Upcoming Asian Movie Events in Melbourne

Things have been quiet for me on the blogging front lately. I have a couple of blogs finished and waiting to be posted, but haven’t been motivated to stuff about with the process on posting them online yet. I haven’t written anything for over a week now. My intellectual and emotional energies have been directed into dealing with some career issues and some naggingly persistent health problems (although nothing life threatening) over the last couple of months and this has left me feeling devastatingly tired. However, I have just passed a quiet, stress free and relaxing weekend and I think my energy levels will start to pick up from now on.

Pleasingly, there are some great Asian movie experiences coming up for me over the next couple of months. I have booked myself in to go to the Asian Australian Film Forum next weekend. This is a free forum that is a mixture of panels, talks and movie screenings from a range of different genres including action.

Coinciding with the forum here in Melbourne is a separate event – a mini festival of Asian films showing over at the NOVA Cinema here in Melbourne. That the programs of these 2 separate events clash is a pity, maybe, although, to be honest, not many of the films in the NOVA event grab me with the exception of the last. The classy Wu Xia (and maybe one or two other films) sit like orphaned children in the middle of a program that seems to to be weighted in favour of films that have been chosen from the more gory, exploitative, trashy side of Asian (especially Japanese) cinema. I can take or leave these splatter fests that are peopled by assassins and / or victims in school girl’s uniforms. My watching them usually depends on whether or not there’s anything better on offer, who I see them with and whether or not I am, therefore, assured of an interesting post film analysis. I am going to sound nerdy here, but I can watch these films out of sociological interest as they tend to hack up the seedier side of human nature and serve it all up pot luck for the viewer. But I have a weak stomach for straight out gore that hasn’t been produced as the result of a meticulously and elaborately choreographed kung fu sequence, and a little of the misogynism inherent in this genre goes a very long way with me. Someone on the Heroic Sisterhood Facebook page recommended Korean film The Yellow Sea as being very good. I am not sure whether or not the very realistic violence apparently featured in this film will be too much for me, I will have to see, but the recommendation is noted. I guess my best tactic will be to go to the Asian Australian Film Forum and, if I get bored with that, I know I can always nick over to the NOVA to kill some time with some Asian trash.

I am becoming increasingly interested in the way Asian films (and, especially, my beloved chopsockies) are viewed or ‘read’ by western audiences, whether that be die-hard fans or people new to Asian movies. I am hoping that next weekend’s Asian Australian Film Forum will offer the experiences and perceptions of Asian Australian film makers and other stakeholders and there may be insights to be gleaned. It is interesting that this forum will be juxtaposed, calendar wise, against the NOVA event which is an entertainment, rather than scholarly, event. I find the curatorial and marketing approach of this festival interesting. With only 4 days to program, there is nothing wrong with the festival’s program focusing mostly on the trashy side of Asian film making – with so little time available choices do have to be made. The poster / logo marketing this festival is also trashy – boobs and leather. But the title of the festival – Fantastic Asia Film Festival – does not indicate that the main focus of the festival is on the trashy or juvenile (although the logo, arguably, does). According to its website, this film purports to “… bring the best and brightest shining stars of Asian cinema direct to Melbourne…” but I suspect that this festival is catering to the audience that is hungry for the camp viewing experience, and I must admit that I am not totally at ease with this trend in western audiences. There are so many “fantastic” Asian films from so many different genres. Asian film making has much more breadth and depth than just Ninja school girls having their erogenous zones minced up, and it is a shame to educate western audiences otherwise.

But I digress. I did just want to tell you about the films I was going to see on the big screen. At the end of November / early December is the Japanese Film Festival, which is an annual national event here in Australia. It is a beaut little festival, and this is the third time I will be going. Stretching over about 7 days this festival programs a great array of films covering different aesthetics and styles. I have tickets to see the following 10 films:

• A Ghost of a Chance
• Suite Dreams
• Princess Toyotomi
• Gantz
• Gantz: Perfect Answer
• Ninja Kids (which I note is also included in the NOVA Cinema event line-up)
• Space Battleship Yamato
• The Last Ronin
• Milocrorze (which is also showing at the NOVA event)
• The Lady Shogun and her Men

I am also going to try to get to see the following free films that are included in the program:

• Destiny’s Son
• Ken
• Yotsuya Ghost Story
• On the Road Forever

If anyone has seen or heard anything about these films then please leave me a comment. I would be most interested to hear your views.