Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul

Why is "globalization" such a dirty word, to both the far left and far right? Isn’t it nice to have a film directed by a French-Cambodian filmmaker, starring a French-Korean thesp, shot on-location in South Korea and Romania that was submitted for the International Oscar by Cambodia? Of course, it is, when it is a good film. Ironically, the French-Korean adoptee of Davy Chou’s film might be the most critical of international interconnectedness, even though she becomes quite adept at mediating between cultures and countries. Finding her roots and her identity is a fraught process in Chou’s Return to Seoul, which opens this Friday in New York.

Frederique “Freddie” Benoit was adopted by a loving French couple during the height of the Korean adoption boom. Many adoptees return in hopes of finding her birth family, but Benoit initially kids herself into thinking her trip was a spur of the moment lark. Therefore, she did no advance preparation, which could have facilitated the process.

Nevertheless, sufficient formalities are settled, allowing the adoption center to contact Benoit’s birthparents, by antiquated “telegram,” so as not to be intrusive. It will be their choice to contact her, which her guilt-wracked father does so, immediately. Having separated, he and her mother seem to be a very different minds, because Benoit waits in vain for the unknown woman to call.

Indeed, very little of this first trip could be described as “storybook.” Instead of a tearful reunion, Benoit is put off by her birth-father’s awkward attempts to reconnect and his blubbering displays of emotion. As a French hipster, she has no intention of moving in with his family or letting him find her a husband. Frankly, she becomes rather dismissive, even though her new French-speaking Korean friend Tena somewhat softens her harsh words when translating for them.

Things change somewhat when she returns two years later. Instead of a French hipster, she assumes the role of a Korean hipster. Again, we meet a very different Benoit two years after that, when Benoit returns to Seoul once again, this time partly for business, now that she has one of the coolest jobs ever: international arms dealer. Don’t freak out. Benoit and her boss Andre only broker deals with governments that should have the latest advanced armaments, exactly like the Republic of Korea (ROK).

One thing is certain: Freddie Benoit is no cliché. Chou and visual artist-first-time-thesp Park Ji-min made great efforts to avoid most of the obvious sexualized or sentimentalized stereotypes. Frankly, Benoit can be exhausting to spend time with, but Park vividly projects a sense of the resentments and conflicting emotions bottled up inside her. It is an unusually complex and challenging performance.

Davy Chou’s Diamond Island

Judging from the throngs of bare-headed riders cruising their motorbikes around the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia is quite lax when it comes to helmet laws. The same is true of workplace safety regulations. Building the luxury condos on Koh Pich is a hard way to make $150 a month, but it still represents a good gig for Bora and his three meathead companions. Unfortunately, romantic jealousies and on-site accidents will fray their friendships in Davy Chou’s Diamond Island (trailer here), which begins a week-long engagement this Thursday at MoMA.

Koh Pic (“Diamond Island” in English) was once just a spit of sand in the Tonlé Sap-Mekong River confluence, where only a handful of hardscrabble fishermen lived. Now it is the anticipated home of Cambodia’s nouveau riche and the weekend hang-spot for Phnom Penh teen hipsters. Although Bora and his pals are roughly the same age as the latter, they still have trouble relating. It is a class thing, but somehow Bora’s long lost older brother Solei managed to transcend it. After cutting ties with the family, Solei managed to land an American sponsor for his studies and fell in with a privileged and pretty crowd.

Their reunion is awkward, but not completely without affection. In fact, Solei promises Bora entrée into his world of comparative opportunity, but he insists on firewalls separating him from their family and Bora’s luggish pals. That inevitably leads to tension, especially with Bora’s childhood best friend, Dy. However, he will risk Solei’s displeasure when he starts seeing Aza, a pretty resident of a legacy Koh Pich shanty-settlement.

Diamond Island probably sounds like an exercise in slow cinema miserablism, but it is more plotting and pacey than cineastes might expect, especially if they have seen Chou’s somewhat diffuse narrative short Cambodia 2099. It still cannot match the power of Golden Slumber, his exploration of the Cambodian film industry devastated by the Khmer Rouge, but that film is close to being a documentary masterpiece.

In any event, sexual frustration, sibling tension, and dangerous work conditions are all the stuff of highly-relatable human drama. Chou’s cast of nonprofessional actors (at least until now) are completely natural-looking, utterly without affectation, and mostly right on the money. Frankly, they give the film a docu-hybrid feeling. However, Chou and cinematographer Thomas Favel often counteract that vibe with their visually striking use of saturated colors and neon-noir nightscapes. They also capitalize on the sprawling city vistas to overwhelm their characters, like insignificant ants.

It is hard to say whether Diamond Island makes viewers more or less likely to visit Phnom Penh and Koh Pich. The nightlife looks fun, but you wouldn’t want to work there. There is a bittersweet grace to the film that deserves to be seen. Its festival prominence is also significant for a Cambodian film industry struggling to rebuild itself, so you have to wonder how the decision to select Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father as Cambodia’s foreign language Oscar submission sits with Chou and company. Regardless, New Yorkers will have seven nights to see Diamond Island when it opens this Thursday (10/12) at MoMA.

