◆ Stills from the Thai movie "The Kiss of Medusa"
◆ Poster of the Iranian movie "My Sophomore Life"
◆ Stills from the Indian movie "The Legend of Nissankana Savitri"
◆Japanese movies
Stills from "Cat and Grandpa"
◆ Stills from the Japanese movie "Bibria Koshudo Incident Hand post"
Reporter Of this newspaper, Tong Weijing
In recent years, Asian films have performed exceptionally well in the world film system. China and Japan ranked second and third largest box office markets in the world, Indian film production ranked among the top in the world, South Korea's mature and perfect film industry, Iran and other countries' art films all attracted the world's attention to Asian films. Asian films, represented by China, Japan, South Korea, India and Iran, are profoundly influencing and changing the world film landscape. At the same time, the film art and film markets of Thailand, Indonesia, Israel, Singapore and other countries have also entered the fast lane of development, jointly creating a unique "Asian coordinate" on the world film map.
Filmmakers from Asia are using the big screen to tell the legends, myths, stories and cultures of their respective nationalities, and together weave a brilliant picture of Asian cinema. In the course of thousands of years of human development, the people of Asia have created countless brilliant achievements, and various civilizations have reflected each other in this land, composing a magnificent development epic. The unique historical memory and cultural characteristics have become an important symbol of Asian cinema in terms of ideology and artistry. It can be said that the films of each Asian country exude unique artistic characteristics and cultural charm.
The Shanghai International Film Festival has always been committed to promoting the dissemination and exchange of Asian film civilizations, and in 2018, it launched the "Group Portraits of Contemporary Asian Authors" unit, which spied on how individual writing presents the Asian world. This year, the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival will continue its focus on Asian cinema, selecting other works from the history of Asian cinema over a larger time span and launching a special curated unit of "Asian Legends and Reality", in which legend and reality echo and show the dialogue between sexual spirit and worldliness. At the same time, the Shanghai International Film Festival also launched an exclusive screening section of Indonesian, Iranian, Thai, Japanese and Indian films through the continuous expansion of the exhibition platform and cooperation space, leading the audience to gain an in-depth understanding of Asian civilization and feel the cultural diversity shown by this "coordinate".
【South Asia】
The "dark horse of the film industry" represented by India is looking for new artistic expressions
As one of the most representative countries in South Asia, India has always been a country full of cultural associations. When it comes to Indian cinema, many people will immediately think of the "Bollywood" with songs and dances and the legend of contemporary Indian cinema - Amir Khan, who is also a choreographer, director and actor.
In fact, today's India is not only the world's largest film producer, but the Indian film box office is also growing at a rate of more than 10% per year, and the strength of the "fourth largest box office in the world" should not be underestimated. In addition to Bollywood, this year's Shanghai International Film Festival also prepares some less "Bollywood" Indian films for audiences, which show the artistic height of contemporary Indian cinema in an all-round way.
Let's start with two biographical films. The Legend of Nissankana Savitri is a biopic by a legendary Indian actress who has appeared in more than two hundred films. At the time of Savitri's death in her later years, the reporter began to review her life, from her childhood growth and film achievements to complex and bumpy emotional experiences and family life, comprehensively presenting the bumpy experience of India's "first actress". There is also "The Biography of Mundot", which was shortlisted for the "One Kind of Attention" section of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, which restores the real life of the famous Indian novelist Sadat Hassan Mando and its controversial side with a unique perspective.
The comedy "Circle Diagram", which tells about the "old drama bone Bollywood", is also remarkable. A long-retired elderly actor has a sudden desire to return to the film and television circle to achieve his life achievement of starring in 500 movies, but finds that Bollywood is not yesterday. The film is a typical misplaced comedy, putting the protagonist in an inappropriate situation and producing laughter through various contradictions. The lead actor, Sanjay Mirush, is a respected veteran actor in India who has been playing supporting roles for many years, and he presents this conceited and humorous old man in his true colors.
Indian cinema, full of realism, never shy away from exploring local social issues. The comedy "ExoticIsm" uses the story of a football club to present the indifferent relationship of contemporary Indian families in a clever and witty way, while also taking into account ethnic conflicts and international refugee issues. At the Venice Film Festival's stunning Tabad, the film's story is based on word-of-mouth folk tales, the script spanning more than a decade and the manuscript is more than 700 pages long, combining local myths, contemporary Indian history and values of good and evil, telling a fantasy fable where fear and hope coexist.
