Behind the Noodle Curtain

Thai director wins the big Cannes prize

The Cannes jury’s verdict, headed by Tim Burton, is in and Thailand leaps another step in the world film stage -- not a bad thing after the  previous weeks of riot violence and fatalities in the Kingdom.

The film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives wins the top prize at the Cannes Festival, namely the Palme d’Or.  Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who earlier this week gave a passionate statement about his native Thailand, also wrote the screenplay.

The Festival published a statement by the director after the prize ceremonies: "‘This Palme is very important for the history of Thailand and the Thai people.’ He thanked, ‘the spirits and ghosts of Thailand,’ who allowed him to be where he was today, as well as his parents, who, 30 years ago took him to a small cinema.’”

Among other Asian film directors on the awards list, best screenplay for Poetry went to the South Korean Lee Chang-Dong. As earlier reported, another South Korean,  Im Sang-Soo for The Housemaid, won the overall prize in the Un Certain Regarde category.

LINK:

• Interview with Apichatpong on films and Thailand by Hollywood Reporter
• Trailer for Uncle Boonmee
• Thorough report on reaction to Uncle Boonmee victory at Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal

Vietnam confirms Hanoi film festival for October

The Cannes Festival was a news-maker  for  Asia as Vietnam confirmed  Hanoi’s  new competitive film festival for mid-October, following right after the Pusan event, a highly regarded screenfest  in the big, bustling city on the southeast coast of Korea.

Maybe Hanoi can do what Bangkok couldn’t seem to do, which is run a film festival  with a strong Southeast Asian component and not be overwhelmed by a European onslaught. Oh, and not be blighted by U.S. corruption charges.

The two festivals -- Pusan is presenting its 15th edition Oct. 7-15, 2010 -- announced they will  co-operate on a number of fronts, according to Film Business Asia website. Lai Van Sinh, head of the Vietnam Film Department, will be director of VNIFF.  He appeared at the  announcement with PIFF director Kim Dong-Ho. The Pusan folks will be helping out on every front in Vietnam.

The Viet Nam International Film Festival runs five nights from Oct. 17. It’s just one plank in the republic’s celebrations of the capital city’s 1000th anniversary. Yes, that’s a 1 and three 0’s.

VNIFF will put 60 movies on the screen at a new cinema complex to open this year. There will be a mountain of categories, well, seven actually, plus eight prizes. There will definitely be a spotlight on Southeast Asian directors.  More VNIFF announcements are on schedule for the end of May.

In other Cannes news, the first  prizes were out on Saturday. The South Korean film Hahaha topped the side competition, Un Certain Regarde, directed by Hong Sang-Soo.  Two South American films, Peru and Argentina, won the category’s other prizes. Critic Derek Elley of FilmBiz.Asia doesn’t think much of this latest Hong film (“more much ado about nothing”) as a guy tries to get a girl in bed. 

The Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is up for the big Cannes prize, in the main competition. Most reviews are highly complimentary, according to a summary at Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal.

One contrarian is found  at Film Business Asia, a new website run by veteran Asian film watchers. In a withering Derek Elley review of Apichatpong’s film, he says, in part: “this is pretentious, elitist filmmaking without point or human pathos.” Up to you.

LINKS:

• Film Biz Asia reports on VNIFF
• The Cannes Festival
• Original  announcement on the VNIFF at Screen Daily news
• Vietnamese actors and directors were in full force at Cannes, according to VietNamNet. 
• Film Biz Asia report on of South Korean film Hahaha.   Review of Hahaha by Derek Elley at FBA
• Wise Kwai Thai Film Journal report on Apichatpong's Film Uncle Boonmee, a highly touted candidate for the Cannes main prize. A contrarian review at FBA.

Thai director Apichatpong back at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival opens this coming Wednesday (May 12) and there’s a raft of Asian films in competition and otherwise, including one by the esteemed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

His Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is entered in the main competition. Khun Apichatpong (or Joe) has already won two top Cannes awards, and is a favourite director among critics and film aficionados around the world. His very first feature film debuted at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2000, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Other Asian entrants at the film festival’s main competition are  Takeshi Kitano of Japan with Outrage, Korean Lee Chang-Dong with Poetry and Chinese director  Wang Xiaoshuai with Chongqing Blues. This is the first time Im Sang-Soo of Korea, with The Housemaid, has been invited to the annual May event.

