Claus Mueller

Held for the 13^th time the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) took place from June 27 – July 14 at the Lincoln Center, the Japan Society and the Asia Society.  Established  by  Subway Cinema in 2002, it teamed up in 2007 with the Japan Society’s Japan Cuts film fest and has been carried out since 2010 in collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln  Center.  Support has been provided by the New York based trade or cultural offices of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and corporate sponsors.  Compared to prior editions the 2014 program was more diversified but still “kept crazy” as emphasized by Samuel Javier who, with Goran Topalovich, directed the festival. Considered by New York observers as a cutting edge innovative festival offering mind bending programs which include outstanding independent, award winning and artistic productions with a reflexive appeal. But the intentional eclectic approach ensures that many other features are included which have proven commercially successful in Asian countries, such as  well executed thrillers, martial arts films, and adult video productions . They not only entertain, but also present insightful images of the producing countries.  The festival mirrors in a comprehensive fashion the concerns and approaches of contemporary Asian film makers and the audience preferences in the major film markets of China, Hong Kong and Japan.

Its New York popularity is reflected in sold out shows which cater to a faithful audience and to many members of the Film Society Lincoln Center. If the festival is instrumental in getting some of the films into US theatrical distribution or on other platforms is an open question. Foreign language films are rarely successful in the United States and the total revenues of all Asian and European films from 1979 to 2014 are well below the figures reached in a year by one domestic US block buster.  Checking Mojo’s list of the 100 top grossing foreign films, Asian and European films generated $304 and $ 376 million respectively over the 35 year period. From May 2013 on the current domestic gross for IRON MAN 3 has been $409 million and the foreign gross $806 million.

Including 12 films from the partially overlapping   Japan Cuts film festival, the NYAFF presented 62 features with films from Hong Kong, Korea and Japan dominating the schedule. Other countries present were Taiwan, China, Australia, and several co-productions involving Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia. (The Japan Cuts fest will be reviewed separately)

Joon-ho Bong directed SNOWPIERCER, a perfect introduction to current Korean cinema and possibly the last 35 mm produced in that country. Playing before the festival though not part of it, SNOWPIERCER is an amazing feature set in a post-apocalyptic world that is frozen over since the attempt to control global warming resulted in a new ice age.  Drawing from a French graphic novel Joon-ho Bong shows the confinement of the few thousand remaining people in a massive never stopping train circling the globe. Reflecting their social station, the common people, the underclass, lives disheveled and miserably in wagons at the tail of the train sustained by daily globs of protein. The upper one percent continues their comfortable luxurious life in the front part of the train. It is a closed dictatorial rigid class structure system required by the   balanced eco-system of the train.   Common people are killed if their number exceeds the train’s ecological balance.  Class struggle erupts when the underclass tries to reach the front of the train.  SNOWPIERCER includes   imaginative sets and startling views of the frozen over environment the train is passing through. The violent struggle is compelling as are the surreal passages through the quarters of the upper class. Peerless performances by actors like Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Song Kang–ho, Ed Harris and others make the tale persuasive.  The social and ecological commentary of the film is well timed to fit current conditions and poses obvious questions. Snowpiercer is certainly one of the best films I have seen over the last years.

The contrast with 3 D NAKED AMIBITION by Lee Kung-lok, from Hong Kong could not be larger. An undemanding plot depicts in glowing colors and 3D dimensions the career of a Hong Kong timid male who becomes a sex star in Japan because he assumes in porn films the role of a passive male who is raped by women. Featuring fast moving actions and positions the film offers cameos by many current and aging prominent Hong Kong adult video stars. It is a witty farce of the porn film industry yet an entertaining audience pleaser.  In this satirical commentary about kinky sex ventures and their customers there is little to reflect about, other than having just fun as reflected in the audience response.  In a similar vein, GOLDEN CHICKENSSS by the Hong Kong based Matt Chow moves also on an entertaining instant gratification surface. In this third edition of the Golden Chicken films a former prostitute now turned madam leads us with her call girls on a 24 hour comedic tour through Hong Kong sex parlors.  Presented are blow jobs by either sex, 20 second groping jobs, four some sessions, parties, encounter with gangsters, etc. in short a pastiche survey of the Hong Kong sex scene with the message that everyone deserves sex, no matter how and when. 

