Takashi Miike, Hong Sangsoo, Kim Ki-duk and Eric Khoo are amongst the heavyweights competing at the prestigious film festival this year.

 

Takashi Miike’s “Ichimei”

 

The 64th Cannes Film Festival will be held May 11-22, 2011. This year, only two Asian films – both Japanese – have been shortlisted to compete for the Palme d’Or.

Fans of Takashi Miike, the enfant terrible of Japanese cinema, are anxiously awaiting his 3D remake of the 1962 classic “Seppuku” by Masaki Kobayashi. Miike’s “Ichimei” (or “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai”) stars Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo and art-house veteran Yakusho Koji.

“Hanezu no Tsuki”, a period drama by director Kawase Naomi, is the other Japanese film in competition. Kawase previously won the Grand Prix (the second-highest award) at Cannes in 2007 for her film “Mogari no Mori”.

The Koreans make a strong showing in the Un Certain Regard category, with “The Day He Arrives” (Hong Sangsoo), “Arirang” (Kim Ki-duk) and “The Yellow Sea” (Na Hong-jin). Completing the list of Asian entrants is Singapore’s Eric Khoo with “Tatsumi”, an animated feature film tribute to Japanese animator hero Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Hong Kong director Peter Chan's new action film "Wu Xia" will debut out of competition in the "Midnight Screenings" segment. The film stars action king Donnie Yen, pop heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tang Wei ("Lust, Caution").