Asian films a powerful presence in Cannes

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Asian films a powerful presence in Cannes

Jill Lawson, Associated Press

Friday, May 22, 2009

(05-22) 04:00 PDT Cannes, France -- Asian movies, once a rarity in Cannes, are lighting up the film festival this year.

Six of 20 films competing for the top prize at this year's fest are from Asian filmmakers, offering everything from troubled gay lovers to a vengeful father to a vampire priest.

Palme d'Or contenders include romantic tragedy "Spring Fever," by China's Lou Ye; vampire morality tale "Thirst" by South Korea's Park Chan-wook; and revenge thriller "Vengeance" by Hong Kong's Johnnie To.

Other Asian films competing for the prize are graphic crime shocker "Kinatay" by Brillante Mendoza of the Philippines, and "Visage," the story of a Taiwanese director trying to make a movie in Paris, by Taiwan's Tsai Ming-Liang. Taiwan-born Ang Lee, who brought "The Ice Storm" to Cannes in 1997, is back with U.S.-set hippie homage "Taking Woodstock."

"Thirty or 40 years ago the Asian presence was not so important," said festival director Thierry Frémaux. "Little by little, step by step in recent years, we have opened the festival to Asia - not only Japan, but China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines.

Only a handful of Asian directors have won the top prize in Cannes' 62-year history, almost all of them Japanese. Just over half this year's competition films are by Europeans, and just one by an American - Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."

Many observers credit inventive Japanese horror films like 1998's "Ring" - remade in Hollywood with Naomi Watts a few years later - with whetting the international appetite for Asian cinema and encouraging Asian filmmakers to seek an international audience.

That's reflected in a slew of Asian genre movies, with titles like "Werewolf Erotica" and "Kung Fu Cyborg," hoping to find buyers in the Cannes market, where hundreds of films from around the world are bought and sold.

Park's metaphysical monster movie "Thirst" was made with the backing of Hollywood studio Universal Pictures - a first for a Korean film.

"The world is discovering that the Asian film community is producing good films, and their reaction has been positive," said Park, whose previous films include bloody chiller "Oldboy."

"In turn, these positive reactions are helping the Asian film community produce better and better films."