Roger Garcia reports from the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival where he has been watching new indie Japanese fllms,
and checking out film trends across the region. He looks at the collection of four films by young Japanese filmmakers adapted
from short stories by acclaimed author Yasunari Kawabata, PALM OF THE HAND STORIES, and the unusual LIVE TAPE which follows
singer Kenta Maeno as he strolls through a Tokyo neighborhood, all in one uncut 74 minute take.
Roger
has praise for two South East Asian movies, Malaysian Ho Yuhang's latest feature AT THE END OF DAYBREAK, notable for the
master performance by Hong Kong actress Kara Hui. He also celebrates the return to cinema of Singapore's Glen Goei after
a ten year absence. Goei was the first Singapore filmmaker to ever get a US release with his movie FOREVER FEVER (aka THAT'S
THE WAY I LIKE IT) in the late 1990s. Goei has now turned in his second feature, THE BLUE MANSION, a black comedy about a
dysfunctional family trying to function when its patriarch dies. A mix of TOPPER and Agatha Christie, Goei's pitch perfect
irony gives the film a subtext of political commentary about Singapore today.
Finally Roger
looks at the competition section through the Filipino film MANILA SKIES, another return to cinema of an indie master, this
time Raymond Red whose last (short) film in 2000 won Palme d'Or in Cannes. Almost ten years later, Red has now completed
his new feature film.
