UDINE – East is close. Very close. FAR EAST FILM will, once again, witness how close we are to the Far East! 52 films, including European and international premieres, for 8 days of tightly scheduled screenings and afternoon meetings: the so much awaited Far East Film Festival staged by Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche in Udine reaches its fifth edition confirming its importance as the world’s largest showcase of Asian cinema!

From April 24 to May 1, at the usual venue Teatro Nuovo "Giovanni da Udine", the public will be able to watch not only the blockbusters that stormed the Eastern side of the world (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore), but also important retrospective sections and daily themed panel discussions. This year, the retrospectives presented at FAR EAST FILM 5 will include "The Golden Age of Korean Cinema: seven 1960s directors", a tribute to "The King of Cult" (the Japanese world-famous director Ishii Teruo), and a special informative section on the growing star in Japan’s director’s circle, presenting his three latest works (Turn, Laughing Frog and Out, a wonderful dark comedy all focused on women) by Hirayama Hideyuki.

The much awaited "Horror Day" of April 29 will continue the tradition starting from the first hours of the morning, with seven films chosen amongst the scariest recent productions from Asia, as Dark Water (by the great Hideo Nakata, author of the original Ring) and The Grudge (gory cult-movie of which Sam Raimi is considering to shoot the remake).

A modern Korean fairytale and a nostalgic generation portrait: the fifth edition of "Far East Film" is ready to start!
Seoul by night, as never seen before, sparkling with neon lights and shining streets: this is the setting of Saving My Hubby, the Korean movie – directed by first-time director Hyun Nam-sup – chosen as opening film for the evening of Thursday April 24. Full of director’s new tricks and with a beautiful photography that catches the many colour shades of the city at dusk, the whole story takes place in one night, unpredictable and fast evolving in the plot, with a lot of action and many changes in the pace of the story, describing how the normal life of a Korean couple is shaken by the incredible events occurring. Saving My Hubby is a brilliant comedy, with a great performance by the leading actress Bae Doona, intensely entertaining as comedy has to be, but also powerfully emotional as an action movie, touching and intriguing as drama or tragedy, able to smoothen the harsh edges as a farce. This film is an excellent symbol of the very favourable season experienced by the Korean film making industry in the last years (South Korean films have reached in 2002 the 47% of the total box office in Korea, surpassing even many American blockbusters). Saving My Hubby will be the first title of this year’s contemporary Korean section. Other films in this section, for a total of 11 movies, include science fiction films as Yesterday, noir (as the visionary night tale of violence Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and the pulp-style No Blood No Tears, almost a new "Thelma & Louise" ), horror (The Phone) and, obviously, the most important comedies of the latest months, starting with A Perfect Match by Mo Ji-eun, immediately eye-catching since the opening tune, consisting of little hearts animated by computer graphics, and proceeding with Bet On My Disco, eccentric and warm portrait of Korea in the 1980s, or Jail Breakers, crazy tale of two prisoners digging a tunnel to escape from jail, and also Sex is Zero by Youn Je-kyoun, one of the best examples of the sexy genre emerging in the latest months on the Korean contemporary scene.

On the same evening of April 24, after the high-speed Saving My Hubby, FAR EAST FILM will get into the first night accompanied by the soft touch of Riley Ip, author of the unforgettable Metade Fumaca (screened in Udine four years ago). This Hong Kong director gets carried away by a sorrowful mood, writing and directing a tender story of romance, using the tropical and blooming scenery of the island of Cheung Chao (West of Hong Kong) as setting for a nice love story. Just One Look is full of references to the 1970s, a dedicated tribute to the way in which people went to the movies at that time, using a Truffaut-like style. All young characters in the movie go every day to a movie theatre recalling the past glory of the Hong Kong past blockbusters, the kung-fu films, and the wuxiapian á la King Hu. The movie conveys the colours, the shades, the warmth of the South, and is filled with precious quotes from other films, very elegantly included into the story itself. Just One Look stars the Twins (Charlene Choi and Gilliam Chung), famous on the Hong Kong scene as singers, who have rapidly become a very famous artistic couple after acting in many successful films. The Hong Kong section will include comedies (Frugal Game by Derek Chiu, a spoof of TV reality shows, and Summer Breeze of Love by Joe Ma), thrillers (Visible Secret 2 by Abe Kwong), horror films (New Blood by Soi Cheang), and also two cop movies absolutely not to miss: Infernal Affairs and PTU, chosen as closing film to this year’s edition, on May 1.

