‘Parasite’ wins best film at Asia Pacific Screen Awards

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Mayday guitarist, Stone rallies fans at Singapore fest

LOS ANGELES, Nov 23, (RTRS): Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite”, which earlier this year won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, added the Asia Pacific Screen Award for best film to its burgeoning trophy cabinet. “Parasite” producer Jang Young-hwan was on hand to accept the award at the end of a ritzy ceremony in Brisbane, Australia.

 The APSAs, now in their 13th edition, like to celebrate the diversity and artistic expression of the 70 countries in its remit, and they usually spread around the awards to avoid clustering around a single winner. So it proved again this year.

 While “Parasite” predictably took the top award, Russia’s “Beanpole” was the numerical winner and the only film to claim two of the APSAs stunning glass vessel prizes. Directed by Kantemir Balagov, “Beanpole” was rewarded for best screenplay (Balagov, Alexander Terekhov) and achievement in cinematography (Ksenia Sereda).

 At the nominations stage, Chinese drama “So Long, My Son” had emerged as the favorite with an unusual six nominations. But in the end, it came away empty-handed. “Parasite”, in contrast, was only shortlisted in a single category.

 Its best picture win may reflect the groundswell of international support for Bong and the very real possibility that “Parasite” will receive Oscar nominations in multiple Academy Awards categories, not simply the best international feature section. It is also propelled by a swelling North American box office, which now stands at $14.8 million.

Depiction

Australia’s Rod Rathjen won the best youth film award for his “Buoyancy” and went on to deliver the evening’s most moving speech. The film is a fact-based fictional depiction of human trafficking and modern-day slavery in South East Asia’s commercial fishing industry.

 “The inspiration for this film was the stories of the survivors who worked on these trawlers. They broke my heart again and again and hopefully by making this film we can make a difference,” Rathjen said from the podium. The film plays next at the International Film Festival and Awards Macao.

 Social affairs were also highlighted by the best documentary award which went to documentary “Advocate”. The film is a look at the life and work of Jewish-Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel who has represented political prisoners for nearly 50 years. “I’m stunned because I could not imagine we made a local film for our society… we couldn’t know that we would reach such a broad public… I’m really thankful for APSA,” said co-director Philippe Bellaiche.

Stone, the Taiwanese performer who has gone from being the guitarist in Mayday to a promising acting career, drew crowds on Friday, the first full day of the Singapore International Film Festival.

 Speaking at Projector, the indie theater inside the historical Golden Mile building, some two hundred fans gathered to hear the artist share career experiences and artistic insights.

 Films that featured Stone include: Arvin Chen’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”; Tom Lin Shu-yu’s “Zinnia Flower”; and Ho Wi Ding’s “City of Last Things”.

 Despite these successes, Stone said that expressing himself through music is more comfortable than acting.

 “Music is easier for me. One piece of music sticks to one element: sadness, friendship, love, encouragement, courage, etc. It is easy to put such emotions in a melody, rhythm or a pattern when writing songs. And one can relate to the emotions instantly. It’s musical power. You instantly get into the mood,” said Stone.

 “But in a film, it’s complicated. It’s a mixture of lots of feelings; lots of emotions. You can’t make a song that is really sad and really happy at the same time. But for a film, you have to make sure that there is a mixture of emotions. That’s very difficult for me.”

 “I want to break out of the boundary of myself. I want to explore something new. I am even writing stories and scripts for myself. Mayday had a concert tour for two years non-stop, and back stage I would write my feelings about the cities we were visiting or the people I met. I would create something about the cities, about a character, maybe a role that I want; when they are put together they become short stories, series of stories,” he said.

 Stone said that, when considering an acting part, he most thoroughly evaluates the script and the offered role, before weighing up the director. “I don’t choose the director, they choose me,” he said. Stone said he has no confirmed current project, but explained that he is discussing a role in the next feature by “Zinnia Flower” director Lin.

 He praised the Singapore International Film Festival as a platform through which audiences can better understand the cultural diversity of Asia.

 “There are different races in Singapore; [the Singapore film festival] is a good opportunity for us to explore different points of views, and share different perspectives about films. It is a huge job to help us explore the whole Asian territory,” Stone said.

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