And here are the 20 films from Asia.....
Okay, so we all know that “Parasite” is top of
the list and that KOREA is finally getting nominated. “Parasite” has won the Palme d'Or and numerous other awards, it’s got buzz and box office, and on top of it all, it's a brilliant, wonderful and memorable
film. Everyone who sees it loves it (including me) and even if the elderly voters of the large committee don’t like the edgy, black comedy, it
will be saved. It’s as close to a lock as is possible.
But I’d rather talk about MONGOLIA’s
unheralded “The Steed”. This was literally the last film to appear on the Oscar
list (Mongolia made no formal announcement) and very few people have seen it. This is a really special film about a young boy from a nomadic Mongolian tribe who goes on a long
journey to find his beloved horse, which has been stolen by a fraudulent monk. As we
follow the divergent destinies of both the boy and the horse through Mongolia,
Russia and Kazakhstan, we meet a series of charming good and evil characters. It may not sound special on paper, but I was getting flashbacks to Eric Valli's Oscar-nominated "Caravan". The film is beautifully shot (with possibly the best acting performance
ever by an animal), it has the highest IMDB score of all 93 films, and is certain to appeal to all sorts of Oscar voters, especially older voters and the tech branches. It’s
emotionally involving without being sentimental, and the filmmaker is one to
watch. I’m not sure Mongolia will make the Top Ten….but it will certainly come
awfully close.
“Verdict”, from the PHILIPPINES, is a police procedural about a battered wife trying to navigate her way through the criminal justice system. Tunisia did this brilliantly last year in "Beauty and the Dogs" but didn’t manage to get nominated. Despite a Special Jury Prize in Venice, the Philippines, with its low-budget “poverty porn” hand-held esthetic, is also unlikely to break through. But good efforts by both.
These three obscure films will proudly fly their flag, but I can’t see any of them
advancing them to the next round. CAMBODIA is sending “In the Life of
Music”, a film about how a traditional song played an important role in the lives of three generations set in three different periods in Cambodia's turbulent 20th century history- before, during and after the Khmer Rouge genocide. Probably too small for a nomination.
From Central Asia, we have a charming little indie from KYRGYZSTAN called "Aurora", about the lives of a bunch of quirky characters at a sanatorium, a bizarre sort of health spa that is a relic of the Soviet era (I've been to one of these and they are bizarre but fun places). The characters are supposedly archetypes of traditional Kyrgyz society, however Oscar voters likely won't know that. People are calling the Kazakh Khanate series (currently two films and a TV series) a Kazakh version of "Game of Thrones". While KAZAKHSTAN scored an unexpected nomination for "Mongol" and the costumes and sets look cool, the effects here look a bit cheap and it's unclear how well audiences will follow a historical sequel.
These culturally specific films may be in “the middle”, but they are
also completely out of luck. INDIA and PAKISTAN have sent well-made films that are likely to get lost in translation. “Laal Kabootar” is an
exciting thriller about a cab driver who teams up with a young widow looking
for revenge. Shot by a music video director in the hectic, crazy city of
Karachi (where I used to live), it looks slick and stylish and would be a great
candidate for a US remake. But it's perhaps a bit too edgy and local for AMPAS.
“Gully Boy” (on Amazon Prime) has gotten very good reviews, although I’m not really sure why.
It’s not a bad film but the plot is predictable, the characters are archetypes
and one of the leads (Safeena) is downright unlikable. If you don’t like hip-hop and rap
battles (I don't.....and I’m not sure many Oscar voters do), then this film is not for you.
Props to the guys who did the English subtitles though….they worked hard to
translate the rapid-fire raps….even if it is hard for English-speaking
audiences to process so much poetry so quickly.
INDONESIA’s daring “Memories of
My Body” is also likely to lose something in translation. I’ve heard that only
Javanese audiences will be able to fully appreciate this controversial look at lengger dancers, men who perform female
roles in traditional Javanese dance. It’s obviously that a lot of the wordplay
does not translate into English, and the occasional narration (by the dancer
whose life inspired the film) may annoy some viewers. Still, I thought this
queer film from increasingly homophobic Indonesia was great and I'm proud that the Indonesian Academy had the courage to send it, after Islamist groups forced it out of several theatres and banned it in several provinces. Neighboring SINGAPORE
won the Golden Leopard at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival, though it’s
difficult to understand why…”A Land Imagined” (on Netflix) tries to make a David Lynch-style mystery but ends up just not making much sense at all. Is it a
dream? Is it reality? Why is a man stripping naked to run on a treadmill? Do you care? I didn’t. It’s too arty and abstract to
score here.
