Jackie Chan in Cambodia
When I moved to Phnom Penh three month ago, I was convinced that I would enter a cinematic no-man´s land – after all, this is a country that does not even have a cinema that shows the Hollywood blockbusters that most of all the neighboring countries are being force-fed.
How wrong I was. So far, not a single week went by without some cinematic revelation, some of which were described in this blog in great detail.
And now that: Jackie Chan came to town to recieve a honorary doctorate from the University of Cambodia.
“An independent Thai film featuring gay issues and footage of the Tak Bai incident has been banned by the Ministry of Culture from showing at next month’s World Film Festival of Bangkok.
This Area Is Under Quarantine, an experimental documentary that links the problems faced by gays and Muslims, was directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul, who was named Silapathorn Artist by the same ministry in 2007.
The film has become the first casualty of the confusing new regulations regarding the classification system to be used at special screenings and film festivals.”
More at the Bangkok Post.
The Indonesian “actioner” Merantau, featuring the Malay martial art Silat, is slowly making the rounds internationally. Here is a review from the everdependable A Nutshell Review: “Action junkies will do yourselves no favour if you miss Iko Uwais maiden cinematic outing on the big screen. It may not be perfect, but it mattered for what it set out to do – establish a new action hero from our region, and to promote the form of martial arts in Silat.”
Read the whole piece at A Nutshell Review.
A picture of a picture
In the last couple of weeks, this blog has been preoccupied with the activities of Davy Chou and the Kon Khmer Koun Khmer group due to their great exhibition and retrospective Golden Reawakening on the Golden Age of Khmer cinema. That is about to end, but not before reporting on the final activity: a small exhibition on the 30 old cinemas of Phnom Penh, which are sadly closed with the exception of the once-beautiful Cine Lux.
Peter Bogdanovich´s Saint Jack finally gets its theatrical premiere in Singapore over 30 years after the movie on an American pimp was shot in the Lion City. Back in the days, the censorship board banned the film in Singapore. Ben Slater, who wrote the book “Kinda Hot” about the movie, has all the details in his blog.
In a weird version of cultural globalization, the Rotterdam Film Festival sends film makers from Southeast Asia to do a film in Tanzania, according to Screen.
Screening of "The Crocodile" at Chenla Theatre
The Crocodile (2005) by veteran director Mao Ayuth is the kind of quality film that contemporary Cambodian cinema is sadly lacking. It is a respectable attempt to make a entertaining movie about a relevant topic.
The film was shot on a budget of over $ 100.000 (which makes it the most expensive Cambodian film ever!), and it shows. The production values are low, yet the film makers make up for it with good ideas and over-all integrity.
An Indonesian ghost story?
Cinẻ Lux is the only surviving old cinema in Phnom Penh. There is also Soriya shopping mall that has a cinema, but the Lux is truely unique. While there used to be a handful historic cinemas in the capital of Cambodia, all of them are closed now, expect for the Lux, a splendid Art Deco building from the late 1930s, that keeps showing films, occasionally even in 35 mm.
Dozens of angry Indonesian villagers demanded thousands of dollars from a crew filming Julia Roberts’ new movie, Eat, Pray, Love.
via AFP.
- Water Festival
Films on and by His Royal Majesty, King Norodom Sihanouk, on the Occasion of his 87th Birthday
Former King Sihanouk and wife Monique in the Royal Garden
The 87th birthday of Kingfather Norodom Sihanouk this Sunday, provided a good opportunity to see some films in Phnom Penh on, as well as by, the monarch, who is one of the most productive film makers of South East Asia, as well as a prolific composer and writer. read more…
This week in Cine Lux
Cinẻ Lux is the only surviving old cinema in Phnom Penh. There is also Soriya shopping mall that has a cinema, but the Lux is truely unique. While there used to be a handful historic cinemas in the capital of Cambodia, all of them are closed now, expect for the Lux, a splendid Art Deco building from the late 1930s, that keeps showing films, occasionally even in 35 mm.
A couple of new Thai soap operas are remakes of old favorites, but there are some significant changes, writes Sirinya Wattanasukchai: “If you are not a hard core soap fan, you may think that what’s going to be shown on prime time tonight on local free TV will be just repetitions of what you saw five or 10 years go.
