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Mon, November 23, 2009
San Diego Asian Film Festival 2009 - Red Cliff and Ip Man and Merantau…Oh My
by Dr. Craig Reid
With this past year's economic climate, most of
America's major Asian Film Festivals in the United
States have drastically cut their programs, running for
fewer days and showcasing fewer films. For example, the
New York Asian Film Festival, which has been around for
almost 30 years, scaled back their program from last
year's eight days to this year's
two-and-a-half days. Although the San
Francisco International Asian Film Festival still lasted
for 11 days, it had major cutbacks on its cinema
schedules. Even the powerhouse Los Angeles Asian Film
Festival only ran for eight days this year and showcased
183 films. The only Asian Film Festival in the country to
go beyond the call of cinematic duty to support
Asian-made films and Asian filmmakers is the San
Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF), which kicks
off this week in San Diego, CA. Starting on October 15,
it will run for a whopping 14 days and feature 200+
films from 20 countries. This says a lot about the
organizers and their passion to not bow to the economy
but to put themselves out there to show the world that
Asian film is worth the time and effort.
Although some may say that showcasing martial arts
films at an Asian film festival is rather stereotypical,
the truth of the matter is that martial arts are a major
part of Asian culture. In the history of Asian cinema,
the genre with the greatest international success has
always been the martial arts film. So what does an Asian
film festival showcasing 200+ films serve up for us?
More martial arts movies (and films containing
martial arts action) than ever before. Excluding the
record number of documentaries and martial short films,
we're talking 11 major martial arts films. Featured
among them are the exclusive theatrical West Coast
premieres of John Woo's RED CLIFF and Donnie
Yen's IP MAN. These two films alone are worth the
journey to San Diego to be able to see them on the big
screen.
Lee Ann Kim, a first-generation Korean American
and the executive director of the San Diego Film
Foundation (which she founded in 2000 with the Asian
American Journalists Association of San Diego),
exclusively shares with kungfumagazine.com the challenges
of running this festival in a banner year (its 10th
anniversary) and why - despite a dire economic
downturn that has caused most film festivals to cut back
- it was decided to go all out. "At the
beginning of the year we had to make a decision,"
Kim relates. "There is a difficulty in doing a 10th
anniversary with so many films and with the economy being
so hard. We had to decide on whether we keep it small or
go all out, balls to the wall." (I jokingly
note there must be a lot of Eunuchs around.)
"We looked at what all the other festivals were
doing, and all of them are scaled back big time. San
Francisco, LA, NY. But then we looked at the box office.
And despite the economy, people are actually going to the
films. Rather than spending money on a trip, they were
spending money on doing something close to home. They
don't eat out as much, but with a film they can eat
in, then go to a film. So I said, 'Let's try
it.' One reason to do it is because we know every
time we have a film program during the year, they are
packed. We also have a reputation, and because this is
our milestone year, the 10th year, we decided to go two
weeks."
In order to put her full energy into this year's
festival, Kim even resigned from her job of 12 years as a
news anchor for KGTV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego. She
posits, "A film festival is a great awesome way to
bring people of all backgrounds together, Asian and
non-Asian, and we can do this by showcasing films
that are of course not only top-notch quality but
they are also diverse; thus we have films this year
from Russia, New Zealand, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Australia
and our first film from Switzerland.
"We also have more members (San Diego Asian
Film Foundation and SDAFF); the number of
sponsors have not gone down, and it is the first year
that I have exclusively focused on the film foundation
and festival, and not split between this and my old job.
I thought about what I have accomplished in nine years
with two jobs, then thought, imagine what I could do if I
just had this one baby to focus on? I really want this
to be a thriving festival."
Speaking of this thriving festival, it is much more
than just a conglomeration of Asian-themed films, it
is indeed a social phenomenon geared toward giving
non-Asians a better-rounded taste of Asian
filmmaking. The festival has also become a local symbol
of unity, a way to bring together San Diego's
-- in fact, Southern California's --
many different Asian American communities who don't
always see themselves as a single entity compared to the
African-American and Hispanic communities.
So what other martial arts films will be playing
exclusively down in San Diego? Well, there is the West
Coast premiere of LEGEND IS ALIVE, actor Dustin
Nguyen's second martial arts spectacle where he plays
a mentally-challenged martial artist named Long who
is taught the Vietnamese martial art of Tay Son Binh
Dinh as a means to cope with his mental deficiencies.
In order to inspire Long to do good, his female martial
arts teacher tells Long he is the son of Bruce Lee, but
that he should never practice martial arts to hurt people
- only to protect those who are in need. Of course,
events lead him to break out of his shell and do the
right thing. Tay Son Binh Dinh originates from Binh Dinh
province, and although the history is unclear, two major
practitioners of the art led what is known as the Tay Son
Uprising that began in 1771 and ended in 1802. During
this period, King Nguyen Hue fought and defeated Ching
Dynasty invaders from China. Although known for its
aggressive sword-fighting techniques, it is one of
the few Vietnamese martial arts that women were
encouraged to learn - thus the smart choice of making
Long's teacher in the film a woman.
