Cinema on Southeast Asia: A Movie Top Ten

Are there ten best movies (in English or French) on Southeast Asia? Can there be so many films that possess, in Webster's words, "good qualities in the highest degree"?

Surely, some of the best-known stars in Western cinema have played roles in countries south of China and east of India. Clark Gable first romanced Babs (Mary Astor) in Red Dust (1932) while her husband, Gene Raymond, went scouting for rubber in Indochina and before Gable fell for Jean Harlow (Vantine) who earlier had said, "Don't mind me boys. I'm just restless...Guess I'm not used to sleeping nights anyway." As an American colonel in wartime Philippines, John Wayne worked with guerilla leader Anthony Quinn to oust the Japanese in Back to Bataan (1945). Two wars later he returned as a colonel to the region, this time in the Green Berets (1968). Marlon Brando was not really the ugly American but he certainly appeared in the 1963 movie of that name as the failed American ambassador in the imaginary country of Sarkhan where they spoke Thai and a future prime minister of Thailand, Kukrit Pramoj, played the celluloid P.M. More recently, Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in The Beach (2000) in an equally imaginary place, where some people spoke Thai.

Such films have been made for a long time. Movies on Southeast Asia seem to date back to 1912 when American filmmakers, Harry Brown and Edward M. Gross made a feature film in the Philippines about the national hero, Jose Rizal. A decade later, in 1922, another American movie producer, Henry McRay produced Nangsao Suwan (Miss Suwan or Suvarna of Siam) based on a story written by King Rama VI. A few years later, yet other Americans, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, future makers of King Kong, travelled to the far northern city of Nan in Thailand to make Chang (Elephant) which appeared in 1927. With the help of teachers and students of the Nan Christian Academy, Chang shows tiger kills and an amazing elephant round up.

From then on big names began appearing in the movies about Southeast Asia. During the 1920s, Lon Chaney played one-eyed Singapore Joe in The Road to Mandalay (1926) and Greta Garbo romanced the Javanese Prince de Gace in Wild Orchids (1929). Many have been the stars and varied the settings in which these familiar faces have sneered, salaamed, and smiled in films on this part of the world.

However, audiences and critics have sneered far more than smiled or salaamed when watching these films. Chaney had egg in his eye figuratively and actually after his trip down that movie road. Not only did the film fail to achieve critical acclaim, it was egg white that Director Tod Browning had Chaney cover his left eye with. Garbo's failure, as a frustrated wife accompanying her vapid husband on business, to fall for the turbaned charmer more because of the Hays Office than the internal logic of the film, is now known only to trivia mavens. Wayne watched the sun set symbolically in the East as the Green Berets came to an end. And as for DiCaprio, he seems not yet to have recovered from playing Richard in his backpacker's paradise.

So it is that great movies on Southeast Asia are rare. When otherwise accomplished moviemakers set out to produce films on the region, often with renowned performers, powerful feelings of what the mysterious Orient might be like outweigh common sense. These feelings can have severe consequences when dealing with countries like Thailand or Vietnam. So little is known by either Western moviemakers or audiences about Southeast Asia that almost anything could be portrayed as factual and be believed.

Historical events can readily be scrambled. The King and I thus remodeled the story of King Mongkut's death. Rather than showing the king dying from malaria contracted in southern Thailand while witnessing the eclipse he had correctly predicted (as pictured in the film's 1944 predecessor, Anna and the King of Siam, with Rex Harrison as king), flamboyant changes were introduced. These included having the king, Yul Brynner, threaten to flog a woman of his harem caught trying to escape with her lover until Anna confronts him and he desists. The king runs off in a deep funk that ultimately eclipses him.

Geographical settings can be jumbled. Lord Jim travels through a Malay Muslim world. However, the movie was shot in Cambodia. Buddhist monks and temples appear in places where imams and mosques should be. And although Rambo fought heroically, there is little in the Mexican forest where the movie was shot that looks like a Vietnamese jungle.

Casting diverged from ethnic correctness. Yul Brynner may well have been part Asian, but neither he nor Rex Harrison was any kind of Southeast Asian and almost nobody in any movie on the region before 1960 was Asian at all. Scores if not crores of Caucasians have been cast as Asians. Although this may be changing in recent years, for most of the history of filmmaking, people who did not look the part were cast into it. Warner Oland (Charlie Chan) had his counterparts in the films of Southeast Asia.

Directors have also felt compelled to add a generous dose of the feminine charms they believe audiences expect and will pay to see. No less a director than David Lean caved in to such expectations when he inserted a scene in The Bridge on the River Kwai of Thai women porters shampooing the American and British raiders. Ex-POW Pierre Boulle's serious anti-war novel made no mention of women porters, bathing, or for that matter, the bridge being blown up in the end. Alluring scenes in films on Southeast Asia started decades before that, however, at least as early as Lady of the Tropics (1939), where Hedy Lamarr, appearing as a Eurasian, embodies sensuality and mystery alternately in low-cut French gowns and Khmer temple dancing costumes.

Requiring mention is the special category of Vietnam War films. Hundreds of movies on America's war have been produced, ranging from early patriotic ventures such as The Green Berets, those which explore the antiwar movement, such as Born on the Fourth of July, and others describing problems of the war's aftermath. Returned veterans are portrayed in films such as in Coming Home as are investigations into war crimes, such as in Casualties of War. There are also movies of some of those returned veterans, like Rambo, going back to Vietnam to set things right. Their vast number, though, results in many being in the top ten.

The Movie Top Ten

As for films on Southeast Asia as a whole, while not so many do get it right, there is a cinematic top ten after all, listed here alphabetically, by title.

