CONTEMPORARY EVENTS
The ways of the East

Festival of Asian cinema

On the occasion of "The ways of the East" and to coincide with MIFED (International Cinema and Multimedia Market) one could not miss a Festival that showcased the best of the cinema recently produced in Asia.

To carry tokens and peculiarities of peoples beyond their land of origin, through a highly expressive artistic form like that of cinema, is a way to boost comparison with other cultures, meant as an exchange not only of intellectual themes, but also of commercial and economic contents.

The Festival is an important opportunity to promote an as yet little known cinema among the vast Western audience. It is in Asia that some of the masterpieces that traced the recent history of the art of film were produced during the last few years, and a prestigious showcase like that of Milan proves ideal for presenting the multifaceted Eastern cinema.

The festival programme proposes a plurality of genres, ranging from comedy to historical, testifying to the richness and dynamism of contemporary Asian cinema.

The festival will open on the October 12 with an inaugural soirée. On this occasion representatives of the Asian film industry will meet their Italian counterparts.

Cinema Gnomo,
Via Lanzone 30
12 - 17 ottobre

List of Movies:

INDIA
Dev
Teen Deewarein
Gangajal
Patalghar

CHINA
I Love Beijing
On the Beat
For Fun
Someone Loves Just Me
DOCUMENTARIES:
Looking for a job in the city
Railroad Of Hope

HONG KONG Colour of the Truth
Three Going Home
Running on Karma

SINGAPORE
Chicken Rice War
I not stupid
Home run

THAILAND
Ong-Bak
My girl
The Overture

India
The magic of the colours and dances of Bollywood. The intellectual thrust of the films of Calcutta. The fascinating stories of Madras. With more than 60 thousand films produced in 70 years, India is the largest producer of films in the world. Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood are the main production centres.

Progressive Western influences and the spread of television have prompted producers and directors to search for increasingly advanced technologies and increasingly modern and credible plots. The common man is pushing his way past the superheroes of the past. The poor rustic who fights to win over the rich and noble girl is being replaced by men and women who grapple with everyday town life.

Bollywood makes Bombay the undisputed Indian film capital. An alternation of long musicals and crossover films reflects the new Indian soul and adds a more distinctly Western flavour to the colours and music of this magnificent continent.

Kollywood in Madras has, on the contrary, always aimed at the quality of the choreography, direction, music and acting. The classic, ostentatious Indian sets and the varied backgrounds are avoided in favour of a greater technical perfectionism and interesting plots.

Tollywood in Hyderabad is a dream world created for the celluloid on a sprawling 1000 acres, with every imaginable set and location.

Calcutta. The cultural capital of India and the birthplace of Satyajit Ray, one of the greatest internationally acclaimed directors. The films of Calcutta draw their inspiration from the exquisite Bengali stories and poems, and therefore prove to be less commercial and more introspective.

The Hong Kong film industry of the '80s and early '90s produced a treasure trove of films. It made matinee idols of (among others) Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan and Maggie Cheung, reinvented genres with style and generally beat the Hollywood dream factory thanks to directors like Woo, Ann Hui, Stanley Tong, and (Quentin Tarantino's favorite) Kar-Wei Wong.

Like other national cinemas, however, Hong Kong cinema also has to face the challenge from Hollywood. Despite the success of the above mentioned directors and actors, in order to sustain its vibrant film industry it seems to be imperative for Hong Kong cinema to draw upon the rich resources of the "Greater China" (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao) and expand its influence beyond the geographically limited territory.

Hong Kong has long been a major film production centre. Its film industry is an important part of the city's economy, a vehicle for many talented people and a source of enjoyment for millions.

