Keeping pace with the other Asian cinema events happening in the eastern states is this year’s solid film line-up from the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide, with 21 films showing this year between 13 and 29 September.
You can find a full list on their website, but there are a few screenings in particular I want to highlight:
Drug War (China, 2012), the first Chinese Mainland-shot crime film from HC favourite director Johnnie To, starring Louis Koo, Sun Honglei and a bunch of To regulars. It’s an uncompromising, gun-heavy view of China’s drug trade, with all the Milkyway Image flourishes.
Gangs of Wasseypur (India, 2012, both Part I and II), a sprawling crime film, following the exploits of a family of gangsters across 70 years of history and countless fallen competition. It’s a very different style of film from the Bollywood mainstream, and thoroughly worth the effort.
Pietà (South Korea, 2012), the latest from Korean director Kim Ki-duk, picked up the Golden Lion at Venice last year. It’s an unflinchingly brutal piece of work — more so than the two genre films I list above, though they definitely have their share of violence — but it’s certainly an impressive, intense piece of cinema.
Four restored prints of films from venerated Indian director Satyajit Ray: The Big City (Mahanagar), The Coward (Kapurush), The Lonely Wife (Charulata) and The Saint (Mahapurush). Personally, I would love to see all four of these, and I’m hoping that they make their way to Sydney eventually!
There’s much more cinema on the programme as well, plus food, art, dance and discussion. See the official website for more info.