Asian entrants in Un Certain Regarde category (films with a unusual perspective)  include Hideo Nakata with Chatroom,  Hong SangSoo with HAHAHA  Jia Zhangke with I Wish I Knew

Cannes  Festival film awards will be announced May 23 right here.

LINKS:

Cannes Festival main page.

Khun Apichatpong's Uncle Boonmee Can Recall His Past Lives at Cannes.

 Im Sang-Soo’s The Housemaid.

Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage

Im Sang-Soo's Poetry

Wang Xiaoshuai's Chongqing Blues

Previous post on Behind the Noodle Curtain:  Apichatpong tops world film experts’  poll

Extensive biography and creative list at Japanese gallery site SCAI.

A gentle documentary about Cambodian killing fields

It’s hard to believe that such a gentle documentary as Enemies of the People could deal with such a harsh subject as the Khmer Rouge genocide.

But Thet Sambath did it.

  It was shown at the Hot Docs documentary film  festival in Toronto (co-director Rob Lemkin in picture on stage). In fact, it was so popular, it’s to be shown a third time. (See below for details; as for the rest of the world, it will continue on the festival circuit.)

The film’s  impact was no less effective and informative and thorough than the kind of pestering, hectoring, invasive work of Michael Moore in the United States.  The genial, soft-spoken Khmer director and producer managed to tug confessions out of some of the  Khmer killers and leaders  during the 1975-79 genocide  in Cambodia.

 Sambath, a professional journalist with the Phnom Penh Post, was equally dogged. He spent 10 years visiting the countryside, with his tape recorder and camera. Instead of a team of aggressive investigators, he alone used politeness, kindness, respect, in talking to farmers and workers, mostly in the northwestern part of the country, where most of the killing was committed.

He befriended people. He kept going back, showing them he was a trustworthy person. At one point, Nuon Chea, the No. 2 man to Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge, told Sambath it was the Communist party’s policy to fight its enemies by killing them. The Khmer Rouge leader, who’s to go on international trial for his part in the  atrocities, would say nothing to Sambath’s questions but relented because of the interviewer’s “graciousness.”  It took Sambath three years to get Chea to open up. Chea, apparently, was one of the few KR leaders who stayed behind in Cambodia, while others fled when the Vietnamese invaded to crush the government.

Near the film’s end, Chea is shown being helped into a  helicopter to be taken to the capital for charges. He’s a pretty old man at this point but still had many family members around him as he said his goodbyes.

Sambath was also able to convince several killers to reveal what they did, where, how and why? But what sure becomes clear  is that orders came from very high up the ladder.  Most people, it seems to me, had no choice but to do the killings of men, women and children, otherwise  their own bodies  would be dumped into a field ditch.

I was surprised to learn that the Khmer Rouge were not, as we have always been told,  bent on ridding the country of intellectuals and professionals and leave everything to the farmers. There were two factions in the upper echelon of the party, one favouring stronger relations with China, and the other promoting the Vietnamese as a more likelier and friendlier ally. Pol Pot and the KR leadership sought Chinese relationships and moved to kill members of the other faction, which led to an ethnic minority genocide. After while, it seemed no one could avoid the death squads, Khmer or minority.

Sambath’s father and brother were killed during the purges, and his mother died in child birth after a forced marriage to a KR cadre. He himself escaped the Khmer Rouge when the country fell in 1979. He was 10 years old. You could easily understand how he felt might pursue answers to why it all happened and why his family had to die. And maybe even exact revenge. No. He didn’t even tell Chea about his family’s history, he didn’t want to make it seem like he was out to revenge his family’s deaths. (Eventually, he did reveal his family background to Chea, who apologized for what happened.)

The gentle journalist says at one point: “this is not for journalism, it is for history.”  I believe him after watching this wonderful 94-minute documentary. He has done a great service to his people, although some may not want to see their faces and hear their words on the international cinema screen.

He had some very good help, in British co-director and documentary maker Rob Lemkin who came into the project in 2006 to help Sambath put all his work into a documentary. 

Sambath sacrificed much of his life and money during this 10-year development project. At one point, he is seen leaving his wife, daughter and son behind for another four or five days, a scene that is repeated often, and gets into a hire car to drive away, maybe never to come back. He says into the camera as his home disappears into the background in a Phnom Penh street, he was sorry to leave because his wife had no money buy food for that day.