In terms of artistic expression, Indian cinema is constantly looking for new perspectives and techniques in addition to song and dance films. The horror film "Demon" is the first fully subjective perspective film in the history of Indian cinema, that is, from beginning to end, the camera point of view is used to replace the protagonist's perspective, and the audience seems to live in that strange madhouse like the protagonist. "Am I Strange" uses a romantic, interesting and authentic approach, borrowing the eyes of Indian high school students, taking the audience to see the contemporary civic life of Mumbai and the attitude of Young Indians. There is also the dreamlike "Firefly", Indian director Sengupta cleverly uses light and shadow, depth of field, oil-like composition and metaphorical objects to build a "dream within a dream" in the form of a film.
【Southeast Asia】
Those symbols of tradition, mythology and folklore have become the deep imprint of the film
One of the main characteristics of Asian films in the picture is the focus and display of geography, environment and national customs, thus showing unique natural scenery and cultural characteristics. With the progress and development of Asian cinema in recent years, filmmakers have explored cultural symbols more deeply.
Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia... Southeast Asia on the silver screen has long surpassed coconut groves, islands, and warm sunshine, especially in Thai and Indonesian films that have achieved great success in the field of commercial and art films, showing audiences how they combine tradition and modernity, myth and reality, past and present, freshness and horror, warmth and cold into a refreshing "island drink".
Indonesian director Lailai Leisa has a strong sense of locality and has always been committed to telling local stories with the natural scenery of southeast Indonesia. The "Humbach Dream" unveiled in the "Global Village Indonesia" section is an image memory of The Land by Lesa. The film is close to life in the image texture, creating a charming parallel time and space between reality and dreams, and rediscovering the inheritance of folk culture and the confirmation of self-identity through the encounters with strangers on the way of travel of college student Martin.
The Thai film "The Kiss of Medusa" uses the horror genre to show the contrast of the love theme, which is amazing. Screenwriter Chukia Saviraku specializes in youth themes, based on Thai horror elements, skillfully weaving the "flying head" elements of Southeast Asian folklore with reality, composing a thrilling and poignant love triangle. Similarly, the Thai film "Manta Ray", which won the Grand Prix in the Horizon section of the 2018 Venice Film Festival, and the Indonesian film "Dancing with the Devil", combine mysterious elements with scenes of everyday life to bring a doubly thrilling effect.
The Malaysian fantasy film "Year without Summer" stitches time and space with legends, full moon islands and mysterious legends, and the green sea and green forests intertwine trivial life, which will be nothing
The nostalgia of Nai Ho is telling
Come on; the Filipino ethical theme "Your Womb" observes tribal life under the shroud of tradition in the wonders of reality; "Indonesia on the Tip of the Tongue" tells the emotional story of men and women from the perspective of fieldwork. The film has a rich display of Indonesian street food, and four people with different personalities exchange opinions between tastings to taste life, making the food journey also delicate and complicated. Thai female director Ponsoi Akson sawang's semi-autobiographical feature film debut "River of Paradise", combined with thai customs and concepts, extracts traditional narrative techniques, connects real family documentary images, photos, and even telephone recordings with fabricated plots, and memory and imagination are corroborated by real and virtual double-sided mirrors, and the love and thoughts for his mother are released in a humorous way... Although the genres vary, it is not difficult to find that the symbols of antiquity, traditions, myths and folklore have become a deep imprint of Southeast Asian cinema, colliding with the times to create a wonderful spark.
【West Asia】
Iranian films, flowing with the usual delicacy and tenderness
Iran has always been a powerhouse in art films, where the master Abbas was born, and there are also a number of "rising stars" in the international film world such as Asha Farhati and Jafar Panahi. No matter how noisy and restless the external film world is, Iranian cinema has always insisted on exploring in the field of art cinema, showing delicate and rustic characteristics.
This year's Shanghai International Film Festival will screen six new Iranian films with different themes. Some reflect the campus life of Iranian female college students and the situation they face, some face the fragile family relationship of the Iranian middle class, some pay attention to the late life of Iran's empty nest elderly, and more rarely focus on Iranian female athletes. These new films invariably choose to use the prism of art to focus on the real problems and real dilemmas of contemporary Iranian society. Artists use cold and serious brushwork to express the tenderness and care of the heart.
Aphrodite is the coach of the Iranian futsal women's soccer team, and thanks to her and the team's joint efforts, the Iranian team finally played in the Asian Cup. Just as she was preparing to go to Malaysia to compete, she found that her husband was ready to use his legal rights to ban her from going abroad... The film "Cold Sweat", which rarely focuses on Iranian female athletes and connects their family problems and unfair circumstances, shined at the 2018 Dawning International Film Festival, winning three awards: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Editing.
