From China noir films feted at Cannes to Singaporean award-winners, Asia is leading the way for this artistic, tension-filled genre
Like the French themselves, the Cannes Film Festival has an enigmatic air to it, one that is imbued with enough mystery and intellectualism to make the Oscars and the Baftas feel almost staid by comparison. This is partly because it is set on the glorious Cote d’Azur on France’s south coast, but mostly because the jurors at Cannes tend to gloss over the blockbuster romances and star-led adaptations to laud the filmmakers who examine the grittier side of life.
Despite being Europe’s most illustrious film festival, Chinese-made movies have never gained a real foothold at Cannes before. Europe’s most famous gathering of cinephiles is known for celebrating films with stark, post-modern themes—themes that were, until recently, rarely examined on the Chinese silver screen.
Over the past two decades the Chinese film market has gone from barely existing to producing around 600 films a year with box office receipts now topping US$8.5 billion—second only to the American market’s US$11.4 billion.