Production values are often a problem for
poorer countries like BANGLADESH but “Alpha” (watchable on YouTube) represents a step forward for the
country, with some beautiful cinematography and imagery. It’s the story of a
village artist who finds a dead body and although it starts off well, with a
series of interesting and colorful characters, it loses its focus and starts
drifting (like the body) about halfway through and never recovers. Nearby NEPAL has sent an
interesting film about a lonely young woman bus driver in Kathmandu who begins
an extramarital affair six years after her husband leaves to work in Saudi
Arabia. It touches on a lot of social issues that I’m sure will resonate in
Nepal, but for Western audiences it’s merely a diverting soap opera. I had high
expectations for LGBT dramedy “Dear Ex” from TAIWAN, about a (loud and
annoying) furious widow angry that her estranged ex-husband has left his money
to his gay lover instead of his son. This could be a great idea for a screwball
comedy or a tense drama, but the film never commits to either...It's a wishy-washy and surprisingly dull
mish-mash. If you want to see for yourself, it's available on Netflix.
Oscar also hates horror films. But THAILAND doesn’t give a f***. You
have to give the Thais credit for having zero genre prejudices…They pick horror
films, comedies, action movies, odd docudramas….And this year, they have
selected “Krasue: Inhuman Kiss”, a rather depressing horror-drama about a young
village woman doomed to transform into a krasue, a bloodsucking female demon well-known to anyone in Southeast Asia. The film has more melodrama than horror and although interesting, it’s very, very slow
and mediocre CGI effects mar the ending. 
“White Storm 2: Drug
Lords” is yet another HONG KONG gangster thriller that looks
indistinguishable from all the other triad movies they used to send in the
2000s. It hasn’t won any awards and reviews say the film is pretty average and
unmemorable…so it’s a mystery why this was chosen at all. Last (and probably
least) is MALAYSIA’s jingoistic documentary “M for Malaysia”. This looks
like less of a movie and more of a political advertisement for PM Mahathir bin
Mohamed, the wily Prime Minister who served from 1981 until his retirement in
2003, only to join the opposition and become PM again in 2018- at the age of
93. It’s a great personal story, but this documentary made by his granddaughter
appears to ignore Mahathir’s many, many faults. Probably the least likely of
any of the 93 films running.
“Furie” and “Inhuman Kiss” are available now on Netflix, while "White Storm 2" is available on English-subtitled DVD.
Already Seen: 10- Korea (A), Mongolia (A-), Indonesia (B+), Vietnam (B), Nepal (B-), Bangladesh (C+), Thailand (C+), Taiwan (C), India (C) and Singapore (C-). I hope to see Hong Kong next month.
Film I'm most looking forward to seeing: Pakistan’s exciting thriller “Laal Kabootar”
Now everyone knows
that “Parasite” from South Korea is the favorite to win the Oscar next
year….But what of the other 19 Asian nominees? With one surprise exception, it’s
mostly a sad lot.
FRONT-RUNNERS
1. SOUTH KOREA- “Parasite”
2. MONGOLIA- “The Steed”
Okay, so we all know that “Parasite” is top of
the list and that KOREA is finally getting nominated. “Parasite” has won the Palme d'Or and numerous other awards, it’s got buzz and box office, and on top of it all, it's a brilliant, wonderful and memorable
film. Everyone who sees it loves it (including me) and even if the elderly voters of the large committee don’t like the edgy, black comedy, it
will be saved. It’s as close to a lock as is possible.
But I’d rather talk about MONGOLIA’s
unheralded “The Steed”. This was literally the last film to appear on the Oscar
list (Mongolia made no formal announcement) and very few people have seen it. This is a really special film about a young boy from a nomadic Mongolian tribe who goes on a long
journey to find his beloved horse, which has been stolen by a fraudulent monk. As we
follow the divergent destinies of both the boy and the horse through Mongolia,
Russia and Kazakhstan, we meet a series of charming good and evil characters. It may not sound special on paper, but I was getting flashbacks to Eric Valli's Oscar-nominated "Caravan". The film is beautifully shot (with possibly the best acting performance
ever by an animal), it has the highest IMDB score of all 93 films, and is certain to appeal to all sorts of Oscar voters, especially older voters and the tech branches. It’s
emotionally involving without being sentimental, and the filmmaker is one to
watch. I’m not sure Mongolia will make the Top Ten….but it will certainly come
awfully close.
