Audience Prize : My Heart by Bae Chang-ho (South Korea) & Shower by Zhang Yang (China)

Due to the organizers' passion, the Udine Far East Film Festival has become, the greatest European showcase for Asian cinema in only two years. What began as a meaty Honk Kong retrospective in 1998 at the Cinema Ferroviario of Udine (a movie club which bravely resists Dino de Laurentis's hold over the town's movie theatres) has become a 1st rate event drawing together a wide panel of movies from all over Asia and an eager international audience in the beautiful new city theatre Giovanni da Udine. This Italian festival provides a wonderful opportunity to get a fuller view of Asian cinema than is possible through the few films prized in mainstream international festivals.

This year's edition testified to the global health of Asian cinema. Many films were cheerfully applauded by the audience. Several films really stood out. Im Sang-soo's Girl's Night Out (South Korea, 1999) is a sensitive and sexy portrayal of three women freely expressing their innermost feelings about sex and love as they strive for fulfilment in present day South Korea. Yojiro Takita's Secret (Japan, 1999) is a thought-provoking study of platonic and sexual love that follows an eerie premise : What would happen if you were to survive a mortal accident in your daughter's body? Would you carry on living as a spouse, perpetuate the "normal" life of your daughter or try to conciliate these strange extremes...? Whatever your choice, several kinds of love would undoubtedly come into conflict and generate a lengthy uneasiness... Yojiro Takita's film explores these challenging issues with constant subtlety while young pop star Hirosue Ryoko engagingly portrays three women in the same body (the daughter, the mother, and the mother-daughter!).

Thailand and Singapore also brought their share of cinematic gems that testify to the renaissance of these small movie industries. Nang Nak (Thailand, 1999) is a beautiful rural ghost story, which director Nonzee Nimitbur enhances through a stunning command of visuals and special effects. For the festival's artistic adviser Derek Elley, it is "a striking demonstration of the industry's current sophistication and technical expertise that is drawing more and more Asian companies to Bangkok for postproduction work". In a less supernatural but nevertheless surreal field, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's 6ixtynin9 is a delightful horror-thriller-comedy that depicts a redundant young woman's unintentional escalation into violence after she finds a big sum of money belonging to local thugs who have the bad idea of meeting with gory deaths in her apartment. Director Ratanaruang comes up with a singular Tarantino-style display suffused with nonchalant irony.

Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng's Eating Air (Singapore, 1999 ; screened at Rotterdam) is an attractive "motorcycle kung-fu love story" filled with humorous flashbacks and surreal images, as the main male character fantasizes about being a dextrous Samurai. This second edition also gave one the opportunity to discover the brilliant Japanese Ring "psycho-horror" trilogy which was a huge success all over Asia and unleashed a new rave for horror movies. Hideo Nakata's Ring (1999) is the chilling story of a mysterious video K7 that brings death upon anyone who dares watching it. The victims are all found with terror-stricken faces. Legend has it that one week after watching the video K7, a mysterious bogey woman creeps up to you and makes you die. Based on a set of best-sellers by Suzuki Koji, Ring is truly one the most frightening movies ever made, that cleverly updates the traditional Asian horror imagery. Hideo Nakata's follow up Ring 2 (1999) keeps exploring the breathtaking intricacies of this horror mystery in the way John Boorman prolonged The Exorcist, while Norio Tsuruta's Ring 0 is a touching Carrie-style prequel starring wonderful newcomer Yukie Nakama.

The Honk Kong movie industry, which went through a severe crisis after the 1997 retrocession to China, is now getting a new impetus thanks to local net industries and came up with the usual frenzied action thrillers and comedies starring Jackie Chan or Stephen Chiau (a Chinese Jim Carrey now aiming at a greater acting credibility). Johnnie To and Gordon Chan are the leading directors in the field of action thrillers making good use of editing and special effects while Andy Lau, who unleashed the sex-and-violence Category III Raped by Angel series, came up with two kung-fu/sword and sorcery blockbusters filled with first-rate CGI effects: The Storm Riders (1998) and A Man Called Hero (1999), both adapted from popular mangas.

Yet, the healthiest Asian movie industry is presently that of South Korean, which, at the perfect junction of Honk Kong and Japanese cinema, infuses its successful thrillers, comedies and dramas with a quite occidental sophistication and liberality. Yet, the Udine audience decided to award its prize (the only prize of the Festival which is devoid of competition) to the more traditional, yet deeply moving My Heart by veteran Bae Chang-ho, which depicts the altogether blighted and rewarding life of a sterile countrywoman over a 50 years span. The Building (1999) by female director Viet Linh was the only film representing Vietnam where very few films are made, let alone by women, under severe censorship conditions. The Building skilfully avoids doctrinaire aspects to portray the inevitable shift in mentalities from post-war collectivism to market economy.

The great diversity of the films shown at Udine makes the Far East Film Festival a precious event in a first European position to follow the fascinating evolutions of Asian cinema. Let us hope now that many of these films with great potential, whether Korean, Singaporean or Thai, will get a reasonable theatre distribution outside their respective countries.

FilmFestivals.com contributor
Robin Gatto