DESPITE SOUTH KOREAN director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” scoring the Palme d’Or at the just-ended Cannes Film Festival, Asia had an unusually poor showing at this year’s prestigious event, with very few Asian titles selected for screening.

Of the 21 films in the main competition and 18 in Un Certain Regard, only five Asian movies made it to the Cannes screens. Siebar sections like the Director’s Fortnight had three, while International Critics’ Weel had one, a Chinese production.

In the latest film from the Myanmarborn Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z, Wu KeXi, who has starred in almost all Midi Z’s films plays Nina Wu, a young actress who fights to survive in the tough Taiwanese entertainment business.

One of those, which along with “Parasite” showed in the main competition, was “The Wild Goose Lake”, the fourth feature by Chinese filmmaker Diao Yinan whose 2014 oeuvre “Black Coal, Thin Ice” won the Golden Bear from Berlin International Film Festival.

The film, a Chinese-French co-production, marked Diao Yinan’s debut at Cannes and saw him again working with “Black Coal, Thin Ice” cast members, Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-Mei (“Blue Gate Crossing”) and Liao Fan (“Ash is Purest White”) alongside Chinese actor and singer Hu Ge and actress Regina Wan.

“When I chose the actors, I didn’t base myself on their physical appearance. You don’t need someone who looks like a gangster to play a gangster. It has far more to do with the acting ability of that person to become the character,” Diao Yinan told The Nation.

“Actors can change their existence. In cinema, there are quite a number of actors who can play any kind of role with any kind of director. Take Alain Delon. He can play in an arthouse film or even a new wave or gangster film with credibility and ease. I’m very open,” Diao adds.

In Diao Yinan’s latest film “The Wild Goose Lake”, Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-Mei plays Liu Alai, a sex worker in a town near the lake who is sent to help Zenong, a gangster on the run. 

In “The Wild Goose Lake”, Hu Ge plays Zhou Zenong, a gangster who comes to meet with Alai (Gwei Lun-Mei), the bathing beauty (aka prostitute) sent by his wife to help him. Zenong killed a policeman. He is injured and has to find a place to hide from Liu, the policeman who is hot on his tracks.

“In my film, I don’t consider that I have a message to convey. I simply try to show all the facts so that each spectator can enjoy his or her own experience when watching the film,” says Diao Yinan, who describes the film as a crime noir that shows the underground world of China.

Actor-turned-director Zu Feng, whose first feature was selected for Cannes, also portrays the main character in the film ABin, a policeman who becomes involved with a strange murder case when a fisherman finds a human arm floating in the river.

“I was very happy to work again with director Diao,” says Liao Fan who won a Silver Bear for Best Actor for “Black Coal, Thin Ice” from Berlin in 2014. “In the film, I play the character of the inspector, just as I did in “Black Coal, Thin Ice”. However, the two films have a very different style. In “The Wild Goose Lake”, the characters speak in the local dialect of Wuhan.”

For the Mandarin-speaking actors, getting the dialect right meant a long stay in Wuhan. “Gwei Lun-Mei was in Wuhan for two months before I arrived. I also went to police station to see how they work and live,” says Liao.

“When I observed the local police station, I chose one policeman there as my model. That helped me understand my role in the film. I didn’t have much knowledge of the local dialect but thanks to this period of observation, I was able to learn more than just the way of speaking,” he adds.

“We thought about shooting the film in Guangdong in Southern China. We wanted to find a place with lakes and a city nearby. Finally we found a place in the north, in Yinchuan where there is a lake though it is not so close to the town. Then we came up with the idea of shooting the film in the area that’s home to the highest number of lakes in China, which is near Wuhan. That’s why the actors had to learn the local dialect,” Diao Yinan explains.

Despite being selected by the most prestigious film festival in the world, “Summer of Changsha” faced problems with Chinese censorship and the producers were forced to pull the film from the festival. It did eventually screen but without any formal presentation.