But take a closer look: Some things have changed while others have remained the same. Many viewers praise the latest remakes with their younger cast, more contemporary context and costumes, faster-paced scripts, better production and new directors. Others complain about the increasing brutality and violence that has almost become a formula for modern TV drama series.”
More at The Bangkok Post.
A vintage picture of David Hudson from the site of Howard Rheingold, circa 1997
I just noticed that this site was among the best sites for Asian film in a list at The Auteurs.
How did I become part of this exclusive selection?
Audience
I went to the Chinese House in Phnom Penh on every of the last nine days, except for one. The organizers and the regulars at Golden Reawakening, the exhibition cum retrospective on the “Golden Age” of Cambodian Cinema, started to feel like members of my extended family. Once the movies started, there were then frequently the same familiar faces on the screen: Dy Saveth, Kong Som Eurn, Tet Vichara Darny, Trente Deux, Mang Talin, Loto.
It seems like film making in the Sixties was more or less a family affair, with the same actors used over and over again, with superstars like Dy Saveth reportedly making more than 100 films in the less than two decades that the “Golden Age” of Khmer cinema lasted. Veteran director Yvon Hem during one of the public talks explained that he repeatedly tried to introduce new actors, but that the public did not accept the newcomers…
A Chey Neang Krort
The second film by Tea Lim Koun, screened as the final movie of the Golden Reawakening event on Sunday at the Chinese House in Phnom Penh, could not be more different from his pan-Asian success The Snake Man that was the first feature presentation of the day.
A Chey Neang Krort is a rowdy comedy that had the Cambodian audience in stitches with puns and wise-cracks that are more or less untranslatable. The Khmer language is full of metaphors, and most of the punch lines in this often gross burlesque are based on the possible misunderstandings this allows for.
Dy Saveth and Kim Tia, the daughter of director Tea Lim Koun
The two films on the last day of the great exhibition Golden Reawakening on the Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s were by Tea Lim Koun, and they suggest that he was director of that period with the best grip on cinematic story-telling. While some of the other films were fascinating precisely because their makers were unaware of narrative conventions, his films are well-told, well-shot and full of atmosphere.
Golden Age of Khmer Cinema party
The closing party of the Golden Reawakening exhibition, a presentation on the Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, was a steaming affair. There was a fashion show of 60s-style wear, film screenings, many speeches, and finally a rocking concert by V.O.B, a band dedicated to bringing back the sound of the period, when love ballads met grungy garage-punk guitars in Cambodia and led to a sound that has its fans all around the world these days.
People were encouraged to come in period dresses, and ended up dancing, dancing, dancing…
Hear my wish
Pous Troung On Tov (Hear my wish, Cambodia 1970) by Saravuth, presented during the Golden Reawakening exhibition on the “Golden Age of Khmer Cinema” in the 1960s and 70s at the Chinese House in Phnom Penh, is a melodrama that pulls all stops. It has numerous sadistic beatings, rape, murder, infidelity, incest, a women drugged and forced into prostitution and every other perfidy that you can think of.
Neang Peou plays the magic flute
Ly Va´s Preah Thinavong (1966) is another fantastic oriental tale with a unsettling sadist streak. Like the Justine of de Sade´s novel of the same name, our naïve heroine has to undergo countless humiliations, tribulations and torments, that are inflicted on her despite her attempts to be faithful and decent.
A feudal master even the Khmer Rouge found convincing
Am I the only one who starts to wonder where he is going to spend his evenings once the retrospective of old Cambodian films from the 1960s and 1970s at the Golden Reawakening exhibition in the Chinese House in Phnom Penh is over?
The number of old ladies in Pajamas accompanied by their many grand children from the neighboring shanty towns seems to grow every evening, and they are the most attentive audience to these old movies.
King Sihanouk gives a tour of Angkor Wat to his Indian visitor
I skipped the screening of King Norodom Sihanouk´s Twilight (1969) at the retropective during the Golden Reawakening at the Chinese House in Phnom Penh, as I have seen that film before. Actually, you can do that, too. The Cambodian King Father has an extensive website that he maintains from his home in Beijing, and it offers some of his works for streaming and downloading, including Twilight.
