2019 Oscar Contenders: Asia and the Middle East

Here are the 22 films from Asia and the Middle East.

With the exception of some of the Middle Eastern countries, the Asian countries have mostly done poorly in recent years. Having seen 12 of the 22 submissions from the group this year, I can see why….Though I love Asian cinema, most of the submitted films have been disappointing. 

OH GOD, NO….

22. VIETNAM- "The Tailor"
21. PALESTINE- “Ghost Hunting”

20. HONG KONG- “Operation Red Sea”

19. TAIWAN- “The Great Buddha +”

18. SINGAPORE- “Buffalo Boys”

                VIETNAM's frothy time-travel comedy “The Tailor” is by no means the worst movie on the list; it’s a perfectly entertaining film filled with some really fun pop musical numbers. But Oscar voters will not be impressed by this mash-up of “Back to the Future” and “The Devil Wears Prada” (with one scene seemingly lifted directly from the Meryl Streep film). “The Tailor” is pure popular entertainment. The same goes for “Operation Red Sea” (HONG KONG), an overlong hyper-nationalistic action movie about the Chinese Navy trying to save Chinese hostages in an imaginary Middle Eastern country (but based on Yemen). The VFX and action scenes are impressive but the characters are interchangeable, the plot is basically a constant series of attacks and explosions, and the film literally ends with a warning by the Chinese military to the USA. It was a weak year, but this still an odd choice for Hong Kong.

                Taiwan and Palestine have both gone with the polar opposite of popular entertainment. Experimental documentary “Ghost Hunting” (PALESTINE) is an attempt by director Raed Andoni to recreate the experiences of Palestinian prisoners who were arrested and tortured by the Israeli military. More like a group therapy session than a movie, the directors uses former prisoners to act out the roles. I hope the exercise was cathartic to all those involved, but the film is a slog to get through and I was bothered that there was never any mention of why they were imprisoned. Were they political prisoners? Were they involved in violent attacks against Israeli civilians? Seems like a glaring error for a documentary. Turning to TAIWAN, I had high hopes for supposed B&W comedy “The Great Buddha” ….but I really hated this film about two night watchmen who uncover a murder mystery by watching surveillance videos. Most of the film is mind-numbingly dull....kind of like watching surveillance videos....with annoying narration by the director, “Our Town” style.

               I've seen the four previous films but I haven’t managed to see SINGAPORE's “Buffalo Boys”, one of two Indonesian-language revenge westerns competing this year (see INDONESIA). I’m told it’s an entertaining but fairly vapid action movie set in 19th century Java…very much a pretty “genre” pic and unlikely to impress the Oscar committee. I hope to see it when it plays VOD in January. 

ONLY SLIGHTLY BETTER

17. NEPAL- “Panchayat”

16. BANGLADESH- “No Bed of Roses”

15. INDIA- “Village Rock Stars”

14. IRAQ- “The Journey”

13. CHINA- “Hidden Man”

INDIA's Assamese-language “Village Rockstars” is a beautifully filmed coming-of-age story about village children that showcases the region’s natural beauty. BANGLADESH's “No Bed of Roses” stars acclaimed Bollywood/Hollywood actor Irffan Khan as a writer whose loving relationship with his daughter is destroyed when he leaves her mother for her classmate. Unfortunately, both films are also painfully slow and I didn't enjoy watching either one. As one critics says about “Rockstars”, “One feels moved more by the natural characters — trees, rivers and fields — than the flesh and blood ones”. Though both films are under 90 minutes, I looked at my watch constantly. "Rockstars" cinematic value is purely cultural. It’s difficult to see “Panchayat” from neighboring NEPAL doing much better. I haven’t been able to see it, but this drama about a young girl coming of age in the turbulent 1970s has no buzz or international visibility. 

               As for CHINA, they’ve made a very poor choice. “Hidden Man”, a light action drama set in the 1930s, was foolishly chosen over auteur Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow”, China’s best chance for an Oscar nomination in years. A mainstream spy movie, reviews for “Hidden Man” have been tepid with most saying that the film is entertaining but muddled and flawed. It couldn’t even manage a Best Picture nomination at the Golden Horse Awards. I had high hopes for suicide bomber drama “The Journey” from IRAQ, which follows a number of characters in a train station minutes before a female bomber blows herself up. It’s hard to root against a film made under such difficult conditions (also see Yemen below) but “The Journey” suffers from a weak screenplay that fails to develop interesting characters or to make use of its dramatic premise. It’s not a bad film, but it’s not the Oscar contender I hoped for. 