Two Chinese-language films were selected for Un Certain Regard. One of them “Nina Wu” is the latest movie from Myanmar-born Taiwanese |film director Midi Z, and is the first |of his works that is not about Myanmar. The story is set in Taiwan and is about the country’s entertainment. His usual collaborator, actress Wu Ke-Xi plays Nina Wu, a young woman whose family is in debt. She is trying hard to become an actress, but the path is not easy and the more successful she becomes, the higher the price she has to pay. “Nina Wu” will open the Taipei Film Festival later this month.

The second Chinese film in Un Certain Regard has not been so lucky. Actor-turned-film director Zu Feng’s first feature film “Summer of Changsha” is a crime-drama about a policeman who is investigating the case of a body that’s been mutilated and thrown into the river. Rumours indicated that the film had problems with Chinese censors forcing the producer pull it out of the festival resulting in Zu Feng cancelling his trip to Cannes.

Although the film was eventually screened at the festival, no member of cast or crew was on hand to present it. Again the rumour mill was rife, with speculation that some of the cast were already in Cannes but couldn’t show up at the screening. After Cannes, it is difficult to know where and when this film will play next – or, of course, even if it will.

Film critics who watched a preview on Friday said the local distributor had censored some scenes for legal reasons.

In a joint statement with the filmmakers, the superstar said he only became aware of the cuts on Friday.

“We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to censor Rocketman for the Russian market,” said the statement, published on the singer’s Twitter account.

“That the local distributor had found it necessary to edit out certain scenes, denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was intended is a sad reflection on the divided world we still live in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people.”

Russia has a dire record on LGBT rights and a controversial law bans the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” to minors, though it is not clear why this would apply to the 18-rated film.

Film critic Anton Dolin wrote on his Facebook page that all the sex or kissing scenes had been cut out, adding that the edits had been “very obvious”.

The film, which is set for general release in Russia next week, addresses the British pop icon’s struggles with his sexuality, drugs and alcohol.

Another journalist who attended the screening, Misha Kozyrev, wrote that scenes featuring drugs were also cut from the film.

“Yes, the film has been amended to comply with the laws of the Russian Federation,” distribution company Central Partnership told the TASS news agency, without providing details.

– Family life also censored –

Russia’s culture minister Vladimir Medinsky told state agency RIA Novosti that his ministry had nothing to do with the edits and that “everything is decided by the distributor.”

“We do not cut anything, I don’t even understand what this is about,” he was quoted as saying.

Film critic Dolin said the text that ends the film was also changed, to say only that Elton John founded an NGO to fight AIDS.

But in the original, viewers learn that he eventually found love and is raising two children with his same-sex partner.

In the statement, the singer praises Paramount Pictures for being “brave and bold” in allowing a true representation of his life.

“We believe in building bridges and open dialogue, and will continue to push for the breaking down of barriers until all people are heard equally across the world,” the statement concluded.

Amnesty International called the censorship of the film “an insult for the rights of LGBTI people.”

In a statement on Friday it said the editing of the film was an example of Russia’s anti-gay laws “undercutting freedom of expression and encouraging homophobia in Russia.”

Other films that included gay scenes, including the recent biopic about British rock star Freddy Mercury, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, were shown in Russian cinemas.

Elton John is popular in Russia, where he first performed during the Soviet era in 1979 but he has been a vocal critic of the country’s anti-gay laws.

“Rocketman” premiered on May 16 at the Cannes film festival where it received a standing ovation.

Quentin Tarantino stormed into Cannes Tuesday with “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, which critics at the world’s biggest film festival hailed as his best movie in years.

They heaped praise on the dark Tinseltown fairytale set in the Los Angeles of 1969 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a television Western star on the slide and Brad Pitt as his stunt double.

Twenty-five years after the American director won Cannes’ top Palme d’Or prize for “Pulp Fiction”, he got some of his best reviews since “Jackie Brown” in 1997.

Critic Peter Howell of the Toronto Star said that Tarantino wanted “to tell us a story about Hollywood life at the time of the Manson family slayings… and man, does he ever, going from awe-struck to WTF”.

