New narrators, new narratives
79 films, 12 countries, 12 world premieres.
On Thursday 2 May, Zhang Yimou will be receiving the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement on the stage of the Teatro Nuovo!
Producer Chiu Fu-sheng will also be receiving the Golden Mulberry Award.
There are numerous ways to start a story, and the story of the Far East Film Festival 26 starts out by speaking the language of numbers. This year, Fareasters will have the chance to enjoy 79 films (50 in competition and 29 not in competition) from 12 countries. More precisely, 12 world premieres (including those of the restored classics), 22 international premieres, 23 European premieres and 19 Italian premieres. And as far as the number of accredited visitors goes, there's been an increase of 24% over 2023 with the overall number currently standing at 1,228. There have also been more than 250 requests from cinema students at universities around the world (from Italy and the UK to Austria and Slovakia, passing through Singapore and Hungary), which shows just how invested our younger Fareasters are.
There are lots of ways to start a story, and there are lots of ways to tell one. The story of the Far East Film Festival 26 is represented by an image created by graphic designer Roberto Rosolin. It's an invitation to walk through a city. Large or small, it doesn't matter. It might be Hong Kong or it might be a dot anywhere on the map of Southeast Asia. It invites us to walk, letting our gaze drift slowly across the windows of the houses and buildings. There's a life behind each one, and every life contains a story. Small or large, it doesn't matter. Because each story is just waiting to be told, listened to and shared...
It's this desire, this curiosity, this need to seek new narratives and new narrators, that is the beating heart of the FEFF. Not only of the twenty-sixth edition, which will once again showcase the horizons of today's Asian cinema and the changes it is undergoing, but the FEFF in its entirety: an all-embracing gaze over the Far East which since 1999 has been engaging with, transcending, and never ceasing to delve deeper into questions of diversity, distance and every possible interpretation of the word "inspiring".
While last year's festival documented the cultural and economic consequences of the pandemic, outlining a map that took in 14 Asian countries, this year it will be documenting the signals of an industry that is gradually getting back on its feet with the help of movies and artists that often represent (and symbolise) a break between “before” and “after”. For example the many young directors who are filling cinemas with a new kind of poetry and a new vision, telling local stories that speak to a global public. And we're sure that the (global) public of the FEFF is going to love watching them too.
HOW WHERE WHEN
In Udine from the 24th of April to the 2nd of May in its historic headquarters of the Teatro Nuovo theatre and the Visionario cinema, the Far East Film Festival 26 will be a nine-day total immersion (with screenings from morning to evening, a daily live press review and stars walking the red carpet, as well as the Focus Asia industry events, the journalism of Bambù, and the training offered by the FEFF Campus) that will fill the centre of the city with all the colours of Asia (over 100 themed events are scheduled). A real live cinema festival which is reflected in the words of its main sponsors, Credifriuli and Amga Energia & Servizi.
“We are delighted to once again this year confirm our support for the Far East Film Festival,” says Luciano Sartoretti, president of Credifriuli, “as we have for the last 11 years. We firmly believe that this event is a source of pride for Udine, the city where we are headquartered and where we have recently opened a new branch. The festival brings a wealth of culture and art to the city, transforming it into an authentic Asian melting pot which enriches our community with the sounds, colours and music of the Far East.”
“One again this year, with the Amga Energia & Servizi brand we are ‘energetically’ supporting the FEFF, which is always eagerly-awaited by the public and by experts in the sector, and are offering the stars and guests of the festival sustainable transport with our branded electric cars, which can be easily and rapidly recharged in the car park of the Teatro Nuovo and in the Hera Recharge points around the city,” says Albino Belli, executive director of EstEnergy. “Electric mobility and green and solar energy are all elements of the solution for daily life as part of a circular economy, and represent a new model for sustainable wellbeing that Hera, aims to develop and promote in all aspects of its business, as is summarised perfectly in the group's slogan: 'With your choices and our solutions, it's incredible what we can do together'.”
ZHANG YIMOU
Speaking about him means speaking about a legend. Speaking about him means speaking about two Golden Lions in Venice, a Golden Bear in Berlin, a Grand Prix in Cannes and three Oscar nominations (and that's not even all). Speaking about him means speaking about the giant of cinema who on Thursday the 2nd of May will be taking the stage of the Teatro Nuovo "Giovanni da Udine" theatre to receive the Far East Film Festival 26 Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement: Zhang Yimou!
“For us,” say Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, the FEFF's directors, “Zhang Yimou's cinema doesn't simply represent a space where art, beauty and greatness converge: it represents two absolutely fundamental turning points. The first was that it opened our eyes to the cinematic wonders of mainland China when we were little more than kids. The second is that it was one of the sparks and one of the driving forces that first brought our festival to life! That's why presenting Zhang Yimou with the Golden Mulberry means something more than just recognition of his genius: it's also our way of saying "Thank you, maestro" and of symbolically giving him back some of what he has given to us."
