The 71st edition of the Internationale Filmfestspiele in Berlin is almost upon us. With new offerings from Céline Sciamma to Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut, it’s going to be massive – and partly online.
Running in hybrid mode — online in March (1-5) for press and industry and selected cinemas in June (9-20) for the general public — there’s over 130 new films, almost two dozen shorts and a retrospective of Mae West, Rosalind Russell and Carole Lombard films of 1930s and 40s. Swell!
As is our tradition at The Reel Bits, here’s a collection of Asian cinema that Berlinale ’71 is highlighting in 2021. Films from Japan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam are represented across the Competition, Berlinale Special, Forum, Panorama, Generation, Encounters and shorts selections.
For a full program and screening details, check out the official festival site. We look forward to covering the festival this year.
Competition
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Japan, Dir: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
A filmmaker practically made for festivals, from the 5-hour long Happy Hour (2016) to Asako I & II (2018). A kind of anthology containing three stories in one, he follows similar themes to his earlier films by following the intersecting lives and coincidences of women in love. This just shot to one of our most anticipated films for 2021.
Introduction (Inteurodeoksyeon)
South Korea, Dir: Hong Sang-soo
Recent international law has indicated that Hong Sang-soo must have a new film ready for every festival season. Partly shot in Berlin, the logline says something about a young man trying to find his way. This is starting to sound familiar! Cue Kim Minhee, alongside Shin Seokho, Park Miso, and other regular collaborators like Gi Ju-bong.
Berlinale Special
Limbo
Hong Kong, Dir: Cheang Soi
This thriller, based on the novel Wisdom Tooth by China’s Lei Mi, stars Gordon Lam, Cya Liu, Mason Lee and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi. The director of the Monkey King series and SPL II has a cult following and we know from behind the scenes footage that this has at least one trash-based fight sequence. Count us in. In fact, this one has already been sold for international release in 2021.
Encounters
Vị (Taste)
Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, France, Germany, Dir: Lê Bảo
The Encounters section of the program aims to showcase previously unseen parts of the world. This seems to fit that bill perfectly. Revisiting the 2016 short of the same name, it follows an unemployed Nigerian footballer who moves in with four women in Ho Chi Minh City and creates an unsustainable world of their own. It participated in FeatureLab 2017.
Berlinale Shorts
Les Attendants
France/Singapore, Dir: Truong Minh Quý
Also known as The Men Who Wait, Truong Minh Quý follows his sci-fi documentary feature The Tree House with this short. Set on a slag heap, it stars Gérard Thomas, Jean-François Geneste, and Souleymane Sanogo as some of the men who are apparently waiting.
Day is Done
China, Dir: Zhang Dalei
One of the shorts that covers the festival theme of longing to be understood, it also serves as a kind of follow-up to The Summer is Gone. Mubi also describes it as a “commercial commissioned by FIRST film festival and LEXUS company.” Zhang has in turn described this as trying to “interpret a car’s driving texture in film language.” So, the themes of understanding and the urge to buy an expensive car.
Panorama
A Balance (由宇子の天秤)
Japan, Dir: Yujiro Harumoto
Following 2016’s Going the Distance, this film focuses on documentary director Yuko (It Feels So Good‘s Kumi Takiuchi) as she investigates an incident of school violence several years before that resulted in a suicide. She soon finds herself more deeply connected than she first realised. One of several recent Japanese films dealing with bullying and school violence, this one debuted at Busan last year where it was described as “a film which sets out to hold the media to account.”
Forum/Expanded
Come Here (Jai jumlong)
Thailand, Anocha Suwichakornpong
Following By the Time it Gets Dark and Mundane History, Suwichakornpong brings her third feature to Berlin for its world premiere. It sees a group of actor friends on a road trip to a raft house, with a parallel narrative about another woman who finds herself alone in the middle of the forest after her friend goes missing.
The red filter is withdrawn
(레드필터가 철회됩니다)
South Korea, Dir: Minjung Kim
Notions of colonialism infuse this short film, one that is based on René Magritte’s La condition humaine. It captures landscapes of caves and bunkers in Jeju Island and contains quotes from Hollis Frampton’s A Lecture performance script.
Ploy
Thailand/Singapore, Dir: Prapat Jiwarangsan
Described by the director as their first “medium length film,” PLOY makes its debut in Berlin in the Forum Expanded section. From the director’s statement: “In the film, I used a diary of a Thai migrant worker who lived in Singapore as a starting point to explore the relationship between migrant workers and Singapore landscape.”
Generation
Fighter
South Korea, Dir: Jéro Yun
Documentarian and narrative feature filmmaker Jéro Yun follows films like Beautiful Days and Mrs. B, a North Korean Woman with another story of a North Korean defector trying to restart her life. Jin-ah (played by Full Moon‘s Lim Sung-mi) begins work as a cleaner in a boxing dojo before finding herself at a crossroads.
Summer Blur (汉南夏日)
China, Dir: Han Shuai
Following its debut at Busan, this emotional coming-of-age film has been compared with Celine Sciamma’s Water Lillies. Han Shuai’s debut was filmed in Wuhan during the then-emerging pandemic, the film unfolds from a girl traumatised by witnessing a boy drowning and the pressures of dating another boy shortly after.
Short Vacation (종착역)
South Korea, Dir: Kwon Min-pyo, Seo Hansol
Another coming-of-age tale, it follows four high school girls given a photography project to take photos of the ‘end of the world.’ They take this to mean Sinchang Station, the last station on Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 1. With the description throwing up thematic shades of Daigo Matsui (Our Huff and Puff Journey comes to mind), the directing pair of Kwon Min-pyo and Seo Hansol deliver a story about strong women on the cusp of adulthood.
Last Days at Sea
Philippines/Taiwan, Dir: Venice Atienza
The Filipino film narrates the story of twelve-year-old Reyboy leaving his village, and traces his last days at home. “The film is an impossible pause of life,” comments Atienza in a statement. “It is an attempt to keep the last moments of a boy’s childhood — to celebrate this beauty before it is left behind in search for a better future.”