“Brad Pitt the standout, his coolest role yet,” he added in a tweet.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw was equally euphoric, calling the film a “brilliant exploitation blackcomedy” which “finds a pulpfictionally redemptive take on the Manson nightmare: shocking, gripping, dazzlingly shot in the celluloid-primary colours of sky blue and sunset gold.”

Deadline declared that it was the “film Tarantino was born to make… gloriously, wickedly indulgent, compelling and hilarious.”

The online film magazine even called for a sequel.

“The world is a more colourful place in Tarantino’s twilight zone. Round two, please.”

Critics clapped at the end having laughed throughout, but there were none of the standing ovations at the press preview that sometimes greet films at Cannes.

And not everyone was won over by Tarantino’s genius.

Tim Grierson of the industry journal Screen tweeted that “like a lot of recent Tarantino, this is baggy, self-indulgent, fascinatingly its own thing and ambitiously conceived.”

Yet even he conceded that “it’s accomplished, sometimes dazzlingly so” even if “it ends up being as hitormiss as his last few”.

There was much more emotion at the blacktie gala screening, with Tarantino doing John Travolta’s two-fingered dance move swipe from “Pulp Fiction” to acknowledge the prolonged standing ovation given by the VIP audience.

British actress Tilda Swinton, one of the stars of “The Dead Don’t Die”, the satirical zombie movie that opened the festival, wiped away tears as she shook the director’s hand to congratulate him.

Earlier, as he walked the red carpet for the premiere, Tarantino compared his film to Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-winning “Roma”, saying it is “a memory piece, the way ‘Roma’ was a memory piece… In 1969, Los Angeles was like that.”

The director admitted that “Cannes changed my life” after he brought his first feature “Reservoir Dogs” there in 1992.

“I came here a small independent filmmaker and I left here known by all the critics… and made myself a name as an international filmmaker. And then two years later, my life changed all over again” when he won the Palme d’Or with “Pulp Fiction”.

DiCaprio, 44, told reporters that the film is “a throwback to the type of Hollywood epics we don’t get to see any more.

“It’s all from the mind of the great Quentin Tarantino, who’s not only one of the best writers but one of the best directors on Earth.

“It’s about Hollywood and we play outsiders trying to make our way in a changing world in 1969 as the world passes by,” he said.

Costar and architecture buff Pitt, who is 55 but looks far younger on screen, described the movie as “a love letter to Hollywood and to LA… a city I love.”

Just before the movie was screened, festival director Thierry Fremaux appealed to critics not to give away the plot.

Tarantino made a similar plea Monday, writing a letter that was posted on the movie’s Twitter account begging journalists not to let details slip that might spoil the film for his fans.

“I love cinema. You love cinema. It’s the journey of discovering a story for the first time,” he wrote.

“The cast and crew have worked so hard to create something original, and I only ask that everyone avoids revealing anything that would prevent later audiences from experiencing the film in the same way.”

Its stars, including Australian Margot Robbie who plays tragic actress Sharon Tate murdered by Manson cult members, waved to screaming fans as they left the premiere.

DiCaprio was accompanied by his girlfriend, Argentinean actress Camila Morrone, 21, one of the big discoveries of this year’s festival for her standout performance in the US indie film, “Mickey and the Bear”.

Audiences will have to wait until July to make their minds about “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, when it will be released in the US. The film is currently slated for release in Thailand on September 12.

An alpine thriller with a romantic subplot, it’s based on a true account of two climbing parties racing to summit the highest peak in the Alps.

Tomorrow it’s “7th Heaven” at 6.30pm, a 1927 American release about a sewer worker who falls in love with a poor woman in Paris during World War I. It was an inspiration for “Sawan Mued” (“Dark Heaven”, 1958) directed by Ratana Pestonji.

At 8.30pm the 1915 crime thriller “Filibus” unspools its tale of a sky pirate wreaking havoc on billionaires and bankers from her airship.

On Sunday at 6.15pm, the Indian picture “Shiraz: A Romance of India” recalls a romantic tragedy involving a 17th-century Mughal ruler and his queen, which resulted in construction of the Taj Mahal.

The festival closes at 8.30pm with “Speedy”, Harold Lloyd’s last silent film, about a baseball-crazy young man in New York who cannot hold a job.

