Following the announcement of the lineup for the 61st Festival de Cannes, one thing stuck out to me: where are the Japanese films? A year after Naomi Kawase took home the Grand Prix for The Mourning Forest, not a single Japanese film was selected for the Palme D’or, despite new films by such auteurs as Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata) and Hirokazu Koreeda (Still Walking), both of whom have previously been up for the major award. Asian cinema in general made out well with three films being selected for the Palme.
Socially conscious filmmaker Jia Zhangke returns to Cannes with 24 City, representing the sole major Chinese film playing at the fest in any category. This can be attributed primarily to China’s stringent censorship laws, which notably flared up in 2006 when Lou Ye’s Summer Palace screened in competition at the fest over objections by the Chinese government (the film was subsequently banned in the country). Zhangke’s latest continues his reflection on how China’s rapid development is eroding its past. The story, spanning 50 years, focuses on employees of a factory set to be demolished to make way for a skyscraper. The director’s Unknown Pleasures screened in competition at the fest in 2002.
My Magic by Taiwanese director Eric Khoo marks his first invitation to Cannes. The follow up to his critically acclaimed 2005 drama Be With Me, the film follows a real-life magician Francis Bosco as he tries to reconnect with his 14-year-old son despite a language barrier. Khoo shot the film on a shoe-string budget in only 8 days this past December – talk about a return on investment!
Phillipine stalwart Brillante Mendoza, who’s Foster Child screened in the Director’s Fortnight last year, steps up into the main event with Serbis rounding out the Asian flavor in the competition.
The city of Tokyo makes a splash in the Un Certain Regard program with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s highly buzzed about Tokyo Sonata and the Bong/Gondry/Carax omnibus Tokyo! both vying for glory. Kurosawa previously took home the FIPRESCI award in 2000 for Séance. On the non-Tokyo front, Taiwan’s Tin Che and China’s Yi Ban Haishui, Yi Ban Huoyan round out the Asian entries in the section.
Other Asian films screening at the fest are South Korea’s The Good, The Bad, And The Weird (Gala Premiere) and The Chaser (Midnight Screening), which has already been picked up by Warner Brothers for a US remake. Cannes’ favorite son Wong Kar-Wai will also make an appearance with the long-awaited recut of his seminal wushu epic Ashes of Time.
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