June 10, 2006

It is hard to believe, but Short Shorts Asia has come to a close! As soon as the last of the audience had left the final screening of Asia International Program B, an army of volunteers was stripping down Astro Hall to its bare walls. The chairs are gone! The sponsor boards are down! The lights are being shut off! The flyers and catalogs are packed away!

Thanks to the volunteers and staff for their hard work and another great festival!
The Naitonal and Asian selections were outstanding this year. No doubt the jury who will select the Best Film Award winners from each category have their work cut out for them. We’ll find out at Sunday’s Awards Ceremony which films will take home the prizes.

Thank you for coming to Short Shorts Film Festival Asia 2006!! See you next year!!

was the last screening at Short Shorts Film Festival Asia for this year!! Once again, an eclectic mix of dramatic and comedic films entertained the crowd in Astro Hall.

Filmmakers Seungkoo Jeong (“Bravo Mr. Kim,” Korea), Seongho Park (“Kidsbook is . . . ?” Korea), and Chong Yew Fei (“Going Home,” Malaysia) attended the screening and took questions from the audience afterwards.

An audience member asked Seungkoo why his main character, an old man named Mr. Kim, is always dressed in a suit and tie. “That’s an interesting and difficult question,” responded Seungkoo. In part, it’s how Seungkoo would like to think of himself when he gets older, but it also symbolizes Mr. Kim’s strength. He is a poor old man, struggling to get by, but he still has the dignity to dress for success.

Short Shorts is the first festival that Chong has traveled to outside of Malaysia, and he is thrilled to be here participating in this event. “I love Tokyo―the people and the weather. [The festival] is a great gathering of filmmakers.” He has also enjoyed the opportunity to see an international selection of films. “Multicultural shorts offer interesting points of view, and I hope Short Shorts can continue to show these kinds of films in the future.”

Animator Seongho Park mixed stop motion animation with 2D animation to tell a story based on childhood memories about a little boy reading a book about pirates and reaching into an illustration to touch their ship. This isn’t the only film we’ve seen at Short Shorts that mixes animation styles and techniques. The mixture is particularly effective in “Kidsbook is . . .?” as it differentiates action in the “real world” from the boy’s story book world.

Korean super star YOO JITAE visited the festival venue at Laforet today. An hour before showtime, the stairway outside the theatre was filled with excited fans---over 95% women---eagerly anticipating their chance to see the handsome and popular film star in person. Several rows of seats were reserved for a special visit from a Tokyo film school.

Upon hearing that the students were not going to make it, Short Shorts staffers announced that the prime seats near the front were available. Excited women pounced, body checking each other for a good spot to watch the sexy star.

The presentation served as a forum for Yoo to showcase his directorial debut, HOW DO THE BLIND DREAM. The story tells an abstract, often surreal, story of a blind acupuncturist who falls in love with one of his patients. She begins to create a sensation in the man’s monotonous life and arouses his hidden sexual desire.

It is a reflective work, rich in color and full of abstract interludes from the man’s perspective. For most of the piece, the scenes carry a relaxed energy―ruminating about life and love---but, in the end, concludes in a more aggressive manner when the man is accused of rape. In the q & a, Yoo said he has “always wanted to make a film that uses several different genres…and had a specific interest in telling a story from a blind man’s perspective.”

Those who made it to this today’s first screening at Astro Hall could have skipped their morning coffee―so jolting was the drama and humor of Asia International Program D. “Be Very Quiet” from Thailand/USA, “Fingerprint” from Korea, and “Save My Earth,” also from Korea were so tense they could raise your blood pressure. “The Bus” from Singapore and “Village Football” offered the sweet relief of laughter.

Korean filmmaker Bejay Kim, who directed “Save My Earth,” was in attendance and participated in Q&A after the screening. This trip to Tokyo is the first time Bejay has traveled outside of Korea. “I’m always too busy working!” he explains. Bejay talked about the warped psychology of his lead character, a police detective who becomes very paranoid while trying to solve a murder witnessed by an old high school friend. Bejay builds tension through nonlinear storytelling and quick edits. The result is that the film draws the audience into the detective’s confusion and paranoia.

Bejay brought World Cup memorabilia from Korea to present to a lucky audience member and hung around after the screening to answer more questions from the audience.