Asian movies, directors receive warm welcome at film festival

Anthony Chen, director of Ilo Ilo from Singapore who won several awards for his debut feature film, was also at the festival.

Ilo Ilo is Singapore's Academy Awards submission this year. It's a story about an over-stretched middle class family and their Filipino maid who helps care for their troublesome 10-year-old son.

Chen was honored as one of "10 Directors to Watch" by Variety at the Festival.

South Korean director Kang Yi-kwan also attended the festival with his film Juvenile Offender, which is his country's contender for the Academy Awards. The film is a story of a troubled 16-year-old who winds up in a detention center until the authorities track down the mother he thought was dead. It is regarded as a "neo-realist, social conscience drama".

Kang, who studied sociology in college before turning to filmmaking, says he had researched juvenile offenders and made a short film about the issue before making the feature film.

Philippe Muyl, a French director who has made a Chinese film in collaboration with producers in China, participated at the festival with his entry Nightingale. Muyl takes the audience on a Chinese road trip through spectacular mountain villages to discover the daily existence of the people and the beauty of nature.

The story is about the relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter. A previous film, The Butterfly, was very popular with Chinese audiences, which led him to the production of this new film.

"People perceive China through television and film," Muyl says. "I want them to see the beautiful countryside they don't know."

Asian films and their filmmakers are well received at the festival, one of the largest in the United States.

"I'd like to see more Chinese film submissions for PSIFF," says Therese Hayes, programmer for Asian films at the festival.

Xinhua