Satyajit Ray's 'Apu Trilogy' finds place in top-10 of BIFF's 'Asian Cinema 100' list

The 20th Busan International Film Festival presents ‘Asian Cinema 100’ for the Special Program in Focus this year to celebrate its history.

The 'Asian Cinema 100' is a collaboration project with the Busan International Film Festival and the Busan Cinema Center to shed light on the values of Asian film. The list will be updated every 5 years to act as a guide for the aesthetic value and history of Asian cinema and to discover hidden masterpieces and talented directors of Asia.

Made in the mid-1950s on a next-to-nothing budget with non-actors, Ray's 'Apu trilogy', was lyrical representations of the life of the common man in his country and changed the very notion of Indian cinema. Between them, the three films collected awards from all the world's major festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

For the project, 73 prominent film professionals at home and abroad included film critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, Tony Rayns, Hasumi Shigehiko, and renowned festival executives, programmers, and directors Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bong Joon-ho, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. They recommended their top 10 films, resulting in 113 selections and 106 directors (including joint rankings) for the final 100 list.

'Tokyo Story', a legendary masterpiece by Ozu Yasujiro made the top of the list. Kurosawa Akira also had two films in the top 10 list that included 'Rashomon' (1950) in 2nd place and 'Seven Samurai' (1954) at 6th place. In the 'Mood for Love' (2000) by Wong Kar Wai came in 3rd, while The 'Apu Trilogy' by Satyajit Ray came in 4th. In 5th place, 'A City Of Sadness' by Hou Hsiao-hsien and 7th place 'A Brighter Summer Day' by Edward Yang both from Taiwan. Moreover, 'Spring in a Small Town' by Fei Mu and 'Still Life' by Jia Zhangke both placed 8th, and 'Close-Up' by Abbas Kiarostami and 'The Housemaid' by KIM Ki-young, the only Korean film on the top 10 list, came in 10th.

The top 10 (a total of 10 films) will screen under 'Asian Cinema 100'. A special book containing the details and reviews of the films on the list by 29 film professionals will be published during the Festival.