Reel Asian: 'Drawn Closer' Shorts Programme Review

Drawn Closer Shorts Programme Overview: https://www.reelasian.com/festival-events/drawn-closer-youth-shorts-program/

Opening thoughts
I was fortunate enough to attend Reel Asian International Film Festival's Drawn Closer shorts screening today at the lovely 401 Richmond Building. This particular programme caught my eye as I've long been 'drawn' to indie animated stories and have been profoundly affected by several throughout my adolescence -- and I was not disappointed. My first impression was that the programme is very well-curated; there was a diverse spectrum of subject matter, genre, visual style and historical context but certain distinguishable themes (family, mortality, quirky humor) threading through them. The beginning and ending films were especially well-selected to frame a memorable experience. On a personal level, I was impressed by how the selection of films took me through a winding journey of emotion that covered just about the full spectrum of human experience. The following are the featured films in (approximate) order of appearance, and my thoughts and impressions.



PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Kenny Leoncito • Canada • 2019 • 6:12 • English Titles

'Kenny Leoncito is a Toronto-based Filipino Canadian designer, art-maker and recent graduate from Sheridan college. He makes background art for the animation industry and is passionate about representative media and Asian Canadian visibility.'

Based on a true historical family, the opening 'silent' film Portrait of a Lady follows a young boy Andrés who uncovers the chilling truth of his mother's death through his father's paintings. Much of the story occurs in 'flashback'-esque visits to another world which Andrés enters through the dusty portraits of his mother. The audience experiences the boy's emotional state as progressing from familial longing to confusion, fear and shock, and finally kind of acceptance as he parts ways with his mother in the other world.

Leoncito's meticulous scene building and visual layers succeeds at immediately plunging the audience in to another world. One thing that stood out to me was the stage or shadowbox-like layered structure of scenes, and the use of unusually-detailed foreground subjects as shot transitions (as seen in film still above). Another unique aspect of this film was the simplicity of character design in contrast with the lush detail of the mansion environment they live in. Nonetheless, emotion was conveyed swiftly through sound and hand-drawn expressions. In my opinion, the film's lack of dialogue is well-designed in that it amplifies the visual and other aural qualities and leaves certain gripping scenes slightly ambiguous for the viewer's interpretation.




I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW
Kevin Feng • Canada, Taiwan • 2019 • 6:10 • English Titles

'Kevin Feng was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He is an animation and creative writing student at OCAD University. Motivated by his life experiences, Feng’s work deals with themes of grief, loss and death, finding the multifaceted nature of mourning beautiful and magical.'

A closer look at the theme of familial loss, Feng takes a raw handwritten approach to his personal experience of processing the death of his mother. Alternate settings of a letter being written and what appears to be the funeral procession create a quiet and meditative rhythm, drawing the audience to silently contemplate the heaviness behind the simple visuals. Feng was in attendance at the screening and explained in the end panel that this film was a much-delayed and painful process, and that he believed in the expressive power of film animation and would not have told this story in any other medium.

Feng's hand-drawn, cut-and-paste visuals successfully communicate his sincerity and evoke the hands-on experience of working through grief. The simple illustrative style also succeeds at focusing the viewer's attention on the raw experience of grief, by leaving out excessive detail/background that would have been present in film photography or larger digital productions.




ANOTHER WORLD (世外)
Ng Kai Chung • Hong Kong • 2019 • 14:01 • Cantonese with English Subtitles

'Ng Kai Chung graduated from the School of Creative Media in Hong Kong City University. Ng has directed several award-winning animation shorts, earning acclaim as an emerging animation director in Hong Kong and works selected in international animation festivals. He has worked on commercials including Assassin’s Creed and Nike Air Max.'

This lush animation recalling the worlds of Miyazaki is an enchanting disguise for a gruesome and forgotten story. In a vivid dream world bordering the living and the dead, a wandering Little Ghost (Grim Reaper) encounters a girl looking for her lost brother. Little Ghost, at first reluctantly, leads her to find the truth in her memories: that she had died of famine, that she and her family in their hunger had eaten her sick brother. The girl goes in to shock, and then a mourning process before asking to be reunited with her brother by turning back the clock of her life.

Ng demonstrates mastery in weaving a story that evokes the most instinctive (and thus powerful) human responses, by way of tailoring what is seen/implied as well as scene direction (e.g. after the scene of a man hungrily bringing the bedridden little brother's hand to his mouth, a bowl of 'meat stew' is made and shoved in to the camera/viewers' face). The audience is further impacted by the drastic contrast of their own responses– from curious, pleasant wonder to empathy, to shock, disgust and grief.. and back. 

