The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

225 Top: Production still from Like Father, Like Son 2013 / Director: Hirokazu Koreeda / Image courtesy: Rialto Australia Below: Production still from Microhabitat 2017 / Director: Jean Go-woon / Image courtesy: M-Line Distribution APT9 Cinema Contemporary Mellow Dramas ‘Contemporary Mellow Dramas’ showcases the work of filmmakers from East Asia who have found international acclaim for their deft construction of intimate dramas. These films — from Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — reject the trappings of popular television and cinematic melodramas, and instead embrace a considered style of storytelling, in which small, mundane human interactions are woven into insightful portraits of contemporary life. Drawing on the last ten years of cinema, this program explores a style of filmmaking that focuses on quietude and quotidian detail in its storytelling. These ‘mellow dramas’ have somewhat ephemeral boundaries, and are linked more by mood or feeling than by strict narrative connections or subject matter. They are characterised by a sense of melancholy, highlighting the vagaries of human relationships, family ties and life in a growing metropolis. These threads intertwine and reveal a style of cinema from divergent countries that explores the subtle importance of mundanity in everyday life in an interconnected filmic space. Such examinations recall the careful and empathetic filmmaking of mid-century masters like Mikio Naruse (1905–69, Japan) and Yasujirō Ozu (1903–63, Japan), while offering new and incisive interpretations of our changing world. A focus on the day-to-day allows for economic and class concerns to rise to the thematic fore. Therefore, the films in this program offer contrasting depictions of home (the new wealth of luxury abodes against the modest interiors of lower-middle class apartments), careers (the relative freedom of celebrated artists compared to the inhibiting schedules of everyday office workers), and relationships (interactions between people of differing social status). In the worlds portrayed in these films, characters are more likely to be found in a tiny rundown bar or on a late-night train home to the suburbs than backlit by vivid neon in a rain-slicked alleyway — or in any other familiar moment from the iconography of East Asian cinema. This is not to say that the films featured in ‘Contemporary Mellow Dramas’ are merely tales of despair, or that the filmmakers are making claims of unattainable authenticity. Instead, these films are distinguished by a desire to carefully examine their characters and offer thoughtful explorations of the distinct cultures that define them. They offer dynamic emotional palettes that are filled with genuine humour and occasional surreal flourishes that colour the narrative action. The filmmakers behind these ‘mellow dramas’ are a mix of acclaimed veterans — Hong Sang-soo (b.1960, South Korea; Grass 2018), Ann Hui (b.1947, Hong Kong; A Simple Life 2011) and recent Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Koreeda (b.1962, Japan; Shoplifters 2018) — and emerging young directors — Yang Mingming (b.1987, China; Girls Always Happy 2018), Yui Kiyohara (b.1992, Japan; Our House 2018) and Jeon Go-Woon (b.1985, South Korea; Microhabitat 2017) — whose voices are gaining greater prominence in the world of international cinema. This rich collection of works showcases some of the most captivating pieces of recent Asian cinema. These films deftly weave together societal insights with humane character studies in arresting portraits of the modern world. Robert Hughes