The name of the Far East Film Festival and the name of Ueda Shinichiro continue to be intertwined: not only is the FEFF presenting the European premiere of his new comedy Popran, after launching his cult smash One Cut of the Dead in 2018, but the French remake of One Cut will be officially opening Cannes 2022! What can you say? The theme of “connections” that's so central to the FEFF - and to FEFF 24 in particular - just keeps getting stronger and more surprising every year!
But let's get back to this third day and the incredible Popran: Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of Kafka's Metamorphosis, wakes up one morning to discover he has turned into a giant insect. Could there be a worse way to start the day? Ask Tagami Akira - he wakes up one morning to discover that he's lost his "best buddy"! And yes, the speech-marks are there to highlight that we're not talking about a person but about a piece of male anatomy...
Dazzling, daring and always careful to avoid slipping into cliché or sentimentality, Ueda Shinichiro's film is the kind of catalogue of egotism and redemption that would have appealed to Gogol, and which Fareasters are going to love.
And you don't need a crystal ball to see that Fareasters are also going to love Yoon Young-bin's Tomb of the River! Two mob bosses set their not-very-peaceful sights on the same project - a luxury resort in Gangneung. They couldn't be more different: Gil-su manages his affairs with balance and
control while Min-suk is an ambitious gangster with no code of honour. Who will win this bloody war? The glorious history of South Korean crime cinema has a new chapter, and it's one of the best yet!
And speaking of beauty, there's plenty of it to be found in the Sunday line-up: from the world premiere of the restored version of Initial D, the legendary blockbuster directed by golden couple Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (Infernal Affairs), to the World premiere of Table for Six, an irresistible family comedy starring diva Stephy Tang, by way of the surprising White Building, the only Cambodian title in the line-up, and Resnais' immortal Hiroshima Mon Amour, which will be opening The Odd Couples section at the Visionario.