Japanese selection @ FEF and middle ground

[Roland Domenig]

the udine film festival distinguishes itself that it exactly tries to
explore the middle ground, showing mostly films that go unnoticed by most
other festivals because they neither fall into the cult-category (miike's
film is the exception) nor do they cater to the tastes of the
art-house-film-fans. this is what makes udine such an interesting place.
transparent, all about our house, yin-yang master and even a woman's work
and laundry are not the films you see at many other festivals (at least in
europe). whether they represent the best of japanese cinema is beside the
point. they represent the middle ground and i guess this is why they were
selected.  
the same is true for the films from other countries in udine. take for
instance the chinese films. the selection was a very good counterbalance to
the selection of chinese films shown at the berlin festival at the beginning
of the year. whereas berlin showed mainly so-called 'underground' films that
had not been released in china, the films presented in udine demonstrated a
much higher degree of variety. they clearly showed that the chinese cinema
has more o offer than the films of the 5th generation directors or
underground-films. not all of them can measure up to the standard of the
art-house-films, nor are they spectacular enough to 'compete' with the
'cult'-movies. but this is what makes them interesting: they represent the
middle ground and help better understand the (different) tastes of a
majority audience in different regions and countries in (east) asia.



roland domenig
institute of east asian studies
vienna university



> I found "No woman, no cry" one of the best movies of the festival at
> all. A really impressive, painful and quite scaring movie about
> destiny, repetition and individual. I'd be happy to see more movies
> by that director.
unfortunately kamata didn't make a new movie since, except for a minor
direct-to video feature.