eXcentris

For those who care and might be curious about some of these films. Sorry, too lazy to translate except for main titles.

JURY PRIZES
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MEILLEUR FILM
MEMORIES OF MATSUKO - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japon)

(Note: Directed "Kamikaze Girls")

MEILLEUR RÉALISATEUR
Feng Xiaogang – THE BANQUET (Chine)

MEILLEUR SCÉNARIO
Han Jae-rim – THE SHOW MUST GO ON (Corée du Sud)

MEILLEURE DIRECTION PHOTO
Li Zhang – THE BANQUET (Chine)

MEILLEUR ACTEUR
Ex æquo : Song Kang-ho - THE SHOW MUST GO ON (Corée du Sud) / Ryu
Deok-hwan - LIKE A VIRGIN (Corée du Sud)

MEILLEURE ACTRICE
Mary McCormack – RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR (ÉUA)

PRIX SÉQUENCES 2007
Mai Tominaga pour son long métrage de fiction WOOL 100%

PRIX L'ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE:
Right at your Door (Chris Gorak)

PRIX INFO CULTURE:
The Ghosts of Cité Soleil (Asgen Leth)


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PUBLIC PRIZES
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MEILLEUR FILM ASIATIQUE

FANTASIA D’OR:
13 BELOVED - Chookiat Sakweerakul (Thailande)

FANTASIA D’ARGENT:
EXILED – Johnnie To (Hong Kong)

FANTASIA DE BRONZE:
Ex æquo : CITY OF VIOLENCE - Ryoo Seung-wan (Corée du Sud)/MEMORIES OF MATSUKO - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japon)

MEILLEUR FILM EUROPÉEN – NORD OU SUD AMÉRICAIN

FANTASIA D’OR:
HATCHET - Adam Green (ÉUA)

FANTASIA D’ARGENT:
END OF THE LINE - Maurice Deveraux (Canada)

FANTASIA DE BRONZE:
Ex æquo : MULBERRY STREET - Jim Mickle (ÉUA) / THE SIGNAL - David Bruckner,
Dan Bush et Jacob Gentry (ÉUA)

MEILLEUR FILM D’ANIMATION

FANTASIA D’OR:
TEKKON KINKREET - Michael Arias (Japon)

FANTASIA D’ARGENT:
WE ARE THE STRANGE - M dot Strange (ÉUA)

FANTASIA DE BRONZE:
AACHI & SSIPAK - Joe Bum-jin (Corée du Sud)

FILM LE PLUS INNOVATEUR

FANTASIA D’OR:
WE ARE THE STRANGE - M dot Strange (ÉUA)

FANTASIA D’ARGENT:
EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS - Sion Sono (Japon)

FANTASIA DE BRONZE:
MEMORIES OF MATSUKO - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japon)

MEILLEUR FILM DOCUMENTAIRE

FANTASIA D’OR:
KING OF KONG - Seth Gordon (ÉUA)

FANTASIA D’ARGENT:
YOUR MOMMY KILLS ANIMALS - Curt Johnson (ÉUA)

FANTASIA DE BRONZE:
Ex æquo : GHOSTS OF CITY SOLEIL - Asger Leth (Danemark/ ÉUA) / ZOO –
Robinson Devor (ÉUA)

toddly6666

What a crappy year for asian movies. Memories of Matsuka was a bad film. Nice cinematography, but overall it's a piece of crap. The Banquet too was a fair movie, nice cinematography too, but another forgettable movie. With the Academy Award Oscars or Cannes Film Festival, it's common for a crappy film will win over a better film. But with some countries, such as Asia or India, they'll give the awards to any movie that's decently made, which means there isn't some better movie that got dissed..

Cardiac161

I actually kind of liked Memories of Matsuko...maybe because it blew away any expectations I had considering it's a musical.

eXcentris

You keep making these "this movie is a piece of crap" type of comments all over the place on this forum when most of the films you seem to hate are actually pretty good films. Sorry, but I just can't take your opinion on films seriously when most of your criticism is the of the "this movie sucks" (or conversely, "this is a masterpiece") variety. You need to lay off the hyperbole, try to use a bit more nuance, and learn that there's a difference between "like" and "good" and "hate" and "bad", because your love or hatred of films seems to have little to no bearing to their actual cinematic value.

