BANGALORE

Film seems to dominate this monsoon season in Bangalore. Kannada-language filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli has won the National Award for Best Film for the fourth time with his new offering, Dweepa. Kasaravalli's films usually deal with women's issues, and despite critical acclaim, it is still difficult for him to find local screening time in the cinemas of the city. Although Dweepa focuses on a timely topicthe displacement caused by the construction of big damsas usual, the director's canvas is small, and there is a woman at the center of the tale. Also joining the battle for local screen time are two English-language films, Arjun Sajnani's Fire and Rain and Mahesh Dattani's Mango Souffle. Both Sajnani and Dattani come to film as directors for the first time, having cut their teeth in theater. Sajnani, who brought spectaculars like Kiss of the Spider Woman and M. Butterfly to Bangalore's stage, has now transformed Kannada playwright Girish Karnad's mythological play Agnivarsh into a magical, mysterious film with Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, and Raveena Tandon. Dattani, known for being one of India's first successful English-language playwrights, stays within his comfort zone with his first film, which is based on his own play. In Dattani's small spaces, big issues jostle with middle-class urban values, creating disturbances and even conflagrations. Both films have been shot in and around the city, indicating that we may well be looking at a southern challenge to Bombay's control over Indian English-language cinema.

The recession in the IT industry seems to have had very little effect on the ritz and glitz of Bangalore's upwardly mobile. The bars, pubs, and clubs are still hopping every night of the week, with theme nightsfeaturing reggae, 1980s disco, or Hindi pop, for exampleand the occasional live performance. Technoranging from Fat Boy Slim to the offerings of local DJ Ivanseems to have taken over, with hard rock and heavy metal fans complaining that they do not get to hear enough of "their" music, even on the new, bristling FM radio stations.

But for those who prefer a quieter ambience, Grasshopper is the new place to be. Situated a few miles outside the city limits, it offers food and drink and silence. Himanshu, the chef, creates delicate, refined platters where each taste can be savored and mulled over. The eating spacesituated on the porch of a warehouse-like structureis open, uncluttered, and minimalist, much like the cuisine. Grasshopper is also a gallery for designers. The store, inside the vast, pristine building, stocks Western-style clothes by the country's younger, funkier designers. The open mezzanine floor doubles as an exhibition space for accessories.

Meanwhile, back in the city, the Bangalore Action Task Force (funded primarily by the computer industry) continues to battle for better roads, cleaner air, and the upkeep of the city's numerous parks and squares, trying desperately to maintain Bangalore's salubrious climate, which has come under serious threat from pollution and the cutting of vast old trees. Simultaneously, citizens watch-groups meet under various umbrella organizations like Insaaniyat (a nationwide sponsor of forums for communal harmony and democracy), in an attempt to address the consequences of the carnage and genocide in Gujarat and to combat the country's growing religious polarization. New initiatives include awareness campaigns in schools for students and teachers as well as the establishment of transparency guidelines for anyone running for public office.

Arshia Sattar

BANGKOK

Today, Bangkok is a city leaving all traces of a recession behind. Fashion-conscious urbanites are jostling in three-deep lines at mobile phone outlets for the latest blue-light Nokia and trading in their sim phone cards like they're going out of style. The consumerist frenzy doesn't stop at mobile phones. The waiting list for the extremely popular Honda CRV is at least four months long. Thousands of new cars, with their bright red plates, are creating the kinds of traffic jams most thought had disappeared forever after the Thai baht crashed in 1997, creating a regionwide recession.

Last year's opening of a Bangkok branch of London's infamous Ministry of Sound dance club was seen by many naysayers as a serious case of bad timing. How would this multimillion-baht, megalithic arena draw hard-partying, free-spending consumers in the midst of an economic downturn? Today, not only does the Ministry fly international DJs in to spin for a night, it also sponsors MTV Thailand. The latest introduction on the dining scene is Blue Elephant, an internationally renowned, upmarket Thai restaurant and cooking school based in London, but with outlets in a number of cities, including Copenhagen, New Delhi, and Dubai. On a trendier note, Bed Supperclub is a high-concept nightclub and restaurant where loungers can relax, yes, in bed, or get vertical to dance music in the club area. Theoretically, the all-white, tubelike building can be packed up and moved elsewhere, although theory is unlikely to be put into practice. Hand in hand with this clamoring for the best from the West, concert promoters are bringing in international pop stars almost every month. Most recently Oasis and Elton John graced the stage at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, while next in line are the Pet Shop Boys, boy band of the minute A1, Sophie Ellis Bextor, and the Rolling Stones.

