FACE (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2009)

Tsai Ming-Liang is known for making films primarily about alienation, and often his detractors can overemphasize his thematics. His newest film FACE received some negative reactions at  recent festivals, with the accusation that Tsai simply repeats himself and creates boring and tedious work. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. This is my favorite film of the festival so far, a masterpiece in which every image Tsai composes fascinates. This movie needs to be experienced as a movie; those needing a strong narrative with not be impressed. But anyone truly in love his the art of cinema will at least appreciate this. The Tsai film it most resembles is his 2003 GOODBYE DRAGON INN;  like that earlier work, this one is both obsessed with the death of cinema (here it is French cinema rather than Hong Kong) and also a demonstration of the power cinema still has in the hands of a master like Tsai. Numerous great French actors of the past are featured, such as Fanny Ardant and Jean-Pierre Leaud, and Tsai’s love of European cinema shows, despite a certain nostalgic feeling of lost (represented especailly by the dead figure of Truffaut). At the same time as cinema is being mourned, however, it is also being re-created in many remarkable sequences, almost all of which are played out in a single shot. My favorite is a scene in the dark in which the only illumination comes from a lighter; the flame from that light resembles a light bulb, creating a truly unforgettable image. FACE is playing again on Thursday at 13:30, Cinus Busan. If you have any desire to see this film, see it on the big screen. Its power will be lost on video.

BLACK HAIR (Lee Man-hee, 1964)

This classic of Korean cinema was recently digitally restored by the Korean Film Council and PIFF, and results look very good. The film’s first reel was severely damaged and previously unwatchable; there are still many skips to this opening now, but it is close to being the complete original. The movie itself is very odd. It begins with a kind of “lower depths” type of realism. We see gangsterism, prostitution, and drug addiction circa Seoul, 1964. The story begins with a gangster’s wife caught in an adulterous affair (although, in fact, she was raped and then blackmailed into continuing). According to the “code”, her face is slashed and she is cast out, even though the gangster still loves her. She works as a prostitute, and has to use her black hair to conceal her scars. The film starts out very well, showing the underbelly of 60s Seoul and boasting a great performance from its lead actress. But the tale becomes more and more convoluted and becomes a rather unsuccessful blend of melodrama and gangster film, a mixture that continues to be very popular even today in Korean cinema. If films like FRIEND and other male melodramas have an appeal to you, this is of interest as an early example in the genre. Overall good if not great, not up to something like THE HOUSEMAID but still important to an understanding of Korean film history.

All screening times and locations are posted at the PIFF website.

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