All screening have surtitles in Thai and English.

Tickets cost Bt120, Bt140 and Bt160 at the Scala. Keep up to date at  www.Facebook.com/silentfilmthailand.

As is always the case in May, the French Riviera is awash in stars and fans as the Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 72nd anniversary with a showcase of interesting titles from around the world.

Although only a few Asian titles made it into this year’s selection, there are a couple of big names in the running for the big prize. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is back with “Parasite” and Chinese director Diao Yinan, who won the Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014 with his “Black Coal, Thin Ice” is presenting “The Wild Goose Lake”.

Producer Jeremy Thomas, second right, works with Takashi Miike, left for the fourth time on his latest film “Hatsukoi”, which premiered at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2019.

However, one of the most anticipated Asian films in Cannes this year is “Hatsukoi” (“First Love”), the latest work of Takashi Miike. It’s been one of the hits of the Director’s Fortnight, a non-competitive sidebar section of Cannes.

The title “First Love” does nothing to prepare the viewer for the force of the violence. Indeed, it might well be one of the most violent films showing in Cannes this year. It tells the story of Leo (Masataka Kubota), a young boxer in Tokyo who meets Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a call girl with whom he falls in love. After getting involved in drug smuggling, they are forced to spend a long night battling the police, the Yakuza, and assassins sent by Chinese mafia.

Director Takashi Miike and actress Sakurako Konishi at the world premiere of “Hatsukoi” at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival 2019.

“Some people might say I’m bad for putting so much violence into the film, but it’s not me. It is the characters in the film who demand this,” Miike tells The Nation.

As a director who has made many films about the Yakuza, Miike stresses that the gangsters shown in “Hatsukoi” as well as in his other movies, are different from the real-life Yakuza.

“In the old days, I made Yakuza films in a straight to video deal and I conducted my research with real Yakuza. Actually, the Yakuza like the ones you see in the film are difficult to find in society, rather like the samurai who don’t actually exist.

“You might think a movie about the Yakuza is just another violent film, but in fact, there are many diverse parts to the story. And they are all connected. What I try to portray is friendship, and ultimately existence. It’s just that I don’t have my character saying ‘Why am I here?’ I don’t define the film by genre”, he explains.

“I got lots of feedback from the Yakuza community,” he continues. “A Yakuza organisation once submitted a formal complaint to the production company, saying that their boss would never play the piano. We had to take them a bottle of sake as an apology! Nowadays that would be difficult as the law doesn’t permit that kind of thing. However, if you want to shoot in areas controlled by them like, say, Kabukicho in Shinjuku, you will have to contact them anyway or you can’t shoot. You don’t have to pay them, but you have to talk with them beforehand to ask for their permission. In the past we used to pay, but nowadays the film industry doesn’t have the money.”

Miike cast rookie actress Sakurako Konishi to play Monica, the call girl and addict but who also has an innocent side.

“Sakurako has almost zero acting experience. That lack of experience makes her very fresh when she’s in a scene and that’s good as I wanted to make a pure love story. For that reason, it’s important that the audience doesn’t feel any familiarity with the character. All other characters are played by famous actors. Becky, for instance, is a TV personality but she’s been banned from the industry for a while. She plays a bright character and is perfect for that part. She didn’t audition. I wanted her for the role,” says Miike.

Takashi Miike’s latest film “Hatsukoi” (“First Love”) stars first time actress Sakurako Konishi as Monica, a call girl while actor Masataka Kubota play the boxer who falls in love with her.

The actress, a well-known TV personality, is rarely seen these days following the 2016 scandal about her affair with a leading married musician. She was attacked for destroying the man’s family and banned from the entertainment industry.

Famous actor Shota Sometani (“Legend of the Demon Cat” and “Parasyte” Parts 1 and 2), who worked with Miike on 2014’s “As the God Will” plays the Yakuza.

“He doesn’t look like a Yakuza though. In the past you could tell who was in the criminal gang by the way they dressed. Nowadays, it’s much more difficult. The Yakuza has diversified too,” the director says.