Thais, like most moviegoers, prefer shoot-'em-ups to subtitles, so the roster of movies coming to Bangkok has always been limited artistically. However, with so many ex-pats and Western-educated Thais now working and living in the city, a new breed of silver-screen addict has to be catered to. This year has seen a slew of foreign film festivals from the popular Bangkok Film Festival to the smaller French, British, and Japanese Film festivals. With increased audience attendance proving the popularity of indie films, Thai filmmakers are getting in on the act, producing gender-bending films that can travel the international festival circuit. In production at the moment are Satree Lex 2 (The Iron Ladies II), a sequel to the enormously popular 2000 comedy about a transsexual volleyball team, and Prang Chompoo (Pink Camouflage) about a rescue operation for katoey (transvestite) POWs.

Even the epicenter of backpackerdom, Khao San Road, once better known for its hippies and three-dollar-a-day, rucksack-toting adventurers, has moved steadily upmarket. More and more, Khao San is being inhabited by travelers wheeling compact Samsonites and drinking imported beer in the air-conditioned cool of sports bar Gullivers Travels or sipping skinny lattes at Starbucks. The change is partly due to the different kind of traveler who is coming here now, but is also a direct result of the influx of trendy young Thais to the area. Whereas Khao San used to be seen as a run-down street for bargain-hunting foreigners, now it is veritably 'in.' This area of the old city, Banglamphu, is home to Bangkok's prestigious fine arts universities, Thammasat and Silapakorn, a melting pot of artists, musicians and, most assuredly, the next generation of moviegoers and mobile-phone users.

Niki Thongborisute

JAKARTA

Jakarta celebrated its 475th anniversary on June 22 with the inauguration of a newly renovated, grand fountain in the circle in front of the Hotel Indonesia, one of the city's most prominent landmarks. Earlier in the year, the Indonesian capital was hit with its worst floods in six years. Perhaps for the first time in history, the area around the State Palace (the official residence and workplace of the president) was submerged. Water levels receded only when Governor (city mayor) Sutiyoso finally decided to open the water gates near the center of town, after most of the area had already been flooded.

Indonesian filmmaking is enjoying a renaissance. Cau Bau Kan, a film set in the 1920s about the relationship between a Javanese woman and a man of Chinese descent, premiered in February. It is one of the few films ever to portray the culture of the Chinese in Indonesia, as this was discouraged during the New Order. Jelangkung, an Indonesian take on The Blair Witch Project, disappointed many of the city's young, not because of its content, but because tickets ran out after they had waited in queues for hours. New digital technologies enabled Rizal Mantofani and Jose Purnomo to create the film with a relatively small budget; it was initially projected on video, but later transferred to thirty-five-millimeter film. Young filmmakers Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza produced Ada Apa Dengan Cinta, a high-school love story directed by Rudi Soedjarwo, which also led to long lines for tickets. And Riri Riza himself directed Eliana Eliana, a film about a young Sumatran woman's relationship with her mother. Eliana Eliana is part of the I-sinema project, which began in 1999 when thirteen young Indonesian filmmakers decided to take on the mission of "exploring and liberating the filmmaking industry." Their goal was to make thirteen films that would be screened in the city's main cinemas. So far, three have been produced; the other two are Enison Sinaro's Sebuah Pernyataan untuk Cinta and Nan Achnas's Bendera.

People are also watching independent films screened at private parties, adding a cultural slant to the city's nightlife. This is due, in part, to the decline of Jakarta's main cultural center, the Taman Ismail Marzuki, which once housed a number of theaters and art galleries, as well as dance and art studios. During the late 1990s, after plans to build a more up-to-date building were announced, most of the existing facilities were torn down; but the site was left undeveloped, apparently to discourage freedom of expression. Today, the center consists of a modest theater and two mediocre galleries; new construction started only recently, but is beset by financial difficulties. Last year, the municipal government recruited a new marketing-oriented managing director for the center, who succeeded in attracting corporate patronage by creating upmarket events such as a series of concerts dedicated to the composer after whom the center is named. However, when the U.S. Embassy's plan for an exhibition of photographs by Joel Meyerowitz, "After September 11: Images from Ground Zero," at one of the center's two galleries conflicted with plans for an exhibition of works by local painters, he gave priority to the U.S. Embassy. Protests by local artists led to his resignation; and now the center's future seems to be even more uncertain. But there is a bright side to the center's decline: new galleries and alternative art centers are sprouting up all over, resulting in a decentralization of the arts not only from the geographical center of the city but also from the political center of the municipal government.