VERY UNLIKELY
3. JAPAN- “Weathering With
You”
4. PHILIPPINES- “Verdict”
These films may have some supporters but not enough that they’ll
have any chance to make the finals. Much has been made of the fact that
“Weathering With You” is the first anime film from JAPAN to compete in this category since
Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” in 1997. Though it has good reviews,
“Weathering” (set to be released in the USA in January 2020), about a girl who
may able to control the weather, is unlikely to overcome the animation bias in
this category. However, it is likely to use the Foreign Film Oscar buzz to try
and earn an Animated Film nod (it is eligible).
“Verdict”, from the PHILIPPINES, is a police procedural about a battered wife trying to navigate her way through the criminal justice system. Tunisia did this brilliantly last year in "Beauty and the Dogs" but didn’t manage to get nominated. Despite a Special Jury Prize in Venice, the Philippines, with its low-budget “poverty porn” hand-held esthetic, is also unlikely to break through. But good efforts by both.
RUNNER-UPS
5. CAMBODIA- "In the Life of Music"
6. KYRGYZSTAN- "Aurora"
7. KAZAKHSTAN- "Kazakh Khanate: Golden Throne"
5. CAMBODIA- "In the Life of Music"6. KYRGYZSTAN- "Aurora"
7. KAZAKHSTAN- "Kazakh Khanate: Golden Throne"
These three obscure films will proudly fly their flag, but I can’t see any of them
advancing them to the next round. CAMBODIA is sending “In the Life of
Music”, a film about how a traditional song played an important role in the lives of three generations set in three different periods in Cambodia's turbulent 20th century history- before, during and after the Khmer Rouge genocide. Probably too small for a nomination. 
From Central Asia, we have a charming little indie from KYRGYZSTAN called "Aurora", about the lives of a bunch of quirky characters at a sanatorium, a bizarre sort of health spa that is a relic of the Soviet era (I've been to one of these and they are bizarre but fun places). The characters are supposedly archetypes of traditional Kyrgyz society, however Oscar voters likely won't know that. People are calling the Kazakh Khanate series (currently two films and a TV series) a Kazakh version of "Game of Thrones". While KAZAKHSTAN scored an unexpected nomination for "Mongol" and the costumes and sets look cool, the effects here look a bit cheap and it's unclear how well audiences will follow a historical sequel.
MIDDLE OF THE GROUP
8. INDONESIA- “Memories of
My Body”
9. INDIA- “Gully Boy”
10. PAKISTAN- “Laal
Kabootar”
11. SINGAPORE- “A Land
Imagined”
These culturally specific films may be in “the middle”, but they are
also completely out of luck. INDIA and PAKISTAN have sent well-made films that are likely to get lost in translation. “Laal Kabootar” is an
exciting thriller about a cab driver who teams up with a young widow looking
for revenge. Shot by a music video director in the hectic, crazy city of
Karachi (where I used to live), it looks slick and stylish and would be a great
candidate for a US remake. But it's perhaps a bit too edgy and local for AMPAS.
“Gully Boy” (on Amazon Prime) has gotten very good reviews, although I’m not really sure why.
It’s not a bad film but the plot is predictable, the characters are archetypes
and one of the leads (Safeena) is downright unlikable. If you don’t like hip-hop and rap
battles (I don't.....and I’m not sure many Oscar voters do), then this film is not for you.
Props to the guys who did the English subtitles though….they worked hard to
translate the rapid-fire raps….even if it is hard for English-speaking
audiences to process so much poetry so quickly. 
INDONESIA’s daring “Memories of
My Body” is also likely to lose something in translation. I’ve heard that only
Javanese audiences will be able to fully appreciate this controversial look at lengger dancers, men who perform female
roles in traditional Javanese dance. It’s obviously that a lot of the wordplay
does not translate into English, and the occasional narration (by the dancer
whose life inspired the film) may annoy some viewers. Still, I thought this
queer film from increasingly homophobic Indonesia was great and I'm proud that the Indonesian Academy had the courage to send it, after Islamist groups forced it out of several theatres and banned it in several provinces. Neighboring SINGAPORE
won the Golden Leopard at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival, though it’s
difficult to understand why…”A Land Imagined” (on Netflix) tries to make a David Lynch-style mystery but ends up just not making much sense at all. Is it a
dream? Is it reality? Why is a man stripping naked to run on a treadmill? Do you care? I didn’t. It’s too arty and abstract to
score here.