MIDDLE OF THE PACK

12. THAILAND- “Malila, The Farewell Flower”

11. PHILIPPINES- “Signal Rock”

10. YEMEN- “10 Days Before the Wedding”

9. PAKISTAN- “Cake”

Though we are halfway up the list, none of these Asian films have any chance at a nomination...but they will represent their countries well. The Philippines and Thailand have been submitting for decades (the Pinoys since 1956 and the Thai since 1984) without luck and these two dramas are very low-key. LGBT drama "Malila: The Farewell Flower" from THAILAND combines Buddhist meditation, gay sex, grossly realistic dead bodies, and the beautiful Thai countryside in a very slow drama where the story is secondary to the symbolism. "Signal Rock", from the PHILIPPINES, is about a remote community where people have to climb a tall rock to get cell-phone reception. Reviews have been fine, but it's not much different from the other Filipino "poverty porn" indie features the country sends year after year. 

PAKISTAN's family drama "Cake" is said to be one of the best films to come out of the country in years and, along with feminist drama "Motorcycle Girl", the hallmark of a new breed of quality drama, instead of the usual shoot-em-up action movies and Bollywood-style musicals. I've heard great things from friends in Pakistan but I fear the Academy will merely see this as a well-done soap opera. Last but not least is war-torn YEMEN, the biggest surprise on the Oscar longlist. Made amidst the world's deadliest civil war, it still managed to pack makeshift cinemas (the have no functioning movie theatres so they used wedding halls) for months in the city of Aden. If they gave Oscars for backstories, this drama about a young couple trying to keep their wedding on track despite the bombings and the civil war would win hands-down. It has the highest IMDB rating of all 87 films (though that's probably inflated) and represents the work of a brave new filmmaker.

A RESPECTABLE FINISH

8. CAMBODIA- “Graves Without A Name”
7. INDONESIA- “Marlina the Murderer, in Four Acts”

6. AFGHANISTAN- “Rona, Azim’s Mother”

These three films will likely find some fans. I personally loved "Marlina the Murderer", a darkly comic feminist revenge thriller from INDONESIA. Imagine "Kill Bill" starring a mild-mannered widow and put her on an island and you've got an idea of what Marlina is like. It's very entertaining but not everybody likes it. As for CAMBODIA, they're trying to repeat Rithy Panh's surprise nomination for "The Missing Picture" with his latest documentary "Graves Without A Name". Both films focus on similar themes, detailing the very personal stories of the director and his family as they pursue the impossible task of finding the graves of relatives killed in the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge genocide. I've never understood how the didactic "Missing Picture" scored a nomination but the reception for "Graves" (which has Asia's lowest IMDB rating- a 6.0) and its droning philosophical narration has been quieter and lightning is unlikely to strike twice. Lastly, we have AFGHANISTAN and "Rona, Azim's Mother". For years now, the Afghans have been sending great movies in the style of Iran's best arthouse cinema. "Rona"premiered in Busan and has gotten warm reviews for its story of an Afghan refugee in Iran and his desperate efforts to take care of his aging mother. Afghanistan will once again do well in the overall rankings but fail to be nominated. 

UNLIKELY DARK HORSES

5. IRAN- “No Date, No Signature”

4. ISRAEL- “The Cakemaker”

3. KOREA- “Burning”

I've managed to see all three of these dark horses. Let's look at the pros and cons:

 IRAN
The story: "A Separation" as if it was a medical drama and mystery. A coroner gets into a minor traffic accident with a poor family. The next day the little boy appears at the morgue, dead of uncertain causes. 
Pros: Reviews have been surprisingly strong. The style is very much in the mold of "A Separation" as the story gets revealed bit-by-bit and, the moral dilemmas pile up and, as in life, you're never quite sure when you're getting the full story. 
Cons: It's quite a small film and it may have trouble being remembered. The lead character doesn't have quite the impact of the couple in "A Separation". 

 Israel
The story: A gay German baker falls in love with an Israeli businessman who visits Berlin frequently. When he is killed in a tragic accident, the baker goes to Israel and surreptitiously befriends the man's widow.
Pros: Oscar loves Israel. The film is one of the most original in the competition.
Cons: The film goes in some very weird places. The lead character isn't necessarily likable. LGBT stories don't always score here.

 South Korea
The story: An introverted young man from a poor family falls for an impetuous young woman who says they went to school together. She begins dating a rich "Great Gatsby" type and then disappears. He tries to unravel the mystery.
Pros: The film is a critical darling and choosing the film will definitely appeal to the Elite Committee. The more you think about the story, the more interesting the mystery becomes.
Cons: The film is about 30 minutes too long and could do with some judicious editing. Oscar hates South Korea and has never nominated them even when they submit great films (better than this). It's a divisive film and not everyone likes it.

Bottom Line: I think that Iran and Israel are probably out.....South Korea will be depending on a "save" from the small committee....and that's going to be tough and heavily dependent on which Six the large committee chooses. An uphill battle for all three.....

FRONT-RUNNERS

2. LEBANON- “Capernaum”

1. JAPAN- “Shoplifters”

These two films won the top two prizes in Cannes this year.

