Northwest Asian Weekly: SIFF week 3: Taiwan cycles into our hearts

nwasianweekly.com June 7, 2008
Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion Chen Huai-en, director of “Island Etude”
SIFF week 3: Taiwan cycles into our hearts By Ann-Marie Stillion Northwest Asian Weekly According to director and cinematographer Chen Huai-en, his film, screening at SIFF this year, is a personal project about the island of Taiwan and life itself. It is also his film debut in feature directing. “Island Etude” blurs the lines between fiction and documentary, and in an interview with the Northwest Asian Weekly this week shortly before he introduced his film to the audience, the director explained his approach. It is a true story based on actual events. Though more of a personal project — indeed, the director produced the film on his own money and that of supporters rather than government funding — the travelogue inadvertently has become a celebration of Taiwanese culture. And has sparked a biking craze. Chen pointed out that in the last year the sale of bicycles has jumped in Taiwan by almost 200 percent due, in part, to this project. The movie has been lauded for its beauty, and others have noted that the film has also made an impact on the emerging environmental movement. The 48-year-old veteran cinematographer learned his craft on the forefront of Taiwan’s New Wave cinema. Self-taught, he began working in film keeping track of scenes and screenwriting on the set. Chen has worked with acclaimed directors such as Chang Tso-chi and Cheng Wen-tang since the 1980s. The coming-of-age themes of “Island Etude” were the result of a casual encounter with a real-life cyclist on a trip around the island. The 1,000-kilometer coastal trek around Taiwan brings him and the audience into intimate contact with the people and the land. “The meaning of the etude in the film is the process doing the whole musical thing. The young man in the film is imagining the process of writing an etude. He is learning the basics of the guitar. He doesn’t actually play the guitar. When I was doing the screenplay and came upon the scene of the young man learning to play the guitar, I got the idea.” Chen said. This sensitive encounter with youth, the road and island culture seems to have found a home in the hearts of Taiwanese as well as global film audiences around the world. Ann-Marie Stillion can be reached at annmarie@nwasianweekly.com. Reviews of the Asian films at the Seattle International Film Fest: Week three from our writers ... “Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame” Iran June 9 at 9:15 p.m., SIFF Cinema; June 11 at 7:00 p.m., Egyptian Theatre Baktay (Nikbakht Noruz), a 6-year-old girl, becomes motivated to attend school for the first time after seeing her neighbor’s son Abbas (Abbas Alijome) read a story out loud from his notebook. Set in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, a village where Taliban members blew up two large Buddha carvings in 2001, she must deal with poverty, violence from Afghan boys and neglect from her reckless mother. Writer Marziyeh Meshkini presents Baktay as an adventurous, charming Afghan girl who takes her mother’s lipstick for later use as a writing instrument. The combination of Meshkini’s script and Noruz’s amazing acting skills works well. This film is the first full-length feature for 18-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf, daughter of Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. While it is shocking to see how “Talib boy” (Abdolali Hoseinali) and his friends play, she has created a film that shows how violence and war can have ongoing, devastating effects on poor Afghan children. — James Tabafunda “Under The Bombs” Lebanon June 9 at 7 p.m. and June 10 at 4:30 p.m., SIFF Cinema Not reviewed at press time, “Under The Bombs” combines real footage of the 2006 “summer war” between Hezbollah and Israel, with a suspenseful dramatic plot concerning an upper-class lady venturing directly into the danger zone, with the help of a laconic cab driver, to recover a missing child. — Andrew Hamlin “Salawati” Singapore June 11 at 7 p.m., June 13 at 4:30 p.m., Pacific Place Cinema Grief strikes a 12-year-old Malay girl named Wati (Aisyah Masgot) and her parents as they mourn the unexpected death of her older brother. Wati is so traumatized she has difficulty talking about his death with anyone, including the police and not even with her mother Fatimah (Mastura Ahmad) and father Ishak (Zaidi Ibrahim). To make sense of the tragedy, Wati prefers to talk to two witnesses, an Indian motorcycle delivery man Raj (Ravi Kumar) and a Chinese salesman Chan (Chaar Chun Kong). Raj is a rude thief, and Chan is so obsessed with work that his wife (Kelly Lim) questions his apparent lack of interest in their only son. Director and writer Marc X. Grigoroff builds an interesting relationship among Wati, Raj and Chan that builds throughout the movie. His focus on these three characters of different racial groups succeeds as he portrays modern race relations in Singapore; it strengthens this satisfying drama. — James Tabafunda “Wonderful Town” Thailand June 11 at 4:30 p.m. and June 15 at 7 p.m., Pacific Place Cinema Dreadful, shameful, and deeply confused, writer-director Aditya Assarat’s attempt to address post-tsunami conditions in the rural community of Takua-Pa draws most of its plot cues from bad Hollywood movies. The film begins well enough as a minor key character study. Ton, an ex-pub musician turned low-level architect (he designs lavatories for lavish resorts) checks into a sleepy hotel, a once thriving family business now single-handedly run by Na, a virtuous young woman. A burgeoning attraction leads to romance, and the movie falls back on such American devices as a lachrymose pop ballad on the soundtrack while the lovers enjoy a motorcycle ride through lush, green country lanes. If that were all, “Wonderful Town” would be a forgivable and forgettable try at conventional moviemaking. Assarat, however, forsakes the relationship in favor of contrivances such as giving Na a gangster brother, or having teenage hoodlums terrorize the couple. The film has its share of striking visuals from cinematographer Umpornpol Yugala, who makes even the wringing of wet laundry on a cement floor look beautiful. But given the violent clichés Assarat resorts to, his slow tracking shots across the remnants of property destroyed by the December 2004 tsunami, although haunting, seem like a cheap way to confer importance on his own ill-conceived script. —N.P. Thompson “Frozen River” USA June 12 at 7 p.m., Pacific Place Cinema; June 14 at 4:30 p.m., Uptown Cinema The town where “Frozen River” takes place is Massena, N.Y., a few miles from the Canadian border in the middle of a Mohawk reservation, and in the winter it’s every bit as cold and grey as the film depicts. This is one of those films that portray a slice of life that most of us aren’t privy to, and it seems to know its subject inside and out. Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) has been abandoned by her gambler husband to look after their two boys. With him went money that was supposed to be spent on a down payment for their new double-wide home. TJ (Charlie McDermott), the eldest, offers to work, but his mother insists he get an education instead. One day while searching for her husband, she finds that his car has been stolen by a local native woman named Lila (Misty Upham). Lila inveigles Ray in a smuggling scheme to raise money for the house. As Lila and Ray make those dangerous trips across the border, the result is a constant state of fear. Leo is absolutely brilliant as Ray, and Seattle’s Upham is a revelation. —Steve Clare “Fairytale in Kathmandu” UK June 12 at 9:30 p.m., SIFF Cinema, June 14 at 11 a.m., Pacific Place Cinema This film caused outrage in Ireland when released. Irish poet and openly gay man Cathal O Searcaigh visits Nepal annually where he claims inspiration for his poetry. While there, he financially assists local young boys, ostensibly for their education. Documentarian Neasa Ni Chianain had always admired him and was allowed to accompany him on a trip to Kathmandu. She discovers, however, that O Searcaigh’s relationship with the young boys is not as pure as he’d like to make out. In the awkward final scene she confronts him back in Donegal about the true purposes of his visits to Kathmandu and the visits the boys make to his hotel room. With interviews being conducted in Gaelic and Nepalese, “Fairytale in Kathmandu” is less about Nepal, but how poverty leaves the Nepalese open to exploitation by wealthy westerners. This is not one for the family and even those with a relatively open mind will feel a mild sense of uneasiness both about O Searcaigh’s behavior and the cynicism of the documentarian who released the film despite what she uncovered. —Steve Clare Cherry Blossoms: Hanami Germany/Japan June 13 at 6:30 p.m., Uptown and June 14 at 11:55 a.m., Cinerama A half-hour into director Doris Dörrie’s set of variations on Ozu’s “Tokyo Story,” an elderly German woman, who has largely repressed her passion for traditional Japanese dance in order to be a middle-class hausfrau, spies a woman in white-face, a Butoh performer, walking towards her. It’s actually herself she sees; she smiles at the arrival of this externalized dream, a benevolent Angel of Death come to whisk her away. That’s the highpoint of Dörrie’s exquisitely photographed yet unsatisfying movie. There are heavenly images here to behold, such as white swans swimming in a Tokyo park, their plumage merging with the delicate pink of overhanging cherry blossom boughs. Yet Dörrie, not for the first time in her career, revels in contempt for men, including the widower protagonist who, for reasons only the writer-director can fathom, takes to cross-dressing in his late wife’s attire. Eventually, the man encounters Yu (Aya Irizuki) in the park, a young Butoh practitioner who swirls the long cord of a pink telephone (on which she speaks to her dead mother) around her kimono. I can’t fault Dörrie for failing to create a single likable character (the German couple’s adult children are a worse lot of ingrates than Ozu ever dreamed of), but that the people onscreen are uninteresting as well asks too much of the viewer while giving too little in return. – N.P. Thompson “Triangle” Hong Kong June 13 at 4 p.m., June 15 at 9 p.m., Cinerama The term “Exquisite Corpse” style describes a film where more than one director works and each continues the film from an agreed changeover point. Triangle is such a film; an enjoyable cops, gangsters and robbers drama with surprisingly well-drawn characters adopting some of the lead roles. Three directors each contribute something, but that does not explain a certain level of disjointedness. There are times when watching it when you cannot be quite sure how deeply into comedy “Triangle” wishes to dive. In its defense, you can claim that the whole thing is experimental and if you don’t mind spending your money on an experiment, then “Triangle” has its moments. Tsui creates a trio, Mok (Sun Hong Le), Fai (Louis Koo) and Sam (Simon Yam), who are hard pressed for cash. In Mok’s antique shop, Fai suggests a heist to Sam, which requires them to utilize the latter's driving skills. Then Sam takes over. A stranger appears brandishing a gold coin and the film takes another turn. Sub-plots get thrown in and Johnny To finishes it off. Despite all, if you can keep up, it’s a reasonably rewarding watch. —Steve Clare “Lakshmi and Me” India June 14 at 4 p.m. and June 15 at 11 a.m., Harvard Exit Nishtha Jain, an Indian filmmaker, turns her camera on her 21-year-old housekeeper, Lakshmi. The spare one-hour documentary records several months of Lakshmi’s life — her daily work, illnesses, an elopement and a pregnancy. Though Jain is at times a bit self-congratulatory as a patron, and there isn’t a great deal of analytical depth to the social dynamics, the film is effortlessly compelling. This is primarily because Lakshmi is such an endearing subject. Early on, when Jain proposes the project, Lakshmi says, “Yes, my life deserves to be filmed.” I don’t know where she would have gotten that kind of self-assurance — or perhaps it was said wryly — but whatever the case, she’s right. —Eleanor Lee “The Tailor” Spain Screens before “Lakshmi And Me,” June 14 at 4 p.m. and June 15 at 11 a.m., Harvard Exit Not available for review at press time, this short sketches 32 minutes of strife, suffocation, and hopefully reconciliation between a Pakistani tailor working in Barcelona and his Indian assistant. In a festival rife with portraits of Asian faces adjusting to life in Europe, this one, like few others, introduces the idea of strife across ethnic lines. —Andrew Hamlin

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