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BIFF 2002 WRAP-UP
Well it's been a week since BIFF finished and I've only just recovered! I hadn't realized binging on films and writing reviews would be quite so draining, but it's all been entirely worth it. Being obsessed with Asian film, BIFF is always a big event in my calendar, and this year I think marked a decidedly serious and highly diverse approach to the selection of work coming out of the Asia-Pacific area. I like to think this not only reflects an increase in popularity and public demand for Asian film in general but also helps to push the viewing boundaries for Brisbane audiences a little more. That, as far as this reviewer is concerned, can only be a Very Good Thing.
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Highlights for me, if you have been following the coverage, were inarguably Shinji Iwai's gorgeous, contemporary
All About Lily Chou-Chou and Miike Takashi's crazily side-splitting
The Happiness of the
Katakuris, followed very closely by Nabi: The Butterfly from Korean director Moon
Seung-wook. All personal winners for obviously different reasons, but one always comes away from BIFF (or any film festival for that matter) with certain films stuck in one's memory for years after.
Those films this year will join others in my almost permanent mental Hall of BIFF Fame, films like
Monday (BIFF 2000) by Japanese director Sabu (who was actually a guest speaker that year), the creepy, sexy, Korean
Tell Me Something (BIFF 1999) by Chang Yoon-Hyun, Thailand director Nonzee Nimibutr's ghost wife story
Nang Nak (BIFF 2000)…Oh the list kind of goes on, but I'm here to talk about recent BIFF memories without reminiscing quite that far back and I continue on while I'm still under my word count (and still have you reading!).
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As with most BIFFs as well there are those few films you couldn't quite work out, or even (once or twice) just outright didn't like. The trick is not to get too discouraged about it. After all, if out of ten films you didn't see one or two you weren't exactly thrilled about I'd be tempted to believe you were either very lucky, unbelievably well-informed or perhaps not getting everything out of BIFF that you could be. Often for me it's about challenging myself, about trying something new, exposing myself to something unfamiliar, as much as it is about being entertained. Good or bad (and it's usually mostly good I assure you) the films I go to are not always films that I will ever see anywhere else. With that kind of approach I feel like I'm letting BIFF do what it does best and therein lies the true joy of the film festival experience.
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As I mentioned in my primer at the start of the festival, this year marked the inauguration of the NETPAC award, won by Zhu Wen's
Seafood (oddly enough I didn't like it much but in hindsight I believe I can see how critics might have). In addition, the also newly featured FIPRESCI (Federation Internationale de la Presse
Cinematographique) award for promoting film art and encouraging new and young cinema was given to Seijun Suzuki's
Pistol Opera. As much art as film,
Pistol Opera was certainly deserving, taking its place in my BIFF album purely for virtue of it being outstandingly different. With the inception of competitions such as these, BIFF's Asia-Pacific content is only going to get bigger and better in the following years (not of course that there's been much to complain about in the years I've been going!).
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Awards and attendance, coverage and interest. Indications that focus on and interest in Asian film is on the up? Well in terms of the street level, cultural availability of Asian cinema in my lovely, sunny city I certainly think so. In terms of BIFF's success in providing just such quality, often undistributed content to Brisbane audiences? There was never really any doubt. My only regret?
I just couldn't see them all.
Deni Stoner reporting
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H E R O I C * C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
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