Street Art 12/25

NYAFF in town!!!

The New York Asian Film Festival is back in town and it's line-up is representative of the exciting things happening in Asian film. The series, which is heavily skewed towards East-Asian films, is eclectic, and gives New Yorkers a chance to experience the variety of films these countries have to offer. From Japanese monster and slasher films to Korean genre films, this series offers a little of everything for New York cinephiles. There's only one real issue I have with the festival--How will I find the time to see everything?

There are a few films that stand-out for me and I will be doing my best to see them.

--Rough Cut
--Breathless
--Yoroi Samurai Zombie
-- Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl
--Plastic City
--Pink films (I'm particularly interested in the pink film that is based (loosely) off of Teorema)
--Written By

The Humanism of Jia Zhang-Ke

We got it. The world economy is in meltdown mode, my inheritance disintegrated overnight, and everything, from cabdrivers to llamas’ know why. There are more Monday morning quarterback’s than I can count and if I hear Ralph Nader say ‘I told you so’ one more time I’m gonna go popeye on his ass. Amidst the cacophony of nonsense, a lone voice has appealed to my own disposition-Jia Zhang-ke. In his prior films The World and Still Life, and in his most recent film 24 City, Jia Zhang-ke artfully examines China’s transition from communism to capitalism. In 24 City, Zhang-ke turns his lens upon the workers at the 420 factory in Chengdu (coincidentally one of the town’s that was hardest hit by the recent Earthquake). The factory, which produced bullets, aviation equipment, and various other things for the Chinese army, is being shut down and replaced by a series of modern high rises. The people, those who kept the factory and Chinese army running for years are being abandoned. In the film Zhang-ke gives them their own voice. We hear from the elderly woman who recently lost her job in a series of lay-offs meant to decrease overhead. We hear from the 20 something’s who grew up with parents that worked in the factory. As one person says, ‘the factory was it’s own world’. There is a striking similarity between the world examined in Zhang-ke’s films and America. The stories the workers in 24 City tell, the suffering they experience, and the reason why are all too reminiscent of the current stories of Detroit autoworkers. The 420 factory played the same role in Chengdu that the GM plant did in Flint, Michigan. No one grew up in Flint who didn’t have at least 3 family members and countless friends that worked at the factory.

Zhang-Ke’s films don’t only give a voice to the voiceless, they suggest a certain prescription for our current woes---humanism. Throughout 24 City Zhang-ke shows that in the move towards capitalism, and the money oriented conception of human relations that follows, we all lose track of human feelings like compassion, connection, and empathy. Our relationships with one another lose their unique human quality. Emotions like empathy, compassion, and caring are replaced by concerns about utility. It doesn’t matter what you produce, it matters how you produce (what’s your overhead). There are no variables for ‘effect on human lives’ in the complex algorithims that are employed by companies to maximize profit. Human’s rather than using tools to create, have become the tools themselves. This may sound like a bunch of neo-marxist mumbo jumbo but there are human’s out there that are experiencing just this. And with 24 City you don’t need to go any further than your local multiplex to see them.

Oshima gets the Criterion Treatment

Recently, the Criterion Collection released two of director Nagisa Oshima’s better known films, ‘Empire of Passion’ and ‘In the Realm of the Senses’. For Japanese new wave fans this moment has been a long time coming. After three Oshima retrospectives in NY in the last year, a DC retrospective in March and April, these releases seemed inevitable. That said, It’s a little disappointing that they chose to release the two films that are already widely available. I would have LOVED to see a DVD of Shonen (1969), Death by Hanging(1968), or even Violence at Noon (1966) but these two films satisfy my Oshima obsession (for now). The transfers are magnificent. The interviews with Oshima and line producer Koji Wakamatsu (a director that deserves the criterion treatment in his own right) are both revealing and stimulating.

Although many treat the two films as companion pieces I found it easier to view them as mirrors of each other. In both films sexuality is used as a release from the alienation of modern life. The act of sex is given a utility beyond mere satisfaction. It becomes an expression of these characters agency. Oshima seems to be acutely concerned with the degree to which individuals are able to control their own desires and urges. Are we able to express ourselves? Or are our desires dictated by the naturalized social codes we are surrounded by? In both films, Oshima’s critique is unrelenting and in many ways disheartening. The films characters never truly escape the ‘reality’ they are running away from. Although sex offers them a temporary outlet, the characters social status and their expected behavior constantly disrupts their conscious desire to escape. So does Oshima argue that resistance is futile? Is acceptance the only real option? Or is the desire to live one’s own life, the desire to set one’s own morals, and make one’s own choices regardless of consequences the only real way to live in our increasingly immoral and disheartening times?