JAPAN's Hirokazu Koreeda is one of my two favorite Japanese directors (along with the underrated and brilliant Tetsuya Kawashima) and Palme d'Or winner "Shoplifters" is probably his most acclaimed film ever. It's also an accessible family drama and likely to play well with the Academy. Statistically it would be surprising for tiny LEBANON to be nominated twice in a row but "Capernaum" won the Jury Prize in Cannes and will likely do very well with the large committee. I think it will probably just miss out as some critics just don't like the film and think that it's a bit too simplistic and schmaltzy. This is traditionally exactly what the large committee likes....but this year they've reportedly made it easier for people to join the committee so anything can happen. The film is about the problems faced by the children of illegal migrants living in Lebanon. 

Now the statistics:

Number of Asian countries (excluding the former USSR) who have participated in the past: 31

Number of countries participating this year:  22

Number of debuts: Zero.

Who's out?:  The nine stragglers have only sent a film once (Bhutan, Laos and Syria), twice (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka) or three times (Jordan, Malaysia and Mongolia). The most glaring absence this year is Malaysia which entered a film into the Golden Globes but has skipped the Oscars two years in a row, probably because the front-runners was a Chinese-language films and the Malaysian Academy  unofficially only considers Malay-language features. 

Number I predicted correctly- I did really bad, only predicting 5- Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Pakistan. 

Already Seen: I've seen 12 out of 22- Bangladesh (D+), Hong Kong (C), India (C-), Indonesia (A-), Iran (B+), Iraq (B-), Israel (B+), Korea (B), Palestine (D+), Taiwan (D), Thailand (C-)and Vietnam (B), but not the two front-runners. My favorites were "Marlina the Murderer" from Indonesia and "The Cakemaker" from Israel. 

Film I'm most looking forward to seeing: Definitely "Shoplifters", which I hear is one of the best films of the year. 

Number of Female Directors:  5- Anucha Boonyawatana (Thailand), Rima Das (India), Nadine Labaki (Lebanon), Mouly Surya (Indonesia) and co-director Kay Nguyen (Vietnam). 

Oldest and Youngest Directors: 64-year old Lee Chang-dong (South Korea) is the oldest. It's unclear who the youngest director is, though it's probably Jamshid Mahmoudi (Afghanistan) or Amr Gamal (Yemen), who are both 35. 

Number of Foreign Languages Represented:  We have 4 films in Arabic (Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen), two films in Mandarin (China and Hong Kong), two in Persian (Afghanistan, Iran) and two in Indonesian (Indonesia and Singapore). The other ten are primarily in Assamese (India), Bengali, Filipino, French (Cambodia), Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Taiwanese, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese, plus the Israeli film which is an even mix of Hebrew, German and English. 

Number of Documentaries: 2- Cambodia and Palestine. 

Number of countries with a realistic chance at making the shortlist: 3. 

Highest profile film:  In terms of buzz, it's probably "Burning"....in terms of critics "Shoplifters"....in terms of box-office, it's mega-hit "Operation Red Sea". 

Oscar History: Rithy Panh ("The Missing Picture") is the only Oscar nominee on the list though the three front-runners Nadine Labaki ("Caramel", "Where Do We Go Now?"), Hirokazu Koreeda ("Nobody Knows") and Lee Chang-dong ("Secret Sunshine", "Oasis", "Eoudong") have all been in the race before. 

So have Mostofa Sarwar Farooki of Bangladesh ("Television", "Third Person Singular Number"), the Mahmoudi Brothers of Afghanistan ("Parting" and "20 Cubic Meters of Love"), Mohamed Al-Daradji of Iraq ("Dreams", "Son of Babylon"), Chito Rono of the Philippines ("Dekada '70") and Dante Lam of Hong Kong ("To the Fore", possibly the worst Oscar submission in recent history). 

Most Notable Omissions:   CHINA had their best chance of a nomination in years for Zhang Yimou's "Shadow" but they dumped it for the unheralded action movie "Hidden Man". Others eliminated early: "The Black Kite" (Afghanistan), "The Spy Gone North" (South Korea), "Motorcycle Girl" (Pakistan), "The Reports on Sarah and Saleem" (Palestine), and "The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful" (Taiwan).  And tiny Bhutan had the chance to return with critically acclaimed "Honeygiver Among the Dogs".....but didn't. 

Familiar Faces: Steven Yeun ("Burning") of "The Walking Dead" fame is the most recognizable face to Western audiences. We also have Indian actor Irrfan Khan who stars in Bangladesh's submission and Nadine Labaki who directs and stars in "Capernaum" from her native Lebanon. 

Last year's race: These countries sent 24 films of which I saw 18. Three were superb and deserving of  an Oscar nomination- Iraq's "Dark Wind", Israel's "Foxtrot", Lebanon's "The Insult" though I also really loved the underdogs from Korea, Laos, Mongolia and Palestine. China, Taiwan and Thailand were the worst.