Twelve years after Baatar Bat-Ulzii's Operation Tatar, the first Mongolian title in the history of the Far East Film Festival, Mongolia returns to Udine in grand style with Janchivdorj Sengedorj's The Sales Girl, a hilarious, offbeat comedy set in a sex shop in Ulan Bator! Accompanying the film to the stage will be young lead actress Bayartsetseg Bayangerel (also famous in her homeland as a model). It all starts with a broken leg: young Saruul agrees to stand in for her injured friend Namuuna at Namuuna's part-time afternoon job. It's well-paid, even if not exactly traditional, but the utmost discretion is required. And who can guarantee more discretion than a shy and lonely student like Saruul? So the irreproachable Saruul sets to work managing a business that sees her dealing with customers of every imaginable kind and... every imaginable kind of toy! Despite the subject matter, The Sales Girl never opts for easy or crass laughs. Quite the opposite: though pretending to examine the private vices of Ulan Bator, it actually narrates Saruul's gradual emancipation from her ambitious parents (she dreams of being a painter but her father and mother want her to become a nuclear engineer) and her own insecurities. But it's not the bizarre experiences in the sex shop that make her blossom: it's her relationship with its owner, Katja, a mysterious and sophisticated middle-aged woman...
Obviously, this third day of FEFF 25 is also packed with screenings from morning until late at night (not counting all the events scattered around the centre of Udine). Absolutely not to be missed, together with the titles presented at the Visionario (including the world premiere of the documentary Kaidan), is the World Festival Premiere of Korean sports movie Rebound and Malaysian mega actioner Coast Guard Malaysia: Ops Helang.
All the third day, minute by minute!
TEATRO NUOVO
09.15
TEENAGE FUGITIVE
Directed by CHANG Pei-cheng
(Taiwan, 1984/Restored: 2022)
A family portrait imbued with social realism and written by Tsai Ming-lian.
11.00
REBOUND
Directed by CHANG Hang-jun
(South Korea, 2023)
A coach and six young players in the irresistible story of a sporting miracle!
11.00
INCONTRI/TALKS
Two talks this morning: one dedicated to first-time directors and the other to the new Korean cinema.
14.30
DITTO
Directed by SEO Eun-young
(South Korea, 2022)
Kim Yong is an engineering student. Kim MuNee is a sociology major. The two begin to communicate via radio but there's one small problem: he lives in 1999 and she lives in 2022!
16.45
WHERE THE WIND BLOWS
Directed by Philip YUNG
(Hong Kong, 2022)
A vast, sumptuous noir that, with echoes of Coppola, Leone and Wong Kar Wai, takes a ride through Hong Kong history.
19.30
THE SALES GIRL
Directed by Janchivdorj SENGEDORJ
(Mongolia, 2021)
It all starts with a broken leg: Saruul agrees to stand in for her friend at her part-time job - a job where the utmost discretion is required. And that's how a shy student becomes the saleswoman in a sex shop! The Sales Girl tackles Saruul's emancipation from her own insecurities, but it's not her bizarre experiences in the shop that make her blossom: it's her relationship with the mysterious and sophisticated middle-aged woman who is the shop's owner.
21.55
MARRY MY DEAD BODY
Directed by CHENG Wei-hao
(Taiwan, 2022)
What happens when a human and a ghost have a special bond? If you want to find out, don't miss this over-the-top comedy!
00.00
COAST GUARD MALAYSIA: OPS HELANG
Directed by Pitt HANIF
(Malaysia, 2023)
The roads of action cinema are infinite, and they all lead straight to Malaysia.
***
VISIONARIO – Retrospectives, restorations, homages
14.00
THE ISLAND
Directed by Po-Chih LEONG
(Hong Kong, 1985)
16.30
A SEPARATED WOMAN
Directed by Chito S. ROÑO
(Philippines, 1994/Restored: 2018)
17.45
A SOUL HAUNTED BY PAINTING
Directed by HUANG Shuqin
(China, 1994/Restored: 2018)
19.50
KAIDAN. STRANGE STORIES OF JAPANESE GHOSTS
Directed by Yves MONTMAYEUR
(France, 2023)