Claus Mueller

Ranked among the best New York film festivals, the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is characterized by a superbly curated selection of classic and new popular productions from Asia. Held from July 15-31, 2022, at Lincoln Center and the Asia Society, NYAFF celebrated its 20^th edition. NYAFF started in in Chinatown with martial arts films, moved its program to the Anthology Film Archives in 2002 under the Asian Films are Go! Name, and relocated to Lincoln Center as its main venue in 2020. NYAFF has maintained and grown as the most popular film festival presenting Asian films and is now the largest Asian film festival in the United States. This year it received more than 15,000 admissions. NYAFF has maintained its focus on successful films from Asian countries in all genres. The Vanguard section centered on original films which transcend formalistic and narrative conventions, but the festival is not guided by aesthetic and Avant Garde criteria. The diversity of outstanding films present cultures, experiences, and storytelling exemplifying the festival’s philosophy. As Samuel Jamier, the executive director of NYAFF and president of the New York Asian Film Foundation stated in his introduction to the 2022 edition, “Now is the time to remind ourselves; the festival is not a flag-waving operation; what matters is not so much the countries the films come from as the stories, and what the films have to tell us about what makes us different from one another and what makes us the same”. Though NYAFF returned in 2022 to fully in-theater screenings, it drew the largest audience it ever had. The next decade will see more program changes. The trade press reported that Samuel Jamier is considering adding an Asian film market responding to the growth of the Asian American population, now amounting to more than 24 million. In the United States there is no film market specializing in productions from Asian countries.

NYAFF had 55 features from 11 Asian countries in its program and one from the US, in addition ten short films were in the narrative showcase. The comprehensive program featured  seven award session, six masterclasses and talks, A Fight Cancer night, the culture and food oriented Matsuri to Midnight event including Japanese films from the program, and the Night Market. The program was organized in a thoughtful manner. Beside checking on  Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing films, festival attendees were able to experience Crowd Pleasers, Genre Masters, Next/Now (emerging voices) Beyond Borders, Frontlines (marginalized communities), Standouts, Vanguards, Uncaged Award (original film requiring international attention), 25^th Anniversary Program (Hong Kong classic) Josie Ho Tribute, Asian American Focus, and Bright Future (narrative shorts).

As in past editions, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan provided most of the films with 14, 13, and 8 entries. China and Taiwan were present with 6 films each and the Philippines with two productions. Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand, and the USA had one film each in the program. While the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office has been a longtime supporter of NYAFF as well as the Korean Cultural Center, CineCina Film Festival joined them in co-sponsoring selections from China. In line with the NYAFF programming approach, audiences will probably have the opportunity to view more films from China next year.

Premiering in North America in July at NYAFF, the sophisticated 2022 crime story CONFESSION by Korean director Yoon Jong-seok presents an interpretation of Oriol Paulo’s Spanish film, the Invisible Guest, and transforms the crime story into a production with strong film noir overtones. A high powered married executive, Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-sub), is found in a hotel room with the dead body of his mistress, surrounded by banknotes. He claims innocence but there are no traces of another person in the room. He hires a defense attorney, Yang Shin-ae (Kim Yun-jiin), to prove that he is not guilty. Hus connections help him get parole, spending his time in a countryside cabin until his trial. Flashbacks are used to reconstruct the executive’s story with the attorney offering alternative scenarios to the executive’s own narration. Numerous other actors support the sometimes-confusing flashbacks for the audience. The rapidly evolving and sometimes meandering plot twists and subplots engage the audience in a cognitively demanding journey. Yoon firmly plants the thriller on the exchanges between the attorney, the executive, and deconstructing the upper-class male and his pretense. The film has superb cinematography. Any audience should watch the film twice to understand the exchanges and twists of the story.

Screened first at the Osaka Asian Film Festival, the 2021 feature THE SALES GIRL by Mongolian director Janchivdorj Sengedorj premiered in North America at the New York Asian Film Festival in July 2022. Selected for NYAFF’s Uncaged Competition focusing on 8 features by directors deserving more international attention. THE SALES GIRL was selected as the best film in the group. This well-deserved credit is due in part to the director Sengedorj being one of the most innovative Mongolian film makers. Sengedorj has directed four other films since 2010.  Bayartsetseg Bayangerel, in her role as the sales girl Saruul delivers a superb performance in her first film and deserves as much acclaim as the director. For the American and European audience, this Mongolian film further enhances the reputation of Mongolia’s film industry. After the 1990 democratic revolution, productions moved from state run film studios to private and independent film companies.  Between 1992 and 1997 more than 20 private film companies were established and produced about one hundred films. Among the best known is the acclaimed “Story of the Weeping Camel” nominated in 2003 for the academy award as best foreign documentary. Films from Mongolia have received many awards from festivals in Asia. Though relatively unknown in Western countries, Mongolian filmmaking goes back to the 1930s when the first independent film was produced. A new film law was passed last year  which offers reimbursements and credits for the production and post-production of films in Mongolia, ranging from location expenses, employment of Mongolian staff, to content with Mongolian themes. 

From any perspective, THE SALES GIRL is an outstanding production. There is the acting performance of Saruul accidentally accepting a clerk’s job in a well-stocked sex shop in Mongolia’s capital. She is a young, subdued, and shy student studying nuclear engineering as requested by her parents. She adapts, without hesitation, to a world totally alien to her. The script has no flaws, and the cinematography is perfectly framed. In the narration, there are no superfluous moments, and the realism of comedic moments prevails. Saruul spikes her parents’ tea with Viagra to invigorate their dormant activity and gives the same pill to her boyfriend’s sleepy dog to energize him. The same holds for her failing self-stimulating attempt with toys from the sex shop. Maintaining total secrecy, she deals with all kinds of customers, including her elderly female teacher, no matter how strange their requests for pleasure enhancers are.  Saruul is in a transitory adolescent phase, yet she seems to be driven by an investigative exploratory spirit and by her passion for art. Accordingly, the filmmaker handles sex in cautious sensitive way. In this superbly orchestrated film, passion and sex play a secondary role. Saruul’s passage into growing up is accompanied by Katya, the eccentric sex shop owner who is never ithere. They meet in her place, for diners, restaurants, and on trips. During their verbal encounters, prompted in part by Saruul’s questions, she gets to know Katya as a complex person with many personal relationships.  She learns from Katya the intricacies and meaning of sexual desires.  Saruul comes to understand the precious nature of true emotional involvement, no matter what the circumstance may be. Enkhtuul Oidovjamt’s performance as Katya the mentor is finely nuanced and expressive. The film is enhanced by a score  by the indie band “Magnolian” accompanying Saruul throughout the story and ending the film with an on-screen performance.

Claus Mueller, filmexchange@gmail.com