words rachel mok

It may be difficult to decide what to see at The InDPanda International Short Film Festival

We are often amazed by cinematic works that make us catch our breath, move us to tears or leave images that linger long after the 100-odd minutes of runtime are over. That is indeed admirable. But how much more so if all that is accomplished in a tenth of the time and probably at a tenth of the cost? Even if a fast-paced city like Hong Kong would just brush it off as merely cost effective. The InDPanda International Short Film Festival, initialized by independent video art group InDBlue, is stepping into its 5th year with a record number of short films screening this festival – divided into eight categories, the 25 programmes will showcase 230 films from 29 countries in the next few weeks.

Although the festival is gradually growing in scale, Jonathan Hung, one half of InDBlue (Henry Chan’s the other), thinks its intimacy with the audience, makes it different from other local film festivals. Not only does he let loose a walking billboard before each screening but, as he says, ‘We want people to know what is happening with the festival and so we will talk to them face to face to briefly introduce the programme, what to pay attention to and, if they like it, what other programmes in the festival they may like. And if the ticket sales for a certain programme are not satisfying, we will seek their support there too,’ he smiles. So what does he think will be the most satisfying programme – or films – in this year’s festival?

The Must See
‘I always tell people if they have no money or no time to watch too many films, going to programme A to D is the safest,’ jokes Hung. He is referring to the opening and closing programmes, which are definitely the highlights of the festival. Programmes A and B, The Best of Oscar & BAFTA 2009, consist of last year’s nominees for best shorts in live action, animation and documentary categories in the two prestigious events. No doubt all the nominees are of an extremly high standard, but Hung highlights Toyland, a 14-minute live action short film set in wartime Germany, La Maison en Petits Cubes which made director Kunio Kato the first Asian to win the Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards and Russia’s Lavatory Lovestory, Hung’s favourite among them all. The tough cookie in the two-part programme is BAFTA winner Wallace and Gromit – A Matter of Loaf and Death, which Hung haggled over for a long time before finally landing a print – the commercially successful series is rarely released for film festivals now. ‘It was very difficult for us to get all these films – we negotiated the 230 films we are screening this year one by one!’ he says. A standout difference from previous years is the lack of local films in the opening and closing programmes, although Hung had insisted on their presence there in the last four years. It doesn’t have much to do with quality though: ‘A lot of films are over 20 or even 30 minutes this year, which makes them very difficult to programme,’ he explains.

The New Force
Hung points to Singapore as the latest force in Asian short films, though he observes, ‘In the last few years whenever a film festival screened Singaporean films, the box office sucked. Maybe just 20% of tickets were sold – probably local audiences were still a little biased towards Singapore movies.’ Last year’s InDPanda saw a major improvement after the organizer actively pushed the Singaporean films and a healthy 70% of the tickets were sold. This year his recommendations include Tangjong Rhu, the latest work from last year’s Focus On New Talent’s Boo Jun Feng. It is a 19-minute fictionalized account of 12 gay men arrested while cruising at a beach in 1993. Kat Goh’s Swimming Lesson, a journey down the memory lane of a mother on her way to the airport, is also on his list, as it was written and produced by Kelvin Tong, the national treasure of Singapore who directed the award-winning Rule #1. But what could turn people’s perceptions of Singaporean cinema upside down is probably female director Sun Kot’s Dirty Bitch. ‘A lot of people think Singapore films are very conservative, but this film has everything to change your mind,’ says Hung. ‘Sun Kot was the curator of last year’s Lucky7 and this time she is trying to challenge [the Board of Film Censors].’

The Romantic Thirst
‘I don’t know why but the audience seems to really love it when we put the love films together,’ Hung smiles. Programme R – Time to Say Goodbye gathers five Asian short films from Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan that will make any romantic’s heart ache. South Korean director Kweon Il-soon’s His Wedding uses a spilt screen in telling of a feeling shared in two different places by a couple, and how that changes after the wedding ceremony to two feelings in one place with an unexpected twist towards the end. Hung also recommends Cheng Nai-tang’s Corridor, starring Kao Ying-hsien who appeared in Ang Lee’s Lust Caution, which tells the story of a postman and a girl waiting for her lover’s letter.

The Queer Issue
Gay shorts are always one of the main components in InDPanda and this year four programmes are dedicated to them. To Be or Not to Be stands out – it is made up of six films from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and is about bisexuality or confusion about one’s sexuality. Spanish director Gorka Cornejo’s I Only Watch – on the face of it a 19-minute portrayal of a frustrated straight couple with an unsatisfying sex life – ends with a unexpected twist that Hung guarantees will have audiences – gay or straight, young or old – leaving the cinema with smiles on their faces. In Love is a Roller Coaster, two American musicals bring a new perspective to queer cinema. ‘A lot of gay films tend to fall into the trap of melodrama as they go on. But the joy in Boycrazy is simply the whole setting and music are so loveable watch,’ Hung says. Tom Gustafson’s Fairies, on the other hand, is the original short version that inspired his later work Were the World Mine, a widely loved gay musical that screened in last year’s HKLGFF.

The Kidult
For the young-at-heart, there are plenty of animations to choose from in this year’s festival. The three-part Japanese Anime Classic 30 Years features 55 rare and classic animations from the island country from 1928 to 1950. ‘We always aim to provide new concepts to audiences with InDPanda, but new concepts don’t necessarily need to come from new works,’ Hung points out. ‘We can also be inspired by revisiting classics we never got a chance to see before.’ The heart-warming Hakoinu – about a dog made from a paper box by a boy forbidden to own a real animal – is Hung’s personal favourite, though. The short film begins with the paper dog, Hakoinu, being left behind when the boy and the family moves house. The dog wanders off hoping to find his way back to the boy as happy memories of the two linger in its mind. The Japanese government has adopted the silent film for environmental education for primary students nationwide but it took months for Hung to obtain a print, as he came up against a major language barrier when he contacted its distributor. Eventually a Japanese friend came to the rescue. ‘The film reminds us how to see things and others through different angles,’ Hung says.