Sorry if I'm being harsh but it's damn annoying...

toddly6666

EXCENTRIS,
yes you are right about my comments - I can be extreme, but Matsuka and Banquet were less than fair movies. Matsuka is just a movie for a reason for the director to show his visual style (sort of like how the "whole" movie of Citizen Dog is inspired from the first 15 minutes of Amelie - "this is INSERT PERSON, THIS PERSON has wierd behaviors," and repeats over and over in Citizen Dog), but overall an empty emotionless movie with no compassion for any of the characters, especially Matsuka. The Banquet is, of course for a HK film, shot beautifully with fancy costumes, but the whole movie was filler just to get to the banquet scene at the end. Sure, it's not bad when comparing to other Shakespeare adaptations on film, but really not that good or gripping.

I'm assuming your original post has to do with you actually liking the films that play at this festival this year? I usually find some films I like every year, but this year's was the worst. Although I'm not Mr. Patriot, there is a reason that American movies play everywhere in the majority of most theaters of the world, especially ironic how America is understandably hated across the world right now, but people will still support Hollywood no matter what, it's because they are pretty good examples of filmmaking, maybe not great films, but great filmmaking that everyone in the world can enjoy. This is what I'm talking about when I'm critisizing Asian and Indian films - the majority of them that are released each week are unwatchable, and NOT MARKETABLE. A marketable movie means it can play in any country, instead of just being some lame excuse of "just-getting-by-filmmaking" to entertain the natives for a few hours. I will generalize and I'll say it again until it changes: the majority of recent (I say recent, because Asian films were rolling out really good ones a couple years ago) Asian and Indian movies are slop. And the majority of movies released each week in USA are not typically Garfield 2 or Son of Mask. It's just not the same comparison.

A typical American popcorn movie just released on DVD, for example, such as DISTURBIA, is ten times better filmmaking, better movie, and better entertainment than any of those Asian movies that got those Best Picture/Best Director awards. And I woudn't even buy DISTURBIA on DVD, but it's a good example of great filmmaking. The only one on that Festival list that i'm dying to see is TEKKON KINKREET, but it's probably disappointing as well, just like PAPRIKA. Don't get me started with Indian film slop.

I'm not going to say "everyone has a right to their opinion", because it's redundant. It's just that you don't agree with me and/or I might have insulted your dedication/commitment to this year's Asian films or to Asian films in general. I know when it comes to buying DVDs, people get compulsive. And when people get compulsive, they get defensive. Liking a certain genre of film, such as "liking/buying Asian films on DVD" can get dangerous and can get you stuck. For example, when I got into Asian movies, I bought every new HK/South Korean DVD release and I defended them because I was defending the idea that "Asian movies are cool. No one outside of Asia has seen them, so they are even cooler." Now I just see a movie as it is - I don't care if it's from Philipines or Canadian or Iran - I just don't want to get stuck in a compulsive genre, such as "Asian movie lover," because one is going to need a reason to rationalize spending money on countless DVDs of fair "awarded Asian films" that one doesn't need to own.

eXcentris

My comments had absolutely nothing to do with me liking or disliking the films you quoted. It has to do with you constantly using hyperbole to refer to a film's quality (or artistic merits) when what you are really referring to are your own personal tastes in film.

This comment is ridiculous and it's exactly what I'm referring to. Better entertainment, perhaps, better filmmaking no. Which leads me to believe that you equate "entertaining", i.e. "like", with good filmmaking. There's a lot more to good filmmaking than just entertainment value and you seem to be incapable of judging a film on it's artistic merits and dissociating these aspects from your own personal tastes. I woudn't mind if you said "I hated this film", but honestly, when you keep making these "that movie is crap" comments, it really doesn't do much for your credibility.

Since I have no desire to engage in a lenghty discussion with you on this matter, that's all I'm going to say. Feel free to use my comments as "food for thought".

stalin_roy

What a crappy predictable bunch of Jury Prize winners for Fantasia fest this year though.

logboy

this is the american business model, not the one necessarily being applied by foreign territories, which, until recent years, saw the large majority of their work simply being part of the local culture. hollywood, alternatively, set the example for money making via filmmaking, and it has led to what has turned so many off the hollywood output - increasingly unadventurous, generic, opening weekend stuff which intends to apply to as many people across the globe long before it says or does anything for it's domestic audience. that is not film, it is business. film relies on money, it doesn't rely on the ability to fund someones collection of vintage ferrari's.

by the way toddly, it was you who labelled 'the great yokai war' 11/10, wasn't it? you seem to have intentionally shifted away from asian stuff, perhaps because it's become popular?