GRANDPA
Zozo Jhen, Tena Galović, Marine Varguy, Liu Yen-Chen & Ellis Kayin Chan • France • 2018 • 5:00 • Mandarin with English Subtitles

'Zozo Jhen is a visual artist and illustrator from Taipei, currently based in Paris, France. Born 1995 in Zagreb, Tena Galovic is currently an MA animation student in GOBELINS, in Paris, France.
Marine Varguy is a student in Animation Cinema in GOBELINS. Liu Yen-Chen is a visual artist born in Taiwan and based in Paris. He is currently studing animation at Gobelins, l’école de l’image. Ellis Kayin Chan is an animator, animation director from Hong Kong, based in Barcelona.'

This colourful, heartwarming picture follows a 7-year-old boy as he processes his grandfather's passing during a traditional Taiwanese funeral procession. The boy, calm and curious, leads us through the vibrant street life and cultural elements of his community as he finds himself before the ancestral alter of his grandpa, offering gifts of food and origami, and having a vivid dream of his grandpa's motorcycle departure which leads him out on the road in the middle of the night. There all his unexpressed emotions are released as he cries out for his lost grandpa... only to be greeted by a happy little dog with a grandfatherly resemblance. 

What was most interesting about this film for me was the sparse but distinct use of dialogue in an otherwise speechless film, as well as the slightly unexpected character colour choices. Unlike some of the above films dealing with loss and grief, this stands out in its emotional quietness up until the final bursting point. In this way, I am reminded of some Japanese animations which explore similar heavy themes through characters whose calm and quiet personalities give the audience a refreshingly different perspective on life.

THE ZOO
Julia Kwan • Canada • 2019 • 11:39 • English

'Julia Kwan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who studied film at Ryerson University and was director resident at the CFC where she made her award-winning short, Three Sisters on Moon Lake. Kwan’s feature film debut with Eve and the Firehorse (‘05) premiered at TIFF and won the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema at Sundance.'

This film marks a thematic turn near the middle of the film sequence, with a simultaneously sad and lighthearted parallel story of a orphaned polar bear and a lonesome man living small in a big city. The playful, kid-friendly art style contrasts with the more melancholic unspoken question of what makes a mundane life of loss worth living. The answer, as Kwan presents, seems to be in celebrating the little things -- as ephemeral as they may be. 

IN PASSING
Esther Cheung • Canada • 2019 • 4:08 • Cantonese with English Subtitles

'Esther Cheung is an artist based in Toronto and a recent Sheridan Animation grad with a great appreciation for art and cinema. Animation being the perfect marriage of the two, she hopes to create animated films that explore her cultural identity and heritage.'

A masterfully understated work of art, this slice-of-life portrait of Hong Kong in the 70's (as Cheung's parents remember it) takes us back to a nostalgic dream of summertime. Cheung's attention to visual + aural detail pays off in creating a realistic, homey atmosphere despite the storybook colour scheme. 

An important establishing scene in this film is one I haven't seen before: a symmetrical 2-point perspective of the corner of a condo, with two household balconies on either side. The balanced shot seems to imply an ongoing narrative between the two households (of the little boy and girl) but they interestingly do not come in contact throughout the film. Not much seems to happen in either household but a few plot elements such as the red dragonfly and the wind tie their lives together. It is an especially effective film in that it realistically depicts the casual everyday moments of lives separate but inexplicably connected. 

WEST QUESTION EAST ANSWER

Dal Park • United Kingdom • 2018 • 6:26 • English, German and Korean with English Subtitles

'Dal Park is an animation artist based in Berlin with an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art. She enjoys combining a naive visual style with playful movements, camera transitions, exaggerated and metaphorical imagery to capture and evoke deep emotions.'

This quirky, playful film illustrates a recorded conversation between a Korean grandmother and her granddaughter who grew up in Germany. The boldly hand-drawn style and satirically exaggerated motions seem to hint at deeper issues of culture shock and generational barriers. I found elements of this distinctive film surprisingly (amusingly) relatable, such as the falsely generous refusal of reciprocity in Asian family gift-giving, the watchful eyes of borderline intrusive 'family friends' and the depiction of 3 gossiping aunties as one conjoined entity which later transform in to mosquitoes in the grandmother's house. 

