2018 PYIFF Dailies: Celebrating Year To – Day 1
It occurred to me while kicking my heels for my connecting flight at the Beijing Intl. Airport (en route to the second edition of the Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Intl. Film Festival) and by way of a long jet-lagged stare at a vending machine, that language, travel and cinema are socio cultural resources par excellence. Mark Cousins is definitely onto something with his research findings.
Located within the walls of what is considered one of the best preserved ancient walled cities in China, the UNESCO World Heritage dwelling of Pingyao is steeped in the past and is stepping into the future. For nostalgia obsessed (one of IONCINEMA.com’s all-time favorites) Sixth Generation filmmaker Jia Zhangke and former Venice Film Festival (2004-2011) topper Marco Müller, this spearheaded initiative promotes the next wave of Chinese filmmakers while firmly promoting the film history. Nestled in what could be described as zone that is a wink to the old industrial age barracks, and while the converted retrofitted lieu, naming of buildings are solace friendly places for cinephiles while the sulfur-like air pollution is a sensorial reminder of the country’s industrial prowess.
After a late night shuttle drive from the Taiyuan (capital city of Shanxi province), I quickly transitioned from hotel lobby breakfast and first impressions of the lieu away from the walls (the hotel sideview fittingly reminded me of the quick of China’s transition from communism to massive overhaul) my first PYIFF press screening belongs to the lean programming offerings of select international films. Kazakh filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy was on hand along with his Cannes winning Best Actress Samal Yeslyamova to present his final cut of the Cannes comp preemed sophomore effort Ayka. Almost a full decade since he broke out in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section with Tulpan (Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon never sounded better) this unkind homage to Dardenne’s Rosetta is unrelenting and it posits, or rather, corners its heroine into a stance of surrender, but when you run on instincts somehow the insurmountable is not impossible.
Following that, Zhangke received Johnnie To for a brief convo (Mandarin into Cantonese into English) where they highlighted To’s work to date prior to presenting an oeuvre that proved to be a turning point in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s fruitful trajectory. The year was 2004, the Cannes Film Festival preemed Breaking News and soon to follow, Venice premiered a baby faced Louis Koo in triad genre-bender Judo-loving Throw Down — which was recently remastered and shown at the Far East Film Fest and coincidently marked year one of Müller’s tenureship.
