Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 6 Oct 1992 15:30:03 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: Korean view of VN war wins Tokyo Film Festival

10/04

Korean view of Vietnam War wins Tokyo Film Festival

	TOKYO (UPI) -- A film chronicling the lives of Koreans fighting
alongside U.S. troops in the Vietnam War won top honors at the Tokyo
International Film Festival, which ended Sunday.
	Other nationalities who garnered prizes at the $8.3 million festival
included Taiwanese, Japanese, British, Belgians, Polish, Mexicans, Danes
and Germans.
	``White Badge,'' the first Korean film to discuss the once taboo
subject of the experience of more than 300,000 Koreans who fought in the
Vietnam war, won the Tokyo Grand Prix -- the top award in the festival's
international competition. Director Chung Ji-Young also was awarded the
prize for best director.
	``The Vietnam War has only been known to the world through American
movies,'' Chung said. ``From a global point of view, I wanted to express
what Korea acquired and what Korea lost through the Vietnam War.''
	At least 4,000 of the more than 300,000 Koreans deployed in Vietnam
were reportedly killed in action, but such figures were not available to
the public under the rule of military strongman Park Chung Hee,
according to Chung.
	``About Love Tokyo,'' a Japanese film that takes a critical look at
the way Japanese treat Chinese residents of Tokyo, received the runner-
up award of special jury prize in the International Competition.
	Director Mitsuo Yanagimachi -- best known to international audiences
as for the 1990 English language ``Shadow of China'' -- said he made the
film to portray ``how Japanese clumsily deal with foreigners.''
	Spanish Director Julio Medem's ``Cows'' -- an epic that follows the
lives of three Vasconian families from 1875 to 1936 -- won top prize in
the Young Cinema Competition.
	The young cinema contest is open to directors under 35 years old with
less than three commercially released films. The gold prize comes with a
cash stipend of $167,000.
	Taiwanese director Stan Lai won the young cinema competition's silver
prize of $83,500 for ``The Peace Blossom Land,'' which examines the
lives of Chinese who fled to Taiwan after the Communist came to power in
1949.
	U.S. actor and first-time director Tim Robbins was awarded the bronze
prize for ``Bob Roberts.''
	The jury for the international competition wanted to recognize a
fourth film, ``Twinkle,'' but chairman Kees Kasander said festival
officials would not allow them to do so.
	``Maybe it's an idea if you give the jury a little more flexibility
so they can also be creative,'' Kasander chided organizers during the
festival's official closing ceremonies.
	``Twinkle'' -- the story of the relationship between a wife, husband
and his male lover -- was one of two Japanese films dealing with the
topic of homosexuality to make premier at the festival in socially
conservative Japan.
	Max Von Sidow won the award for best actor in the international
competition for his performance in ``The Silent Touch,'' a film from
Great Britain, Poland and Denmark.
	First-time film star Lumi Cavazos was the prize for best actress for
her role in the Mexican film ``Like Water for Chocolate,'' which also
won the award for best artistic contribution.
	Lumi said she was particular pleased to win the prize because she had
been overlooked at the Mexican Academy Film awards, though ``Like Water
for Chocolate'' had won 10 other awards.
	The award for best screenplay went to Helmut Dietl and Ulrich Limmer
for ``Schtonk,'' a German comedy based on the 1983 faked Hitler diary
scandal.
	The festival ended with the world premier of Ridley Scott's new film
``1492 Conquest of Paradise.'' Gerard Depardieu, who plays Christopher
Columbus along with Sigourney Weaver as Queen Isabella, was on hand to
greet the audience before the screening.
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