Blood on the hands of Princess Keth Soriyong
Yvon Hem´s Sovannahong, the second film on Tuesday during the retrospective accompanying the exhibition Golden Reawakening at the Chinese House in Phnom Penh, is a solidly told folklore tale. While containing some gross humor and some grotesque violence, it is basically the kind of fairy tale that is common to all cultures.
Adding to the generally fantastic mood of the film was the fact that just before the screening started, out of the blue German director Detlev Buck entered the Chinese House, and made himself comfotable in the first row on the floor in front of the screen.
As all of the previous films that were based on Khmer folklore, Sovannahong delights in lavish decors, in court ceremonial and in ornamental set design that is remindful of the Bollywood cinema of that period: Beautiful servants serve huge bowls of tropical fruit and pour wine into golden goblets, while muscle men in the background fan the court with palm leaves. Director Yvon Hem acknowledged the influence of Indian movies on his own films in a talk after the screening.
Giant King Neakea Muk Khey
The longer the retrospective of Khmer film classics from the 1960s and 1970s go on at Golden Reawakening, the excellent exhibition on the “Golden Age of Khmer cinema” at the Chinese House here in Phnom Penh, the more regular people seem to show up there.
Not the students that still make up the bulk of the audience, but people like the old lady in traditional Khmer dress, who told us with a meek smile that she had first watched all these films, when she was young. We gestured to her repeatedly to make herself comfortable on one of the huge cushions on the floor of the Chinese house. But she just wanted to loll on the rattan mats, among all these other bodies that lie about in the mosaic of arms, legs, torsos and heads that cover the old wooden floor of lobby of the Chinese house taking in the movies.
The film screened on Monday at the retrospective of old Khmer movies from the 1960s and 1970s at the current Golden Reawakening exhibition in Phnom Penh, was quite a different affair from what was previously to see here. Whereas “Panhcha and Tevy” und “12 Sisters” took place in some mythical past, “Pel Del Trov Zum” (A time to cry, Cambodia 1972) is set in a contemporary environment. It is a story about an arranged marriage that destroys the love between Vichara (Vichara Dany) and Vichet (Kong Seum Eu), two of the biggest star of the time. Vichara has to marry the rich bachelor Chhit, so her parents can pay of their debts. The deeply disappointed Vichet takes Monida for a wife but she dies during child birth.
Visionary film director Ly Bun Yim and myself
“Puthisen Neang Kongrey” (12 Sisters) was the second film screened at the Golden Reawakening exhibition currently on at the Chinese house in Phnom Penh, and just in case first film, „Panhcha and Tevy“ left any questions about the uniqueness of the films from the Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema, this film left the audience with their mouths wide open in complete awe of this terrific piece of filmic Art Brut.
Dream sequence in "Panhcha and Tevy"
Oh, the joys of discovering films that are not listed in the Internet Movie Data Bank!
With no Wikipedia entry, no book chapter, no fan website, and only a brief clip on YouTube with no additional information, one is left to one’s own devices in understanding and appreciating a film – in the case of the movie in question, an example of the Khmer films that were produced in the brief peaceful and progressive period in Cambodia that started with independence in 1953 and ended with the Khmer Rouge terror regime in 1975. “Panhcha Por Tevy” (Panhcha and Tevy) by Chhea Nuk from 1971 opened the series of screenings that accompanies Golden Reawakening, the fabulous exhibition at the Chinese House in Phnom Penh, that commemorates the Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema in the 1960s and early 1970s, on Sunday night. And what an opening it was.
Opening of Golden Reawakening, thanks to Adam Knee for the picture
The opening of Golden Reawakening, a show on the Golden Age of Cambodian cinema in the 1960s and early 1970s, was packed.
The exhibition presents some movie memoribilia from that period, that remains little known in the international film world, as well as in Cambodia itself, as most of the films were destroyed and many of the most important directors and actors were killed during the Khmer Rouge period.
Also, current artworks from students from different art schools in Phnom Penh that deal with that period are on display and for sale.