SBIFF ’16: Dream Land

It still stings to be rejected by a lover, even if your country has a painful history of genocide. These are the “First World” problems faced by Lida, a successful up-market real estate agent, whose territory encompasses Phnom Penh. Life does not just carry on for her and her friends. It careens at light speed. A different sort of Cambodian experience comes to light in American-born-and-based Steve Chen’s Dream Land (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Lida (Da) is good at her job, but maybe she doesn’t even have to be all that competent. Phenom Penh is booming. To show a luxury condo is to sell it. It does not hurt that she has a good look either. She would turn most men’s heads, but since her current lover Kun is a fashion photographer, his constant contact with beautiful women has apparently made him fickle. He has rarely been around in recent weeks, but when Lida has seen him, his passive aggressive frostiness has left her hurt and confused.

Lida will deal with her frustrations in a variety of ways. Some could come straight out of Sex and the City, but eventually she tries to recharge with a trip to the ancient Imperial coastal retreat of Kep. Yet, even there she finds signs of burgeoning development and commercialization.

Cambodian super model Lida Duch and her previous co-star Sokun Nhem are apparently quite popular from the blockbuster Khmer fantasy Sbek Kong, but local audiences will probably be a tad confused by Chen’s slow cinema-ish approach. Strictly speaking, it is true not a lot happens, but that is greatly reflective of real life. Indeed, Chen is very much interested in the pop songs, romance comic books, and karaoke bars that help the harried modern Cambodian get through the day. Frankly, that probably makes Dream Land considerably more interesting for international viewers on the outside looking in, rather than domestic patrons who are already immersed in this environment.

However, what really distinguishes the film is Duch’s remarkable performance. It is quietly reserved work, but powerfully vulnerable and emotionally brittle. She can say a lot with very little, so the camera just adores her. Frankly, it is hard to fairly judge Nhem as his near namesake, because what few scenes he has are so thoroughly stacked against him. Basically, he comes in and acts like a jerkheel, while Chen keeps him relegated to the far, out-of-focus corner of the frame. In contrast, Hak Kim is painfully empathic as the mutual friend so obviously carrying a torch for Lida.

Dream Land is not exactly a milestone of global cinema, but it is still exciting to see Cambodian film industry continue to rebuild itself following the almost complete destruction the country’s cinema heritage under the Communist insanity of the Khmer Rouge. Chen has already been a part of that effort, working as part of the camera crew on Davy Chou’s masterful Golden Slumbers. (Chou in turn served as an associate producer on Dream Land.) At this point, each Cambodian film is still important as another building block in that effort, but Chen’s film is also significant for bringing Duch international recognition. Despite the art house pacing, Dream Land has considerable merits. Recommended for sophisticated patrons, it screens tomorrow (2/8) and Tuesday (2/9), as part of this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

LAAPFF ’15: Cambodia 2099 (short)

Koh Pich or Diamond Island is the Cambodian government’s showcase development zone, yet the young people who congregate there still think about leaving. For two friends, this will probably entail one-way tickets, but the nature of their travel will be radically different in Davy Chou’s short film, Cambodia 2099 (clip here), which screens during the 2015 Los Angeles AsianPacific Film Festival.

If their dreams are any guide, both Kavich and Sotha will soon be leaving Phnom Penh. The former will be joining his mother in Stockton as a conventional immigrant, while the latter believes the secret of time travel has been revealed to him. Naturally, it involves a crash helmet and red pajamas. Not so surprisingly, it will be Kavich rather than Sotha who leaves behind a girlfriend, but he is not so eager to have that farewell conversation with Vanary.

Chou’s feature documentary Golden Slumbers was so exquisitely moving his next project would probably be something of a let-down no matter what it was. Throughout 2099 he again displays a keen eye for visuals, but the tone and focus are somewhat inconsistent, which is a problem for a short film. Nevertheless, it heralds the remarkable debut of actress Sothea Vann. In many ways, she brings to mind Shu Qi in Millennium Mambo, as two formerly free-spirited party girls who are coming to terms with the disappointments of reality.

So should Cambodia’s future generations stay or should they go? Cambodia’s political and economic systems are obvious more firmly rooted in law than say forty years ago, but they still leave much to be desired. It would be convenient if Sotha could turn forward the hands of the clock to see whether it is worth staying to struggle for further improvements. Either way, there will be an increasing pool of modern, largely westernized students, like Vanary.

Cambodia 2099 was conceived as a way for Chou’s collaborators to build confidence before he commenced filming a narrative feature, so in a way it is a perfect project to follow-up the widely celebrated Slumbers. Even if it is not a perfect short, he is clearly a talented filmmaker and Vann is a highly promising screen thesp. On balance, their work is still definitely worth watching in Cambodia 2099, when it screens tomorrow (4/29) as part of the Something Around the Corner short film block at this year’s LAAPFF.