A leading member of the "Fifth Generation", the famously creative group of filmmakers who revolutionised Chinese cinema in the 1980s, Zhang Yimou has always pursued a free and total approach to cinema, with a personal aesthetic rooted in the push towards change. A cinema that, without ever compromising its auteur essence and thematic depth, attempts to, and succeeds in, using the most diverse languages, expressing itself through genres and above all by going beyond genres themselves: from rural drama and wuxia to period thrillers and big budget blockbusters. A cinema where individual stories have always been and continue to be a cultural, ethical and political mirror of collective history.
Over the years the FEFF has documented the nuances of Zhang Yimou's gaze multiple times (Red Sorghum, Under the Hawthorn Tree, Cliff Walkers and Full River Red have all been screened in Udine) and will be doing so again this year with the presentation of three titles: thriller Under the Light and the restored versions of To Live and Raise the Red Lantern (the special screening of To Live will open the Closing Night immediately after the Golden Mulberry award ceremony). In addition, Zhang Yimou will also be the protagonist of a masterclass on the 1st of May.
CHIU FU-SHENG
Apart from being the five masterpieces we all know they are, what do Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have in common? The answer is their absolutely legendary Taiwanese producer Chiu Fu-sheng - a unique figure in the panorama of last century's Asian cinema - and the fact that it's been practically impossible to see them for decades. Five masterpieces that were honoured and venerated in the West (A City of Sadness, won the Golden Lion, Raise the Red Lantern won the Silver Lion and To Live triumphed at Cannes). And that's where the Far East Film Festival comes in: because Chiu Fu-sheng decided to restore all five films from the original negatives, and FEFF 26 will be hosting the world premiere of the restored versions of To Live and Raise the Red Lantern.
The news was officially announced by Chiu Fu-sheng at a press conference in Taiwan last July at which Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, long-time admirers of his talent and work, were present.
At the same event, Baracetti and Bertacche announced another big piece of news: that Chiu Fu-sheng will be receiving this year's Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement on the stage of the Teatro Nuovo Theatre.
OPENING NIGHT
China and South Korea will be the protagonists of the opening Night of Wednesday the 24th of April, with two international premieres. Getting the ball rolling will be box office smash YOLO, starring and directed by famous comic actress Jia Ling. It's the adaptation of Japanese cult movie 100 Yen Love, which won itself a lot of fans at FEFF in 2015, and tells the story of a woman who turns her life around in a completely unexpected way when she puts on a pair of boxing gloves. The evening's second title, Park Young-ju's Citizen of a Kind, is instead an irresistible action comedy about an unemployed single mum who falls victim to internet fishing. Will our not-so-lucky heroine and her group of friends manage to throw a spanner in the works of a dangerous criminal organisation?
THE YOUNG WAVE OF ASIA
We were talking about new narratives and new narrators, and at the forefront of the Asian young wave, who are youthful in years but also in their approach, there is Nick Cheuk: born in 1988, apprenticed under legends Dante Lam and Wilson Yip. His first film, Time Still Turns the Pages, represents the fulfilment of a dream and speaks about how hard life is for a child facing competition in the family, at school, and in life. The film was part of the Making Waves section organized by the FEFF together with the Government of Hong Kong (CreateHK) and was released domestically last November, becoming an immediate hit: the public adored it, identifying intensely with this portrait of the ferocious social dynamics of Asian megacities.
Another young auteur is Zhang Yudi, who lives in Beijing, studied in the United States and writes and directs together with an all-female team. The Midsummer's Voice is a film which delicately tells the story of a boy in love with Chinese opera. He loves techno just like his peers, but he soon finds himself dealing with the first signs of adolescence: his falsetto begins to break and his voice begins to change, and before he has time to work out if he'll be able to continue singing... he has to work out how to deal with his sexuality. A truly unique coming-of-age story!
Romantic drama 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days, a surprising co-production between Taiwan and Japan, focuses instead on the shades of feelings and nostalgia. The main role was entrusted to an actor who is well-known to all Fareasters: Hsu Kuang Han, who became a real star after appearing in hilarious ghost comedy Merry My Dead Body (screened at Udine last year). Here, Kuang Han plays his character twice: first at the age of 18 and then at 36! And it's impossible not to be gripped by the authenticity and depth of an adolescent love affair capable of remaining intact over time...
And while we're speaking about emotions, Korean director Kim Tae-yang's debut film Mimang nods to French cinema, its dialogue and jokes making the streets of Seoul feel almost as romantic as the streets of Paris! There's very little romance, however, in the dystopian future of Motion Picture: Choke, the first (and only) silent Japanese science fiction film produced to date! We're not on the dusty trails of Mad Max or even in the Stone Age: civilization and human language simply no longer exist. Its star is Wada Misa, dressed here like Wilma from The Flintstones, who will also be a guest of this year's FEFF: a veteran of independent cinema whose exceptional performance manages to entertain and unnerve without her saying a single word!
