Extreme Orient 5 - What a Sunday

Fascinating day planned, with films from Singapore, India, China and South Korea and brunch at Café Français. It all kicked off at 11am with Ilo Ilo directed by Anthony Chen - his debut work, which was released this year at Cannes as part of the Directors Fortnight and came away with the Camera d'Or award - the first time a film from Singapore has won anything at the Cannes Film Festival - an amazing achievement and an absolute gem. Pitch perfect performances from everyone. The film rolls out effortlessly and is just wonderful to watch - a poignant story about a Singaporean family who employ a maid from the Philippines amid the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

A general stampede then round to Café Français. A beautiful Chinese buffet. Absolutely gorgeous, with wines as usual generously supplied by local producers. Café Français is our local live gig venue. It's just great. Small but perfectly formed. So a bit of a scrum inside but it worked superbly well, everyone sharing tables and chatting together often for the first time.

Back into the cinema for The Lunchbox - an Indian film directed by Ritesh Batra. Just superb. A simple concept, but with a complexity of outcomes, class conflicts and the loneliness that comes from an unhappy marriage, as well as after the loss of a partner. All these threads are linked to a lunchbox service. Bombay/Mumbai - thousands of lunchboxes (dabbas ) either prepared by wives at home or ordered from an eaterie somewhere in the city are delivered to workers at their offices.  The charm of the film also came from the imagery - the bustling life and sound of Mumbai. The lunchboxes are collected by men on bicycles, either from the home or the eaterie. Each man collects at least thirty boxes (see photo left) which are a series of circular metal containers, staked on top of each other and held in place by what is effectively a metal strap, inside an individual covering and marked up with its destination. The boxes are taken to the station, loaded on to large metal containers, the deliverers go as well. Everyone and thing is put on to a train, then offloaded and taken to their various destinations.  The film develops the story around what happens when a lunchbox is delivered to the wrong person. It's a bit like 84 Charing Cross road, except this time the link is food rather than books. The young married woman cooking the lunchbox contents and the man it is mistakenly delivered to, who is on the point of retiring, start writing to each other. A very gentle film, but superbly done. 

A Touch of Sin - a Chinese crime drama directed by Jia Zhangke - had  some terrific performances. It was an indictment of contemporary Chinese society - brutal, ruthlessly corrupt, increasingly violent - and allegedly based on true events from the recent past.   Grim and very very graphic. The idea was an interesting one. Four different stories, of four different individuals, from different social backgrounds and regions in modern-day China. We were left wondering how it ever got passed the government censors. Somehow it did and was also nominated for the Palm D'or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. By the end of it, we'd had enough films for the day, so decided to skip the fourth one.

The fourth film The Host from South Korea, directed by Bong Joon-ho was a blockbluster plot mixed with political commentary, with some reference by all accounts of the American presence in Korea. Set in Seoul, American military types are seen dumping chemicals in the river at the beginning of the film, then some years later a monster arrives out of the river and attacks the local community. A huge success in S.K. it also won a series of top Asian film awards. A really interesting day of programming and like all the best festivals, gave us a chance to see stuff, liked or not, which would otherwise be unavailable.