The beauty & the ugliness of “everyday life” in East Asian cinema

For a long time and still to some degree now, it seemed the only East Asian movies or TV that became popular in North America were martial arts, horror, Japanese anime, and crime (triads & yakuza). There was a bit of change when Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries got a bit into martial arts and horror. The biggest change has been the Hallyu wave spilling over from East Asia to the rest of the world. South Korean TV dramas aka Kdramas (especially romance ones) have become hugely popular alongside Kpop, in a way displacing the positions that Jdramas and Jpop had in the past. South Korean movies have also dabbled in horror, action, crime, and thriller genres too. Of course there’s that one Korean film that won four academy awards including best picture in 2020.

While there are many excellent movies in these genres, when I started actively trying to discover more East Asian movies, I deliberately tried looking for more “everyday life” or slice of life type movies. Movies that were about regular people living their everyday lives in a more realistic setting and mostly without sensationalist or thriller elements. I’m glad I did because some of my strongest emotions as a movie-goer were felt when watching these sorts of slice of life human dramas. These were films that made me gain a new perspective on an issue or made me feel empathy for someone or a situation that I wasn’t familiar with or with something I was all too familiar with.

No More Martial Arts Movie Stars

There seems to have been some discussion on the internet about the lack of martial arts stars in recent years or asking the question, who will be the next big martial arts star. By martial arts star I mean someone who trained in martial arts when they were young and won competitions or showed exceptional skill in martial arts before making movies. Or at least a relative newcomer specifically scouted and trained to make multiple martial arts movies.

Donnie Yen is probably considered to be the last martial arts star but he’ll be 60 years old soon. He never quite reached the heights of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li or debatably even Tony Jaa in terms of peak popularity. Despite being able to speak English fluently, he has never been the main lead in a USA made movie. But he definitely paid his dues and eventually became a lead martial arts star in Hong Kong movies. I believe his lead role in SPL / Killzone (2005) was his breakout role. I think that movie still has some of the best fights in his whole career. Then he really gained a giant leap in popularity with Ip Man (2008) and its sequels.

Fantasia 2023 – Third Wave

The Fantasia International Film Festival has released their third wave of film announcements and also the full schedule is now available on their website. The festival runs from July 20-August 9, 2023. Recent movies from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as some old classics (especially from Hong Kong and South Korea) will be screening.

Official Press Release

Fantasia 2023 – Second Wave

The Fantasia International Film Festival recently announced their second wave of film screenings. The festival will run from July 20 to August 9, 2023. Here are the East Asian Films that were announced.

Kurayukaba
Insomniacs After School
Time Is but a River
Killing Romance
The First Slam Dunk
Manhole
As Long as We Both Shall Live
Deep Sea
In My Mother’s Skin
Journey to The West
Mad Fate
Marry My Dead Body
Shin Kamen Rider

Official Press Release

First Wave

Some Trailers below:

Demigod: The Legend Begins – film review – Fantasia 2022

Demigod: The Legend Begins / 素還真 (2022)
Director: Huang Wen-Chang
Producer: Huang Liang Hsun
Writer: Huang Liang Hsun, He Yuan Yu
Cast: Huang Wen-Tze

This will have one screening on Saturday, July 23.

Su is a talented martial artist and doctor who witnesses a fight between two large creatures (called qilin) with the more menacing reptilian looking one demanding the qilin twin heart from the injured furry dog-like one. Afterwards he ends up accumulating a large debt from borrowing many books to learn more about the qilin. He soon gets embroiled in the affairs of competing martial arts clans.

Fantasia International Film Festival – July 14-August 3, 2022

Another exciting edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival will run from July 14-August 3, 2022 with screenings at Concordia University. There will be both current films and also a nice selection of classic screenings including old kung fu and John Woo movies. There will be a free screening of some Korean animated shorts on July 14, a free artist talk with John Woo on July 16. a free masterclass on stop motion with Kim Kang-min on July 26.

I compiled some trailers for movies announced in the second wave and first wave before.

Third wave movies were announced just last week and the full schedule is up on the main website now. Some trailers of some of the East Asian films announced in the third wave are posted below.

Days – film review – Nouveau cinema 2021

Days (2020)
Director & Writer: Tsai Ming-Liang
Production: Claude Wang
Cast: Kang-Sheng Lee, Anong Houngheuangsy

You can buy a ticket and watch this online now until October 31 on Nouveau cinema’s VOD platform.

I tried watching a film from Tsai Ming-Liang a long time ago. I don’t recall finishing it or if I did I don’t recall enjoying it. But I do recall it feeling slow. Days is a slow movie with mostly static shots that last for many minutes sometimes with barely anything changing in the frame. There is no real plot. The film shows two different men who do meet around the midpoint of the film which runs just over 2 hours.

The running time is mostly composed of scenes that portray very mundane slice of life events, sometimes you can’t even call them events. The opening scene of a man staring outside at the rain lasts for about 5 minutes, which is a pretty good representation of how many other scenes play out. You will need patience to watch this film to its end. The most interesting scene at least to me purely based on what happens is that of electroacupuncture combined with something smoking on top of the needles. For others, the massage scene might be the most interesting.

Festival du Nouveau Cinema – Oct 6-17, 2021 (in person screenings) & Oct 6-31 (online screenings)

The 50th edition of the Nouveau cinéma festival will have both in person screenings (October 6-17, 2021) and virtual online screenings (October 6-31, 2021). Some films are only available at in-person screenings. The venues are Cinéma du Parc, Cinéma du Musée, Cinéma Impérial and Cinémathèque Québécoise.

There’s an interesting selection of East Asian films. Here are some that caught my notice but these are certainly not all of them.