This report is not as complete as I’d like since I wasn’t able to stay for the Q and A on the second screening. Real life, as in work, intruded. A film loving friend, who saw the first screening, was knocked out by the film and his enthusiasm pushed me to go. He said he learned a lot about the  background of the film, as well as the fact there will be a followup documentary because Sambath has hundreds of hours of video and audio.

There’s one more screening at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)  Theatre this Sunday, May 9, 2010, at 9:45 p.m. The film had its world debut in November 2009 and has earned many awards and honours. After the Hot Docs Festival, it will continue on the festival circuit. Go to the film’s web site to see if it’s coming near you! Some of the venues are  Vancouver, B.C., England, Poland, New York and Rome, Italy.

LINKS:

 
Hot Docs festival of film and video documentaries, Toronto, one I am embarrassed to admit never attended until now.

Enemies of the People entry at Hot Docs.

Official movie web site for Enemies of the People.

A story of profoundly brainwashed nation, North Korea

 VBS reporter Shane Smith is the only patron at a North Korean banquet hall, the whole lame thing being staged to show the wealth of food in a country thought to be unable to feed its people.

This post doesn’t have anything to do with Southeast Asia but the subject of North Korea is fascinating, like a car wreck, like from the “what were they thinking?” department. And since North Korea represents a “threat” to Asian security and has been branded a rogue nation, it’s kind of important.

The subject is a video news feature from inside North Korea and is a must-see. It’s done by a gonzo reporter-camera team from the United States. What’s gonzo? It was a new-wave way of reporting in which a reporter  immerses himself in the story and tells you what happened to him. Think of Hunter S. Thompson. The method is used sparingly thankfully these days, but the style is thoroughly illuminating when  the team -- using only a point-and-shoot camera to conceal their task -- tries to outwit handlers, spy agents, soldiers and guards, waitresses, karaoke singers, you name it, in their effort to reflect at least part of  life in the  People’s Republic of Korea.

 It turns out that yes, it’s  an entirely brainwashed nation. They think they have food (nope), they think the world loves them (nope), they think they have technological marvels (nope), they have a glorious leader (nope), the U.S. wants to bust their asses (well . . ., not just the U.S.). Etc.

There’s an improbable scene, among many, in an empty restaurant that reminds me of an almost identical scene during my two-week trip to the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, well before the wall came down. Twenty-five of us, mostly freelance writers, were herded into a vast empty banquet hall for lunch. It’s a scene that was repeated throughout our trip to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev. We went to the finest restaurants, the most lavish banquet halls, the best “cafes.” In all cases, we were the only “customers.” One back alley restaurant we were taken to was clearly for those with money. The tables groaned with food and vodka. Except for the latter, we never met any Russians. In Russia.

We once got brave and escaped our hotel and jumped on the Moscow metro and went to the end to see what there was to see. We arrived at one of those huge shabby apartment complexes in Moscow, went into one store in which there was almost nothing. Some thoroughly unappetizing  cuts of “animal,” a few cabbages, some toiletries and the ever present lineup in front of the clerk with the abacus. Some voices were rising, agitation was in the air so we bolted.

In the video scene, VBS reporter Shane Smith, in the Vice Guide to North Korea (yes, that VICE, the underground Montreal/New York magazine), sits alone in a vast empty banquet hall. After being served absolutely inedible “matter,” waitresses come in, setting tables and dropping off food, ready for a big crowd. At the end of Smith’s meal, no one else has arrived. He asks out loud when others would appear but it appears as though he’s being ignored, staff too embarrassed about what they were really doing.  By the time he leaves and looks back at the room, the wait staff are taking everything off the tables and presumably storing it for the next big show.

So there we were in a Moscow hotel banquet hall. We sat at maybe two tables out 50 or 60. We were served steak, vegetables, potatoes and bottled water.  One fellow traveller looked down at the burned meat in front of him and said, “Oh no, steak again!”  It became a running gag because we were served steak pretty much every day, the best foods, best drinks. Meanwhile, in the suburban Russian neighbourhoods, stores were close to empty of things to buy. Reporter Smith experienced countless identical scenes: a tea house on an empty lonely road in which he was brought to and it became clear he was probably the only customer in six months; a karaoke with Christmas lights in which it was clear the whole thing had been a staged for him.