NOT YOUR PANDA

Tigris Alt Sakda • Canada • 2018 • 5:19 • English, Chinese and English Subtitles

'Tigris Alt Sakda, blue banner Manchu, was born in Beijing and moved to Canada as a teen. She first studied biology and anthropology, later found herself graduating in film animation. She lives and works in Montreal.'

A refreshingly humorous, experimental critique of the 'pandamonium' that took over ancient China and transformed the pop culture of the modern world. A truly unpredictable short, the audience is repeatedly brought to near-hysterical laughter at the sheer comic absurdity that nonetheless rings true in today's mass consumerist society.

An enjoyably distinctive feature in this film was the creative juxtapositions of low-fi surveillance camera-esque footage and flat-colour vector animations. Humor is skillfully crafted via unexpected shifts from matter-of-fact to comic fantasy, as well as meme-like moments (hard to describe). The hilarious, slightly fragmented but cohesive and ultimately enlightening nature of this story renders the film a visual stand-up comedy of sorts -- which to me is a creative achievement. 

WHERE I WAS BORN
Jungmin Cha • USA • 2018 • 4:26 • Other

'Jungmin Cha is a filmmaker and animator from Seoul. She received her BA degree in Television & Film from Ewha Womans University and currently an MFA student in the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles.'

With blob characters reminiscent of the viral Dumb Ways of Die, Cha paints a humorous and surprisingly realistic picture of life of modern-day Korea through the story of one particularly lightweight blob. 

This film was particularly relatable due to my vicarious experience of life and cultural issues in Korea through Korean dramas. The choice to tell this story in such an abstracted comical style is wise in my opinion, as some of the issues presented (bathroom spycams, drunk street muggings, etc.) are very disturbingly real and may have appeared overly political to the film's detriment in a more realistic style.

THE LEVERS
Boyoung Kim • South Korea • 2018 • 9:24 • Korean with English Subtitles

'Boyoung Kim is a Korean animator, graphic designer and independent filmmaker. She is the creator of Replacement, Impersonation and Prey. She is currently working on a new animation with the working title, A Guitar in a Bucket.'

Continuing the Korean lineup is perhaps the most morally disturbing story in the showcase: a thriller recalling Black Mirror about a man who is offered a lucrative but mysterious job of operating numbered levers behind closed curtains and headphones. He looks up to his 'cool and macho' coworker with a red sports car. One day he hears something strange outside his headphone music and dares to peek through the always-closed curtains; to his horror he realizes that the levers were actually electrocution controls for death row chairs, and that the chair numbers were being voted on by a sadistic audience of high-class patrons. The twist comes when the man buys a pair of earplugs for work, and continues his job until he becomes the 'cool and macho' coworker he had aspired to be (that may have been him all along). 

The films textural quality and colour scheme fit the genre of mystery/thriller perfectly, as do the slightly disquieting visual style and aural details. Symbolism and metaphor are used to great effect in this social satire/critique, with strong political undertones. The concept of willful ignorance, of turning a blind eye in the face of injustice due to monetary gain is hauntingly relevant in my opinion. I couldn't help but imagine the real-life possible parallels in the unethical or exploitative production chains of giant corporations, and the point of willful ignorance that may have occurred for many to continue their jobs. 

YOLK
Renee Liang • Canada • 2019 • 2:45 • Other

'Renee Liang loves to eat eggs. They were her go-to student meal, and now she’s pleased to ruin it for everybody else. She still loves eggs though. She hopes to keep making experimental film of different mediums and genres.'

The stunningly memorable closing film of the showcase, YOLK takes us through the surrealist life of one adorably magical egg, protected by the vengeful chicken god. 

An absolute feast for the eyes, Liang orchestrates smooth dynamic shots and transitions to keep the audience on their toes. There is a mix of quirky, exaggerated and absurd comedy that perfectly complement the supernatural experimental genre of this film. Although some of the transfigurations happened too fast for me to retell in detail, I see this film as the epitome expression of an animator's vibrant inner world. 

Concluding thoughts 

All in all, I was beyond impressed by this selection of Asian short animated films. Not one film was lost in my memory, which was proof that each title left a unique mark on me. A bonus surprise later on is that several of the animators in the credits (Portrait of a Lady, In Passing, YOLK) were Sheridan friends and friends-of-friends back when I was in Sheridan Interior Design. Upon seeing those names, I felt a great sense of pride in knowing that their years of incredibly hard work had paid off in such a wonderful way. I am very glad to have discovered this film festival through my professor Franci Duran, and hope to be able to attend many more screenings in the years to come.