My picks for the festival, which begins 14 April.
16 Apr: The Dish
17 Apr: Call me if you need me
18 Apr: Dean Spanley
19 Apr: Disengagement, Laila's birthday
21 Apr: White Days
22 Apr: Son of the Northeast
24 Apr: Kippur
25 Apr: Still Walking
Random thoughts
The Chinese directors seem to be amply represented in lineup. Pity that their fare this year are as appealing as their compatriots' entries in last years' ARTSingapore 2008 festival. All about boredom, whining about urban life, they seem to be cynically produced and cynically flogged off to festival directors...
The Asian Features in the Silver Screen Awards have synopses that either sound so wrong or are downright awful. I wasn't quite willing to part with my money for Boy - I fully expect the film to have a small release in Singapore after this. The words "idealistic coming-of-age film of a sensitive boy" doesn't suggest a dramatic departure from the director's charming naive art style in his first film, The Blossoming of Maximo Olivero.
The Singapore Film Awards is a failure of curatorship. Are you trying to say that none of the local entries for this year's SIFF deserved their nomination? Are you trying to say that as long as any Tom, Dick or Harry made a film last year, they'd be up for nomination - even for weak attempts like Kallang Roar the Movie, Lucky 7, Money No Enough 2? 12 Lotus for Best Film, Jack Neo and Kelvin Tong for Best Director RLY?
My money's on 18 Grams of Love. Just catch it and ignore the rest of the entries.
The Korean film industry imploded in 2008. Apparently its directors are still recovering, and still searching for ideas that would work.
Honourable mentions (aka "If money and geography weren't an issue"): Before Tomorrow, Yuri's Day, Rain of the Children
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