WITHOUT ANY CHANCE
12. UZBEKISTAN- “Hot Bread”
13. TAIWAN- “Dear Ex”
13. TAIWAN- “Dear Ex”
14. NEPAL- “Bulbul”
15. BANGLADESH- “Alpha”
These four small, average melodramas will be
quickly forgotten amongst the muddle of 93 films. I’ve seen “Alpha”, “Bulbul”
and “Dear Ex”.
Production values are often a problem for
poorer countries like BANGLADESH but “Alpha” (watchable on YouTube) represents a step forward for the
country, with some beautiful cinematography and imagery. It’s the story of a
village artist who finds a dead body and although it starts off well, with a
series of interesting and colorful characters, it loses its focus and starts
drifting (like the body) about halfway through and never recovers. Nearby NEPAL has sent an
interesting film about a lonely young woman bus driver in Kathmandu who begins
an extramarital affair six years after her husband leaves to work in Saudi
Arabia. It touches on a lot of social issues that I’m sure will resonate in
Nepal, but for Western audiences it’s merely a diverting soap opera. I had high
expectations for LGBT dramedy “Dear Ex” from TAIWAN, about a (loud and
annoying) furious widow angry that her estranged ex-husband has left his money
to his gay lover instead of his son. This could be a great idea for a screwball
comedy or a tense drama, but the film never commits to either...It's a wishy-washy and surprisingly dull
mish-mash. If you want to see for yourself, it's available on Netflix. 
Welcome UZBEKISTAN! I haven’t seen “Hot
Bread” (a very bad translation...I spoke with Central Asian friend and he said “Home-Baked Bread” is closer to the actual meaning) but I’m very happy to see Uzbekistan debuting here. Seven films applied to be in the country’s first-ever Oscar entry. I can’t wait to see
“Hot Bread”, about a city girl, sent to live with her grandmother in the
countryside….but as a small rural drama that hasn’t played anywhere
internationally it is highly unlikely to advance.
OH HELL NO!
16. CHINA- “Ne Zha”
17. VIETNAM- “Furie”
18. THAILAND- “Inhuman
Kiss”
19. HONG KONG- “White Storm 2”
20. MALAYSIA- “M for Malaysia”
Flesh-eating demons….
demonic two-year olds…..Jackie Chan-style martial arts…..These five genre pics
have multiple strikes against them that will prevent any of them from being
seriously considered. For the third year in a row, CHINA has ignored its
beautiful stable of arthouse films to choose a box-office hit with few awards
or festival play. “Ne Zha”, a state-of-the-art animated film about a two-year
old from hell (literally) rooted in Chinese mythology, has excellent animation
and could be a contender in the Animated Film category (it is eligible). But
the scatological humor and overall “loudness” (plus internal cartoon
competition from Japan) will doom it to the bottom of the list.
Oscar also hates horror films. But THAILAND doesn’t give a f***. You
have to give the Thais credit for having zero genre prejudices…They pick horror
films, comedies, action movies, odd docudramas….And this year, they have
selected “Krasue: Inhuman Kiss”, a rather depressing horror-drama about a young
village woman doomed to transform into a krasue, a bloodsucking female demon well-known to anyone in Southeast Asia. The film has more melodrama than horror and although interesting, it’s very, very slow
and mediocre CGI effects mar the ending. 
When “The Third Wife”
was unceremoniously pulled from cinemas in VIETNAM prior to completing
its 7-day run, action movie “Furie” became the frontrunner to go to
the Oscars. “Furie” is a highly entertaining film about a female debt collector
(and martial arts extraordinaire) who single-handedly defeats a
street gang who kidnap her 10-year old daughter to
use in an evil organ-selling scheme. It’s all very fun and campy and the martial arts
choreography is great, but it’s not the sort of film that will score here.
“White Storm 2: Drug
Lords” is yet another HONG KONG gangster thriller that looks
indistinguishable from all the other triad movies they used to send in the
2000s. It hasn’t won any awards and reviews say the film is pretty average and
unmemorable…so it’s a mystery why this was chosen at all. Last (and probably
least) is MALAYSIA’s jingoistic documentary “M for Malaysia”. This looks
like less of a movie and more of a political advertisement for PM Mahathir bin
Mohamed, the wily Prime Minister who served from 1981 until his retirement in
2003, only to join the opposition and become PM again in 2018- at the age of
93. It’s a great personal story, but this documentary made by his granddaughter
appears to ignore Mahathir’s many, many faults. Probably the least likely of
any of the 93 films running. “Furie” and “Inhuman Kiss” are available now on Netflix, while "White Storm 2" is available on English-subtitled DVD.