Other productions have a different approach. MOEBIUS, a film by the controversial Korean director Kim Ki-duk, has been called a brilliant work. It focuses on sexual violence within one family as expressed through action and vivid imagery but has no spoken words.  Covering castration, sadomasochism and incest the film assures progressive intense involvement by the viewer in the powerful story. In this plot a mother, enraged by her husband’s infidelity, tries to castrate him. Failing to do so, she dismembers in a rage her teenage son instead.  His father researches sex transplantation and sacrifices his penis for his son while exploring mutilating techniques to achieve satisfaction.   Restitution of sex is successful with the bizarre consequence of the son being turned on by his mother. The father responds by killing himself and the mother. The son castrates himself by shooting off his organ and on the street engages in a prayer, one of the rare peaceful images of the film. Moebius is a bleak depiction of sexual violence in the thriller format. Kim Ki-duk breaks taboos and excavates extreme pathological family dynamics which are mostly hidden from sight, thus offering a commentary on the underbelly of Korean society.  This film with its unpredictable story line does not entertain but forces the viewer to take a position, reject or reflect. Moebius will have a solid place in Korean film making.

HAN GONG-ju directed by Lee Su-jib is another noteworthy contribution from Korea. Her first feature was identified by Martin Scorsese as a superb achievement and collected numerous awards since it 2013 Busan Premiere. Based on a true story the narrative evolves in a matter of fact fashion without melodrama or pithy and presents the aftermath of Han Gong-ju’s gang rape by fellow students. In the first half of the film the primary focus are the coping mechanisms the girl applies to survive and build a new life. Her traumatic rape experience slowly emerges next through disturbing flashbacks. In order to assure anonymity she had transferred to a different school.  A video blog posted by her new schoolmates who are not aware of her identity destroys this anonymity and she is forced to deal with the consequences. This includes a second victimization by the parents of the students who raped her. They track her down holding her responsible. Though Lee Su-jib maintains that his film does not document what happens in Korean society, his film is nonetheless an indightment of the Korean response to rape, the prevailing blame culture and the destructive role parents play in ‘protecting’ their children.

Several of the entries from China were first class. Lou Ye directed BLIND MASSAGE a superbly enacted ensemble film of blind or visually impaired male and female employees of a massage institute in Nanjing.  Rather than following a predictable story line and the common outsiders’ paternalistic view of the disabled Lou Yen recuperates the perspectives of the blind employees. Living together like a family in a place sheltered from the outside world they have established in their dark world clear personal relations with each other and act on their emotional and sexual desires. Lou Ye introduces the viewer to the worlds of the blind, to faces without eyes, and makes us better understand how they live and relate than a documentary could do.  NO MAN’S LAND, a Chinese style spaghetti Western road movie by Ning Hao was a number one box office success when released last December in China and an audience favorite at film festivals such as the 2014 Berlinale. Completed in 2009 the censorship board considered the film nihilistic, forcing Ning Hao to re-edit it several times before approval was granted last year. Still, the current version of No Man’s Land has themes and characters which the censors hardly favor. One wonders why approval was given as it was the case for the infamous A TOUCH OF SIN by Jia Zhangke.  In Ning Hao’s film we encounter the publicity hungry lawyer Pan dying to return to his urban praxis from a forlorn small town. He does not realize that he will be driving for hundreds of miles through the Gobi desert, through no man’s land. Throughout his odyssey he encounters a bizarre collection of outlaws, misfits, thieves, smugglers, perverts, a prostitute, and mercenaries all out to rob and injure him. Out in the Gobi desert there is no moral society.  He is also driven by greed but as a big city lawyer Pan is patently inept to cope with desert outlaw reality. Somehow he survives the chaotic and violent actions in which most of the characters perish.  This may be the only upbeat moment of the feature film. Ning Hao delivers a well selected cast of characters acting superbly, they are bizarre yet plausible. Much credit for the success of the film and artistic appeal goes to Du Jie’s extraordinary and compelling cinematography.

Needless to add the festival’s captive audience anticipates for 2015 a similar stimulating and

comprehensive program.