The Golden Age of Korean Cinema: seven films for seven directors.
South Korea, the Asian nation that today witnesses the most brilliant film production and audience feedback, has seen in the old days during the 1960s a similar time of prosperous film production. FAR EAST 5 will present the fresh enthusiasm, the many styles, the wonderful energy and powerful images of that time by showing seven titles directed by seven excellent film makers of the time, as Kim Soo-young and Jeong Jin-woo (who presented his The Student Boarder in 1960 at the Venice Film Festival, a film which has been forgotten since then). This energy was reproduced in many and varied productions, a wide variety of genres, with the willingness to go beyond traditional cinematographic symbols, and to pursue new ways, experimenting new forms and contents. The films presented are all shot in cinemascope; several are suggestive black & white films, highly spectacular, and modern above all considerations. These examples demonstrate how Korea could boast a very rich production, already at that time and in spite of the scars of the horrible Korean War, which ended only a decade before. The Golden Age of Korean Cinema will include: Barefooted Youth by Kim Ki-deok, close in style to Rebel Without a Cause, The Public Cemetery Under The Moon by Kwon Cheol-hwi, a horror film with primitive special effects, considered the first of a series for Asian horror films; The Evils Stairs, which resembles an Hitchcock film; the drama Mist; the sentimental Guests Who Came By Last Train by Yu Hyun-mok; and, lastly, the well-known The Housemaid by Kim Ki-young, a spectacular thriller.

Gangster, policemen and… ideas that Hollywood is ready to copy!
Let’s have a closer look at the two cop movies just mentioned: Infernal Affairs by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak is an absolute hit in Asia, able to change the recent trend that has seen too many comedies produced in the HKSAR, and the last masterpiece directed by the wonderful Johnnie To, PTU: a thriller by night, marked by a distinctive sense of humour.

Infernal Affairs is a high-tension film, telling the two parallel stories of a gangster working as an undercover policeman (the very good-looking Andy Lau), and of a honest policeman serving as an undercover drug dealer in a triad (Tony Leung, In The Mood For Love). Violence, ambushes, chases, no one knows the real identity of the two spies: good and evil get mixed until the final, which is still not defined and leaves the viewer with an ambiguous feeling. Media Asia of Hong Kong, one of the most important film production houses in the territory, has already planned both a sequel and a prequel to Infernal Affairs. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has already acquired the rights for an American remake that should have Brad Pitt as main character. The Festival, as anounced, will screen on its last evening the last masterpiece by the inimitable Johnnie To. A long time friend of the Udine event, Johnnie To presents in occasion of FAR EAST 5 – at the same time of the Hong Kong release – his latest work, one of his most personal and suggestive films since The Mission: magnetic, extreme and catching, PTU shows Hong Kong by night, without the glamorous lights, desert of people, a place where policemen follow precise rules of honour, softened in their believes by too much weakness and too many compromises.

A look to the past: the 1960s in Korea and the works of Ishii Teruo.
Up to now, the Festival has focused only – or almost exclusively – on the recent film productions of Far Eastern countries, presenting several world premieres and many movies at the same time of release in the country of origin; the 2003 edition starts with a different attitude. This different attitude will allow for presenting also the great films from the past, side by side with the new movies, the older masterpieces are still to be discovered (or re-discovered as in the case of some already screened in major European Festivals in the past decades), and the directors to be studied, by the Western audience. In order to start filling this gap in our knowledge of these masterpieces (which is evident even more for Italy), FAR EAST 5 will present a retrospective session on South Korean cinema in the 1960s, and will dedicate a tribute to the Japanese cult director Ishii Teruo, whose art influenced important artists as Miike Takashi.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present "The King of Cult"!
From Japan, director Ishii Teruo has already confirmed his attendance to Udine: first Film Festival he will attend to internationally! Ishii Teruo is the author of dozens of films since the 1950s, a continuous career that he ended, retiring, only in 1999. Born in the 1920s (his real birth date remains a mystery), Teruo is considered the absolute "King of Cult", and one of the masters of his generation. In his fifty-years long career, he has experienced all genres, from martial arts films to science fiction, from horror to erotic, becoming famous for his Yakuza Movies and for his "ero-guro" ("erotic and grotesque films") of the 1960s and first 1970s. The six films that will be presented for this tribute cover the early years (1960s and 70s) with The Man from Abashiri Jail, Porno Period Drama, Horror of the Malformed Men and Sexy Line (in a wonderful new reprinted version stricken in occasion and with the support of the Festival), and the later, more inspired and "spiritual" works of Teruo’s great come-back in the 1990s, as Wind-up Type and Master of the Gensenkan Inn.