Masataka Kubota, who has worked with Miike since he debuted in the TV series “Ketai Sosakan 7” in 2007 was chosen to play the main character.

In Takashi Miike’s latest film “Hatsukoi”, actor Masataka Kubota plays Leo, a young boxer who falls in love with a call girl.

“Ten years ago, I cast him in his first TV series, which I was directing. He became popular over the years but always plays the same type of role. As an actor, I thought he was probably frustrated and it would be good for him to be in this kind of film. No sooner had he finished though that he was back in the morning TV series, doing the same thing all over again!”

“Hatsukoi” is the fourth collaboration between Miike and British producer Jeremy Thomas, who was behind such classics such as “The Last Emperor”, “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” and “Naked Lunch”.

“Jeremy respects our way of filmmaking and encourage us to be more free, but during the editing, he is very honest about his opinion. He can’t understand everything in the Japanese context but he tells us what he doesn’t understand, and puts forward his own ideas. He always makes sure that I am the one who chooses. Jeremy is very different from the Hollywood type of producer,” says Miike.

The director has plenty to keep him occupied when he returns to Cannes.

“I am developing many projects, one of them for an American streaming service. But once I go back to Japan after Cannes, I have to shoot a commercial,” he laughs.

Miike, who has been making films from small straight-to-video movies to big-budget productions for almost 30 years, is well aware that he needs to adapt to the new era of streaming.

“Cannes as a film festival has a history. You can see where it is coming from [in not permitting entry to Netflix]. But you also know that things change all the time. The way we see films changes as well.

“Me, I am going to change with the times as well.”

The flightless angry birds and scheming green piggies of the upcoming “The Angry Birds Movie 2” did just that for the cameras. Faced with a new avian costar/antagonist and armed with their signature slingshot, birds and pigs joined forces to fling a willing hatchling as part of a photo call this afternoon at the Carlton Hotel’s iconic pier.

Star Josh Gad (“Chuck”), producer John Cohen, and director Thurop Van Orman took the opportunity to unveil a new scene from the anticipated sequel, which will roll out globally starting in August through October.

“It’s so cool to finally get to come to Cannes, especially for a movie I’m so proud of,” said Van Orman. “…and what a sendoff, literally!”

 Added Cohen, “Josh and I were here right before the premiere of the first film, in 2016, and that launched us to open at number one in 52 territories around the world. Now that Angry Birds is established as a film property, we’re super excited to expand on the narrative and really have fun.”

Gad, Cohen, and Van Orman were joined onstage by some of the movie’s international star talent, including Sergey Burunov, who voices “Leonard” in Russia; Enzo Knol and Irma Knol, as Holland’s “Chuck” and “Bomb’s Mom,” respectively; and Sonia Plakidyuk, playing “Fuchsia” in Ukraine.

The flightless angry birds and the scheming green piggies take their beef to the next level in “The Angry Birds Movie 2” when a new threat emerges that puts both Bird and Pig Island in danger, Red (Jason Sudeikis), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride), and Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) recruit Chuck’s sister Silver (Rachel Bloom) and team up with pigs Leonard (Bill Hader), his assistant Courtney (Awkwafina), and techpig Garry (Sterling K Brown) to forge an unsteady truce and form an unlikely superteam to save their homes.

Maryam Touzani has never forgotten the day a young woman knocked on the door of her home in Tangier asking for work.

“She was from a village and she was heavily pregnant. My mother had no work for her but was afraid to let her go… she wasn’t in a good way and had clearly nowhere to go,” the Moroccan actress and director says.

Sex outside marriage is illegal in the Muslim-majority country, and at the time a single mother who tried to give birth in a hospital would be thrown in jail.

“The girl had been going door-to-door, so my mother took her in for a few days until we worked something out.

“But there was no solution – she had been going from town to town after running away from her family, working as a cleaner and hairdresser until people noticed her predicament and then she would have to move on.

Maryam Touzani, centre, poses with actresses Lubna Azabal, left, and Nisrin Erradi, right, the stars of her film “Adam”. 

