[Column] At Cannes, which country has the hottest stars?

Posted on : 2007-05-21 11:52 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
By Stephen Cremin, Screen International

If Cannes hosts the most important festival and film market in the world, can one determine the hottest actors of the moment by simply counting who has the most films onscreen in the south of France this month?

There are 120 Asian features screening this year across the festival and market: 36 percent are Japanese, 23 percent are Korean, and 20 percent are Chinese co-productions. Those numbers represent less than 10 percent of China’s annual output of legal films and Japanese feature film production, respectively, and a whopping 25 percent of Korea’s annual theatrical releases.

Of the 700 actors who have primary roles in those films, over 70 appear in more than one feature. A "top ten" act in three films or more.

Four of these ten are prolific Japanese character actors Osugi Ren, Taguchi Tomorowo, Mitsuishi Ken, and Tsugawa Masahiko. Out of the six remaining actors, there are four obvious stars of the moment.

Thailand’s 24-year-old Eurasian male model Ananda Everingham has leading roles in Ekachai Uekrongtham’s Pleasure Factory, screening at Un Certain Regard, Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Ploy, playing at the Directors’ Fortnight and Me...Myself, a romantic comedy that has sold remake rights to South Korea and will be seen in a market screening at Cannes. Buyers will also get a glimpse of his upcoming fantasy epic The Queens of Pattani, directed by Nonzee Nimibutr.

China’s Fan Bingbing, also 24 years old, dazzled in her daring breakthrough role in the Berlin Film Festival competition entry, Lost in Beijing, here receiving a screening for buyers. Cannes also will host an industry-only screenings of Battle of Wits, co-produced by South Korea’s Boram Entertainment, and upcoming action movie Flash Point from the team behind Dragon Tiger Gate, projected in a 33-minute rough cut, both starring Fan.

Japan’s Matsuda Ryuhei, 24 years old as well, has his three most recent films screening in the market: Tsukamoto Shinya's Venice festival entry Nightmare Detective, Minorikawa Osamu’s poetic anthology Life Can Be So Wonderful, and Nakamura Yoshihiro’s oddball The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker.

The oldie in the group is Hong Kong’s Louis Koo, at a tender 36 years of age. He co-stars with Fan Bingbing in Wilson Yip’s Flash Point, goofs about in Derek Yee’s drug trade epic Protege and headlines Triangle, the cinematic experiment co-directed by Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnnie To. Koo debuted in 1994 but it took him ten years to be seen as more than just a pretty face with a perennial tan.

The two remaining actors in our "top ten" are Korean. If you guessed Song Kang-ho and Kim Hye-soo, you’d be wrong. They are 23-year-old Jung Kyung-ho and 37-year-old Park Wong-sang. Both have three films screening in the market, including Hwang Kyu-deok’s For Eternal Hearts and Kim Ji-hoon’s May 18.

Among the runners up, with two roles apiece, are a host of exciting upcoming talent, including Korea’s Cha Ye-ryun, China’s Wu Jing, Hong Kong’s Isabella Leong, Thailand’s Achita Sikamana, and a Japanese bounty including Odagiri Joe, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Kuroki Meisa, Narumi Riko, and Seki Megumi.

Of course, my formula is flawed. As most Korean movies are sold internationally, their screenings are divided among the major film markets. Meanwhile, the dirty secret of the Japanese film industry is how little its leading actors and directors are paid, so they have to be more prolific just to survive.

Nevertheless, I anticipate returning to the list next year to see how the names have shuffled.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]