and Kobayashi Masaki's first masterpiece "Cut Belly", which won the Cannes Jury Prize, which was screened at the Japanese Film Festival last year, are the first choices that fans of films in East Asian countries cannot miss. There may be no need to repeat works such as Akira Kurosawa's "Scandal" and Ozu Yasujiro's "Only Child" in this exhibition.
The Distant Journey (1950)
Fellini's ten representative works are screened in a concentrated manner, condensing the essence of the director's life that created the cinematic mystery in the middle and late stages of the last century
Every year, the Shanghai International Film Festival pays tribute to the master of film history, this year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the master Fellini, the organizing committee selected ten of his representative works for screening, the middle and late stage of the last century to create the film mystery of the director's life condensed essence, including the early masterpieces "Sweet Life", "Eight and a Half Parts", "Amacord", etc., as well as "Interview", "Moon Yin" and other later works. It is recommended that his "Roman Style Painting", filmed in 1972, is like a flowing flying machine, sliding through the streets of the ancient city of Rome, flowing out of the screen in a way that both nature and fantasy the city dreams of today and the past are, which is Fellini's passionate praise for the city and a tour of the psychological logic inherent in his film style.
Director Wu Yigong, who died last year, as the founding father of the Shanghai International Film Festival, has left a small number of iconic works in the "fourth generation" director array and the sequence of works in the history of Chinese cinema in the new era. This tribute session screened two of the most classic masterpieces directed by Wu Yigong, "Old Things in Seongnam" and "Que Li Renjia", and completed the final farewell to Director Wu with the help of the film festival. Filmed in the 1990s, "Que Li Ren Jia" may be more representative of Wu Yigong's profound ability to grasp reality, this work focusing on the intergenerational differences of traditional Confucian descendants in the change of the times, almost perfectly integrates the observation of the big times, the re-examination of the ethics of family affection, and the itch of the spiritual transformation of microscopic individuals.
The Adventure (1960)
This year is also the 90th anniversary of the birth and death of French New Wave master Claude Chabrol, and this tribute film list has expanded from two previous screenings, including the blockbuster directorial debut "Pretty Sail Day", the crime film classic "Cold Sacrifice" and the adaptation of Flaubert's famous "Madame Bovary" and other four works spanning time from the 1950s to the 90s, born from "author films" and able to navigate in various genres. It is worth being re-recognized and studied. In the four films in the "Tribute to Kitano Takeshi" unit, including "Sonata" and "Dolls", private individuals prefer the realist legend "Humpback City" cooperated by Takeshi Kitano and Tadanobu Asano, the "God of Acting", showing the blind humpback city that has been repeatedly shown by filmmakers before with a rather calm and cold humor, and showing the reality of the Japanese era in the guise of genre films, which is also the common feature of many of Kitano Takeshi's works, violence, humor, warmth and coldness, unpredictable but easy to move people's hearts. Also honored by japanese filmmakers is a generation of animation ghost Toshi Imamoto, who screened three masterpieces of "Millennium Actress", "Tokyo Godfather" and "Red Hot Chili Peppers", leading the audience to be lost in the trap of time and space created by Imatoshi. Imatoshi, who has made active attempts in the science fiction genre and the form of drama within a play, shuttles under the genre cloak of different films, uncovering the deep and unfathomable emotions and alienations of the current human spirit compressed by time and space. Ten years ago, in August, Imatoshi died young, and this tribute is a timely time.
While paying tribute to the heavy individual masters, in the "100th Anniversary of Shochiku Painting" unit, in addition to the above-mentioned works such as "Scandal" and "Only Son", it also includes Nomura Yoshitaro's adaptation of Matsumoto Kiyoharu's masterpiece "The Instrument of Sand", and the old version of "Kasumiyama Seikaku" directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, which fully presents the miracle of film history created by Shochiku Corporation, a century-old manufacturer that has experienced almost all important eras in the history of Japanese cinema. The "Samsung Pictures" section, which also focuses on the company's "Samsung Pictures", focuses on a number of Hollywood masterpieces produced by the Colombian subsidiary in the 1980s and 1990s, including "The Glorious Battle" starring Denzel Washington, "The End of the World" directed by the film Deconstructing Saint Terry Gilliam, the love classic "Seattle Sleepless" starring Tom Hanks, and Jack Nicholson's 1990s masterpiece "The Perfect Perfection". It represents the nostalgia for the heartbeat of an era of gradual accumulation of movie-watching experience towards the fantasy of movie dreamworks. This list includes names that appeared in the recommended list of various "must-see movies of a lifetime" that year. The "Film History Recommendation" section traces the history of world cinema, showing "All the Way to the East", which is rare for a generation of grandmaster Griffiths, the classic masterpiece "The Earth" by Du Furenko, a representative of the Soviet school, Chaplin's World War II classic "The Great Dictator", and the early feature film "Elephant Man" by brain-burning master David Lynch, covering from the early film history to the modern wave. Antonioni's "Adventure" in the film list is quite attractive to the big screen, and the crowd in the film pursues the vast cliffs of the disappearing characters, bringing the audience into the "Waiting for Godot"-style nihilism, and also beginning a new era of modern cinema, which is evident in the weight of this unit.