Amir Sidharta

KYOTO

Drawing on its ancient cultural heritage and more recent environmental awareness, Kyoto is creating a unique model for urban renewal in Japan. Throughout the center of the city, old buildingsboth Japanese and Westernare being given new life. The Shin-Puh-Kan, a collection of shops, restaurants, and performance space, that opened in 2001 in a large, early-twentieth-century, brick office building has helped attract people back to a part of town that had fallen out of favor. A few blocks south, the Kyoto Art Center opened in 2000 in an elementary school that had not been in use since 1993. After years of losing out to the wrecker's ball, the preservation movement has succeeded in slowing the pace of destruction of traditional Kyoto-style shops and houses. Much of the efforts have focused on Nishijin, the traditional textile-weaving area northwest of the city center. The area is enjoying a renaissance as traditional houses are turned into live-in studios and workspaces or remodeled as residences. The city recently remodeled the famed Hanami Koji Street in Gion, the nightlife area that geisha call home, to enhance its traditional atmosphere. And a 2001 law against gaudy street signs is beginning to show results as McDonald's replaces the red background of its signs with a more fitting light brown or white.

As the site where the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in 1997, the city has taken an active interest in environmental issues. This spring, a tricycle taxi service began in the center of the city; it charges 300 yen (approximately US$2.55) for a ride in a red-roofed tricycle anywhere in the city center. Supermarkets and neighborhood groceries have taken an active role in improving the environment by providing recycling bins in front of their buildings. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago because of the emphasis on keeping garbage out of sight in Japan and represents an important advance in a country where business interests weigh heavily on public policy.

Instead of sponsoring mega events, such as an art biennale, or building grand new structures, Kyoto prefers smaller-scale events that link a number of local organizations. One example of this is the "Kyoto Art Map," a coordinated series of exhibitions of contemporary Japanese art that took place in May and June in the city's leading art galleries. Another is the simultaneous opening of the Kandinsky exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art and the Chagall exhibition at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art across the street in July.

Though none of the Korea-Japan World Cup 2002 matches were held in Kyoto, the Korea boom that swept the rest of Japan this year has made itself felt in Kyoto in a number of exhibitions and performances by Korean artists. Korean films, which were rare in Japan until a few years ago, recently have attracted large audiences in Kyoto. Several new Korean restaurantsincluding the popular Stone-Cooked Heaven Bibimbap House, which specializes in bibimbap (a hearty Korean dish featuring vegetables, rice, and hot pepper sauce) cooked in a stone bowlhave opened in the city center, showing that spicy Korean food continues to gain popularity in a city famous for its subtle flavors and delicate sweets.

Robert J. Fouser

TAIPEI

Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, where the National Theatre and Concert Hall are located, is currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Highlighting the year-long celebration is the Formosa Experimental Theatre Festival in October and November, which includes appearances by the Performance Workshop, Godot Theatre Company, and Ping-Fong Acting Troupe. Also included in the anniversary festival are musical performances by the Experimental Chinese Orchestra and Taipei Philharmonic Choir. In August, Taiwan's internationally acclaimed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Company gave an outdoor performance of Songs of the Wanderer in the square in front of the hall, which was attended by thousands.

A sincerely moving and insightful photography exhibition by Chou Ching-hui entitled "Vanishing Leagues - Images of Workers" is on display at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Chou's photographs present a visual narrative of how "ancient labor practices are now being replaced at an unprecedented speed" in Asia. Alternative art forms and performance spaces are continuing to emerge in Taipei; the Huashan Arts District, once the site of a winery and tobacco factory during the Japanese occupation, is now one of Taipei's leading alternative performance venues. Huashan is

The installation piece INSERT, at Taipei's Sly Art Space (photo by Ron Smith)

Another alternative scene is experimental theater, otherwise known as the "little theater movement." Performances can vary substantially in terms of production quality, style, and venue, and trying to track one down can be a major accomplishment in itself. A new participant in this scene is the Tai Shuen Street Organization, which presented an installation piece entitled INSERT at Sly Art Space. The environment was completely covered in white candle wax, which took two weeks to apply, and featured various digital medias, performers encased in plastic bodysuits, and special shoes for the audience to wear while viewing the work.

Aboriginal music has been growing in popularity, and its presence can be found in an increasing number of performances. A recent show at Huashan by Chang Wang's Streamline Creative Group called "Solo Meditating 2002" included a beautiful and mesmerizing performance by Li Yi-qing, whose digitally enhanced chanting and singing floated through space and resonated in the listeners' ears long after the show. A new addition to the café club scene is Hunter, an aboriginal-styled café located on the second floor of the Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre (formerly a police station), near the National Museum of History. Most eye-catching is the club's truly stunning array of handmade furniture and accessories, which are nothing short of being individual sculptures.

This summer Taipei held its first "official" Taiwanese Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; "official" because last year several clubs in Taipei hosted a much smaller festival centered on the same theme. Two films that highlighted the festival were Jofei Chen's Incidental Journey and Corner by the director Zero. Later in the year, the Women's Film Festival, "Women Make Waves," will be held in Taipei, following last summer's successful run.

Ron Smith