“So she stayed with us until she had the baby,” adds Touzani, whose powerful new film “Adam”, at the Cannes film festival, was inspired by the woman’s heartbreaking dilemma over what to do with the child.

“She wanted to give up her baby straight away to give him a chance of a decent life, and to restart her own and become a respectable woman again,” Touzani recalls.

But when the baby arrived, things weren’t so simple.

“Because she gave birth over a bank holiday weekend, she had to keep the baby until the adoption office opened. I was with her as she tried to suppress the maternal extinct, to put distance between herself and the child. It was painful to watch and really shook me.

“Little by little I saw her resistance break and the pain grow as the bank holiday drew to an end. I went with her to give the baby up,” Touzani says.

Moroccan director Maryam Touzani 

The hell that woman went through came home to when she became pregnant herself shooting “Razzia”, a huge hit in the kingdom in 2017, which she wrote and starred in.

“When I felt the baby move inside me I began thinking of her and I understood. And straight away I started to write, it poured out of me…”

Already talked of as an Oscars foreignlanguage contender, “Adam” shines a light on a hidden woman’s world in the conservative North African country.

Critics at Cannes hailed how the first-time director turned this “deceptively simple story… into gold” with the Hollywood Reporter praising its “great delicacy… made heartrending by the superb performances of Lubna Azabal and Nisrin Erradi.”

In the film, a village girl who flees to Casablanca played by Erradi is reluctantly taken in by a widowed baker (Azabal) hiding her own grief.

While Touzani does not go there in her touching, intimate tale, unmarried mothers are complete pariahs in Morocco, she says, often regarded as prostitutes.

“It is the worst thing that can happen to a woman.”

Until 2004 their children’s birth could not even be registered, meaning they have no legal status. “They simply didn’t exist,” she explains.

The shame is so intense that “children are often sold or abandoned”, adding to the country’s army of street children.

“There are so many terrible stories,” Touzani says.

The writer-director has not shied from touching on raw nerves in her homeland.

Her husband Nabil Ayouch’s banned feature “Much Loved” was based on a documentary of the same name she made about prostitution.

It was branded “an affront to moral values and Moroccan women” shortly after its premiere at Cannes, with actress Loubna Abidar forced to flee to France after being attacked in the street in Casablanca.

“Razzia”, in which Touzani played the lead, also touched on taboos.

But she is convinced many who condemned the films in public were secretly pleased they had brought issues out into the open that Morocco needs to deal with.

“There is a facade that everything is all right on the outside even if people are tormented inside. It is good to let in some air and light, and people are relieved and happy things are being spoken about.”

“I am not at all afraid for ‘Adam’. In any case, nothing comes from fear.”

“Southeast Asian cinema is poised to become an important player in the international film industry. Ming-Jung brings on board her passion for Asian cinema and discovering new directors, which complements our current team and will allow us to shape the next chapter of SGIFF as we enter into our 30th edition. We would also like to thank Pimpaka for her contribution to the festival and championing new developmental programmes with us, such as the Southeast Asian Producers Network, to bolster the regional film scene,” says the festival’s executive director Yuni Hadi.

Ming-Jung was the programme director at Taipei Film Festival from 2014 to 2018. She has served on several juries and selection panels including at Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Locarno Film Festival. Meanwhile, Pimpaka will continue to lend her expertise as one of the festival’s programme consultants.

“SGIFF is an anchor festival in the region where the best and budding Southeast Asian talents gather to exchange ideas, deliberate and share their voice through cinematic works. I continue to be inspired by the community’s openness to collaborate, its camaraderie, and the beautiful stories told as a result of this unique spirit. I look forward to working closely with the SGIFF team to contribute and grow the ecosystem in my new role,” says Ming-Jung.

Now in its 30th edition, the festival also announced its shortlist of seven compelling short films and documentaries from Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, which will receive its inaugural SGIFF Film Fund. Comprising Tan Ean Kiam Foundation-SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant (SEADOC) and SGIFF Southeast Asian Short Film Grant (SEASHORTS), the fund will help support the development and production of these stories to build the region’s portfolio.