Stills from the movie "Tattoo" directed by Yasuzo Masomura, a representative of the Japanese New Wave
In the past year, the most representative heavyweight works in the global film industry have been unveiled, and a considerable number of films that are not first-line directors are the most likely to become relics
In the new films screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival every year, in addition to the shortlisted competition films, the annual masterpieces of the world presented in various theme units are a large part of the attention of all new and old film fans. In the past, in units such as the "Belt and Road", it is often possible to see the best quality works in the past year in countries such as Kazakhstan, which have been easily ignored by the audience, and this year's new films in various countries, in addition to the feature films produced by traditional film powers, there are still good pure documentary works and quality new works from many countries, including Thailand, India, the Philippines, Chile and other countries.
The two documentaries that belong to the "SIFF Rhapsody" section related to the film itself are quite recommended, one is "Making Sound Effects: The Art of Film Sound", which focuses on film sound, and the other is "Kubrick on Kubrick", which is based on interviews with director Kubrick himself. At the same time, the 960-minute British documentary "Female Filmmakers", directed by Mark Kazens, author of "Film History" and documentary director of the same name, pays attention to female directors in the world film range without involving gender antagonism, and cuts into the rethinking of key issues in film from the perspective of female filmmakers.
In the single country thematic units such as "Focus on Germany" and "Neon Pictures" and the mixed national theme units such as "Kaleidoscope" and "Famous Director's New Works", the most representative heavyweight works in the global film industry in the past year are concentrated, and from the perspective of the film list of the entire film festival, this batch of works is relatively lacking in prominent topicality and is often omitted by the audience, of which a considerable number of films that are not first-line directors are most likely to become relics.
Philippine director Mandoza's "Mindanao", Herzog's new film "Family Romance Co., Ltd.", one of the four masters of New German cinema, the multinational production "Truth" by Kore-eda, and the late Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi's final work "Cinema by the Sea", undoubtedly belong to the first echelon of the above. German Mesozoic director Christian Petzold, who has directed "Immortal Bird" and "Barbara", has made the new Berlin-style film "Wendyne", Singaporean director Chen Zheyi's new film "Tropical Rain", and the new work "#All-Out Handball" by Japanese post-85 director Daigo Matsui, which combines a highly interactive film/drama style with an experimental style of film/drama, are undoubtedly the second echelon worth looking forward to. In recent years, Daigo Matsui has tried to break the boundary between drama and film as much as possible in "Ice Cream and the Sound of Rain" and "You Are You", so that the characters in the film actively participate in the organic construction of the overall plot, and the new work focuses on the Internet celebrity journey of Kumamoto High School students, which is quite difficult to imagine how it will be presented.
Stills from the film Madame Bovary, directed by French New Wave general Claude Chabrol
Philippine director Adolfo Alex Jr. was nominated for "A Kind of Attention" at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 for "Death March", and at the end of last year, the new work "About" tells the story of the legendary producer of the Philippine film industry who is about to celebrate his 100th birthday and hopes to reunite with his former colleagues and find the unfinished film of the year. The film's brushstrokes are not alarming, and it is a surprise starring Anita Linda, who is known as "even a wrinkle can act", has been nominated for the Philippine "Oscar" actress award eight times since the 1950s and won two supporting actress awards, and is also a national treasure of the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. The new work "Time Machine" directed by Nawapong Tanrong Guatanali, the director of the 2017 phenomenon-based Thai film "Death in Tomorrow", will also be unveiled at the festival, and the film will explain the meaning of "breaking away" with a rather clever angle, while also basing itself on the screen aesthetics of contemporary Thai films. Angolan director Faradik's "Air Conditioning" received considerable word-of-mouth at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year, as a pureLy African film, while combining many elements such as the new realistic tradition of film history, postmodern film grammar and national fable hunting, becoming a strange text that is even enough to penetrate the urban space of China and the West. The Southeast Asian, South American and African films represented by these films, which are rarely paid attention to by fans of ordinary Chinese mainland, undertake the function of expanding the audience's horizons, but also quietly reshape the stereotype of these unfamiliar countries.
The domestic small-budget film "Back to The South", which was shortlisted for the "Bright Future" section of the Rotterdam Film Festival and was also shortlisted for the main competition unit of this year's FIRST Film Festival, is portrayed in a rather surprising atmosphere, presenting the spiritual state of contemporary youth, and completing the narrative in a more obvious "materialization" metaphor, which may not be a perfect work, but it shows one of the diverse possibilities of young Chinese directors. Li Yunbo, the director who once directed the interested "Normal Breathing", has been grinding a sword for several years, "Partial Martial Arts" "NoBody", which is also one of the works I personally look forward to most in this film festival, the Gulong/Kurosawa Akira-style narrative mode, how to play a new trick in the hands of a film critic who is good at doing dojos in the shell of a snail, although he has not yet been able to get a glimpse of the true face of Lushan, curiosity has been rotten.
Stills from the Berlin-clad posthumous work "Wendyne" directed by German Mesozoic power director Christian Petzold
These two works and a series of domestic literary/commercial types of production represented by this are quite numerous at this Shanghai International Film Festival, and the themes are different, and the performance methods are different, and they are not as complete as the Hollywood commercial productions that will be released at this film festival, such as "1917" and "Harry Potter", which also have a complete industrial foundation, but they can still let the audience more deeply appreciate the difficulty of Chinese filmmakers' intentions, to some extent, this is also the significance of watching the local international A-class film festival in Shanghai. Be able to understand the most real situation of domestic films, especially non-mainstream commercial small-budget films.
(The author of Lonely Island is a doctor of theater and film and television, film critic)