Review of films nominated at Asia-Pacific festival

JAKARTA (JP): A lot of arguments colored the meetings of the panel of the 40th Asia-Pacific Film Festival before the seven judges finally announced the names of the five films nominated in Best Film category on Sunday.

"The meetings continued until midnight, there were really heated arguments on which films meet the requirements, which do not," said Boediardjo, head of the panel.

"From the competing 30 films, we chose 14 films first, and after that we chose five," said Boediardjo who was Indonesia's minister of information in 1968 to 1973.

The five films nominated are Turning Point of Japan, Hsiao Yu of Taiwan, Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang (And the Moon Dances) of Indonesia, The Last Tattoo of New Zealand and The Lovers of Hong Kong.

Another member of the panel, Jane Freebury told The Jakarta Post that she was impressed with the 30 competing films.

"Some of them have met international standards and some others are still developing," Freebury said.

Winner of the Best Film category will be announced tomorrow at the award-giving and closing ceremony at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Turning Point, a drama directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, centers on Yumiko, a newspaper reporter who writes an editorial criticizing a former prime minister. The story becomes complicated since there is a religious sect supporting the ruling government which takes her article as adverse criticism and attempts to get rid of her through a government official it controls. Yumiko later meets Masako Yanagi, an actress who is also a mistress of the ruling prime minister, who helps her.

Career woman

Played by actresses Sayuri Yoshinaga and Miki Fujitani, the film is about a career woman who has never retreated and who keeps on fighting.

Directed by former Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang, Hsiao Yu is the name of a girl who is an illegal immigrant in New York. To obtain American citizenship, Hsiao Yu (interpreted by young actress Liu Jo-yin) decides to marry Mario (played by Daniel J. Travananti), a desperate, aging, former radical journalist. She intends to divorce him after obtaining citizenship and then marry her boyfriend Giang Wei.

But things don't go according to plan. Mario abuses the girl and his ex-wife shows up and throws Hsiao Yu out of his apartment.

Discovering that his girlfriend is hurt, Giang Wei kills Mario. The story could have had a happy ending, but Hsiao Yu refuses to marry Giang Wei and painfully chooses independence over love.

It is no surprise to learn that one of the five nominated films is the third film of Indonesian director Garin Nugroho who is an award-winning filmmaker. Garin won no less than three international prizes, including the top prize from Tokyo Film festival last year, for his second film Surat untuk Bidadari (Letter for an Angel).

For his third film Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang (And the Moon Dances), as with his other films, Garin recruited a new actor and actress to interpret the main characters of his film. Twenty-five-year-old model Paquita Widjaya plays Bulan, former photographer of the defunct Tempo magazine Norman Wibowo plays Ilalang and Ki Soetarman plays Waluyu, Ilalang's and Bulan's music teacher.

Inspired by Javanese classical dance Bedhaya, Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang is a story of a love triangle.

"My film, as other films made by directors of my generation either in Indonesia or abroad, features loneliness in the modern age. If you see Vive l'amour of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming- liang, for example, you'll find the same perspective," Garin said.

Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang will be screened today at 7.45 p.m. at TIM 21 theater complex at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta.

The Last Tattoo directed by New Zealander John Reid is set in New Zealand during World War II, when thousands of American marines were based in the country awaiting their move to the Pacific.

The story tells of a nurse (played by Kerry Fox) who discovers a high level conspiracy while investigating a murder. At first she suspects a marine captain (Tony Goldwyn) but then they find both their lives are being threatened.

John Reid

The Last Tattoo has been sold to 15 countries and has won three New Zealand film awards.

Hong Kong's director Tsui Hark remade Sampek Engtay, a Chinese version of love story Romeo and Juliet, called The Lovers. The story of Sampek and Engtay was previously translated into a movie by another director and has also been staged in a play by Indonesian Teater Koma in Jakarta several years ago.

In this ageless story, Nicky Wi Chi Lung is Ying Toy whose marriage to a high ranking officer is arranged by her parents. Worried that his daughter lacks education, Ying Toy's father sends her to a college in a province where she later meets poor Shan Pak (played by Charlie Young) and falls in love.

But their love is not to be. It is time for Ying Toy to get married and she returns home. Smitten with Ying Toy, Shan Pak follows her and is unfortunately caught by her father, who beats him to death. Sorrowful, Ying Toy visits Shan Pak's grave after her wedding and, as the grave splits open, Ying Toy immediately leaps into the hole and joins Shan Pak in death. (als)