DISQUALIFIED AGAIN?:
21. AFGHANISTAN- “Hava, Maryam, Ayesha”
War-torn Afghanistan can't seem to catch a break. For the past five years, they've diligently announced a film...but they've only been approved twice. "Utopia" was disqualified for having too much English, but "Parting" (a very good film!) and now "Hava Maryam Ayesha" simply failed to appear on the final list, with no explanation. "Hava Maryam Ayesha", which had the backing of Angelina Jolie, beat out Cannes drama "The Orphanage" to be selected....So why was it not on the list? Did the film fail to arrive in Los Angeles? Nationality issues? I wish someone could find out!
Now the statistics:
Number of countries who have participated in the past: 25
Number of countries participating
this year: 21, if
you include Afghanistan which announced an open competition and selected a film
but which did not appear on the final list.
Number of debuts: 1- Uzbekistan
Number of countries opting out: Only five, all of which have
only sent films once or twice in Oscar history- Bhutan (1999), Fiji (2005), Laos
(2017), Sri Lanka (2003/2009) and Tajikistan (1999/2005). I thought Sri
Lanka might return with “House of My Fathers”...but I’m not surprised they
didn’t.
Number I predicted correctly- Only 6- Cambodia,
Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Singapore and Taiwan. L
Already Seen: 10- Korea (A), Mongolia (A-), Indonesia (B+), Vietnam (B), Nepal (B-), Bangladesh (C+), Thailand (C+), Taiwan (C), India (C) and Singapore (C-). I hope to see Hong Kong next month.
Film I'm most looking forward to seeing: Pakistan’s exciting thriller “Laal Kabootar”
Number of Female Directors: 6 (25%) - Zoya Akhtar
(India), Mag Hsu (Taiwan), Sahraa Karimi (Afghanistan, but she was
disqualified), Dian Lee &
Ineza Roussille (Malaysia) and Caylee So (Cambodia).
Oldest and Youngest Directors: I’m not 100% sure, but almost
certainly 68-year old Nasiruddin Yousuff (Bangladesh) and Raymund Ribay
Gutierrez (Philippines) who is only 27!
Number of Foreign Languages Represented:
21 films in 18 different languages! While
China, Singapore and Taiwan sent films that are all or mostly in Mandarin, the
others were in Bengali, Cantonese, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese,
Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kyrgyz, Malay, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian
(disqualified), Thai, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese. The Central Asian
films also featured Russian as a minority language.
Number of countries with a realistic
chance at making the shortlist: Only 2 or 3.
Buzziest film: Well, “Parasite” of course.
Oscar History: Only Bong Joon-ho (Korea) and Garin
Nugroho (Indonesia) have competed at this level before. “Mother” deserved
Korea’s first Oscar nomination when it was submitted in 2009. “Leaf on a
Pillow” competed for Indonesian way back in 1998.
Controversies and Changes: In
a sign of the continuing violations on artistic freedom in Asia, the
front-runners for Bangladesh (“Saturday Afternoon”), Vietnam (“The Third Wife”)
and Indonesia (“Memories of My Body”) were banned or pulled from cinemas. Props to Indonesia’s liberal Academy for selecting the film anyway. Ironically, India's media- which is notorious for criticizing the film that gets selected- was quiet this year even though the film wasn't very good.
Most Notable Omissions: The most notable omission is probably Moscow Grand Prize Winner "Saturday Afternoon" (Bangladesh). Also missing: “Fly By Night” (Malaysia), “Long Day’s
Journey Into Night” (China), “The Orphanage” (Afghanistan), “Manta Ray” (Thailand), “The
Third Wife” (Vietnam), “We Are Little Zombies” (Japan).
Familiar Faces: Song Kang-ho, Andy Lau, Veronica Ngo,
Ranveer Singh and Ellen Wong (“Scott Pilgrim Saved the World”).
Last year's race: I saw 11 of the 18 Asian films. The two standouts were “Shoplifters”
(Japan) and “Marlina the Murderer” (Indonesia). “Burning” was certainly
thought-provoking but I thought it needed some judicious editing. “Buffalo
Boys” and “The Tailor” were silly but fun. As for Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong,
India, Taiwan and Thailand….I was not a fan at all. Part of the reason
Asian countries don’t get nominated much is that their selections are way off.
NEXT: The films from Africa and the Middle East
NEXT: The films from Africa and the Middle East
