Far East Film Festival 11
Hello! I've been somewhat MIA the past two-three weeks... First I was working at the Far East Film Festival, which was a lot more demanding than I thought it would be, I worked myself into the ground, ignored the first sign of a bad cold and as a consequence ended up sick in bed for the past week! I'm still fighting off the symptoms... *sniffles*
For those who have no idea of what I'm talking about, the Far East Film Festival has been held in my hometown for the past ten years or so (it's the only "important" thing that ever happens here...), and it's renown internationally for being the best showcase of popular Asian cinematography that rarely makes its way to our screens in the West (Europe or America). It presents a selection of movies from several countries, Japan, China, South-Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and so on and so forth, which get here their European and sometimes International Premieres. Since the Festival is always struggling with funding, it also relies on the help of volunteers to keep going year after year. Mostly young people who offer to help as ushers, or at the info-points, or with the Hospitality and Press departments. I try to do what I can every year, because it's also a very exciting enviroment to be a part of.
This year was awesome!! I was assigned to help out in the Press Room, which meant that I had to be present at the morning Press Meetings with the guests of honour (actors, directors, producers), take notes and then I had until 6pm to write up an article (in Italian and English) reporting what had been said that was then going to be posted on the blog. I was working with another girl from Hong-Kong, but although she spoke perfect English and Italian (and Mandarin and Cantonese and French...), she only felt comfortable writing in English, so I also had to translate all her articles into Italian. Oh, and then put everything up on the blog myself, because apparently I was the only one there savvy enough in the ways of the interwebs... AND, once they figured out I could speak English very well and not only write, they asked me to be an interpreter and translate (instantaneously!) from English to Italian and vice-versa (something I'd never done before!) during the Press Meeting, some of which got recorded and used to make the videos, also available on the blog. So you can guess that I woke up early every morning only to work well into the night, and it went on for 10 days straight. No wonder I got sick! But I have to say I got the attention of the People in Power, who all complimented me for my English and my writing skills, and for picking things up so quickly and being able to think on my feet and use initiative. I'm quite chuffed about that! *is smug and proud*
I also had the chance to see a few movies, thankfully. I saw Departures (Okuribito), the Japanese movie that won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and WOW did it deserve it! Seriously, I highly recommend it to everyone. Best movie I've seen in a while. I may even do a proper review of it. If you're interested in more, read the article I linked to below...
My second favourite film was Radit & Jani, a "brutally romantic" Indonesian movie on the story of the doomed love between two young people who live through drugs, rock 'n' roll and fragile dreams that come to a head when Jani gets pregnant, and their desperate love that shines through with every gesture isn't enough to keep them from making choices that drive them further away from reality and from each other. It's a film on the dichotomy of love, not the idealized, pink and flowery version we're force-fed nowadays, but a love that is real, raw and painful, that struggles to stay strong during times of crisis and endure. How visceral and destructive it can be. How it can bring people together, or tear them apart. Again, highly recommended to everyone. It was filmed in 14 days with a hand-held camera, due to lack of funding, so its strenght is the interactions between the two lead characters... beautifully written, shot and acted.
Another movie worth mentioning is Frozen Flower... South-Korean, a historical drama where the King is gay and has a relationship with the Captain of his bodyguards, but has to produce an heir. Since he can't get it up to screw his wife the Queen, he has the brilliant idea of asking his lover the Captain to sleep with the Queen and "sire" the child, because if he can't raise his own child, he wants to raise his lover's. Perfect plan that goes to hell when he watches his lover and his wife fall in love under his very eyes... and goes literally mad. Really really interesting story and characterization, but I felt it was too explicit in the violence and the sex scenes. It is classified as an erotic drama... I like porn as much as the next person (although I prefer to read it rather than watch it...), but in this case I thought it took something away from the story, it didn't enhance it. It actually made me feel uncomfortable at times, which I didn't think was possible, after fandom. But it might just have been because I was watching it in a big ass theatre with an audience of 1200 people... Beautiful costumes and scenery and colours, though. Definitely worth a look. And I see it's recently been uploaded to IHC, so get to it people! There is gay sexin' and straight sexin' and swords and blood and epic fights to the death. Should appeal to some of you... :D
Archiving here just for myself, but if you're interested, here are the articles I wrote (or co-wrote) in English. I'm leaving out those in Italian, but if you want to read them each one follows immediately after the English version, so just click forward on the blog.
Panna Rittikrai, Thai, director of Ong Bak 2, and involved as actor, stuntmen, director and producer in many Muay Thai movies.
Prachya Pinkaew, Thai, producer of Ong Bak 2, and guru of Muay Thai movies.
Ann Hui, Hong-Kong, celebrated director of The Way We Are, movie set in the infamous Hong-Kong neighbourhood of Tin Shui Wai.
Upi, Indonesian, director of Chants of Lotus and Radit & Jani, representative of a group of newcomers in the Indonesian film industry who fight a neverending battle against censorship to make movies on the issues of their country... drug use, prostitution, abortion. Radit & Jani was my second favourite movie of this Festival.
Mase Yasuhiro, Japanese, producer of Departures.
Spela Cadez, Slovenian, author of the Festival trailer, she specializes in animated short-films made with the stop motion technique.
The Indonesian crew (director, producers and music composer) of Fiction., another beautiful Indonesian movie.
Kim Jee-woon, South-Korea, director of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a Korean western set in Manchuria, homage to Sergio Leone and really bloody hilarious!