The shortlists include “Some Women” by Quenyee Wong (Singapore), “68” by Tan Biyun (Singapore), “Aswang” by Alyx Ayn Arumpac (Philippines), “Ploy” by Prapat Jiwarangsan (Thailand), “Judy Free” by Che Tagyamon (Philippines), “Binh” by Ostin Fam (Vietnam), and “Nursery Rhymes” by Michael Kam (Singapore).

The festival continues its commitment to grow the independent film ecosystem in Southeast Asia through the introduction of the SGIFF Film Academy. It will bring together the festival developmental programmes such as Mentorship, Southeast Asian Producers Network, Southeast Asian Film Lab, and Youth Jury & Critics.

Veteran producer and transmedia filmmaker, Michel Reilhac, will take on the role as Head Mentor for the 2019 Southeast Asian Film Lab. He will work alongside two Lab Mentors – Hong Kong film producer, Teresa Kwong and Thai film editor, Lee Chatametikool. This year’s Youth Jury & Critics Programme will be led by Thai film critic, Kong Rithdee.

The 30th SGIFF will run from November 21 to December 1. Its call for entries for Feature and Short Films, Southeast Asian Film Lab, and Youth Jury & Critics Programme is now open and will continue until August 19.

For more information, visit http://www.Sgiff.com.

Disney began its successful Aladdin franchise with an animated feature film of the same name that starred legendary comedian Robin Williams and featured such memorable songs as “A Whole New World” and “Friend Like Me”. The film grossed more than US$502 million in worldwide box office revenue, which led to successful stage productions on Broadway and abroad. Twenty-seven years later, Disney is now set to bring the magic and adventure on the flying carpet back again with its release of Disney’s Aladdin (2019), a thrilling and vibrant live-action adaptation of the animated classic. This article has a glimpse of the new magical spells awaiting to unfold to moviegoers in theatres.

Here are five magical elements awaiting in the new version of Aladdin.

Magic 1: Latest appearance of a Disney Princess

The new on-screen presence of Jasmine (Naomi Scott) will keep the audience spellbound with her beauty in gorgeous makeup and more than 10 wonderful costumes designed by Michael Wilkinson. Among the highlights not featured in the animated film are a bright pink corset dress with gold-and-turquoise details and an extravagant pumpkin-orange dress paired with a cape in coral with gold-and-magenta embroidery. In addition to Jasmine’s stunning costumes, makeup and hairstyles, director Guy Ritchie made sure that the princess truly connects with her modern-day audience through contemporary interpretation and portrayal of this character, including her attitudes against arranged marriage and the convention that a princess shall only marry a prince.

Magic No. 2: Genie’s Magical Power to Grant Wishes

The magical elements that have previously captivated fans in the animated film will blow everyone’s imagination again in this live-action version, ranging from the magic lamp and the rides on the flying carpet through to the power of the blue Genie, played by Will Smith, to grant three wishes. Smith pays homage to Robin Williams’ flawless performance in the original 1992 film while still making the role his in this new version. In addition, he has honed many of his performing skills to top up this live-action Genie with top-class acting, singing and dancing skills, including rapping.

Magic No. 3: Full Host of Visual Effects Brings Agrabah to Life

Disney’s live-action films are renowned for their true-to-life quality in every aspect of production, and this live-action Disney’s Aladdin is no exception. Almost every type of visual effect work was utilised, including character animation, performance capture, set extensions, digital environments and FX simulations. In addition to a massive Agrabah set built outdoors at a filming studio in London, the film was shot on location amidst the stunning desert vistas of Jordan, with robust support of a talented creative team to bring Agrabah to life, including director of photography Alan Stewart and production designer Gemma Jackson (Game of Thrones).

Magic No. 4: “A Whole New World” Will Brighten Up People’s Hearts

“A Whole New World” from 1992 won the original Disney’s Aladdin the 65th Academy Award for Best Original Song and the 36th Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year. The song continues to be a top hit worldwide. In the 2019 live-action adaptation, Disney has worked with first-class music crew to create songs that will brighten up the world anew. Eight-time Academy Award -winning composer Alan Menken provides the score, which includes new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Oscar-winning lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and includes two new songs written by Menken, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Thai fans can also look forward to hearing this beautiful song in a Thai version, too.