If you wondered about conditions in North Korea, this 60-minute video report may open your eyes and possibly confirm your worst suspicions. The video was released in 2008 and I came across it in a fresh post this week on CNN.com. It went nova on CNN and Vice posted on the phenomenon.

Below is the report in three parts. .

LINKS:

• Vice Guide to North Korea, part 1 of 3
• Vice Guide to North Korea, part 2 of 3
• Vice Guide to North Korea, part 3 of 3
• Original CNN posting on the North Korea film
• VBS TV website

Film on Burmese monks' protest an Oscar nominee

One of the Oscar nominees just announced this week is a long-form documentary film set in Burma/Myanmar during the 2007 monks’ protest against the repressive military regime. It’s called Burma VJ, a collection of videos  by Burmese journalists, shot at great danger to themselves, and woven into a documentary by Danish director Anders Ostergaard.

I haven’t seen it and it appears to be unavailable at  Amazon.com, Amazon.ca or Yesasia.com, but you can order from Amazon.co.uk.

LINKS:

• Here’s the URL for the documentary film's official site.
• The film won an editing award at the 2009 Sundance Festival.
• It also collected enough votes among the 120,000-plus ticket buyers to make it into the top 10 of the Toronto Hot Docs Festival in spring, 2009.

Thai director Apichatpong tops world film experts’ poll

A scene from Syndromes and a Century, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

An all-star panel of world film critics, most of whom you wouldn’t know and have never heard of, has voted on the decade’s greatest achievements in film.  The poll was organized and administered by TIFF Cinematheque, an arm of the Toronto International Film Festival, which programs the most  wicked year-round film series you could imagine. If you’d died and gone to heaven, the group’s schedule would be the only one on screen.  I know. I’m a member.

The surprise for most people would be the selection of the number 1 film. It’s not a straight vote. Yes, votes accrued to certain titles, but the pollsters also measured the “intensity of support” via “frequency and strength of  advocacy.”  Hmmm?

Anyway, without further wordage, Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul gained 53 votes from the more than 60 film curators, historians, archivists and festival programmers   and landed in first place, with Syndromes and a Century. Two of his other films landed in sixth (Tropical Malady) and 13th (Blissfully Yours).  Astounding. Well, not really. I’ve seen all three either at the TIFF proper or at the Cinematheque series and always left with several strong images in my head that wouldn’t leave me alone.

Fifteen of the 54 titles are from Asian directors, including six from Taiwan and four each from China and Japan. China’s Jia Zhang-ke has films number two, three and 24 in the poll. I’ve not seen any of them. But will be able to see Jia’s Platform, Still Life and The World because Cinematheque will begin showing 38 of the 54 titles in a month-long series starting Jan. 21. Can’t wait!

 One of my favourite directors is Wong Kar-wei. If you haven’t seen In the Mood for Love  (5th in the poll; image right), you missed out on one of the most romantic films ever made.

Here are the titles (Asians in bold face), directors and and their votes:
1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) – 53 votes
2. Platform (Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong, China/China/Japan/France) – 49 votes
3. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke, China) – 48 votes
4. Beau travail (Claire Denis, France) – 46 votes
5. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, China) – 43 votes
6. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Thailand/Germany/Italy) – 38 votes
7. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania) – 35 votes
Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Hungary) – 35 votes
8. Éloge de l’amour (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/ France) – 34 votes
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, Romania) – 33 votes
10. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands) – 32 votes
11. Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, Russia/Germany) – 31 votes
12. The New World (Terrence Malick, USA) – 30 votes
13. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Thailand) – 29 votes
14. Le Fils (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France) – 27 votes
15. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland) – 25 votes
16. Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (Agnès Varda, France) – 24 votes
In Vanda’s Room (Pedro Costa, Portugal/Germany/Italy/Switzerland) – 24 votes
Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, Sweden/Denmark/Norway) – 24 votes
17. Caché (Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany/Italy) – 23 votes
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, USA) – 23 votes
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, France/USA) – 23 votes
Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan) – 23 votes
18. Rois et reine (Arnaud Desplechin, France) – 21 votes
19. Elephant (Gus Van Sant, USA) – 20 votes
20. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain) – 19 votes
21. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France)– 18 votes
YI YI (A One and a Two) (Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan) – 18 votes
22. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Spain) – 17 votes
23. L’Enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France) – 16 votes
The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, Canada) – 16 votes
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France/Austria) – 16 votes
Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs, USA) – 16 votes
24. The World (Jia Zhang-ke, China/Japan/France) – 14 votes
25. Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan) – 13 votes
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Spain/France/Italy) – 13 votes
L’Intrus (Claire Denis, France) – 13 votes
Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France) – 13 votes
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada) – 13 votes
Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden) – 13 votes
Spirited Away (Hiyao Miyazaki, Japan) – 13 votes
I’m Not There (Todd Haynes, USA) – 13 votes
26. Gerry (Gus Van Sant, USA) – 12 votes
27. Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey) – 11 votes
Dogville (Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Germany) – 11 votes
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, USA) – 11 votes
28. Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov, Russia/France) – 9 votes
demonlover (Olivier Assayas, France) – 9 votes
29. Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk, Canada) – 8 votes
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan) – 8 votes
30. Longing (Valeska Grisebach, Germany) – 7 votes
Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea) – 7 votes

