Commonality and Differences: Kenji Ishizaka on Asian Future at the Tokyo International Film Festival

The closer one looks at the actual, tangible world of international cinema, the more one realizes they have no coherent idea of what is going on. It’s quite humbling to be at the Tokyo International Film Festival and spend time with the films that play on the same continuum as Behemoth!, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and Godzilla Minus Zero. Few (if any) sections offer a more granular view of Asian cinema—where it is, where it might be heading—than Asian Future, which collects ten features from a far wider span of countries than you’d likely anticipate. Quality can, of course, vary, but the titles that resonate entirely justify the showcase.

Asian Future is overseen by Kenji Ishizaka, TIFF’s senior programmer and professor and dean of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image. Though his knowledge of both film history and its practical machinations is essentially unparalleled, he proved a friendly and humble interview subject—someone whose work in collating upcoming talent (or in one tragic case, talent cut short) is bearing fruit as the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival was in full swing.

My thanks to Etsuko Yamanouchi for providing interpretation.

The Film Stage: I’ve seen a handful of films from the Asian Future section now, both in the theater and on the festival library. In the Western world, “Asian cinema” often just suggests a handful of countries—China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong—and then Southeast Asia becomes its own distinct category. But your section presents a very pluralistic range of films. When you only have 10 films to select, what are your considerations for representing Asia as a much broader picture than just a few countries, styles, and stories?

Kenji Ishizaka: The definition given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan is quite narrow for the definition of Asia—it only includes up to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the east of it. However, we try to expand it further west in terms of geography and history as well, because of certain connections we have. So we include West Asia as well as Middle East.

I’ll give one you example of this cultural connection. Let’s take Islamic culture. It spans a broad band: of course its center is in the Middle East, but it extends through Pakistan into Southeast Asian countries through the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and even in the Philippines—Mindanao is very Islamic. So we decided we will use our broader definition of Asia that way. Let’s take the opposite perspective and let’s take subculture. Japanese anime or manga have expanded all the way through the Middle East with its influence on their cultures, which are often referred to in their films as well. For these reasons, we’ve decided to include all this area.

Then you think of European films. They are basically based on Christian culture. When I think of Asia and think of the broader perspective of Islam commonality within different cultures in Asia, we decided that including all the way up to the Middle East would be appropriate. However, unlike the case of European films or cultures, when you look at Asian—this broad definition of Asia I’m talking about—in terms of languages and religions, there is such a variety within our definition of Asia. Although there definitely is some commonality there. So in choosing films, I place importance on both commonality and individual differences among countries.

It’s interesting: sometimes festival programmers resist assigning a theme to a program. Because of course all these films are made independently. But a theme can unconsciously emerge. For this year, did you notice a significant through line across these 10 films from many other countries? Having seen a handful, I might have some ideas myself.

Well, as for how we choose the defined area, I’ve already mentioned it, but there are certain things you could see as the thread that puts them together after you watch all 10 films that are chosen. In this year’s case, we definitely have many films on family dramas—the relationships between parent and child or among siblings. Therefore there are many children appearing in the films. Why? We don’t know. But I will assume that at this unstable period of wars and conflicts that we feel could be approaching, humans tend to look at the smallest community around you, which is family. I don’t know if it’s a conscious or unconscious choice but when you look at these 10 films across different countries or regions, this is how I feel. Many of the films are made through the perspectives of children looking at the societies created by adults.

In America, there seems to be a much stronger market and interest in Asian cinema at the moment. Obviously Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar wins five years ago to directors like Ryusuke Hamaguchi or Bi Gan. It seems like a very strong moment. How do you feel about this current moment in Asian cinema this decade? Is it a particularly strong time, or are there still struggles that need to be overcome?

Well, I am somewhat aware of how Asian films are now looked at in your country. For instance, for Oscar nominations, there is much more diversity now than before, and many Asian films are now getting nominated, and that would probably propel the growth of interest in Asian films. I think there is still a lot of room for change, still, for Asian films.

When you talk about interest in Asian films on the part of the U.S. audience, we tend to basically look at East Asian countires—including Japan, China, and Korea—however, as Southeast Asian countries are getting more comfortable economically, larger-scale films are getting made, and also the distribution channels are developed for world distribution. So I think we can expect more and more films to come out from these countries for the world audience. Also, some film directors go to the U.S. and make films there. This has been doing quite a bit by Korean directors or directors from Hong Kong for a long time, and there are many co-productions between countries. Many Asian countries have experienced being colonized. Therefore there are many, many stories to be told there. So as long as there’s a good production team, I’m sure there will be more and more good films emerging from such countries.

