anderson's blog

I had the pleasure of being invited to a special Tastemakers screening of SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN in Los Angeles earlier this week. I was live-blogging from the event on the @HIFF twitter account.

Directed by Wayne Wang (THE JOY LUCK CLUB, CHAN IS MISSING) and based on the acclaimed novel by Lisa See, the film opens in theaters tomorrow, July 15. Aside from Wang and See in attendance, there was also the main lead, Li Bingbing, who flew in from Beijing, as well as executive producers Wendi Deng Murdoch (yep, she's married to Rupert) and Florence Sloan. Here's a photo of them on the red carpet.

(From L to R: Wendi Deng Murdoch, star Li Bingbing, Wayne Wang, Florence Sloan, Lisa See)

If you didn't know, the geeks have inherited the Earth. Catering to geek culture is a Hollywood mantra now, with superhero movies coming out of the yin yang for summer blockbuster season, graphic novels and other comic properties being picked up and adapted for big screen annihilation and Comic Con becoming the Mecca of Geekdom every year, where every studio will head south to San Diego and evangelize and cock tease the masses in the hallowed Hall H.

But, with news today of several studios opting out of Comic Con presentations this year, because of hype in a vacuum, we may have crossed a tipping point with geek and fanboy-dom. But, that's not going to happen anytime soon and thank the Maker, because the 2nd annual Hero Complex Film Festival presented by the Los Angeles Times was held this past weekend, and it was hella fun. This film festival was created by LA Times reporter Geoff Boucher, who also runs the Hero Complex blog, a news site on all things geek (movies, TV, comics, multimedia).

Read more about the Hero Complex Film Festival below...

I had the great pleasure to attend the Far East Film Festival, located in a small mountain town called Udine, which is about 90 minutes from Venice. Why have an Asian film festival in the middle of nowhere Italy? Well, why not? The inception of the festival began in 1999, when a retrospective of Hong Kong cinema was presented to local cineastes. It was wildly successful and from then on, the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche, a presenting organization of film events around Udine, started the Far East Film Festival. Now in its 13th year, it is considered a true destination point for Asian film aficionados and has launched international spotlights on Asian auteurs like Johnnie To, Quark Henares and Feng Xiaogang, just to name a few.

Read more below (full size photos included).

I had the great pleasure of being invited to attend the 3rd annual Kyoto Filmmakers Lab (KFL for short), which was held last month. Essentially a filmmaker's boot camp, 20 participants are chosen from an open call, and are split into two groups. Each group must work on a short film. The catch is, the films are jidaigeki and to be shot on the existing sets at the Toei-Kyoto and Shochiku-Kyoto Studios respectively.

These historic studios are located in the famous Uzumasa area, where in its prime, was the nexus of Japanese cinema and TV dramas for the better part of the 20th Century (Classics like Rashomon was shot at the now defunct Daiei Studios, for example). Dubbed the "Hollywood of Japan," this quiet residential neighborhood houses the last two remaining movie studios, as well as Eigamura, or Toei Movie Land, a tourist attraction similar to Universal Studios, with Edo period village sets, a haunted house, props and other classic movie posters on display and my personal favorite, a Power Rangers museum!

So, what's the purpose of the KFL? With the waning interest in jidaigeki over the past 20 years leading to this once vibrant sector to lose its luster in the overall Japanese pop culture scene, studio execs and the prefecture government came together to reignite interest in jidaigeki with various events by updating them to the current tastes of young consumers. Case in point is the Sengoku Matsuri, an annual event held every September that promotes Toei Movie Land and showcasing its traditional sets and customs of jidaigeki, and blending it with anime and manga otaku culture, primarily cosplay and interfacing with filmmakers and production pros (costume design, set design, special effects) with seminars that are open to the public.

Breaking out of the mode of traditional jidaigeki, Toei Studios produced a hilarious web series called Metal Samurai, which was set in Edo period and about a brooding gaijin samurai in KISS makeup. I showed this web series in its entirety at the 2008 Festival and it was a lot of fun.

So back to the KFL... By having an international group of filmmakers in Kyoto for a week, collaborating together to make a jidaigeki-inspired short film, it helps promote Uzumasa area as a place to do business, neo-jidaigeki business! With lowered rates and an open mind, the studios there are open to all kinds of filmed entertainment to be produced there. And let me tell ya, 2010 was a busy year for them, with big to low budget films, straight-to-DVD, web series, and even student films produced on the lot.

Unfortunately, there were no Hawaii-based filmmakers participating this year unlike the 2009 edition, when there were three filmmakers from Hawaii. Check out this short film from the 2009 KFL entitled SAYONARAKEN, shot by HIFF alunmus Gerard Elmore!

Nevertheless, the  KFL 2010 teams were great and quite productive, for the most part. As Francis Ford Coppola once said, "being a director is the last job in the Western world, where you can still be a dictator." Filmmakers are inherently leaders, so it was interesting to see the various dynamics. But mostly, people worked together and set aside their differences. Why wouldn't you when you were required to attend mandatory traditional samurai sword-fighting seminars?

I was glad to see that some filmmakers that I recommended were chosen and pleasantly surprised that filmmakers that I knew of but have never met, were also there because of my initial recommendation was sent to them (thanks, Facebook). What's cool is that the filmmakers sleep together under one roof, on tatami mats and futons, bathe at a nearby sento , and pretty much stay together 24/7 for a week, but also get a couple of days to do some local sightseeing. Hey, a sponsored Kyoto trip in December? Count me in!