Another West Coast premiere is the first Indonesian
martial art film made in over 15 years, MERANTAU, which
stars pencak silat expert Iko Uwais as a simple lad named
Yuda growing up in Sumatra. When the time comes for Yuda
to learn the art of manhood, he must undergo the rite of
passage known as Merantau. This consists of learning to
fend for himself in the big city. When things get down
and dirty in the city, Yuda must - figuratively
speaking - replace the "u" in his name with
"o" and, like Yoda, rely on his martial
training to save himself from the dark side of the
violent city. Not since the time of Indonesian and
taekwondo martial artist Barry Prima has there been such
significant martial arts in Indonesian films. Southeast
Asian countries are increasingly tapping into their
traditional marital arts, and perhaps inspired by Tony
Jaa's stylized kickboxing in ONG BAK, this film
features for the first time pure Indonesian silat martial
arts. Silat is little known beyond Indonesia, and
historically the silat fighters' success against
Holland and Japan is attributed to mystical practices and
the manipulation of tenaga dalam (qigong).
Legend says that a female named Bima founded a form of
silat called Bima Sakti, which bears the
philosophy, "never be the first to strike, and even
if hit, try never to hit back." Like Shaolin, silat
is heavy into animalism and spiritualism.
Speaking of Shaolin, documentary subject Orion Lee
will be at hand to speak about THE REAL SHAOLIN, directed
by Alexander Lee, that chronicles the adventures of two
Chinese and two Westerners who, inspired by various
martial arts films, travel to the fabled Shaolin temple
in Henan province to learn about the physical and
spiritual aspects of Shaolin kung fu.
Zatoichi returns to the big screen, or should I say
Zatoichi-ette in the form of ICHI, an ERA (equal
rights amendment) version of the classic Japanese
chambara film series ZATOICHI, made famous by Shintaru
Katsu who, between 1962 and 1973, portrayed the blind
masseuse in 25 films. But instead of burning her bra like
the women in the 1970s ERA movement, Ichi will be burning
her opponents with some slice-and-dice
human-vegematic swordswomanship. Incidentally, women
involved in the feminist movement during the 1960s and
early '70s really did not burn their bras; that is an
old wife's tale. Ichi (Haruka Ayase) is a
blind traveling goze (musician) who
wanders the countryside looking for the man who raised
her. During her travels she gets caught up in a turf war
between two rival gangs, and needs to rely on her sword
skills to avoid being the one gets mowed down.
Another intriguing film coming to the festival is AFRO
SAMURAI: RESURRECTION, a bizarre yet cool manifestation
of 1970s blaxploitation films mixed with Japanese
chambara ala anime. Starring the voice of Samuel Jackson
and Lucy Liu, the film is about Afro Samurai
(Jackson) who is finally at peace after avenging
his father's death, only to find himself again at
war, this time battling a mysterious woman out to destroy
him.
Most martial arts film fans have probably heard of RED
CLIFF and IP MAN, so here is a rundown of some other
martial arts films you may not be familiar with.
There's the southern California premiere of K-20,
a Japanese fantasy actioner with a $20 million price tag
that stars Takeshi Kaneshiro as Hikichi Endo, a man
approached by the mysterious K-20 to do a job that
puts him in harm's way (he must hunt down
K-20 before the police gun him down); the
South Korean actioner ROUGH CUT about an actor named Jang
Soo-ta (Kang Ji-hwan) who, always
injuring stuntmen during fight films, decides to use a
real tough guy instead - only to get entangled in a
love triangle (between himself, the tough guy, and
the film-within-the-film's lead
actress); and the award-winning Hong Kong
action melodrama BEAST STALKER, about an intense leader
of an elite strike force who is out to capture a rarely
seen crime lord.
Two final must-see entries in the program are
CONCRETE JUNGLE and FIGHT SCENES AND FALL GUYS. CONCRETE
JUNGLE is a collection of nine short films that feature
horror, stylistic action, martial arts
free-for-alls, gang wars, and a touch of Hawaiian
reality in the form of Chang Apana, the man whose life
was the basis for the Charlie Chan movies. FIGHT SCENES
AND FALL GUYS is a panel discussion among Ron Yuan
(actor, stuntman, writer, fight coordinator),
Ilram Choi (stuntman, stunt coordinator just
finishing AVATAR) and Lin Oeding (former pro MMA
competitor, actor, stuntman), touching on such topics
as the influence of Asian films on Hollywood and the
effects of technology and MMA in martial arts film.
Although SDAFF is an international film festival with
a yearly increase in non-Asian audiences, they have
chosen not to change their name, preferring to hold onto
their identity as an Asian Film Festival. Kim offers an
explanation in her parting words. "For me," she
beams, "I really appreciate it when I walk into a
film and see lot of non-Asians watching the films.
Many people have asked me change the name of the
festival, saying you can't grow if you don't
change it to the International Film Festival. They feel
that this is just for Asians, and I say not. I feel if I
change the name, we are giving in to what they want us to
do. What is wrong with it being Asian? Asian encompasses
such a vast amount of the world. I feel it is our purpose
to open ourselves up to the largest community possible,
because our mission is to connect them to a human
experience, regardless of who you are or where you are
from."
For information about the films, dates and times, how
to get to the Ultrastar Cinemas Mission Valley Hazard
Center where the films are being shown, and other cool
stuff about the SDAFF, please visit www.sdaff.org.
Three final cool notes about the festival that are
totally impressive: Perhaps a small thing, but I've
noticed over the years that audiences often bring their
own snacks into the films - now that is something you
never see in movie theaters; this year, for the first
time, the festival offers an interactive booth where
filmgoers can get a free "Qi Reading" for their
health and well being; and a final important thing, each
year the SDAFF raises awareness and supports worthy
causes during the films' screening - this year
the causes are Water Conservation and the Fold a Prayer
Cancer Awareness Campaign. Bravo, bravo and bravo.
Written by Dr. Craig Reid for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM
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