Apocalypse Now

Remarkable scenes run together in a long story made longer in Redux. As Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) goes upriver to prejudicially terminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), he interacts with Kilgore's love of the smell of napalm in the morning, Playboy playmates, a tiger, montagnards, and himself. Although routinely critiqued as flawed, Apocalypse Now manages to portray the confusion, violence, sexuality, and senselessness of the war more evocatively than any other movie on the conflict. With reference to the Vietnamese, though, this is a film about Americans coming to terms with themselves (or failing to do so).

Deer Hunter

Known more for the fictional Russian roulette scenes than hunting, the densely scripted Deer Hunter follows three second-generation Russian-American buddies from steel mill to Vietnam and back home. Veterans of the War insist the powerfully similar feelings evoked by the Russian roulette and by being there outweigh objections over historical accuracy. The change of Robert De Niro, from the devilish "one-shot" to an empathetic friend who lets the deer go, epitomizes the American experience in Vietnam a bit differently than Apocalypse Now. Good supporting roles by Pierre Segui, the French gambler and the Swatownese referee, Po Pao Pee as well as historic views of Patpong (the movie was made in Thailand).

Good Morning Vietnam

When armed Services Radio DJ, Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) arrives in Saigon from Crete he is irreverent, and innocent. When he leaves, chastised by failure to befriend the Vietnamese he meets--the girl rebuffs him and the guy is a terrorist--he is wiser and disillusioned. More than just Robin Williams humor, and that strained by having to restrict references to pre-1968, Good Morning Vietnam, as a metaphor for America's failed war goes beyond the previous two movies by engaging the Vietnamese. Among the good '60s music is an ironically poignant rendering of Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World".

Indochine

Catherine Deneuve tells of the transition from colonialism to independence to her grandson in Geneva. As Eliane Devries, an imperiously prosperous 1930s plantation owner dabbling in men, opium, and politics, she had power, style, and a headstrong adopted Vietnamese daughter named Camille. When Eliane's lover Jean-Baptiste, a French naval officer falls for Camille, Eliane gets him sent north only for Camille to go after him. After their capture and his murder, Camille joins the Communists. Spectacular scenery from the Citadel in Hue to Halong Bay as well as Jean Yanne's perceptively played police inspector, Guy Asselin, add depth.

The Lover

Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1992 adaptation of Marguerite Duras' 1984 novel of forbidden yet ardently performed love in Indochina in 1929 brings together a French schoolgirl (Jane March) with the young scion/playboy of a rich Chinese family (Tony Leung Ka Fai). Intriguing portrayal of interracial relations disapproved of by both families, particularly the French side, exacerbated by it being far poorer than the Chinese. Opulent sets complement marvelous scenery shot in Vietnam. The incompatibility between races and classes in French Indochina manifests itself at an exclusive supper club followed by tango dancing.

Outcast of the Islands

Based on Conrad's 1896 novel of Willems, a clerk in the East Indies who was shipwrecked and then broken by a failed smuggling plot. The movie version, directed by Carol Reed, faithfully represents the struggle between Willems, played by Trevor Howard and his enemy, Almayer (Robert Morley). Both well represent the man Conrad wrote "suggested Willems", describing him as a "worn-out European living on the reluctant toleration of that settlement in the heart of the forest-land." Unfortunately the film, made in 1951, is hardly ever shown these days and seems not to be available on video or DVD.

Saint Jack

Ben Gazzara plays American pimp, Jack Flowers, providing professional services for British businessmen and GIs on R&R in Singapore. Based on Paul Theroux's novel, Peter Bogdanovich's low budget film captures well the character of Flowers and the atmosphere of Singapore not so long after its separation from Malaysia. Being made in steamy Singapore, often employing non-actors, and using dialogue that is frequently improvised infuses the film with breezy realism and authenticity. Gazzara was made for the role personifying a type of American often found in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Scent of Green Papaya

Shot in Paris, Tran Anh Hung's depiction of 1950s Saigon follows a wealthy family's servant girl. Unlike the other movies listed here, Scent shows the life of the Vietnamese through a girl, Mui (played by Lu Man San) and her daily chores. They reveal the routine but also her infatuation for Khuyen (Vuong Hoa Hoi), a composer friend of the family. Also shown are the family's troubles: a daughter who died young, a father who takes mysterious trips, and fading wealth. Ten years later, when the family's fortune is spent, Mui (now played by Tran Nu Yen-Khe) is sent to work for Khuyen. He finds her traditional values, pure as the inner whiteness of a green papaya, more compelling than his modern girl.

Swimming to Cambodia

Spalding Gray's experiences acting in The Killing Fields which was shot in Thailand are recounted in this monologue of epic proportions. Considering himself a "poetic reporter", Gray recounts with absorbing detail Cambodian history, modern life in Thailand, and visiting the nightlife spots of Thailand. Using only an occasional prop, Gray, who had refined his presentation by over 100 performances, keeps the audience fascinated by a continual supply of anecdotes that coalesce into the sort of perfect moment Gray was speaking of throughout his monologue.

The Year of Living Dangerously

Bung Sukarno met his fate in the 1965 wayang (puppet theater) of Indonesian politics when military leaders staged a coup that led to a bloodbath. Into this came Australian journalist Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) looking for a big story with which to make his name. In Billy Kwan, a half-Indonesian photographer (played remarkably by gender-switching Linda Hunt), Hamilton sees a way to get it. Sigourney Weaver, as a British attaché, trades romance and information with the Australian reporter. Eventually, both end up in danger when they learn too much. The Year sensitively portrays Javanese people and their way of life.

If you are interested in publishing this article please contact info@cpamedia.com (or use this page) for pricing and additional images. Should you wish simply to quote from the article or to use it for strictly non-commercial purposes please be sure to acknowledge CPAmedia copyright together with a link to our website at www.cpamedia.com.