By
Peter Martin
Seeing a need that had not been filled, a small group
of dedicated film fans (led by founder Mye Hoang)
took on the task of staging the First Asian Film Festival
of Dallas. After most of the arrangements had been
made, I had the opportunity to join in the fun as
a volunteer. Here are some highlights from the festival.
Thursday,
March 28
The five-screen Magnolia Pictures complex opened in
January 2002. The lobbies are decorated in cool colors,
space is provided to mill around and talk before the
show starts, and the employees are friendly and enthusiastic
film fans. Overhead, three wide-screen monitors play
a continuous loop of trailers. As a bonus, the organizers
of the festival made origami figures and added other
decorative touches to provide an Asian accent to the
atmosphere.
[7:30
PM] NOWHERE
TO HIDE (South Korea, 1999) A brutally effective
cop named Woo relentlessly pursues a murderer, doing
whatever it takes to nab his man. Director Lee Myeong-Se
unleashes a wild and restless style upon a rather
ordinary story. The first part of the film races by
like a runaway train, but as the chase for the killer
continues, beautiful landscapes start blooming and
rain begins pouring down, to the wild accompaniment
of music that ranges from snatches of classical music
to cheesy pop songs to late-night electronic fever
dream atmospheres. A memorable and punishing film
that divided the audience. Some really liked it, while
others actively hated it. Still, it gave the festival
a distinctive start. An opening-night reception followed.
Friday,
March 29
[7:30
PM] CURE
(Japan, 1997) Dead bodies begin showing up all
over town, with a distinctive 'X' carved into each
body. It looks like the work of a serial killer, but
a different, seemingly ordinary person confesses to
each murder, and the police are baffled as to any
possible connections. Eventually a suspect emerges
- and then things really get strange.
The rhythms are all off, the most startling things
happen in the background of the frame, the musical
score never cues you in on what's happening (no quick
orchestral crescendos), the scenes don't progress
logically from Point A to Point B, the film never
builds to a complex, and you're never provided with
any answers. In other words, it's the antithesis of
a Hollywood movie. I loved it, and most people I talked
to thought it was the highlight of the festival. The
screening was quite full, and at certain points in
the story you could hear the collective intake of
breath as a tense scene played out.
[10:00
PM] THE
KILLER (Hong Kong, 1989) I was eager and excited
to finally see this John Woo classic on the big screen.
Imagine my disappointment when the crowd turned out
to be smaller than expected. Also, the print that
was available was not exactly sterling. Yet within
a few minutes I was completely caught up in the characters.
Chow Yun Fat plays an assassin who accidentally blinds
a singer while carrying out an assignment. Filled
with remorse, he becomes her friend, looking out for
her. Meanwhile, Danny Lee, as a police detective,
begins to grudgingly admire the killer when he sees
some of the unexpectedly selfless actions that he
takes.
The action set pieces are spectacular and have spawned
a raft of imitators (Woo has borrowed from himself
several times in his subsequent work). The violence
is bloody and extreme. What surprised me, though,
was the reaction of the audience. Numerous times,
laughter broke out during the elaborately choreographed
gun battles. Why? Sure, any number of scenes go "over
the top," but, to me, the excesses are like a melodramatic
Chinese opera. I'm afraid some Westerners are unable
(or unwilling) to identify with the Asian characters
and thus are inclined to ridicule rather than empathize.
The film repeated at midnight, but I chose to see
another film.
[Midnight]
VAMPIRE
HUNTER D: BLOODLUST (Japan, 2000) After working
all day, rushing to the festival, and seeing two films,
I'm afraid I dozed off intermittently throughout the
film. That's no fault of the filmmakers, though. This
anime is jam-packed with arresting images and a dynamic
story line. The print was razor-sharp and the music
and sound were booming. But those seats were just
a bit too comfortable . . .
Saturday,
March 30
Dallas is located in the northern part of Texas, and
fierce thunderstorms can come raging through with
little notice. That's what happened on Saturday. While
I was driving to the festival, in fact, the radio
announced that the area was under a tornado watch
until 6:00 p.m. What better place to ride out the
storm than in a nice warm cinema?
[2:20
PM] RAISE
THE RED LANTERN (China, 1991) As a festival volunteer,
I helped pass out DVD giveaway tickets at some screenings
(a DVD provided by HKFlix.com was given away at each
screening) and also manned the information table.
So I missed most of this award-winning film, about
the fourth and newest concubine (Gong Li) in a rich
man's house and the sly battles that are waged among
the women for supremacy. For the portion I did see,
my impression was that it looked beautiful on the
big screen. You could really see the importance of
the beautiful sets and costumes, how they enhanced
and informed the story.
The audience was not huge, but many expressed their
appreciation for being able to see it in a theater.
To my mind, it was more of a stereotypical "art
house" crowd, a bit older than the other audiences.
Most of the audience left, but a few stayed to take
in the next, quite different, offering
[5:00
PM] THE
CHINESE FEAST (Hong Kong, 1995) Stephen Carlton
has been watching and showing Hong Kong films in
and around Dallas for years, and he introduced this
one as a personal favorite that helps show the variety
of films that are made in Hong Kong. He also noted
that director Tsui Hark attended a nearly film school.
Personally, I had watched the first 20 minutes or
so on DVD, and found it less than enthralling. What
a difference with a packed house! I doubt if more
than a handful of people had seen it before, but
everyone got into the spirit of this Chinese New
Year's comedy.
Leslie Cheung stars as a would-be cook. He works
in a restaurant and manages to screw up every task
he's given. He catches the eye of the owner's rebellious
daughter (Wu Chien-Lin), though, which is enough
to keep the story going until the owner is challenged
to a cooking contest by a rival. When the owner
is stricken ill, it's up to his daughter and Leslie
to convince a down-on-his-luck retired master cook
to save the day. The rip-roaring conclusion is a
supremely elaborate cooking contest. Truly, nothing
compares to a large crowd laughing together at a
warm family comedy.