i really liked 'memories of matsuko', not in relation to the sensibilities of the work i most frequently see (always has been, and always will be, american films and british TV) but because in relation to the output of the country, the work on show at around that time, and the work from which it's possible to make a choice to view from, it has interesting aspects enough to make it stand out - even though, if placed directly into the american market, it wouldn't stand up - you have to adjust judgment criteria and make the compromise in some aspects in order to openly access other aspects of foreign films; it wouldn't be fare or realistic to judge one thing on terms which don't apply, so i won't agree with the idea that a marketable film is only something which would survive within a market like america's, where identity is hard to find in new output, where the turds are polished to perfection thanks to the incredibly deep pockets. there's no charm and achievement in a polished turd, however dazzling it may seem to be, and yes a lot of that polishing can come across as quality work when it isn't necessarily at all.

andrash

Toddly should head next year's jury! No awards will be given out and several of the invited directors will be publicly humiliated in order to encourage them to make more entertaining movies!

toddly6666

ANDRASH...lol....just when I think you've disappeared and gone into hiding (even from Asiandvdguide too), I can count on you to appear always behind my stupid comments!

LOGBOY,
The Great Yokai War came out in 2005. All i'm saying is that this year's Asian movies sucked...I have nothing against Asian films becoming more popular. Im just the opposite, I want Asian films or any other countries movies/genres to become popular, which then encourages more investors, and then more polishing/better writers/etc. I have nothing against anything getting mainstream. I love Ben Afleck, Michael Bay, and Keanu Reeves movies just as much as I love movies from Dusan Makavejev, Emir Kusturica, Mathew Barney, Jodorowsky, and Tony Gatliff for example. And furthermore, since I'm a frequent DVD buyer, the more famous a filmmaker gets, the more likely the DVD will get English subtitles. It's a crime that USA is not courting filmmakers like Kusturica so that all of his films can get nice DVDs with English subtitles.

The recent batch of HK/South Korean/Japanese films are actually polished turds. And you misunderstood me - I'm not talking about films being successful in America, I was talking about the success of American films in every other country of the world. There is a reason that American films are in the majority of movie theaters across the world. It's because they are better examples of filmmaking and escapism for all cultures. A typical Hollywood popcorn movie is an escapism movie for everyone. A typical native popcorn movie from, let's say South Korea or India or Philipines, is not escapism for other cultures. That's called poor filmmaking.

Memories of Matsuka, Always, and The Banquet are not even arty films, they are popcorn polished films in their own countries. There is nothing special or unique about them just because they are from Asia. The financing of those films had nothing to do with the averageness of these films - they were all polished flicks, just poorly done. The biggest issue I have with Asian films are the storytelling. And once again, the above listed three films are not some indie/obscure films which are trying to go against the "Western/Hollywood/3 act style" of filmmaking. They do go by that style, it's just a piss-poor job of the way they do it.

eXcentris

Movies dumbed down to appeal to the lowest common denominator regardless of culture is considered "good filmmaking"? Now you're confusing popularity with quality... Hey, I like a good popcorn flick as much as the next guy, but I'd never argue that this constitutes "good filmmaking" in terms of artistic merit. You equate "good filmmaking" with marketability and entertainment value. This has invariably little to nothing to do with the artistic merits of a film.

logboy

the reason american films are more successful in non-american territories relies upon their increasingly generic nature and publicity budgets above and beyond many times the average budget of even the most expensive japanese movie, for example.

in any given year, there's not just new films appearing for us to watch, but older films being dug up, so the overall method of seeing it doesn't work as well as a more specific, explained argument against a specific film.

i don't necessarily think that there's a tendency to attempt a westernised form of filmmaking in other countries - we have to remember, every country has a range of budgets, mix of styles and a varying tendency towards relatively commercial approaches and more artistic outputl; because we only get a selection of any countries output, it's hard to be definitive about the overall outputs swaying too much towards one end or the other... let's just say, recently the stuff appearing from japan on HK DVD has tended towards more commercially toned japanese films rather than other periods which have had a more artistic tendency - it's just a selection, not all of it. of course, any countries output with a commercial tone will share characteristics which may make them look too inspired by american financial ideals, american business models, but ultimately they're always made from within one culture and will struggle to be identifiable to non-domestic audiences - america has long practiced a form a filmmaking which has learnt both the ideas of commercial appeal, developed a certain model for it which could be adopted by other countries, as well as managing to perfect it in ways which it can exploit above and beyond how others may, simply because the support system from which it arises, the level of population of america and the number of english speaking filmgoers, can allow it to stretch beyond its borders when even the most commercial of japanese films will remain a film made in japanese and not understandable by most because of the language barrier; even if subbed.

