{"id":63433,"date":"2015-10-22T06:33:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T11:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63433"},"modified":"2015-10-22T06:33:19","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T11:33:19","slug":"filipino-director-mendoza-honored-at-tokyo-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/22\/filipino-director-mendoza-honored-at-tokyo-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino director Mendoza honored at Tokyo Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Filipino<\/a>
Filipino director Brillante Mendoza (Wikipedia photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TOKYO \u2013 Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, taking center stage at the Tokyo International Film Festival, is pursuing a collaboration with other Asian filmmakers \u2013 a cultural connection that might be as simple as rice.<\/p>\n

The festival, which opened Thursday with red carpet ceremonies, features five films directed by Mendoza, including his latest \u201cTaklub,\u201d shown earlier this year at Cannes. Two Filipino films he has produced are also being shown.<\/p>\n

Mendoza has already started preliminary discussions with Isao Yukisada of Japan and Cambodian Sotho Kulikar for a film to be shown at next year’s Tokyo festival.<\/p>\n

The prevalence and deeper meaning of cooking and family meals in Asian life \u2013 and in Asian films \u2013 has already come up as one commonality, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to maximize the connection,\u201d Mendoza said in an interview at a Tokyo hotel.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s opening film is \u201cThe Walk,\u201d about French tightrope daredevil Philippe Petit, directed by Robert Zemeckis, who is among the 400 people attending the opening.<\/p>\n

Hillary Swank, who portrays a woman with a fatal illness in \u201cYou\u2019re Not You,\u201d and Helen Mirren, of \u201cWoman in Gold,\u201d also walked the red carpet for the festival, which closes Oct. 31.<\/p>\n

Mendoza, who has won awards at Cannes, Berlin and Venice, is a rare but powerful voice of independent cinema in a region dominated by sappy melodrama and Hollywood.<\/p>\n

His films are poetically dark, following prostitutes, midwives and poor mothers in back alleys of a slum, spiraling staircases and typhoon-torn beaches. The sometimes shaky hand of his camera gives it a voyeur feel, disguising the certainty of his storytelling.<\/p>\n

His characters endure hardships \u2013 a devastating typhoon in one, the heartbreaking death of a child in another \u2013 often shot in the gorgeous landscapes of the Philippines. The plot is never a simplistic pitting of good versus bad, as in many Hollywood action films.<\/p>\n

Mendoza\u2019s people are hardworking, humble, everyday people. But they are sometimes weak, betraying a partner\u2019s love or simply giving up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all commit mistakes, but committing a mistake doesn\u2019t make us a bad person,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that is what makes us really human. Rising up above these mistakes \u2013 that is the best part, when you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza said he hopes to share his insights on independent film-making, including distribution and post-production work, with Japanese fans and filmmakers, and with film students in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Mendoza says he will not waver from his original goals and has little interest in commercial success or going to Hollywood, adding awards and growing fame have not changed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work from the heart… it is the kind of film that you make, and how you make the film, and why you make this kind of film. That is the most important thing \u2013 why you make this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

His next work, about small-time drug dealers, won\u2019t be that different from his past films, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is still a typical Filipino family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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