In addition, to the KFL, the Historica Film Festival is also held during the same time. The "film festival" portion of this whole enterprise, the theme of the festival is to promote historical films from around the world. Films such as Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth and Sngmoo Lee's The Warrior's Way were shown with various high level crew members associated with said films in attendance to be a part of in-depth post film discussions.

Japanese enfant terrible director Takashi Miike, the master of disturbing masterpieces Ichi the Killer, Audition, and the most recent 13 Assassins (one of the best jidaigeki films in years, which was also shot all in Kyoto), was also in attendance, leading a master class with other notable directors. He's definitely mellowed out in recent years (his reputation is legendary and his no bullshit attitude was very prominent when I first met him ten years ago at the Rotterdam Film Festival), and has made three jidaigeki films back-to-back-to-back all in the Uzumasa area.

He interacted quite a bit with the KFL participants and hung out with them at the closing night BBQ, which was held inside one of the stages at Shochiku Studios. What's cool about Japanese stages is that the ground is padded with dirt and floors are constructed above them. Hence, a great place to host a kick-ass BBQ, with grill stations spread out and my favorite yakitori grandma ever, hard at work to ensure optimum grilling quality.

Overall, a trip well worth it. And if any budding filmmakers interested in Japanese cinema, or just to exercise those creative muscles with peers from around the world and are interested in participating in the next KFL, just go to the official website for information. Aside from meeting and networking with interesting folks, taking in the serenity of Kyoto, and eating my way through the city, I truly admire what these film studios are doing in being relevant and also promoting the area.

Kyoto is truly one of the great cities of Japan, if not the world, and its rich film tradition should not be extinguished. If you are a fan of Japanese cinema, then do check out Yoji Yamada's love letter to the bygone era of Uzumasa, entitled Kyoto Story, which we showed at the last HIFF.

In the meantime, I leave you with this lasting image, fresh bowl of curry udon from Yamamoto Menzo that was truly heavenly, especially during a cold December evening.

63rd Festival de Cannes

The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival closed today with Thai film UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES winning the coveted P'alm d'Or. The film, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, was received warmly by critics and audiences alike. Apichatpong, or "Joe" as he is also referred as, almost didn't make it to France because of the current political turmoil in his native Thailand. Indiewire has a full list of winners and their reactions.

Overall, it was a decent festival, with some good selections in the official selections. I felt the Un Certain Regard sidebar was the best, presenting some very interesting works from emerging filmmakers. My personal favorite from this sidebar was CARANCHO directed by Pablo Trapero. Set in Argentina, the film is an unlikely love story between Sosa, an ambulance chaser, and Luján, a young doctor. Derek Cianfrance's BLUE VALENTINE, which world premiered at Sundance, stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, as a couple experiencing the deterioration of their relationship.

Mike Leigh's ANOTHER YEAR and Stephen Frears' TAMARA DREWE represented the strength of British cinema this year, and both of these titles will, thankfully, be released in the States during the Fall/Winter awards season. On the other hand, the emerging themes of videogames and virtual reality was presented in three titles this year, with very mixed results. R U THERE, a Dutch/Taiwan co-production about a Dutch competitive gamer who loses his way and tries to connect with another human being, in the form of a Betelnut girl was slow and asinine at times, and J-horror maestro (he of RINGU fame) Hideo Nakata's UK based film CHATROOM, was outdated, as if I was watching a film about the Internet from the early 90s.

Korean cinema was strongly represented with three titles -- Im Sang-soo's "reimagining" of THE HOUSEMAID starring the best actress from Korea, the daring, innocent and very sexy Jeon Do-yeon (SECRET SUNSHINE). It was gorgeously shot and the sexual mind games entwined with the class system was a sight to see. First time director Jang Cheol-soo's BEDEVILLED, in the Semaine de la Critique (Critic's Week section), was a film I had very little expectations about the lone woman on a remote island that is constantly abused by the village elders and her abusive husband. It turned out to be a classic "woman revenge" thriller, where the last 45 minutes is bloody curdling genre was oddly a much needed release from the abuse she took on screen. Finally, enfant terrible, Hong Sang-soo's HAHAHA, continues his examination on pretentious and horny male intelligentsia, was agreeable enough for the film to win the Grand Prize in this section.

This year’s edition was light on the usual Hollywood glitz and glamour of past editions — aside from the Opening Night film, ROBIN HOOD, bringing the likes of Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchette to the Croisette, Hollywood fare was almost non-existent, leaving room for selections from European auteurs and emerging filmmakers. Screenings were easier to get into and there were definitely less parties. The penny pinching atmosphere was very apparent this year, as the Festival fully felt the film industry credit crunch.

And still, the ubiquitous things about Cannes still existed. There were still glamorous parties, the big AmFar AIDS fundraiser hosted by Harvey Weinstein, day clubs full of exotic and beautiful people, and over-priced French food. Imagine the Croisette, the main street in Cannes that borders the coast, as Kalakaua Ave. and Cannes itself as an amalgam of Waikiki and Miami's South Beach. It's a good model for a film festival. Pusan Film Festival, in October, takes place in a similar environment, Haeundae Beach, in the bustling southern port town.

For twelve days, Cannes becomes the center of the film universe, and it is a great way to meet up with film sellers, filmmakers, buyers, from all over the world. I've got my long laundry list of films I want to show for the upcoming 30th HIFF. It will be a long, arduous process in trying to secure my A list of films and find films that fit with planned sidebars and new partnerships that will make this upcoming HIFF truly special. Capturing that glint of Cannes is always a good thing, as we move forward through the summer to program an eclectic and interesting program for our film hungry audiences.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And what we do well at HIFF, we'll continue to do. But, we've got some interesting and new things coming up. Hopefully, they'll all work as we look onward for the next 30 years.