Dragons & Tigers at VIFF

Canada

Dragons & Tigers at VIFF

Tue., Oct. 7, 2008 10:09 AM PDT by Rebecca Bollwitt

VIFF

There is a proud Asian heritage that continues to thrive and grow in Vancouver. During the VIFF, this Pacific-Rim city had the chance to celebrate film from the East throughout the Dragons & Tigers line-up.

The Dragons & Tigers series premiered at the VIFF in 1985 and has turned into the largest annual exhibition of East Asian films outside Asia and many Vancouverites look forward to this specific showcase at the festival each year.

Michelle Kim, a Vancouver actress of Korean heritage, is excited that her two favourite directors, Kim Jee-Woo and Bong Joon-Ho, each have something in the festival. She even has a ritual for this part of the VIFF: “Eat a little Korean food, hop into a Korean movie, it makes me feel not so far away from my mother-land. I'm in heaven."

Last week, the festival hosted the 15th annual Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema at the Granville Empire 7 theatres and eight films were considered:

German + Rain (Japan) by Yokohama Satoko, Kaza-ana (Japan) by Uchida Nobutero, Lucky 7 (Singapore), mime-mime (Japan) bySode Yukiko, Perfect Life (China/Hong Kong) by Emily Tang, Sweet Food City - (China) by Gao Wendong, Synching Blue (South Korea/US) by Seo Won-Tae, and The "Thank You" Girls (Philippines) by Charliebebs Gohetia.

The jury ended up awarding Emily Tang the $10,000 prize for Perfect Life; "For the way it captures the harshness of Chinese reality through its fictional protagonist, and for the subtlety of its wonderfully free storytelling.” Perfect Life was also highly acclaimed at the Venice Film Festival this summer.

The awards have just begun for the VIFF however, festival goers still have the chance to pick their favourite films of the 2008 VIFF by completing the "people's choice" ballots outside each theatre where awards will be handed out in five categories.

The Dragons & Tigers series continues, with films screening up until Thursday October 9th.

GUEST BLOGGER: Rebecca Bollwitt has been blogging about Vancouver since 2004 on Miss604.com, co-hosting two podcasts since 2005 and in 2008 she co-founded sixty4media, a social media consulting firm.