Something I admire about the Asian Future lineup is that many films seem to be made on smaller budgets. I saw Chezhiyan’s Paper Flower, a film that seemed like it was shot on a very modest camera system, but I was completely taken in by it. When programming, how do you view a director who already has a feature under their belt versus a debut filmmaker? Does that change your approach?

As long as we follow the rule that the film to be chosen has to be within the first three feature films made by the director—which we strictly follow—it doesn’t affect us whether a film is a debut, a second, or third film. We only look at what’s in front of us. When I mentioned earlier that many Southeast Asian countries are getting more affluent, they are making larger scale films, I did not mean that the larger the scale, the better. I, in fact, feel the opposite often.

I was going to ask.

Now that we are in the digital era, you can make an excellent film on a low budget. I often find gem-like films in that kind of small-budget category. Paper Flower is a typical case of that: a low-budget film being so excellent. Most people would imagine Bollywood-type of films when they hear “Indian film.” In fact, we chose this film because we wanted to show the audience there are different types of Indian films—not just Bollywood. So I heard comments from some people in the audience that they were expecting a Bollywood film and they were very pleasantly taken aback and they enjoyed it.

The Paper Flower

I was worried you’d say they were disappointed. I’d seen it later in the day and something so spare, quiet, contained was very appreciated.

Yeah. [Laughs] Well, I always want to choose a film that would evoke respect for that country or the people where the film comes from among the audience in Japan. So let’s take Paper Flower. We could see their way of communication through literature, poetry, and it’s very romantic, but at the same time a highly intelligent film. You could almost see a documentary-like depiction of life in India in that film, and there’s some reference to the history of Indian filmmaking. If you’re a cinephile of Indian films, you could distinguish some songs that were used in another certain well-known film, for example.

The only regrettable thing about that film is that the director passed away suddenly in July and couldn’t come to this festival.

Oh, I didn’t know that. That’s terrible.

His wife [Prema Chezhiyan] acted as the producer and she came. The director only shot two films and passed away.

A couple of years ago I spoke with Ichiyama Shozo, and he said that TIFF really wants good jury members—not Hollywood stars who will gravitate to something commercial. The Asian Future jury this year—two CEO/producers and one director—is a unique combination. What was the thought process behind that?

There are various roles international film festivals play. Of course it’s important to have the reports by mass media by having stars that everybody gravitates towards. But for the Asian Future section, I feel its role is to create a “park” where Asian filmmakers meet with other filmmakers or producers, etc of the world. We want to create a big forum for that. So for that reason, I feel it’s important to involve lots of producers as well.

Who, if anybody, is a new Asian director you’re particularly excited about and you expect great things from?

Tough question! [Laughs] I would’ve mentioned the director who passed away, of Paper Flower. The director of EDJPOP, Katski Flores. Although it’s, in a way, a family drama, she gives a very strong political message through that film, and you could learn so much about the last 50 years of Filipino history. I think to combine the two was a great feat for her. As you know, the Philippines are now ruled by the son of Fernando Marcos, but instead of making anti-comment against Fernando Marcos Jr, she wove a family story to show that sentiment, and that was very skillfully done.

Also, two actors became filmmakers. Navid Mahmoudi [director of I’m Nothing Special Really] won the best actor award at this festival [in 2019]. And this film depicts the life of young women in Iran. It just is the opposite of what we see in regular reports about Iranian women with hijab and so on. These women are not wearing anything like that and they’re drinking and smoking—you name it. [Laughs] So it really takes the wool away from your eyes. That makes this title very special and eloquent. And this director [Azamat Shargyn] of this Kazakhstan film [Shyrmauyq] is a very well-known actor. I was wondering what kind of film he would make, and it turned out to be Tarkovsky in Kazakhstan.

I don’t know how you felt about this aspect of Paper Flower—to me, Paper Flower was influenced by Robert Bresson.

Yes! I noted how the film has a very smart, intuitive depiction of iPhones. The handling of the books was very tactile, too.

The close-ups on hands when he was handling the book, for example—that was so Bresson-like. What made it more interesting was the new element, in that he utilized the old song from another film.

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival continues until Wednesday, November 4.