Chiba Yoshinori, producer of Yatterman, movie based on the famous anime.
There are also several other articles not written by me that I only translated in Italian, so I'm not linking them here, but if you're interested feel free to have a look.
For those who have no idea of what I'm talking about, the Far East Film Festival has been held in my hometown for the past ten years or so (it's the only "important" thing that ever happens here...), and it's renown internationally for being the best showcase of popular Asian cinematography that rarely makes its way to our screens in the West (Europe or America). It presents a selection of movies from several countries, Japan, China, South-Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and so on and so forth, which get here their European and sometimes International Premieres. Since the Festival is always struggling with funding, it also relies on the help of volunteers to keep going year after year. Mostly young people who offer to help as ushers, or at the info-points, or with the Hospitality and Press departments. I try to do what I can every year, because it's also a very exciting enviroment to be a part of.
This year was awesome!! I was assigned to help out in the Press Room, which meant that I had to be present at the morning Press Meetings with the guests of honour (actors, directors, producers), take notes and then I had until 6pm to write up an article (in Italian and English) reporting what had been said that was then going to be posted on the blog. I was working with another girl from Hong-Kong, but although she spoke perfect English and Italian (and Mandarin and Cantonese and French...), she only felt comfortable writing in English, so I also had to translate all her articles into Italian. Oh, and then put everything up on the blog myself, because apparently I was the only one there savvy enough in the ways of the interwebs... AND, once they figured out I could speak English very well and not only write, they asked me to be an interpreter and translate (instantaneously!) from English to Italian and vice-versa (something I'd never done before!) during the Press Meeting, some of which got recorded and used to make the videos, also available on the blog. So you can guess that I woke up early every morning only to work well into the night, and it went on for 10 days straight. No wonder I got sick! But I have to say I got the attention of the People in Power, who all complimented me for my English and my writing skills, and for picking things up so quickly and being able to think on my feet and use initiative. I'm quite chuffed about that! *is smug and proud*
I also had the chance to see a few movies, thankfully. I saw Departures (Okuribito), the Japanese movie that won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and WOW did it deserve it! Seriously, I highly recommend it to everyone. Best movie I've seen in a while. I may even do a proper review of it. If you're interested in more, read the article I linked to below...
My second favourite film was Radit & Jani, a "brutally romantic" Indonesian movie on the story of the doomed love between two young people who live through drugs, rock 'n' roll and fragile dreams that come to a head when Jani gets pregnant, and their desperate love that shines through with every gesture isn't enough to keep them from making choices that drive them further away from reality and from each other. It's a film on the dichotomy of love, not the idealized, pink and flowery version we're force-fed nowadays, but a love that is real, raw and painful, that struggles to stay strong during times of crisis and endure. How visceral and destructive it can be. How it can bring people together, or tear them apart. Again, highly recommended to everyone. It was filmed in 14 days with a hand-held camera, due to lack of funding, so its strenght is the interactions between the two lead characters... beautifully written, shot and acted.
Another movie worth mentioning is Frozen Flower... South-Korean, a historical drama where the King is gay and has a relationship with the Captain of his bodyguards, but has to produce an heir. Since he can't get it up to screw his wife the Queen, he has the brilliant idea of asking his lover the Captain to sleep with the Queen and "sire" the child, because if he can't raise his own child, he wants to raise his lover's. Perfect plan that goes to hell when he watches his lover and his wife fall in love under his very eyes... and goes literally mad. Really really interesting story and characterization, but I felt it was too explicit in the violence and the sex scenes. It is classified as an erotic drama... I like porn as much as the next person (although I prefer to read it rather than watch it...), but in this case I thought it took something away from the story, it didn't enhance it. It actually made me feel uncomfortable at times, which I didn't think was possible, after fandom. But it might just have been because I was watching it in a big ass theatre with an audience of 1200 people... Beautiful costumes and scenery and colours, though. Definitely worth a look. And I see it's recently been uploaded to IHC, so get to it people! There is gay sexin' and straight sexin' and swords and blood and epic fights to the death. Should appeal to some of you... :D
Archiving here just for myself, but if you're interested, here are the articles I wrote (or co-wrote) in English. I'm leaving out those in Italian, but if you want to read them each one follows immediately after the English version, so just click forward on the blog.
Panna Rittikrai, Thai, director of Ong Bak 2, and involved as actor, stuntmen, director and producer in many Muay Thai movies.
Prachya Pinkaew, Thai, producer of Ong Bak 2, and guru of Muay Thai movies.
Ann Hui, Hong-Kong, celebrated director of The Way We Are, movie set in the infamous Hong-Kong neighbourhood of Tin Shui Wai.
Upi, Indonesian, director of Chants of Lotus and Radit & Jani, representative of a group of newcomers in the Indonesian film industry who fight a neverending battle against censorship to make movies on the issues of their country... drug use, prostitution, abortion. Radit & Jani was my second favourite movie of this Festival.
Mase Yasuhiro, Japanese, producer of Departures.
Spela Cadez, Slovenian, author of the Festival trailer, she specializes in animated short-films made with the stop motion technique.
The Indonesian crew (director, producers and music composer) of Fiction., another beautiful Indonesian movie.
Kim Jee-woon, South-Korea, director of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a Korean western set in Manchuria, homage to Sergio Leone and really bloody hilarious!
Chiba Yoshinori, producer of Yatterman, movie based on the famous anime.
There are also several other articles not written by me that I only translated in Italian, so I'm not linking them here, but if you're interested feel free to have a look.