[Column] Asia takes over Venice Film Festival

But selections leave viewers asking for less quantity, more quality

By Derek Elley

Several strange things happened in the world of Asian cinema at the Venice Film Festival this year.

Venice’s Asiaphile artistic director Marco Muller was criticised for including more Asian films - 50 percent more than 2005’s offerings - but selections of lesser quality. "Was this the best that Asia could provide?" asked the Italian press.

Including the festival’s "Surprise Film," Jia Zhangke’s "Still Life," which had not made it into Cannes and was re-edited before Venice, the Competition and Out of Competition sections included six Chinese-language, four Japanese, one South Korean and one Thai movie. Of the Chinese-language fare, Johnnie To’s "Exiled" - a smart, ironic return to the style of "The Mission" - was the most well received by audiences and open-minded critics; the big, splashy Mainland entry "The Banquet," fell flat, overwhelmed by its art direction, and Tsai Ming-liang’s first film shot in his native Malaysia, "I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone," wasn’t considered a major event, even by Tsai aficionados.

The other Chinese-language movie, Benny Chan’s routine Hong Kong actioner "Rob-B-Hood," seemed to have no conceivable reason to be in Venice, apart from already having an Italian distributor and being coproduced by Huayi Brothers, partners in "The Banquet." Likewise, the only South Korean movie, "The City of Violence," was a competent-to-good movie by Ryu Seung-wan, but nothing out of the ordinary. If Muller really wanted an outstanding midnight attraction from South Korea, why didn’t he choose Yu Ha’s "A Dirty Carnival" instead?

Many Asians at Venice were as confused by the Asian selections as the Westerners, and in a year when Park Chan-wook was on the jury, the Koreans seemed especially upset.

So what didn’t make it to Venice? For starters, two new South Korean movies which had been submitted to Venice but ended up at the Toronto and San Sebastian festivals, respectively: Hong Sang-soo’s "Woman on the Beach" and Im Sang-soo’s "The Old Garden." Also in Toronto, but not in Venice, was Hong Konger Ann Hui’s "The Postmodern Life of My Aunt," and attendees at the New York and Rome festivals will see Tian Zhuangzhuang’s "The Chess Master."

Like most programmers of large festivals, Muller is a politician first and film buff second: he chooses films not only to embarrass or harm rival festivals (including Cannes) but also to keep local distributors and producers happy, and to ensure enough stars will walk down the red carpet. This year, he did quite well with the star quota but not so well with his Asian selections: the latter could have consequences for his fourth (and final) year as programmer when he goes seeking new product from Asian producers and sales agents.

But the strangest thing of all at Venice was the handing out of prizes: Chinese-language films won the top awards in both the Official Selection and the sidebar Horizons. Jia’s "Still Life," which was liked by the highbrow French critics, won Best Film from a jury headed by French actress Catherine Deneuve - the third time in a row that the top Venice prizewinner was a movie rejected by Cannes.

The obviously political decision - ignoring much more substantial movies, such as Emilio Estevez’s "Bobby" - made Asiaphile Muller look good but the festival look out of touch.

The even stranger Horizons winner was also a Mainland Chinese film, "Courthouse on Horseback," an utterly pedestrian tale of a traveling rural judge. The film’s press show was thinly attended, but not as thinly attended as that for Jia’s "Still Life," for which only about 30 journalists bothered to show.