Hollywood Asians

The English-language debuts of two top-notch Korean filmmakers, Park Chan-wook (the characteristically evocative Stoker) and Kim Ji-woon (the action-packed The Last Stand), have been released in the recent past.

Another similar foray by their compatriot, Bong Joon-ho (Snow Piercer), is due to the hit screens around the world later this year. The last-named title is in fact tipped to have its world premiere at the upcoming 66th Cannes Film Festival (May 15-26).

In fact, reliable reports from Hollywood have it that directors of Asian descent are at the helm of as many nine major studio films this year. And that is a handful. But the question is: are these striking numbers enough to suggest that 2013 has the makings of a bumper year in American cinema for filmmakers that have links with the largest and most populous continent of the world?

Very few Asian directors have had a smooth run in Hollywood, but that has not stopped some gifted filmmakers from the continent, including such celebrated talents as Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai (My Blueberry Nights), Japan’s Takeshi Kitano (Brother) and China’s Chen Kaige (Killing Me Softly), from having a stab at English-language movies.

Park Chan-wook’s Stoker, a psychological thriller that is said to be heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, features Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Good. The film has been well-received by critics. The Oldboy director is best known globally for his hypnotic, stylised revenge dramas and the new film has many of the celebrated touches of his signature style of storytelling.

Bong Joon-Ho’s English-language debut, too, is being eagerly awaited. Snow Piercer, a sci-fi thriller adapted from a French graphic novel, has an ensemble cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, John Hurt and Ed Harris.

There are many others in the frame. G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the Channing Tatum-Bruce Willis vehicle that opened worldwide amid much fanfare in late March, has been directed by Jon M. Chu, a Palo Alto, California-born American filmmaker of Chinese origin best known for the dance-themed blockbuster Step Up 2: The Streets.

The response from critics to the follow-up to G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra has been mixed, but the film is a certified international box office hit, having raked in over $230 million in two weeks. The going for Chu is all set to get even better – he has been roped in to direct the He-Man reboot, Masters of the Universe, slated to go into production sometime this year.

The likes of Ang Lee, Wayne Wang (who has directed indie films and studio movies with equal success and continues to be a respected name in showbiz), Justin Lin and John Woo are markedly different from Chu in that all of them were born and raised in Asia before migrating to the US to join film schools and going on to make thriving Hollywood careers for themselves.

John Woo, the 68-year-old Hong Kong-based director whose influence on the action genre has been immense, is regarded as the first Asian filmmaker to find mainstream acceptance in Hollywood, where he worked with A-listers and made successful films such as Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off and the biggest of them all, Mission: Impossible 2.

But no Asian director has tasted the kind of sustained commercial and critical success that Taiwanese-born Ang Lee has. Twice winner of the directing Oscar (Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi), the history-making filmmaker derives his power and appeal from his amazing versatility.

In an eventful 20-year directing career, Ang Lee has earned a reputation for springing surprises and scooping up major awards. The genre-jumping director has never repeated himself and has moved from one form to another, one theme to another, one culture to another with amazingly consistent mastery.

He is probably the only director alive today who has two Oscars, two Golden Globes, two Golden Bears (in Berlin) and two Golden Lions (in Venice) in his swelling kitty.

The only major filmmaking award that has so far eluded Lee is the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or although he has competed for it twice – in 1997 with The Ice Storm and in 2009 with Taking Woodstock.

Lee is today a global force to reckon with, one of the finest directors in the business. He is celebrated for his ability to infuse every tale he brings to the big screen with humanity, heart and deep philosophy. This hallmark of his art and craft was abundantly evident in Life of Pi.

Until his Brokeback Mountain swept all before it, he was best known the world over for the sweeping martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 2000, the film redefined the world’s engagement with the colour, flourish and energy inherent in Chinese fantasy.

Another Taiwanese-born American director who has been consistently successful in Hollywood is Justin Lin. His fame rests on the action-packed Fast & Furious franchise. Coming on board  for the third film in the series, The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift, in 2006, he helmed Fast and Furious (2009) and Fast Five (2011).

Lin’s fourth and final F&F film, Fast and Furious 6, is slated for release in the last week of May. He has announced that he will not be helming Fast & Furious 7. But that certainly isn't the last the world will hear of the man.

Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur achieved a major global breakthrough with 1998’s Elizabeth, a fictionalised account of the reign of the British Queen. The film received as many as seven Academy Award nominations – a record for any film helmed by an Indian.

Almost ten years later, Kapur made a sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, with Cate Blanchett reprising the role of the Queen. But the film was neither as commercially successful nor as critically lauded.

Mira Nair is another Indian filmmaker who has been in the thick of the action in the US, with films like Mississippi Masala, Vanity Fair and Amelia behind her. Her latest film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Pakistan author Mohsin Hamid’s novel of the same name, was the opening film of the 2012 Venice Film Festival before playing at the Toronto International Film Festival of 2012.

While Kapur and Nair continue have a firm base in their native country and work across cultures, US-born M Night Shyamalan is an out and out American filmmaker who has had a rather chequered career, facing big career reverses despite making films such as The Sixth Sense (which fetched him six Oscar nominations, including those for Best Director and Best Picture), Unbreakable, Signs and The Village.

Over the past decade, Shyamalan, now 42, has been repeatedly hauled over the coals by critics for misfires like Lady in the Water, The Happening and The Last Airbender. Yet he continues to attract interest from studio bosses and has just wrapped up After Earth, a futuristic drama starring real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith.

Visually the most interesting of the curently active Indian-origin Hollywood directors is the Shimla and Delhi-educated Tarsem Singh. A former music video maker of repute, he made his directorial debut in 2000 with the Jennifer Lopez-starrer The Cell. The film was critically acclaimed and Tarsem was hailed as a director blesed with a unique style.

Over the past decade, he has continued doing the kind of work (The Fall, Immortals and Mirror, Mirror are his subsequent films) that has divided critics and moviegoers alike. Tarsem may not yet belong to the Hollywood big league but he is clearly a director with a vision that isn't all that ordinary.

There can be no question about the fact that Ang Lee and Shyamalan are both part of the Hollywood elite. Indications are that several more from Asia are ready to join them.