Award-winning films to be screened here
JAKARTA (JP): Taiwanese film Vive l'amour, which won the Golden Lion award for best picture at the Venice Film Festival September last year, is among the feature films being screened at the 40th Asia-Pacific Film Festival to open here tomorrow.
The film, the second production of 35-year-old director Tsai Ming-liang, is to compete with some 30 other films from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and Thailand at the festival which will end on July 26. Nominations for prizes will be announced tomorrow.
Vive l'amour depicts a winter night shared in a vacant Taipei apartment by three people: Hsiao-kang, a salesman of a burial service company, May, a real estate agent and Ah-jong, a street vendor selling clothes. With their characters representing the lower and middle class of Taiwan society, together they languish without hope in lives of frustration. The movie shows unhappy people who are constantly looking to others for comfort.
Malaysia-born director Tsai will attend the festival here with Vive l'amour's leading actress Yang Kuei-mei who interprets the character May.
A Maori story based on a best selling New Zealand novel by Alan Duff and translated by director Lee Tamahori into awards winning Once were warriors is another strong point of the festival involving 14 countries. The film has won more than 20 international awards including best film and best actress at the Montreal Film Festival and best first feature at the Venice Film Festival and best film of the year in the New Zealand Film Awards. It has been sold to more than 60 countries in the world. In its native New Zealand the film has earned about NZ$6.1 million, surpassing Jurassic Park which grossed NZ$5.7 million there.
The film tells the story of Beth Heke, played by actress Rena Owen, who is the victim of domestic violence but who discovers the strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved.
Once were warriors, which features realistic violence, will be screened free of charge at TIM 21 cinema at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta along with other participating films from July 22 to 25. Tickets are available at the secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Film festival at Jl. Menteng Raya 62A, Central Jakarta.
Hong Kong which is widely known as Asia's Hollywood will be represented by five films, including three action films: God of Gamblers II, Rumble in the Bronx and My Father is a Hero. The films feature Hong Kong stars such as Jackie Chan, Chow Yuen Fat, Tony Leung and Anita Mui who are not new faces to Indonesian audiences.
Korea is to be represented by four feature films, while Thailand has sent a horror film to the panel, which consists of seven members from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia.
Two dramas: Black Widow a Portrait of Ayu and Play Ground (Ringgit Kasorrga) are the movies of Malaysia. Black Widow is about Ayu, a stewardess, who always dreams about the deaths of her boyfriends, while Play Ground questions modern values which emphasize materialism.
Japan will present five feature films, the themes of which are that of a career woman and her struggle, a shogun story, a mystery about a sinking ship carrying plutonium, a friendship during World War II and a prostitute's life.
Australia has sent three films: Swinger directed by Gregor Jordan, Vacant Possession directed by Margot Nash and 50 Years of Silence directed by Ned Lander, Carol Ruff and James Bradley.
50 Years of Silence is about a comfort woman during World War II, a topic which is heatedly discussed nowadays. The film, which is also called The Story of Jan Ruff-O'Herne is about Jan Ruff- O'Herne, a young Dutch girl living in Java during World War II, who was forced to work as a comfort woman in a brothel for Japanese military officers. In real life she made later made world headlines by going public with this 50-year old secret. The film is in three languages, Dutch, Japanese and English, because it records three big episodes in Ruff-O'Herne's life: a colonial life in Java, through the war to a new start in England as a young bride and her migration, with her young family, to Australia.
Indonesia, the host has submitted four films Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang (Moon and Grass) directed by Garin Nugroho, Cemeng 2005 (The Last Primadonna) directed by N. Riantiarno, Sesal (Regret) directed by Sophan Sophiaan and Dewi Angin-angin (Goddess of the Wind) directed by Ackyl Anwari.
Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang is a new production of young Garin Nugroho who has won some prestigious awards in the past, including the top prize from Tokyo Film Festival last year for his second feature film Surat untuk Bidadari (Letter for an Angel). It is a psychological drama, depicting a love triangle between a traditional music composer, his wife and his pupil.
Cemeng 2005 which is another favorite to represent Indonesia at the festival besides Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang is a story of the survival of a traditional arts group during changing, modern times. (als)