Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATION 169critics agree that The Ring, Hollywood’s remake ofRingu, was not as good as the original. However, inJapan, this remake film brought in more revenues thanthe original!Unfortunately, even though the directors from the“Japan new wave of the 1990s” are still workingand have made many films, their films are hardlyas influential as before. It seems that they are onlycontinuing on with what they have already achieved.In one interview, Aaron Gerouw, a Japanese film expertfrom Yale University, agreed that there is nothing asgood as “generation 1990s” in recent Japanese films.According to Gerouw, Japanese films desperately neednew blood.Fortunately, independent films are always strongin Japan, and became even stronger when digitalmoviemaking became more popular. This is a placewhere another resistance to Hollywood dominationcould emerge. This independent mode of production,which is free from big studio, marketing-driven product,has also made international collaboration easier. TheCats of Mirikitani is one such case.With a small crew, and collaboration between anAmerican-woman director and several of her Japanesefriends, The Cats of Mirikitani breaks many conventions.It is still considered a Japanese film, even though it tellsa non-Japanese story in a non-Japanese land. While TheCats is “only” a documentary, it can also easily competewith big budget production films and win a prestigiousaward.The Cats of Mirikitani also provides evidence that,nowadays, the nature of film production is reallydifficult to keep within one country because creativitycannot be kept within one country’s boundaries. InJapan, there is a big trend in international collaboration,especially within the far eastern countries. Look at howTakeshi Kitano’s production company helps nurturesome of the best talent from China. Kitano’s companyis a major force behind many of Jia Zangke’s awardwinning films.Korea is also starting to influence Japanese filmsmore and more. There is a “booming” interest aboutKorean movies in Japan, inspired by the smash-hit TVdrama Fuyu no Sonata (Winter Sonata). Some Koreanblockbusters have also been remade into Japaneseversions. Another interesting fact is the rise of Koreanfilm distribution in Japan. By 2004, Korean moviesbecome the second biggest foreign movies in Japan,replacing French movies.Maybe in the future, these trends in Asian collaborationwill broaden the old boundaries into new boundaries.As noted by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, one of the directorsfrom the “Japan new wave of the 1990s,” when beinginterviewed: “After 1998, I was traveling to many filmfestivals around the world. I made films that wereusually dubbed J-films (Japanese films), but all in thosefestivals, my films fell into the Asian-film category.Even Iranian films are mentioned in one breath withmy films.”ThailandAs in Japan, Hollywood also dominates the Thai filmindustry. In 2000, Hollywood movies took in about78 percent of the box office receipts in Thailand. Thisis of course, inviting “resistance.” When interviewed,Wisit Sasanatieng, director of Tears of the Black Tiger,the first Thai film to be officially selected for the CannesFilm Festival in 2001, said in a very resistant voice,“Globalization tries to make the world the same asAmerica.”In this kind of world, Wisit admits he is always searchingfor a Thai influence when he makes films. “We mustuse our traditional culture as a weapon to fight back.Don’t let Hollywood steal our culture,” he said. Thatis why Wisit’s films always seem to pay homage to oldThai films, especially some of those directed by RastanaPestonji, a Persian who was once dubbed the “Father ofThai films.”In Tears of the Black Tiger, for example, he cast SonbatiMedhanee as one of his main actors to play a tough,Charles Bronson-style leader of mountain bandits.Sonbati was one of Pestonji’s actor, and also a starwhose name is recorded in the Guinness Book of Recordsbecause he starred in six hundred feature films. Whenchoosing Sonbati, Wisit Sasanatieng also wanted tobe proud of what many call as the golden age of Thaicinema.Long before Hollywood domination, the period of the1960s and the early 1970s can be considered the goldenage of Thai films. At that period, the Thai film industrycould produce almost two hundred films a year. Notonly did the film studios enjoy booming revenues fromtheir action flicks, melodramas, horror or teen movies,this period also saw a group of intellectuals enter the filmindustry and make so-called “socially critical cinema.”These young and energetic intellectuals, who came fromuniversities, political movements or journalism, usedfilmmaking as a medium to present their sociopoliticalAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows