With the brilliant big bang that occurred in 2006 I wanted to stay the whole week of the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) 2007.
The arrival on Friday evening was an action scene, like the big battlefield scenes in Lord of the Rings when you see the mass of Orks rushing against the humans. Well it is was the rush of Italians to the free buffet of the opening event. By luck we did not count on that so that we were happy to get our White Tiger passes as Cinephiles for the week of festival.
We watched some Epic movies in the same
aesthetic spirit as Shinobi, such as the Chinese Dororo, which
avoids the romance and focuses on the fights and the boring A battle
of wits from Hong-Kong and another boring The Restless from South
Korea with a bit of romance. After that, I had enough of Epic for that year.
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| The sound is not great, but the room is beautiful in the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine |
After the good experience of Bangkok Loco, we watched comedies like the spy comedy from Philippines, Agent
X44. This first contact with Philippine comedies was good and it will
improve with the years. Then Dasepo naughty girls brought the easy
entertainment of a crazy and senseless South Korean comedy. Perfect
to end a medium day. Another South Korean comedy with a slice of
drama, 200 pounds beauty tells the story of a woman making the
backstage voice double of a pretty woman. Well done again, even if
these movies will not remain in mind for long. The tricky view of
Asian on Catholicism is shown a bit in the Japanese comedy Arch
angels. This strange view will be followed along the years as it inspires Japanese and Korean movie makers. Finally the Chinese comedy The big movie tries to make
parodies but without much sense.
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| Joyce Bernal from the Philippines (in the right) introducing the comedy Agent X44 |
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| The cowboy style of Ida Issei (Arch Angels) surrounded by the festival president Sabrina Baracetti and the moderator for Japanese movies Mark Shilling. |
We experienced thrillers of high
quality, such as Dirty carnival, a South Korean thriller/crime about
a small criminal becoming a big boss. Some very violent scenes of
street fighting that are actually typical for South Korea. The medium
quality was also present with Eye in the sky, a Hong-Kong crime by
Johnny To about the police surveillance. Righteous ties, a South
Korean crime is violent again, but the story was far from waking the
interest as Dirty carnival. With Confession of pain, the Hong-Kong
makers of Infernal Affairs tried to repeat a success story but it is
far from being as interesting. Another polar/crime from South Korea
changed completely the style, Tazza: the high rollers presenting the
wonderful actress Kim Hye-soo in a movie well directed, a bit like
Casino by Scorsese with psychology, intrigues and of course violence
(but no so much).
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| Actress Kim Hye-soo and director Choi Dong-Hoon introducing Tazza: the high rollers |
As extension of the thriller genre, the
Horror movies are well represented with one Horror day. I watched
only the deceiving Japanese The slit-mouthed woman.
The best discovery for me was the Manga
inspired and styled Japanese movies and this year in particular Death
Note. The first movie was in the afternoon and the second movie was
in the evening so that we could have the complete story in one day.
The global impression was really good, I was amazed by the graphic
style and the cut. A dark story, some eccentric characters, a lot of
surprises and an Hitchcockian suspense. Another day, I enjoyed a
Japanese comedy Nana 2 inspired from a manga and being a sequel. Even
if it is a bit long, as usual in Japanese movies, Nana 2 shows a very
good storyline and acting.
A type of movie that has been made
popular via Bruce Lee, the fight movies are represented in the FEFF
and I can understand why. It can save your evening after bad movies
by proposing something aesthetic and easy to watch. By luck one evening ended with Dynamite warriors, a Thai fight movie
about the conflict between people from the country side and city
people and the fights by Dan Choopong, seen already in Ong-Bak and
Born to fight.
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| The catalog 2007 |
Some drama are also presented, with a
very varying quality. The interesting and well filmed family drama in
three parts from South Korea, Family ties and a Chinese drama with
the same plot as Ghost: The matrimony but not very interesting in the
directing, as the other Chinese pseudo social-drama Thirteen princess
trees. Whispers and moans, from Hong-Kong was very fine directed for a
movie about all prostitutions.
Apart of letting us discover rare
movies, the advantage of a movie festival is all the side events. In
the afternoon, there was a panel on the production of Japanese
blockbuster. Actually not so my thing but it gives a view in another
world. There were also other panels, mostly on the news and future
of the film industry in this or that Far East Asia country but also
on the director Patrick Tam and on the Horror movies from Asia.
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| Darcy Paquet (on the right) moderating the panel about Asian Horror. |
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| Thai actress Siraphan Wattanajinda (The Unseeable) |
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| An eclipse on the Udine central square. |
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| Arcades going down from the castle. |
I don't have many memories from that edition of the FEFF but my photographic record shows that I was there for most of the duration of the festival. I don't have a particulary good memory of Eye in the Sky and Confession of Pain (thrillers from Hong Kong started to decrease in quality and originality), followed by mixed feelings about The Host directed by Bong Joon-Ho (Memories of Murders) and with special effects from Weta Digital (The Lord of the Rings): I found it half an hour too long.
ReplyDeleteI liked the big catastrophe movie Sinking of Japan. It was interesting to see the comedy Agent x44 from The Philippines but nothing more. Like you did, I enjoyed a lot the two Death Note movies, and I bought them together with the third episode L Change the World some years later and enjoyed them again. The character of "L" is of course my favorite, and for some time I was holding my mobile phone like he does.
Dynamite Warriors marked for me the end of the wave of interesting movies from Thailand (not only action), far inferior in quality to Ong-Bak or Born to Fight.
Dasepo Naughty Girls and Arch Angels are two movies from two different countries taking place in high school. The first was watchable (very colorful like the future American Kaboom!), the second not, although I tried to defend it at the time. 200 Pounds Beauty and Tazza: The High Rollers were nice.
During that year we attended many panels, interviews and FEFF parties, including the closing concert of MetalChicks.
Looking at this summary it seems clear that 2007 was not a good FEFF year to me, showing a decline in Thai and Hong-Kong cinema, and maybe a resurgence of the Japanese one. I will not be able to attend the FEFF in 2008 but will be back in 2009 for more.