Tokyo Film Festival judge Wu Zhenyi: I once argued for seven hours about a movie

  “Sometimes you just want to fight for a movie.”At the Tokyo International Film Festival competition judging press conference held on October 27, Korean producer Oh Jung-ho talked about a past incident: She once argued with another judge for seven hours and laughed and said that the other judges hated me.Speaking of Love de Hill, the chairman of this year’s jury, she added that she hoped she wouldn’t have to fight with him for seven hours this time.

The jury for this year's competition is led by Dutch-Australian director De Heer, and includes French colorist and producer Yove Moore, Wu Zhenxuan, Japanese actor Makiko Watanabe, and Taiwanese-American producer Alex C. Lo.De Hill’s works include Bad Boy Bubby, Charlie’s Country, Ten Canoes and The Tracker.This gentle conversation mainly centered on the film festival’s positioning, co-productions and award methods.

The reporter first asked, since both Australia and Japan have policies to support film production, why there are still not many co-productions between the two countries.De Heer's answer is straightforward: There is no natural reason for Japanese films to be filmed in Australia, or for Australian films to be filmed in Japan.While Europe is very good at organizing co-productions on a financing basis, Australia is not very good at this.He believes that co-production projects that can be established in Australia are often determined by the story itself - some parts really need to be shot in Japan, and some parts need to be shot in Australia; as long as such a suitable script appears, cooperation is possible.

The topic then turned to the recent re-entry of the Tokyo Film Festival into the “A-rated list of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations FIAPF.De Heer said that for most festival goers, Tokyo has always been considered this level, so a formal classification wouldn't change the festival much.However, classification seems to be increasingly important to what kind of films a film festival can attract, and from this perspective, regaining official recognition may help.

Wu Zhenluan took over and asked the reporter jokingly, wasn't De Hill's answer enough?She said that she is not an expert in the film festival system and does not know what A-level means. She probably means ”very good“.But from the perspective of the audience, people go to film festivals because they want to watch movies and enjoy the festival atmosphere.

When asked whether such classification is still needed today, de Heer gave a short answer: It is very important to some people and not important at all to others.This is exactly how it should be.”

When Alex C. Lo talks about Tokyo’s reputation, he focuses on its attentive reception and audience.He believes that these audiences are engaged, curious, and willing to take original stories seriously.

There are 15 works competing for the Tokyo Grand Prize this year. How the five judges handle different opinions has naturally become a problem on site.De Heer said it depends on the circumstances: how big the disagreement is, how divided the reviewers are, and there's no way to give a pre-determined answer until that point.He believed that the other four members were reasonable and that they could find a way to avoid ending up with a mediocre compromise that each took a step back, and would rather choose a movie that was actually interesting, even if some people didn't like it.

Wu Zhenluan also said that everyone is an adult, and facing so many good movies, we will still find a proper way to compromise.

For Jove Moore, the invitation itself had special meaning.Colorists rarely sit on film festival juries, so he was surprised when he received the invitation.Having lived in Tokyo for nearly two years, he calls this experience a small dream, and hopes to let more people see color grading work - including colleagues who are in the same profession as himself.

De Heer was finally asked about his next project.He admitted that he is currently in between two projects and has not yet decided what to do next.Arriving in Tokyo gave him a pause.“That's not a very good answer for you,” he said,“ but it's my answer.”