Singapore
The fledgling Singapore film industry has developed in the last ten years owing to the creation of the first - and as yet only - production house in the country. Singapore was in fact the only country in South-East Asia without its own film industry till many years after its independence. Although the number of films produced each year comes nowhere near Bollywood film production, Singapore has recently produced feature films that have met with the audience's favour especially in the Asian market; Singapore is carving out a niche for itself in the Festivals in Europe and in the United States, where its productions, particularly in the sector of short features, have met with the critics' approval. Through short features, which can be made with investments that are decidedly modest and more easily exportable, the young generation of directors in Singapore are able at least in part to escape the rigid censorship to which all the art forms (not only films) produced in the city are subjected and to offer products that are truly creative and of excellent quality.

Thailand
It was the year 1927, when Bangkok Film gave birth to local movie industry, launching the first silent film by a Thai director, Chok Sorng Chan. In Thailand silent films were more successful than talkies until the late '60s; in 1969, Thai studios still produced 16mm silent films. Probably influenced by the famous masala (that is to say "mix") Indian movies - grown very popular in Bangkok after World War II -, Thai film companies did their utmost to produce blends of love stories and comedy, or melodramatic action movies.

In spite of the initial success, producing only banal love stories and low-quality action movies led Thai film companies to almost complete extinction during the '80s and the '90s.

Thai industry was widely outclassed by the spectacularity of Hollywood productions, as well as the long lasting period of success obtained by any import product.

Nevertheless, nowadays Thailand can count on a new generation of skilled directors, many of them having studied overseas during the boom of movie productions of the late '80s and early '90s.

The commitment of these directors turned out to be mostly encouraging, and persuaded local and foreign critics to talk about a kind of Thai "nouvelle vague".

Giving up sugary soap-operas of the past years, present-day directors show to prefer works oriented to a bold realism, artistic innovation and strengthening of national identity.

China
The century-long Chinese film history has been highlighted by the "golden eras" of the 1930s, late 1940s, 1980s, and mid-1990s. Although struggling with the market reform, government censorship, and an increasing presence of Hollywood, filmmakers in the People's Republic of China continue to draw worldwide attention through their creative works.

Looking back, the most productive and prosperous phases of the development of the Chinese cinema coincided with periods characterized by an acute sense of social crisis. This crisis was caused by the disintegration of the old order and the family-based pre-capitalist mode of production in the face of the expanding influence of the West. Chinese cinema was at its best when it responded to the crisis by actively participating in the movement of social revolution. The leftist films of the 1930s and '40s are a case in point. Although these earlier classics are said to have resulted from political intervention by the Chinese communists operating underground in Shanghai, most of them have neither the ideological dogmatism nor the moral didacticism characteristic of the films made, sometimes by the same filmmakers, after the Revolution. Drawing on the narrative tradition of Chinese literature as well as the best of world cinema available to them, such as the Soviet cinema of the '20s, the German expressionist films and the American populist films of the '30s, these leftist films played an important role in shaping a radical consciousness and in encouraging the audience to participate directly in the actual process of social change. It was exactly these qualities that made them both avant-garde and popular at the same time.

Chinese film has established a place on the international art house circuit and emerged as a major object of study in international film scholarship over the last 15 years. Therefore, English-language writings on the topic are limited and so is the range of films in public circulation. Yet, Chinese film includes a vast range of materials from different film industries located in mainland China (the People's Republic of China), Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Republic of China). As a result, it is impossible to offer great detail and depth on any one area of Chinese cinema and the focus will be on trying to map the overall picture and then consider topics.

The most exciting event in contemporary Chinese cinema was the emergence of the Fifth Generation filmmakers in the early 1980s. These young filmmakers, who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy when it reopened after the Cultural Revolution, were given the opportunity to make films at minor studios in the interiors of China. They immediately set themselves the task of "modernizing" Chinese cinema. Reinforced by a number of middle-aged filmmakers, they helped create what is now generally known as the "Chinese New Wave". This cinema noted for its artistic inventiveness, its reappropriation of the rich cultural heritage of the nation, an eagerness to deal with social issues, its approach to film style and the creation of a new film language.