Cinema , a gift from God

A gift from god can be anything and it can be surprising and instant .

On the 6th day of the Chennai international Film festival ..

 
I check the films screening schedule every morning to decide which films to watch, I usually skip the 10 am show because I never reach in time but I always watch the last 8 pm show even if the movie doesn't have great reviews. That day.. I planned to be right on time for the 3 pm show after meeting some friends on the way.

 
When the festival started on Dec 14 .. I was disappointed by the poor theatre facilities and the boring  inauguration function but the collection of films was great . I dint even enjoy such a collection in the Film festival of India, Goa .

The kid with a bike (Belgium), My little princess , Late bloomers , The colours of the mountain, Tomboy , The mill & the cross ( Poland ), The monk ( Spain ), The son ( Turkey ), are some of the films I saw that season. I try to watch at least 3 a day in festivals. 

A Marathi movie "Babu band baja " was also good, It reminded me of  Gabhricha paus and Jhing Chik Jhing, these films were able to convey a message in a very simple manner using the art form. Tamil and Bollywood movies never had this simplicity in them .

I watched movies of all cultures which I won't probably remember for a long time but they seeded a feeling that stays and this feeling comes alive every time I see a world movie. 

"The truth of lie ", "my dream of loneliness never walks alone " were movies directed by Roland Reber, his movies always has nudity from the start to the end. They are like a stage drama, makes me sleep despite the nudity but watching such films are also a part of the festival experience.

I wont add Korean movies in the list of world movies , They were called world movies 5 years back but now they're like Hollywood or French cinema, very well marketed for mass consumption by mainstream audience but the Iranian cinema is still in that exotic, rare list of world movies.

In this Chennai film fest of 2011 .. there were some  fascinating world movies like Red sky (Greece) , Heat wave , 17 girls , Snows of Kilimanjaro , No return (Argentina) etc .

On the fifth day .. I had the opportunity to watch " A Seperation ", Iran's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.

It was the first Iran movie I saw in this fest, there were very less Iranian movies that year. 

My respect on Iran movies multiplied after watching it. 

But On the 6th day of the Chennai international Film festival .. I watched " THE FRONT LINE "

South Korea's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.

I was waiting to see a Korean film in this fest, Korean films always gives me complete satisfaction . Their culture is very similar to ours and emotions are very easy to relate with. My lust for Korean films started with My sassy girl, 200 Pounds Beauty, Windstruck, Sex is Zero, volcano high,  My girl and I etc. These are very commercial films.

My Love for Korean movies started with " OLD BOY " which I have rated as the No 1 movie in my imdb personal top 25 list .
http://www.imdb.com/list/kEXBr0wm3_8/

I've also seen the other movies by the director Chan-Wook Park.

Then on a fine day I watched the movie " Spring summer fall winter ", soon I also watched all the other movies by the director  Kim Ki-Duk. I watched more than 15 of his movies in the same week, notably "bad guy " and 3 iron. Watching his movies is a meditating experience. 

Then " memories of murder "  and " mother " by Joon-ho Bong were also amazing.
Even recently while watching " The Way Home " I was moved by the talent of South Korean film makers . . an absolutely stunning movie.

 
In the morning while checking the schedule .. this Korean film (the front line) was at 3 pm, I wanted to watch it but I'm never interested in war films. I have seen many Hollywood war films which glorify America winning the war. Even a documentary movie " Restrepo " about the Afghan war was focused on maintaining a good image of America. But there are also some Good war films like " Platoon " " Apocalypse now " and Stanley Kubrick 's "Full metal jacket" and" Paths of glory " which changed my idea about war movies. 

Even when i watched "Joint Security Area" I hesitated at the start before I was mesmerised by it. 

My friend told me a way to reach the woodlands theatre in Royapett from T-nagar, I'm not good with routes but we had a coffee in his room 😉 and I left the driving responsibility in the hands of my sub conscious mind. I was in the theatre at 3:02 pm .

I got a seat and also got involved in the movie quickly, I couldn't believe I reached in time. The movie was very interesting, I thought I was over reacting because of the coffee, then i heard the entire audience applaud for several moments in the film. We got emotional, we suffered and laughed with the characters,  we stood while the end credits rolled. The irony of the war struck us all.

I sincerely recommend this movie to all cinema lovers. South Korean cinema is the best. Today I felt it was god's gift. 

next on the schedule is Pina (Germany) 12:30 pm tomorrow :) 

A small tribute to Kim Ki Duk