toddly6666

You all realize that there exists the moviegoer stereotypical identity of "American Hollywood rules all the world, Hollywood movies suck, Foreign/obscure movies are better, etc." Everyone keeps on saying Hollywood = Generic/entertaining popcorn/Non-artistic/dumbed down. Look at all your DVD collections, even the people that post in the International DVD forum, the majority of the DVDs are American and everyone has the same ones. The only difference between Region 1 DVD collectors and All-Region DVD collectors, is that the All-Region DVD collectors have more foreign movies than the others, but everyone has the same American movies. American movies are more appealing to all regardless of what they are. It does not matter if a movie has a higher budget or if it has more publicity. You go to any different countries' video stores and you will see which movie is being rented/bought the most, and it's the American film. First world countries and third world countries, it's all the same, everyone seeks out American films. And that's not an artistic achievement? "Or no, that's Evil America exploiting people's interests? The majority of people don't really like American movies, they are being brainwashed into liking them?" American films are not only good filmmaking, they are also filled with inside-American cultural references that non-Americans may not get, but it doesn't matter - people still want to watch them. The point about certain aspects of film not translating well due to a different culture is baloney as well. Good filmmaking can express one's culture without hindering or compromising its culture. The main negative about all this is that all the American movies playing in the majority of other countries' movie theaters is that they are all dubbed into the native language. I don't think people have anything against non-native movies as long as they are dubbed into their native language, which drives me nuts - I prefer everything in original language with subtitles (unless it's an animation film)

The movie industry would die if only "artistic/obscure" were released in cinemas, because most people prefer generic/dumbed-down/non-artistic American cinema or whatever you want to label it.

The moral of the story is this: you put some Asian movies like MATSUKA, THE BANQUET, ALWAYS, EXILED in thousands of theaters all over the world, with subtitles or dubbed into all those countries native language. They are going to flop, because the writing is not polished. You all saw what happened with Curse of the Golden Flower. It got tons of marketing, but it was an awful storyline, and it flopped. And people are not sick of Martial arts epics, they are sick of poorly written ones.

Doesn't anyone read Variety and look at the Top 10 Box Office of each country? It's like 2 native movies and 8 American films every week. That's how it is. But no, that's not artistic acheivement, that's "brainwashing" people. The majority of people are stupid and everyone should be watching Wong Kar Wai every week? Everyone watches foreign films nowadays. It's not "sushi" anymore...

andrash

Yes,I was once a non-believer but now I'm a slave to the Toddly.
Tod,if they try to hurt your feelings again just drop me an e-mail,I will show these snobs what real entertainment is

eXcentris

Yes, let's all submit to the formulaic, dumbed down for the lowest common denominator, Hollywood steamroller and call it "good filmmaking".

One more time Toddly, you're confusing popularity with quality. The average movie-goer wouldn't know "good filmmaking" if we hit them on the head with it with a sledgehammer... I'm sure a hell of a lot more people around the world eat Big Macs than filet mignon too. So let's now refer to Big Macs as "good cuisine"... Oh, and Harry Potter as "great litterature:... Oh, and Celine Dion as "great music"...

You prefer entertaining popular films, that's fine. But to call good films you don't like "crap" (and make up reasons like "it's not polished", "it's not a good story", "it's not well made" which really mean squat as far as film criticism goes) when in reality, the only issue is your own personal taste is just silly. I can only conclude that the problem is YOU, not the actuals films, and that you don't have the necessary knowledge of film as art to be able to appreciate these films, and make the distinction between "like" and "good", and "dislike" and "bad".

Now since I keep banging my head against a wall and this is useless, I'm really done...

logboy

i'm multiregion, always have been. most of my DVDs that i choose personally to buy are american. why? because america subs more than anywhere else, and because the prices are better than most places.



higher budgets matter. plenty of films out there many don't know about that have directly comparably qualities but suffer from lack of publicity. case in point, 'internal affairs' versus 'the departed' - it's just one of many too. people don't have to seek out american films, do they? american films come and knock on your door, and none too subtley too. i don't think there's brainwashing as much as there's a lifetime of conditioning as a result of the language they're made in, the amount of sheer 'bang for your buck' factor being involved.

my culture is different to yours. all cultures differ. i don't experience other cultures on a daily basis like i experience my own, which has been msotly influenced by american culture over perhaps any other...

yes, film is financially led because it's a business. look at japans core model for film : create culture, maintain employment. if you manage that, it's been worthwhile. like music, bigger films (in terms of profic) add to the coffers to support other projects - direct funding is an impossibility, so both are needed to survive.

by the way, it's "memories of matsuko".