Vai e Vem (João César Monteiro, Portugal) – 7 votes
Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, USA/France) – 7 votes

LINKS

Full TIFF press release on Best of Decade film poll. PDF

Best of the Decade: Alternative View at Cinematheque

Toronto International Film Festival main site

Cinematheque program notes for  Syndromes and a Century from 2007

Agrarian Utopia wins top prize at Toronto Asian film fest

At the closing gala Sunday, it was announced that Thai film director Raksasad Uruphong was honoured with  the  Best Narrative Feature Film or Video Award for Agrarian Utopia at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. 

It turns out that of the five award winners, I'd only seen one, namely Agrarian Utopia. I will really have to do better next year. As I said in my earlier post and review of this wonderful Thai film about two rice farm families, I am usually away in, of all places, Thailand at this time of year. This is the first year since 2003 that I've been home to catch the Reel Asian Film Festival.

I saw some very good films, from a broad and interesting series of features and shorts. The highlight for me is the quality of Thai directing and acting talent in Agrarian Utopia (and Nymph, which I saw at September's  Toronto International Film Festival). Believe it or not, if you've seen Agrarian --  I'm answering my question from the review -- those farmers were actors who were farmers. Sorry, couldn't resist. Yes they were acting and the script was by former farm boy, director Uruphong. If only the country had the money to give to more Thai movie productions.

[Update]

Japan's Fish Story, directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura, about a punk rock band that succeeds in saving the world, won the audience award.

LINKS:

• Agrarian Utopia is distributed by Pretty Picture in France
• Trailer at YouTube
• ExtraVirgin is the Thai distributor of Agrarian Utopia
• Background for Fish Story, audience award winner at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival

My first look at North Korean film, A Schoolgirl’s Diary

A scene from the North Korean film, A Schoolgirl's Diary, at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.

I was looking forward to seeing two films in particular at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival this past weekend. I already reviewed Agrarian Utopia, directed by Uruphong Raksasad of Thailand. The second represented my first film from North Korea, A Schoolgirl’s Diary, directed by Jang In-hak.

The film is about two sisters having a hard time with the fact their hard-working professor father sometimes doesn’t come home for years at a time. He misses all the girls’ important events and rarely sees his wife who constantly translates books and papers for her struggling husband and sends them off to the research centre where he works. People in the town and at school talk about him as if he will never amount to anything. The elder sister is embarrassed and gets to the point that she “erases him from my mind.”

Leading up to this scene, which is near the end of the film, are propaganda-like set pieces of happy families, uncles, neighbours and townsfolk who meet all obstacles with a smile, a platitude and “prayer” for the “Dear General” or "Dear Leader” who knows what’s best in all circumstances.

Elder daughter (Su-Reyon, played by Pak Mi-hyang) says some pretty horrible things and disrespects her sister (Su-ok, rising soccer star) her mom, her father and her friends. She disobeys her father’s wishes that she become a scientist. Of course, with the full weight of political and cultural pressure on media in the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, she (and the good cadres watching this film in the country’s cinemas) learns her lesson.

Yet there are some real truths throughout the film and some insight to be gained from watching a rare film to escape North Korea. The ending has some real drama. But of course, we discover her parents and the nation know what they’re doing and she should learn from that very valuable lesson.

Actress Pak Mi-hyang demonstrates a wide range of emotional weight and colour and was particularly convincing as the selfish school girl. The rest of the cast was very good; you just had to edit out the flouncy window dressing that comes with propaganda. It was like watching someone painting over rust at times.

