After a clutch of triumphs at the Cannes film festival last year, Asian films are heading into the awards ceremony on Saturday with only an outside chance of capturing the coveted Palme d'Or.
Pictures from Asia may have failed to bring home the gold in 2004 but swept nearly all the other awards including the Grand Prix for South Korea's Chan-wook Park for Old Boy, best actress for Chinese beauty Maggie Cheung for her performance in Clean and a best actor prize for 14-year-old Yuuya Yagira of the Japanese feature Nobody Knows.
Although Cannes is always good for surprises, industry insiders say the safe money this year is on films such as French thriller Hidden with Oscar winner Juliette Binoche and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence starring Viggo Mortensen.
The five Asian contenders in the competition got off to a slow start with the Japanese entry Bashing, the story of a young aid worker who is kidnapped in an unnamed Middle Eastern country distinctly resembling Iraq.
Todd McCarthy, a critic for industry bible Variety, said that despite its topical premise, the film "offers the viewer absolutely no insight either into the young woman's psychology or the (to Westerners) impenetrable national mindset that considers her desire to help Iraqis shameful."
{{/usCountry}}Todd McCarthy, a critic for industry bible Variety, said that despite its topical premise, the film "offers the viewer absolutely no insight either into the young woman's psychology or the (to Westerners) impenetrable national mindset that considers her desire to help Iraqis shameful."
{{/usCountry}}The picture rated only a dismal 1.5 on a scale of four in Screen International trade magazine's Cannes poll of 12 leading critics.
The following evening featured Hong Kong director Johnnie To's Election, a gritty gangster drama that sparked a minor buzz for its fast pacing and star-studded cast including Cantonese heart-throb Tony Leung.
But the influential Hollywood Reporter dismissed it as a "bleak" film that "cranks up the violence but says very little".
Coming-of-age story Shanghai Dreams - the second of three Chinese entries as China celebrates the centennial of its cinema - was rated as meatier, but got bogged down in slow-pacing.
A critic for Screen International, Dan Fainaru, said the film added "a new facet to the filmed history of modern China" and that a bit of editing could help its commercial distribution.
The jury was still out on the final two entries, which face the disadvantage of being squeezed into the last moments of the competition showcasing 21 films.
A last-minute entry by South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, Tale of Cinema, about two men and a woman whose lives intersect around their love for the movies, was screening late Thursday.
And Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-Hsien will on Friday unveil Three Times about lovers who meet in three separate lifetimes.
The prizes will be announced Saturday by the jury president, Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica, who is leading a team including US Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Hong Kong director John Woo, Bollywood actress Nandita Das and Mexican actress Salma Hayek.