A clutch of awards at the Cannes Film Festival has given global prominence to what insiders say is a bold era in Asian filmmaking, where China is emerging as a creative power.
Directors from China, Japan, Singapore and Cambodia took to the stage at the Palais des Festivals where the world's most prestigious movie bash ended on Sunday.
Praise was heaped on China's Jia Zhangke for his screenwriting of "A Touch of Sin" (Tian Zhu Ding), which he also directed -- a tale of corruption, greed and exploitation in modern China that festival jury boss Steven Spielberg said was nothing less than "visionary."
Jia, 43, was born in the poverty-stricken province of Shanxi, which has frequently provided a grim tableau for his lens.
After graduating from Beijing's prestigious national Film Academy, he produced a series of gritty films portraying low-life characters including pickpockets, thugs and prostitutes, set in Shanxi and filled with long, meandering dialogue in local dialect.
"A Touch of Sin," based on four true stories of poor people driven to acts of desperation, contains his most outspoken criticism yet of capitalist-communist China.
When a trailer for it was released last week, Internet chat rooms buzzed with expectation that it would never be seen in China -- or at least not in the form seen in Cannes.
But in an interview with AFP at the start of the festival, Jia said the film -- part-funded by a state-owned organisation, the Shanghai Film Group Corporation -- had been given official approval and would be shown uncut.
"Cinema makes me live," Jia said in faltering English as he received the best screenwriting award. "China is now changing so fast. I think film is the best way to me to look for freedom."
Spielberg and a fellow Oscar winner, Taiwanese-born American Ang Lee, pointed to exciting times in China, although Lee also warned of risk.
"China is coming on strong not just as a marketplace for international motion pictures, but coming on strong as a creative force," Spielberg told a press conference.
Lee said "A Touch of Sin" was "an important movie" that the jury had unanimously liked.
"The Chinese market and the people who love movies is growing up to be very sizeable, (and) perhaps (will) even one day surpass English-speaking territories," said Lee.
"So I really hope it grows, whether it is commercially or artistically or anything in between, (and) that everybody can grow healthily," he said.
"A vicious cycle... is a big trap we need to look out for," he warned, without elaborating.
Another laureate was Japan's Hirokazu Koreeda, whose "Like Father Like Son" -- a portrayal of two families who discover their boys were swapped at birth -- won the third-ranked award, the Jury Prize.
Koreeda, 50, gained international recognition with "Nobody Knows" (2004), in which Yuuya Yagira, then 14, became the youngest actor to win Cannes' Best Actor award.
The movie is based on a real-life story in which four children were abandoned by their mother and left to fend for themselves.
Also highly praised this year was Singapore's Anthony Chen, who won the Camera d'Or for a debut feature. It is also the first time that a Singaporean feature has won at Cannes.
"Ilo Ilo," set during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, explores the lives of Singapore's workaholic, ambitious middle classes and the domestic help on which they depend.
It tells the tale of a Singaporean family and their Filipina maid, who befriends the family's troubled son.
"The director's intelligence and sensitivity bring forth very important issues -- childhood, immigration, class struggles and the economic crisis," said the jury citation.
On Saturday, a documentary on the Khmer Rouge earned Cambodia's Rithy Panh the top award in the "Un Certain Regard" category, which showcases emerging directors.
Entitled "L'Image Manquante" -- "The Missing Picture" in English -- the 95-minute work mixes archive footage of Khmer Rouge atrocities with hand-carved, painted figurines to represent Panh's lost relatives.
The Hollywood Reporter praised it as "a deliberately distanced but often harrowing vision of a living hell."
AFP
Sun May 26 2013
![Cannes awards show global recognition for Asian cinema Cannes awards show global recognition for Asian cinema](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/http://img.astroawani.com/2013-05/41369614064_295x200.jpg)
![Gol sulung Mbappe bantu Real Madrid juarai Piala Super UEFA Gol sulung Mbappe bantu Real Madrid juarai Piala Super UEFA](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/51723679998_KylianMbappe.jpg)
Gol sulung Mbappe bantu Real Madrid juarai Piala Super UEFA
"Ia adalah malam yang hebat. Ia adalah detik yang hebat untuk saya. Dan kami memenangi kejuaraan, yang penting - di Madrid anda perlu sentiasa menang."
![“I love you Am, bahagialah di syurga firdausi” - Aufahanie “I love you Am, bahagialah di syurga firdausi” - Aufahanie](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/51723679258_AufahanieNidzaAfh.jpg)
“I love you Am, bahagialah di syurga firdausi” - Aufahanie
Air mata Aufahanie sudah kering meratapi pemergian abang tercinta, Nidza Afham yang ditemui meninggal dunia selepas dilaporkan hilang.
Konsert jelajah: Taylor Swift teruskan konsert London selepas ancaman keganasan
Taylor Swift akan meneruskan persembahan di London pada Khamis, meneruskan jelajah konsert terbesar dunia di tengah-tengah kebimbangan keselamatan susulan cubaan serangan Daesh memaksa pembatalan tarikh konsert di Vienna, minggu lalu.
Taliban rai ulang tahun ketiga pemerintahan Afghanistan
Kerajaan Taliban semalam meraikan ulang tahun ketiga pemerintahannya di Afghanistan dengan perarakan tentera yang memberi penghormatan kepada bom buatan sendiri yang digunakan ketika peperangan, pesawat pejuang dan perbarisan pasukan keselamatan.
![Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/61723677980_MounirNasraoui.jpg)
Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan
Mounir Nasraoui, bapa kepada Lamine Yamal, ditikam pada lewat Rabu di tempat letak kereta di bandar Mataro di timur laut Sepanyol.
Warga AS dihukum penjara 15 hari di Rusia kerana bersikap samseng
Mahkamah Moscow menjatuhkan hukuman penjara 15 hari kepada warga Amerika Syarikat Joseph Tater pada Rabu kerana bersikap samseng.
Putin anggap rundingan dengan Ukraine tidak berguna
Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin menyifatkan, tindakan Ukraine yang menyerang orang awam memperlihatkan keengganan Kyiv menyelesaikan konflik peperangan dua negara dengan cara perdamaian.
Fadillah tiba di Peru, hadiri mesyuarat menteri-menteri tenaga APEC 2024
Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof tiba Lima, Peru bagi menghadiri Mesyuarat Menteri-Menteri Tenaga (EMM) di bawah Kerjasama Ekonomi Asia Pasifik (APEC) yang berlangsung selama dua hari.
BNM denda Maybank RM4.32 juta, CIMB RM760,000 berikutan gangguan perkhidmatan berpanjangan
Bank Negara Malaysia mengenakan Penalti Monetari Pentadbiran (AMP) sebanyak RM4.32 juta ke atas Malayan Banking Bhd dan Maybank Islamic Bhd serta RM760,000 ke atas CIMB Bank Bhd dan CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd susulan gangguan beberapa perkhidmatan perbankan yang berpanjangan.
![Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/41723674988_pineapplesweetsme.jpg)
Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine
Auckland City Mission secara tidak sengaja telah mengagihkan gula-gula bercampur Methamphetamine yang boleh membawa maut melalui pek makanan.