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20/4/2014

ContemporAsian

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, New York

The Museum of Modern Art presents the seventh season of ContemporAsian, an ongoing series showcasing films that get little exposure outside of their home countries or on the international festival circuit, but which engage the various styles, histories, and changes in Asian cinema, from April 21 to August 31, 2014, in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Presented in weeklong engagements, the films in the series include recent independent gems by both new and established filmmakers whose work represents the rapidly transforming visual culture of the region. This year’s selection, which includes films from Hong Kong, Iran, South Korea, and Japan, culminates in Lens on Tibet, a dedicated look at contemporary Tibetan film.

ContemporAsian is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film. Lens on Tibet is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, and Paola Vanzo, Director of Communications and Development, and Kristina Dy-Liacco, Librarian, Trace Foundation.

ContemporAsian's seventh season opens with Bends (2013), Flora Lau’s classical drama, which debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. The film is a two-character piece in which each personifies the differences between Hong Kong and mainland China, and their somewhat uneasy co-existence. A wealthy Hong Kong housewife, Anna, lives a spoiled, bored life.
When her husband suddenly leaves, taking the money and prestige with him, she refuses to accept her changed circumstances. Her chauffeur, Fai, who lives in an ugly barrack across the border in Shenzhen, is trying to get his wife—whose second pregnancy is a violation of the Chinese one-child policy—over the border so she can give birth in Hong Kong. With beautiful camera work by the incomparable Christopher Doyle, the film’s elegant look and languorous rhythms create an affecting reflection of the characters’ emotional isolation. As they become increasingly desperate, the sharp distinctions between their two worlds become ever clearer.

In May, Atsushi Funahashi’s Sakura Namiki no Mankai no Shita ni (Cold Bloom) (2012), tells an achingly beautiful tale of grief and forgiveness in post-Fukushima Japan. The film takes place in Hitachi, a seaside town recovering from its 2011 devastation, and follows a young couple named Shiori and Kenji who work in a small factory. Embracing a tender humanism and classical style, Cold Bloom’s distinctly contemporary setting and narrative infuse a rich tradition with vitality and aplomb.

Making its New York debut in June, the explosive Dast-Neveshtehaa Nemisoosand (Manuscripts Don’t Burn) (2013)—the latest from Iran’s great dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof—will be presented in collaboration with the film’s U.S. distributor, Kino Lorber. Produced clandestinely to circumvent a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, the film draws from the true story of the government’s attempted 1995 murder of several prominent writers and intellectuals. In the film, Rasoulof imagines a repressive regime so pervasive that even the morally righteous are subsumed or cast aside. A lacerating, slow-burning thriller filmed in a frigid palate of blues and greys, Manuscripts Don’t Burn is perhaps the most subversive and incendiary j’accuse lodged at an authoritarian regime since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In July, MoMA presents South Korean newcomer Su-jin Lee's Han Gong-Ju (2013), the bold and impressive tale of a young teenager grappling with her dark past. The titular teen, Han Gong-Ju, is introduced as she’s being shuffled from meeting to meeting, in an attempt to settle into a new city, a new school, and a new life. Set against reticent new friendships, Han Gong-Ju’s story eventually emerges. In his unusually brave debut feature, Su-jin Lee handles both complex plotting and difficult subject matter with a thoughtful sophistication, bolstered by an impressive performance from the emotive Woo-hee Chun.

Finally, in August, the series turns a Lens on Tibet with a 13-film program of recent Tibetan documentary and narrative films. Lens on Tibet includes the world premiere of Tashi Chopel’s The Son of a Herder (2014), an unembellished portrait of the life of a plateau herder in eastern Tibet’s remote Zehok region. The film highlights an existence caught between ideals and reality, modernity and tradition, and individual choices. Yartsa Rinpoche (2013), directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang, follows Darlo, an elder in the Amdo region, and his family as they journey 800 kilometers to collect Cordyceps sinensis (in Tibetan, Yartsa-gunbu), which has been called “Tibet’s golden worm” and “The Viagra of the Himalayas.” Yartsa Rinpoche—which is presented in a weeklong run—receives its North American premiere along with Jocelyn Ford’s breakout Nowhere to Call Home (2014), Dan Smyer Yu’s Embrace (2011), Khashem Gyal’s The Valley of the Heroes (2013), and Dukar Tsering’s They Are One Hundred Years Old (2014).

Image: Bends. 2013. China. Directed by Flora Lau

April 21–April 27: Bends. 2013. China. Written and Directed by Flora Lau. In Cantonese, Mandarin; English subtitles. 97 min.

May 16–May 22: Sakura Namiki no Mankai no Shita ni (Cold Bloom). 2012. Japan. Directed by Atsushi Funahashi. In Japanese; English subtitles. 120 min.

June 13–June 19: Manuscripts Don’t Burn. 2013. Iran. Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. In Farsi; English subtitles. 127 min.

Press Contact:
Meg Montgoris, (212) 708-9757, meg_montgoris@moma.org

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