A Schoolgirl’s Diary is well worth seeing for the upcoming talent and the view behind the 38th parallel. 

Saw two other films: Malaysian and Indonesian, as well as a Korean-Canadian and another Canadian short. More on those later.

Beauty and grace in film about Thai rice farmers

A scene from Thai film Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival Nov. 14.

Two recent Thai films that I’ve seen, Nymph and Agrarian Utopia, really played with my head. I’ve been sitting here at home in Canada for seven months now hearing nothing but Big City noises: Trains, car horns, heavy gravel trucks, unmufflered heavy cruiser motorbikes, drunken voices, car alarms, clank of streetcars, diesel buses and the sounds to really tell me I’m in a western consumerist society, the waste-picking pigeons and gulls. Almost no natural sounds. In the theatres, when I was  immersed in the soundscape of these two films, I was transported  back to my home away from home. It was almost relaxing and comforting to hear the multi-layered bird, insect, animal and plant noises.

The Nymph soundtrack was brilliant, but it was peppered with some synthetic music and creature-like sounds. Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival this weekend, was a non-stop symphony of the beauty of nature. I could ride on that rhythm all day.

Those sounds were a natural foreground as well as background to the story of two families of rice farmers in what only could be Isaan. One family is the hired labour of the other family. Both families are bending under the weight of insurmountable farm loans, the kind that could only be paid back if they win a lottery. The financial burden is the driving force behind the political angles of the story. We get a peak at some political rallies and round-the-night-time campfire talk about how greedy (now former premier) Thaksin politicians and bureaucracies are. There’s even anti-Thaksin speeches. And a few kicks at (current premier) Aphisit in opposition.

The rest is the beauty of human endeavour.

My word skills couldn’t come anywhere near to conveying the sublime images director  Uruophong Raksasad (who attended the festival) has conjured from the camera lens. We watch all of the activities on a rice farm, hunting and fishing, living off the land, “interesting” meals, bedtime chatter,  rice bagging, transport and selling, kids at play, the grace with which good-hearted farm workers carry out their tasks and listen to the families talk about their dire situation. Stunning.  Powerful. Truthful. Intimate. Colourful. Detailed. Heart-aching beauty.

As a counterpoint to the farmers’ burden is a side story (really?) of a neighbour, working his farm all alone, who doesn’t use chemicals,  fertilizer, loans, or anything else that could harm the land or his future. He’s a good humoured character so don’t expect to get teacherish lecture from an earnest, new-wave Thai environmentalist. He is a former professor, and he works his farm  in the most natural, albeit slower, way possible. His neighbours call him a fool. But the labourer  goes to him in a last ditch effort to stay in  farm country to ask him a few questions. The last scene of the movie tells you what he chose.

It’s interesting to note, I think, that there’s not a single girl or young woman in the film.  In Thai country culture, typically, young women from the farms are often the ones  who go to the big city (namely Bangkok) to get a job and help support the family. That could be in a shop, factory or go go bar. The lack of young women kind of highlights that condition so the lack of same may be deliberate.  Another reflection of the male-dominated culture is the fact that the wifely women in the film hardly say a word. In male dominated Thai society, the men have important discussions and make the decisions. Deliberate? Don’t know.

When you watch the film, ask yourself this: is it a documentary or drama?

A scene from Taiwanese film Yang-Yang, which was shown at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.

I also watched the Taiwanese film Yang-Yang. If it weren’t for the electrifying actress Sandrine Pinna (French-Chinese actress), director Cheng Yu-Chieh would have empty reels. The story is about teenager Yang-Yang whose mother ends up marrying Yang-Yang’s track coach. In the deal, Yang-Yang’s friend and track rival ends up being her sister. The sister’s boyfriend takes  a liking to Yang-Yang, and, well you know the rest. The boyfriend, coach, Yang-Yang’s mom and sis are pretty much empty puppets. It seems director Cheng forgot to write a story. The camera almost swallows Yang-Yang in every scene. It’s not surprising that Pinna’s exotic looks, easy nature and formidable acting talent inspire Cheng. But that’s not enough. About 80 minutes into the film and I was thinking about leaving. Moments later, during a pointless scene, a fellow got up near me and left, as did three others. In the space of  four or five minutes, I was the fifth to leave.

I also saw the insane but likeable Malaysian film When the Full Moon Rises by Mamat Khalid. Will get around to this soon.