Magic No. 5: A Classic Rich in Comedy, Romance and Action-packed Adventure

Disney has recreated this live-action adaptation based on the original animated film scene by scene. The Cave of Wonders, the Sultan’s palace, the lavish parade of “Prince Ali” and the scene when Aladdin takes Jasmine on a night ride on the magic carpet above the sky of Agrabah, among others, will bring back fresh memory of the animated classic.

Besides its four main characters, Genie, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Jafar, the 2019 film features an addition of new, lively characters including Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) as Jasmine’s handmaiden and the girlfriend she confides in, as well as Prince Anders (Billy Magnussen) and Jafar’s right-hand man, Hakim (Numan Acar).

The blood-spattered tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne has just one episode to go and buzz is at fever pitch for a ratings juggernaut that has demolished audience records like a Dothraki barbarian finishing off a skillet of horse meat.

“We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this,” Dan Weiss, who directed the 73rd and final episode with fellow showrunner David Benioff, told Entertainment Weekly.

While many will watch at home, perhaps with a goblet of Dornish red wine and a punnet of Braavosi cockles, thousands will celebrate and mourn the show’s denouement at viewing parties in bars, banqueting halls and backyards from Alaska to Armenia.

One of the darkest and most controversial primetime series ever made, “GoT” has been the target of criticism over the years for senseless violence and its repeated use of rape as a dramatic device.

Hacked, burned, flayed 

The scriptwriters have brutalized women, killed children, depicted graphic sex and had their characters hacked, stabbed, flayed, poisoned, decapitated, burned alive, eye-gouged and eviscerated — all in glorious close-up.

Even principal character Jon Snow (Kit Harington), whose fellow Night’s Watch troops would chant “And now his watch is ended” at comrades’ funerals, suffered the indignity of being briefly dead after a particularly violent quarrel.

The adult themes have not deterred fans, however, nor the industry itself, which has seen fit to make it the most decorated series in history, with 47 Emmy Awards.

Airing in 170 countries under its portentous tagline, “Winter is Coming,” the show is also the most expensive ever, with a budget of $15 million per episode in its final run.

The season seven finale set an all-time US record for premium cable TV with 16.5 million people watching live or streaming on the day of transmission and 15 million more tuning in later.

Viewing records also tumbled across the world, with Britain’s Sky Atlantic and OCS in France showing episodes in the middle of the night in sync with their US premieres.

Season six was the first to move beyond the source material, George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, and carve its own path.

Critics said it marked a return to form, with the narrative allowing female characters to demonstrate complexity and moral agency lacking in some of the earlier seasons.

The shortened final two seasons have been more of a mixed bag, with many fans furious over what they consider poor writing.

Mass-murdering madness 

Most controversial has been the rapid descent into mass-murdering madness by Emilia Clarke’s fan favorite Daenerys Targaryen, arguably the lead character in an enormous ensemble that has called on the services of such luminaries as Charles Dance, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg.

A Change.org petition called “Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers” had passed one million signatures with more than 24 hours to go until Sunday’s finale.

Assuming there is no do-over, the biggest mystery of all remains who will be sitting on the Iron Throne and ruling Westeros when “Game of Thrones” comes to an end.

To throw hackers and pirates off the scent, Benioff and Weiss shot several versions of the final episode, a tactic already used for “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad.”

Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, has admitted that even she was fooled into believing a fake version of the ending.

Martin will himself discover the on-screen ending of his long-running masterwork before he has had a chance to conclude the fantasy on paper.

The plot lines for his long-awaited final two novels in the series — “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring” — were adapted to the screen based on outlines Martin gave the show’s writers. But there is no guarantee they will stick to his plan.

“Obviously, I wished I finished these books sooner so the show hadn’t gotten ahead of me. I never anticipated that,” Martin once told an interviewer.

The “Game of Thrones” finale premieres on HBO at 9:00 pm in the US on both coasts (0100 GMT and 0400 GMT).