Major box-office successes pepper the selections from Asia Pacific this year. Screen surveys a region that has won the international feature Oscar twice in the past five years.
The Asia Pacific region has an eclectic selection of titles in the international feature film Oscar race, each hoping to make it as far as Japan’s Perfect Days, which landed a nomination last year.
Since 2000, titles from the region have secured nominations in 14 out of 25 editions of the Oscars, winning the category four times during that period with Taiwan’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001, Japan’s Departures in 2009, South Korea’s Parasite in 2020 and Japan’s Drive My Car in 2022. Entries are up to 20 this year, from a total of 18 last time.
India has made a surprise submission once again, choosing Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies over Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which had been widely anticipated to make the cut after winning the grand prix at Cannes this year and embarking on a successful international run. All We Imagine As Light will instead be eligible for other Oscar categories by virtue of a US release, and will compete at the Bafta Film Awards.
Rao’s second feature is a light-hearted satire on the patriarchy that follows a case of mistaken identity when two young brides, under identical veils, unwittingly switch places during a train ride and end up with different families. Produced by Bollywood star Aamir Khan, the Hindi-language film premiered at Toronto in 2023 and was released locally through Jio Studios before being picked up by Netflix. Khan was also the producer and star of Lagaan, the last Indian film to secure a nomination in the category in 2002.
Hong Kong returns to the race after missing out last year, when its entry A Light Never Goes Out was disqualified due to a conflict of interest among the voting committee. This time, its selection boasts the biggest box office of any entry in the category. Soi Cheang’s martial-arts thriller Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In took $13.7m locally and nearly $100m in mainland China, where it opened ahead of an international premiere in the Midnight section of Cannes. Set in 1980s Hong Kong, it follows a young man who strays into the lawless Kowloon Walled City. Well Go USA handled the release Stateside in August after picking up rights from Media Asia.
But it is not the only blockbuster in the race. Pan-Asian box-office phenomenon How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies will represent Thailand. Since its release in April, it has grossed $50m worldwide, ranking as the biggest film of the year in Thailand and Singapore and the biggest Asian film of all time in Indonesia.
The story centres on a young man who quits work to care for his terminally ill grandmother, motivated by her fortune. Marking the feature directing debut of Pat Boonnitipat and produced by GDH 559, it stars popular Thai singer and actor Putthipong Assaratanakul (aka Billkin) and Usha Seamkhum. Mokster Films has sold the title to 110 territories, with streaming rights snapped up by Netflix.
South Korea has also opted for a box-office hit, selecting historical action drama 12.12: The Day, its biggest film of 2023 that took more than $97m. Based on true events and directed by Kim Sung-soo, it follows a military coup that took place in 1979. The US theatrical release in November 2023 was handled by 815 Pictures. It has been five years since Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite won the international feature Oscar as well as best picture.
Three submissions from the region played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Alongside Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In was Cambodia’s Meeting With Pol Pot — this Cannes Premiere selection is directed by Rithy Panh, and follows three French journalists who were invited to interview the leader of the Khmer Rouge. It marks the Cambodian-French director’s fourth submission to the Oscars, having achieved a nomination in 2014 for The Missing Picture.
Also at Cannes — in Un Certain Regard — was Mongolia’s If Only I Could Hibernate, which made history as the first feature from the country to play in the festival’s official selection. Directed by Zoljargal Purevdash, it centres on a teenager who is forced to take care of his siblings after their mother abandons them. It went on to play Shanghai, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem and El Gouna.
Achieving another festival first is Nepal’s Shambhala, the first Nepali film to play in Competition at this year’s Berlinale. Directed by Min Bahadur Bham, the drama is set in a polyandrous Himalayan village where a pregnant woman goes looking for her husband, who has vanished. Bham’s The Black Hen was Nepal’s entry in 2017.
Venice was the springboard for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, with which Japan is hoping to score another nomination after Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days last year. The psychological thriller about a young man whose job reselling goods online places him in a precarious situation marks the first Oscar submission for prolific filmmaker Kurosawa, who won the Silver Lion for best director with Wife Of A Spy at Venice in 2020. Japan has won this Oscar twice in the competitive period, plus three times with honorary awards in the 1950s.
From Malaysia, Jin Ong’s neo-noir crime drama Abang Adik follows two undocumented orphans whose relationship is rocked by an accident. It received seven nominations at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, with Wu Kang-ren winning best actor.
Armenia, which made the shortlist of 15 titles for the first time last year with Amerikatsi, has submitted Edgar Baghdasaryan’s Yasha And Leonid Brezhnev. The comedy drama centres on a retiree who is reluctant to accept the end of the USSR and imagines political conversations with prominent communist figures. It is Baghdasaryan’s second time in the Oscar race after his historical drama Lengthy Night was submitted to the 2020 awards.
The Wrestler, which was joint winner of Busan’s New Currents competition in 2023, is Bangladesh’s entry. The feature debut of Toronto-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Iqbal H Chowdhury follows an eccentric old fisherman who trains in a traditional form of wrestling before taking on the village champion.
After Kyrgyzstan’s submission last year was ruled ineligible for having been released before the qualifying period, the country’s selection committee has avoided that pitfall this time with Ruslan Akun’s Heaven Is Beneath Mother’s Feet, which opened locally in March. The story follows a mentally challenged man who embarks on foot to Mecca with his mother to ensure she can go to heaven.
Also returning — after last year missing the deadline to supply the required materials — Tajikistan has submitted Behrouz Sebt Rasoul’s Melody for a second time. The film centres on a music teacher who travels back to her home village to capture the sound of birdsong for a piece her students have asked her to compose. It is only the third submission from the territory, whose second — Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Sex & Philosophy — was also disqualified in 2006 after the print failed to reach the US Academy in time.
Strict criteria
This year it is China that has been ruled ineligible with its entry The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru — directed by Fang Li, this first documentary submitted by the country has been ruled out due to the category’s language requirement. The film chronicles an incident in 1942 when a Japanese freighter carrying British prisoners of war was torpedoed in the East China Sea by a US submarine, leading Chinese fisherman to rescue as many men as they could. China has earned two nominations in this category, most recently in 2003 with Zhang Yimou’s Hero.
Instead, it is the Philippines that will make the sole documentary entry this year from the Asia Pacific region. Philippines-US filmmaker Ramona S Diaz’s And So It Begins centres on the 2022 Philippine presidential election when Leni Robredo was up against Bongbong Marcos, son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The film premiered at Sundance and went on to screen at CPH:DOX and Thessaloniki.
Further notable entries include Taiwan family drama Old Fox by Hsiao Ya-Chuan, executive produced by Cannes award winner Hou Hsiao-hsien (The Assassin), which premiered at Tokyo in 2023 and went on to win four prizes at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards including best director; and M Raihan Halim’s La Luna, the first Malay-language film selected by Singapore in eight years.
The submissions are rounded out by Indonesia’s social drama Women From Rote Island, directed by Jeremias Nyangoen; Kazakhstan’s Bauryna Salu, a coming-of-age drama from Askhat Kuchencherekov that premiered at San Sebastian in 2023; Pakistan’s The Glassworker, a hand-drawn animation from Usman Riaz; and Vietnamese romantic war drama Peach Blossom, Pho And Piano by Phi Tien Son.
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