The film "Love Is Born Again" focuses on the later life of the empty nest elderly in Iran. The sons of an elderly couple settled abroad, and they lived a lonely but self-sufficient life until the news of their son's death one day broke the calm. The wish to go to a nursing home is no longer possible, and they have to put away their mournful emotions and take care of their infant granddaughter. The main characters in the film are only the elderly and infants, and the director shows the audience this forgotten group through this extreme situation.
"My Sophomore Life" is the return of Iranian director Sadrameri after a gap of nine years, and truly reflects the campus life of contemporary Iranian female university students and the unique dilemmas they face. In the play, Matab and Ava are good university classmates, taking advantage of the opportunity of the school to organize a trip to other provinces, Matab insists on going with the two, but unexpectedly, Ava suddenly fell seriously ill on the way and became a vegetative person. Under the triple pressure of Ava's parents, school teachers and students, and herself, how can Matab continue to live in college?
When five-year-old Emir was lost in the desert and his parents retrieved him, he told his father that he had been peeked at and that he wanted to find the man who had molested his son. The film "Dark Room" uses cold lenses and sobering stories to cut through a corner of Tehran society, focusing on the fragile family relations of the Iranian middle class, showing the realism of Iranian cinema.
【East Asia】
Keen on ip derivative development in Japan, shaping popular culture through movies
Since the 1950s, Japanese cinema has established a huge influence in the world film industry. Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" became a blockbuster, and Japanese movies have since gone global. In the daily life of Yasujiro Ozu, there are basic human nature and emotions; Oshima Nagisa's avant-garde lens can not hide sharpness and loneliness; it is Kore-eda who narrates daily emotions with bland images; Kitano Takeshi's film language humor, madness and innocence; Iwai Shunji has delicate and beautiful and sad youth shots... These landmark directors have injected different artistic styles into Japanese cinema.
Every year, new Japanese films screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival are the focus of attention for fans and fans, and many of the hottest films are often hard to find. This year's film festival not only brings japanese film history masterpieces such as "The Story of Injiro" and "Tokyo Story" in the "4K Restoration" section, but also specially features two special sections of "Japan Film Week" and "Neon Pictures" to maximize the variety of contemporary Japanese films.
Film adaptations of novels, manga, dramas, and well-known IPs are the biggest features of this year's Japanese film list. Movies such as "Pibria Ancient Book Hall Incident Hand Post", "Neighbor Cohabitation 2", "Cat and Grandpa", "Chaotic Reflex", "Sleepy Pan yin", "Deceiving the World" and other movies are derivative development products of IP, covering a variety of themes such as reasoning, campus love, adventure, and blood inspiration. With a strong fan base of "scripts", a strong sense of manga film rhythm, coupled with a group of idol stars with good acting skills - the exploration of popular themes, Japanese movies can be described as familiar with it.
"Alive is Love" is adapted from the love novel of the same name by writer Naoko Motoya, who won both the Wasagawa Prize and the Mishima Yukio Award, depicting the feelings and life between the heroine with narcolepsy and her boyfriend. Starring is the well-known actor Toyo Mizutani's daughter Funari and the popular strength of the little student Sugata Shoki, the two contributed amazing acting skills in the film, the painful and living "as" heroine and the unconditional boyfriend to play vividly, Funi also won the Japan Academy Award for Newcomer Actor Award for this film.
The wind blew and blew down a tree on the side of the road, and the tree hit a stroller, causing the child to be injured, and the child was taken to the nearest hospital, but died because he had not been treated for a long time. Was this a simple accident or a man-made tragedy? The father of the child, a journalist, launched his investigation. "Chaotic Reflex" is based on the novel of the same name by well-known mystery writer Tokuro Kanai, who won the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award, and is co-starring his wife Satoshi Mu and Masayoshi Inoue. The film perfectly reproduces the meticulous reasoning process of the original work, and in addition to the wonderful, it also makes a profound criticism of human nature, which can be called a masterpiece.
Corresponding to East Asia's rapid economic growth is the extraordinary desire for emotions of people living in the "urban jungle". "Cat and Grandpa" is such a healing movie. Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, the work tells a warm story between a grandfather who lives on an island and his cat, as well as the surrounding neighbors. Filmed on Sakushima, Japan's famous "cat island", the film features 35 cats and is filled with a variety of warm images of humans interacting with cats.