The InDPanda International Short Film Festival will run from July 31 till September 2 at Broadway Cinematheque. Tickets are $55 from www.cinema.com.hk, 2388 3188. For a full schedule, check out our listing section or visit www.indpanda.com.


Vampires, Vengeance & Tightrope Crime

James Marsh wanders through the movies of the Summer International Film Festival and finds an Oscar in his name.

Now in its fourth year, the Hong Kong International Film Festival unfolds its 2009 summer programme on August 5 with 37 titles – some new, some classics – from 15 countries. It opens with Johnnie To’s Vengeance, a multi-lingual thriller that competed at Cannes this year and stars French rock star Johnny Hallyday as an ex-hitman chef scouring Hong Kong for his wife and daughter’s killers. Hallyday is helped along by To regulars Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Lam Suet and Gordon Lam, with Michelle Ye and Sylvie Testud as welcome additions to To’s boys club. While the film received mixed reviews by the admittedly harsh Cannes critics, Vengeance is sure to deliver stylized shootouts, honour and machismo by the bucketload.

The festival’s closing film promises an entirely different experience. (500) Days of Summer is Marc Webb’s American indie comedy about a failed relationship. Not your regular rom-com, the film randomly skips backwards and forwards in time, depicting the giddy highs and heart-crushing lows of young Tom’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempts to woo Summer (Zooey Deschanel), who doesn’t believe in love. Since debuting at Sundance in January, (500) Days has been an instant hit on the festival circuit.

Webb’s film is not the only American indie flick to feature in the festival this summer. Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) pair up as a couple of sisters who start their own business cleaning up crime scenes in Sunshine Cleaning. While it has been compared to Little Miss Sunshine – surely due mostly to the casting of Alan Arkin and having the word ‘Sunshine’ in the title – the film should easily stand on its own feet if only for the extraordinary talents of its two female leads.

Away We Go sees British director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) take a crack at the American road movie. Young couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child and take to the highway in search of the perfect place to raise baby, with hilarious and poignant results. We are also treated to a double helping of Jim Jarmusch, one of the true pioneers of American independent cinema. His latest, The Limits of Control, is an existential crime thriller starring Isaach De Bankolé as a mysterious stranger on a secret mission in rural Spain. The film also features Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and Bill Murray and is shot by the incomparable Christopher Doyle. Summer IFF is also screening Jarmusch’s 1984 debut, Stranger Than Paradise, the beatnik road movie starring John Lurie and Richard Edson that helped launch his career.

Switching our attention to Asia, the HKIFF team hones in on the weirdest and wildest of cult titles. This year boasts a trio of curious, quirky and downright bonkers Japanese films, whose names must be the best of the festival, if nothing else. Instant Swamp follows the recently dumped Haname (Aso Kumiko) as she sets out to find her estranged father, encountering punks, water sprites and a suitcase full of dirt along the way. The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker is from Nakamura Yoshihiro, whose Fish Story was a huge hit at the main festival back in April. This is an equally bizarre and inventive tale of twisted logic and intertwined fates, featuring an award-winning performance by Eita.

However the most eagerly anticipated film for me personally has undoubtedly been Tomomatsu Naoyuki’s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. The director of Zombie Self-Defense Force (which was featured in January’s Asian Independent Film Festival at the Grand Cinema) has teamed up with Nishimura Yoshihiro – a cult favourite thanks to his recent hits The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police that mix low-budget production values with high-concept plotlines and ridiculously inventive make-up and gore effects. Vampire Girl blends blood-drenched horror with teen romance as Monami (a vampire) and Keiko (the daughter of a mad scientist) both vie for the same boy at school.

While Korea gets a look in with romantic dramas The Naked Kitchen and More Than Blue, and Bollywood with Singh is Kinng and Billu Barber, the Mainland documentary Who Killed Our Children? takes us right to the epicentre of 2008’s Sichuan earthquake, chronicling the devastating aftermath and the struggle of surviving parents to uncover why Muyu Middle School collapsed. Also on the programme, Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay, winner of the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes film festival, is a brutal tale of police corruption and sexual violence that has dazzled and traumatized audiences.

As well as screening a selection of films by Ichikawa Jun and restored classics like Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s A City of Sadness and Edward Yang’s epic A Brighter Summer’s Day, the festival also pays tribute to Dutch producer Wouter Barendrecht, co-chairman of Fortissimo Films, who died suddenly in April. A Hong Kong resident since 1997, Barendrecht worked very closely with the HKIFF and so a select choice of his films are being shown in his honour. These include the wonderful, heart-wrenching The Home Song Stories starring Joan Chen and last year’s much-acclaimed Tokyo Sonata.

The final recommendation must go to winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Man on Wire, the nail-biting tale of performance artist Philippe Petit’s illegal attempt in 1974 to walk a tightrope between the towers of New York’s World Trade Centre. The result is a thrilling heist movie made all the more impressive because it is true. If that wasn’t reason enough to see it, Man on Wire was directed by my namesake, James Marsh. While sadly he is no relation, it is comforting to know that somewhere there’s now an Oscar with my name on it.