FROM SEOUL TO HONG KONG, FROM TOKYO TO MANILA
In order to put the nightmare of the pandemic behind it, cinema needs big box office hits like the recent Barbie-Oppenheimer-There's Still Tomorrow triple-whammy in Italy. The case of South Korea is emblematic in this sense. Despite a pessimism that bordered on defeatism, two films managed to exceed 10 million viewers (and the next success will be The Roundup: Punishment): 12.12: The Day by Kim Sung-su, a political thriller set against the backdrop of the 1979 military coup, and exceptional demonic horror movie Exhuma, starring the great Choi Min-sik of Old Boy. Both films will be presented at FEFF and both directors will also be returning to the FEFF as guests!
There'll also be the very welcome return of Shiraishi Kazuya, with the spectacular samurai movie Goban-giri, Jun Lana, with hilarious Philippine LGBT comedy of errors Becky & Badette (starring our beloved Eugene Domingo as Becky!), Norris Wong with the musical The Lyricist Wanna Be, and Nick Cheung, the inimitable Hong Kong actor in his second turn in the director's chair with Peg O'My Heart, a fascinating and anarchic horror-thriller set on the streets of the former British colony.
And remaining on the streets of Hong Kong, the wizard Herman Yau will be in Udine with two actioners: Moscow Mission (the Chinese and the Russians team up to destroy a gang of thieves on the Trans-Siberian Railway!) and Raid of the Lethal Zone, where the work of a police squad is hampered by a violent and spectacular flood. And let's not forget the epic reunion of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau! If Infernal Affairs is the cult movie we all adore, and which the FEFF screened for Fareasters audience in 2003, it's now time to dream again: here comes The Goldfinger, a gripping crime thriller written by Felix Chong (yes, the same Felix Chong from Infernal Affairs) which FEFF 26 will be presenting in collaboration with the Emperor Group of Hong Kong!
NEVER MAKE DON LEE MAD!
International success arrived in 2016 with Yeon Sang-ho's nerve-wracking zombie-disaster movie Train to Busan, but the FEFF and Tucker Film had already started rooting for him after spotting him in Kim Jee-won's The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2009) and Ryoo Seung-wan's The Unjust (2011). After all, how could you not root for the legendary Don Lee? Film by film and blockbuster by blockbuster, in only a few years the former MMA instructor quickly climbed to the top of the show-biz ladder, becoming one of the movie icons best-loved by Korean cinemagoers and best-known to Western audiences (he even debuted under the Marvel banner in Hollywood with Chloé Zhao's Eternals)!
It might have been Train to Busan that made him a household name, but it was an irresistible detective saga that really put the seal on his popularity with the public, thanks to his performance as two-fisted cop Ma Seok-do (“Monster Cop” to his friends). A saga that began in 2017 with Kang Yun-sung's The Outlaws, presented in Udine in 2018, and which went on to generate three more chapters of bone-crunching fights and breathtaking action: 2022's The Roundup, 2023's The Roundup: No Way Out and now, The Roundup: Punishment, which is all set to thrill audiences at FEFF 26. But that's not all: to the delight of his Italian fans, Tucker Film has decided to purchase the entire quadrilogy, expanding a catalogue of which Don Lee is now very much a part (in addition to the films mentioned above, let's not forget splendid noir The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil)!
Born in Korea in 1971 (known as Ma Dong-seok) and now a US citizen, the most short-tempered kick-ass hero of the new Asian cinema might be beating the hell out of the bad guys in The Roundup: Punishment but he'll be sending all Fareasters an affectionate video message.
GREATEST HITS FROM ‘80s & ‘90s
Every story has a start date and the FEFF's is the 10th of April, 1999. Every story is born from a spark, and the spark that turned into the FEFF was the 1998 Udine Hong Kong Film fest. Every story and every spark, obviously, has its roots, and the Far East Film Festival 26 has chosen to continue celebrating them with Greatest Hits from ’80s and ’90s, an impassioned story which began last year. What happened in Asia between the end of the '80s and the dawn of the new millennium? What was the landscape of Korean cinema, which today is so popular with Western audiences, back then? How did the fertile ground from which Japanese filmmakers sprouted take shape? In other words: what was the FEFF like before the FEFF existed? This retrospective developed for the twenty-sixth edition will answer all these questions and more through a selection of 14 titles. 14 artistic and geographical roots carefully selected from among the many milestones and masterpieces. Those hidden masterpieces that have always shone in silence, like the B-sides of old 45s...
It will offer the opportunity to discover, or rediscover, Tony Bui's masterpiece Three Seasons, the first Vietnamese film released in the USA after the embargo. A poetic reflection on the past, present and future of the city of Saigon whose cast includes the great Harvey Keitel.
50/50 - KOREAN FILM ARCHIVE
On the occasion of the anniversary of the birth of KOFA (Korean Film Archive of Seoul), Udine will be the first home to a package of seven incredible Korean films from the 1950s. Seven authentic pearls from the past, reborn in 4K, which include the seminal Madame Freedom (1956) and The Widow (1955), the first film in the history of Korean cinema to be directed by a woman!
FEFF ONLINE
With, as ever, the support of MYmovies, the FEFF will once again this year be offering a priceless selection of online titles for the entire duration of the festival. The number of films will be published shortly, along with the "instructions for use”.