Asian Oddities

Thank God for the ongoing Cinemanila Filmfest at Greenbelt 1.

After what seems to be already the span of time between iceages, quality films are again being shown in Manila.

From the antics of Y Tu Mama Tambien to the visual splendor of Atanarjuat — The Fast Runner, the festival boasts an impressive roster of films, the perfect remedy for even the most jaded cineaste.

What is even more amazing is the inclusion of many Asian entries in the screenings — particularly the more quirky ones this side of the world has to offer.

(We only hope the organizers of the event do not tire or relent in their efforts to offer alternative choices to the Filipino audience.)

Here are two films we strongly suggest you watch:

What Time Is It There? Directed by Tsai Ming Liang

Are the Taiwanese really that strange? The question must be seriously asked upon viewing Tsai Ming Liang’s new film. The director of art-house favorites such as The Hole serves up a host of characters that include a street watch salesman who — after a chance encounter with a girl off to Paris the next day — makes an effort to reset all the clocks in Taipei to match the French capital’s; a widow unable to accept her loss tries to achieve sexual congress with the urn that contains her husband’s ashes (which would be even funnier than the American Pie scene if only it weren’t so sad); and a tourist who spends her vacation doing everything but to have fun.

Oblique and elliptical, the film really has little by way of plot and character development: the characters move in their own little universes, impenetrable to change even when the opportunity presents itself. Surprisingly though, the film works quite well despite the seemingly undramatic way it presents itself. This is largely due to the stylish direction of Liang and the effective cinematography of Benoit Delhomme and the production design of Yip Kam Tim (of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame). Every frame is painstakingly composed to evoke the characters’ sense of alienation to the world around them, owing to Edward Yang as it does to Yasujiro Ozu.

Even with its existentialist bent, the film is clearly filled with optimism for the cinematic medium that is as infectious as Francois Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups (which, incidentally, it quotes to the point of featuring a cameo by Jean Pierre Leaud).

An absurdist fable about time and consequence, What Time is it There? invites the viewer to take in its peculiarities and enjoy the thin line it treads between drama and satire. Succeeding on both counts, it is indeed a gem of a film that will enthrall as much as it illuminates.

Ring Directed by Hideo Nakata

Do you like scary movies? Anyone who answers in the affirmative is well-advised to trash the Wes Craven blockbusters and see Ring instead.

The first in a popular series of films in Japan, the plot centers on the circulation of a video that dooms anyone who sees it to certain death a week after. Hoping to uncover the mystery behind the "video curse," a reporter stumbles upon it, putting her life as well as those of her loved ones at risk. With the help of her psychic ex-husband, she races against time to break the vicious cycle and discover the origins of the curse.

At a time when films use ironic humor to deflect attention from the absence of a real scare, Ring stands out with an almost brazen abandon in trying to frighten the hell out of its audience. Not since Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Mike De Leon’s Itim has a horror film so boldly staked its claim, piss-marking its share of the territory of the genre with a grand and elegant sweep. Benefiting from its Suspiria-influenced soundtrack, the film carefully orchestrates its shocks with hardly any miscues.

Unlike the Taiwanese, there is no doubting the strangeness of the Japanese as evident in their popular culture. (For the unconvinced, one need not look further than manga such as Junji Ito’s Uzamaki, the cult film Tetsuo: The Iron Man or, for that fact, sushi.) Coming from a country where the bizarre of both East and West collide and fuse in the most curious of ways, Ring manages to capture the best of both worlds.

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Send comments and reactions to: erwin_romulo@hotmail.com.