Will Cannes come to this director's rescue?

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

CANNES, MAY 18. The Cannes International Film Festival, now into its ninth day here, screened Im Kwon-taek's Korean movie, Chunhyang yesterday. This is the first time in the Riviera's history that a picture from that country finds a slot in the main competition section.

A novel method of telling a story on screen, Chunhyang, unfolds like a stage play complete with audience and sutradars. Based in the 13th Century, it talks about the forbidden love between a high class governor's son and a lowly courtesan's daughter. Despite its ponderous procrastinations, the work has its gripping moments, and does not quite bore a viewer at other times.

For the 65-year-old director, Kwon-taek, his 98th film (Chunhyang) since 1962 could not have come at a better time. The man who had been down and out for several years now appeared enormously happy at being invited to the top slot in a top festival.

The Korean media has lambasted him for the nude scenes in the movie. A local citizen's group said that Kwon Taek had exploited the 16-year-old lead actress in Chunhyang; Lee Hyo-jeong was not only naked on the screen, but was photographed as being over- enthusiastic about her romantic and sexual scenes with the actor.

The director told the media that he had been extremely unhappy and angry by such accusations, but the invitation to Cannes came as a saving grace. ``I can now face my critics with strength.''

Considered the godfather of Korean movie-makers, Kwon- Taek is virtually unknown outside his region, and it is widely anticipated that his latest effort that played to eager audience here at Cannes will help him to gain a degree of respect and renown in international circles.

Another director at Cannes, Ang Lee (whose Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a picture inspired by his favourite martial arts heroes like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan) is also in the midst of a controversy, at least of sorts.

In Lee's latest creation, his protagonists are women. Set in the 19th century during the Qing Dynasty in China, the film's plot is thick with treachery and intrigue. When the legendary warrior Li Mubai's sword is stolen, a blazing martial arts drama ensues where the fighters are seemingly delicate women. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon may appear unusual from the basket of a man who has made movies like Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm. ``After making three English pictures, I decided to make one in Mandarin,'' says Lee. ``And here it is at Cannes.''

Lee, who has always wanted to make a film about martial arts admits that it can be boring watching plain fighting, and there are 30 minutes of it in his work. ``But I have built drama and rhythm in it.'' Indeed, there is something in every such scene to hook the viewer, but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not as moving or spectacular as some of Lee's earlier attempts. And that comes as a disappointment for his fans who had hoped to see another emotional drama from him.

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