[7:30
p.m] RUNNING
OUT OF TIME (Hong Kong, 1999) As with THE KILLER,
I was disappointed by the small turn-out and by
the less-than-pristine quality of the print. Yet
again, I was caught up with the story and the characters.
Andy Lau is a doomed criminal with a terminal illness.
He starts a cat-and-mouse game involving other criminals
and the police. Lau Ching Wan is the lead investigator,
and he gives a great performance as an "average"
cop - he's not world weary, he's realistic. (For
example, when he tells his squad what they need
to do and they all protest that it's quitting time,
he simply lets them go.) He is the glue that holds
things together.
Two more performer highlights: (1) YoYo Mung is
really a babe. When her faces fills the screen in
a close up (in the restaurant scene with Andy Lau),
she looks luminous yet approachable. And then Raymond
Wong's choral music for neurotic twenty-somethings
kicks in gently, and you simply must swoon. (2)
Lam Suet filled me with unexpected joy. Maybe it's
because he seems delighted to find himself an actor.
Or maybe it's because Lau Ching Wan is the man I
aspire to be, but Lam Suet is who I am now. And
if I never become Lau Ching Wan, that's OK, because
at least I can be Lam Suet -- working hard, taking
every role that comes along, doing whatever needs
to be done for the sake of the movie.
Small as it was, the audience seemed to really enjoy
it. One middle-aged gentleman summed it up with
a one-word review: "Good!"
[10:00
p.m]
FALLEN ANGELS (Hong Kong, 1995) A completely
different audience filed in for Wong Kar Wai - a
larger percentage of young Asian people, which was
great to see. Some movies connect completely with
the audience, and people responded to this movie
in an organic fashion. It was as though everyone
decided, without prior collusion, to pile into the
same car on a rollercoaster and ride it over and
over again.
In my previous home viewings, the film was dark,
weird, and off-putting. The audience ate it up,
though, and this time (as opposed to THE KILLER),
the laughter seemed empathetic rather than derisive.
It's rather hard to explain; it's something we've
probably all experienced, though. In any event,
seeing the film with this particular audience really
warmed up the subject matter for me.
[Midnight]
TELL
ME SOMETHING (South Korea, 1999) On the most
obvious level, a Korean version of SEVEN. Garbage
bags filled with severed body parts begin appearing
in the most unexpected places (a packed elevator,
an elevated highway). Yet the filmmakers evidently
tried to make cogent observations about Korean society.
It is quite gruesome and bloody, and is not as clever
as it thinks it is when it comes to standard genre
twists, but there are certainly some memorable scenes.
The print was sharp and clean, and the music and
sound effects were state-of-the-art. A good crowd
reacted viscerally.
Most of the festival volunteers stayed afterwards
to help take down the decorations, because the next
day the locale changed
Sunday,
March 31
Just a short distance away, the Dallas Museum of Art
houses some impressive collections. Films were shown
in the Horchow Auditorium, a sloped-floor hall with
seats that are more comfortable for lectures than
for movie-watching.
There were two programs of short films that were
screened. As a festival volunteer, I was able to
see about half of them ahead of time, which was
very helpful since I wasn't able to make it to either
program on Sunday. My favorites:
Greg Pak's three films: "Fighting Grandpa" (documentary
about his family, nicely put-together), "Mouse"
(effective narrative about a relationship), and
"Asian Pride Porn" (one of the funniest three minutes
I've seen).
Kevin Lee's "Take a Look: NYC Chinatown Post 9/11"
(got its point across very well in just 4 minutes)
and "Banana" (a cute narrative about an immigrant
family).
Emily Ting's "What's Love Got to Do With it?" (a
documentary about love, matchmaking, and relationships).
I also heard good things about Yiuwing Lam's two
shorts ("Home" and "Blue Love"), and Jen Tsai's
"When" (Jen created some very nice postcards to
promote her film).
The other film I want to talk about is another classic.
[4:00
p.m]
THE
SEVEN SAMURAI (Japan, 1954) A very good, demographically
diverse audience was completely engrossed in Akira
Kurosawa's epic. Inexplicably, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
was the title card that flashed up for the 16mm
print (it was scheduled to be 35mm, but that print
was too damaged to show). The print was old and
scratchy, but after just a few minutes the story
simply wraps you up and carries you away. I've seen
it before, at home, and planned to catch some of
the short films that were playing at the same time.
But I just couldn't walk away from SEVEN SAMURAI.
The action is certainly well staged, and the humor
is welcome, but it's the finely-drawn portraits
of the samurai and the besieged villagers that stand
out. Despite the length of the film, everyone was
transported and enraptured.
A closing night reception allowed folks to wind
down with conversation, sushi, wine, and live music.
Post-Festival
Thoughts
What a blast to be able to see so many Asian movies
on the big screen! It was also a lot of fun to be
able to talk about movies with people who are passionate
about the subject. Happily, the folks behind the
Asian Film Festival of Dallas plan to hold regular
screenings - I can't wait!!
Special
Thanks:
Mye Hoang (AFFD founder)
And the AFFD volunteers who worked with (and educated
me):
Joe Forsythe
Yen Tan
Steve Carlton
Michael Ables
Blake Askew
David Ninh
Vanessa Avalos
Laura Ballay
J. D. Nguyen and the KFC Cinema team
Related
Links:
Asian Film Festival of Dallas
http://www.affd.org
Dallas Museum of Art
http://www.dm-art.org/
Magnolia Pictures
http://www.magnoliapictures.com