China? It’s women’s land.
China is on the move, a fast and continuous, radical changes, that are reflected this year at FAR EAST in six films. Several young and talented directors, complying to the regulations imposed on film makers by the Chinese government, are able nonetheless to show a specific perspective, a personal insight on the society of their time, something up to now alien to the Chinese film making tradition. The most stunning aspect in this process is the fact that women directors are having a primary role in changing to new forms and roles! Young and tough, women direct pleasant films (as the first-timer Ma Xiaoying, author of Gone Is The One Who Held Me Dearest In The World, presented at Udine as European premiere), important actresses start their career as directors or perform leading roles in very nice films as Life Show by Huo Jianqi. Set in the large and suggestive city of Chongqing, built on the slopes by the side of the Yangtze river, Life Show is a symbol of the difficult role of women in today’s China. We will present the women’s point of view along with the works of two young male talents: Chen Daming, director of Manhole (sparkling dark comedy), and Gao Xiaosong, director of Where Have All the Flowers Gone (romantic tale of an adolescent love affair between three persons, shot as a high-quality music video). Last but not least for this year’s Chinese section, the action movie Red Snow by Zhang Jianya, made in Shanghai, shot in Tibet and filled with special effects, so action-packed and full of unreal scenes that it would make a wonderful late night show!

And also…
… Better than Sex by Su Chao-pin from Taiwan, the young director who has been the scriptwriter for both Double Vision and The Cabbie, at his debut with this Taiwanese arthouse sex comedy. From the Philippines, a story of sex and passionate love, Prosti by Erik Matti, and from Thailand, last but not least, 999-9999 by Peter Manus, a horror b-movie in the path of Ring, full of splatter scenes and absolutely entertaining!

The last show
The last screening at FAR EAST 5 will be a classic by master director Chang Cheh, a spectacular wuxiapian dated 1967, The One-Armed Swordsman, presented in the recently restored version released by Celestial Pictures (the owner and very appreciated "saviour" of the entire legendary Shaw Brothers library in Hong Kong). Recalled also in some scenes of Just One Look by Riley Ip, the films ideally closes the circular path linking the past with the recent cinematographic productions. Excellently directed, The One-Armed Swordsman is a masterpiece focused on the solitary hero destined to sacrifice himself for the cause of honour. Violent and "macho", the movie has many slow-motion scenes, expressing the feeling of death being able to transform into a delicate, dynamic and tragic passion. "I use dance to convey the feeling, the pain, death. The world is full of violence, how can a movie ignore it?", a quote by Chang Cheh, taken for its incredible modern touch from his recently published memoirs. It all comes from here. 

Hong Kong 10 titles
South Korea 11 titles
Mainland China 6 titles
Japan 8 titles
Philippines 1 title
Thailand 1 title
Taiwan 1 title
Singapore 1 title
Tribute to Ishii Teruo - The King of Cult 6 titles
The Golden Age of Korean Cinema: Seven Directors 7 titles

Film list:

Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
Frugal Game by Derek Chiu
Just One Look by Riley Ip
New Blood by Soi Cheang
PTU by Johnnie To
Shark Busters by Herman Yau
The Stewardess by Sam Leong
Summer Breeze of Love by Joe Ma
Visible Secret II by Abe Kwong
The One-Armed Swordsman by Chang Cheh

Korea
Bet On My Disco by Kim Dong-won
Conduct Zero by Cho Keun-shik
Jail Breakers by Kim Sang-jin
No Blood No Tears by Ryu Seung-wan
A Perfect Match by Mo Ji-eun
The Phone by Ahn Byung-ki
Saving My Hubby by Hyun Nam-sup
Sex Is Zero by Youn Je-gyon
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance by Park Chan-wook
The Way Home by Lee Jeong-hyang
Yesterday by Jeong Yun-su

China
Gone Is The One Who Held Me Dearest In The World by Ma Xiaoying
Life Show by Huo Jianqi
Man Hole by Chen Daming
Me And Dad by Xu Jinglei
Red Snow by Zhang Jianya
Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Gao Xiaosong

Japan
Turn by Hyrayama Hideyuki
A Laughing Frog by Hyrayama Hideyuki
Out by Hyrayama Hideyuki
Graveyard Of Honour by Miike Takashi
Shangri-La by Miike Takashi
Dark Water by Nakata Hideo
Ju-On: The Grudge by Shimizu Takashi
Ping Pong by Sori Fumihiko

Thailand
999 ­ 9999 by Peter Manus 

Taiwan
Better Than Sex by Su Chao-pin

Philippines
Prosti by Erik Matti

Singapore
Talking Cock The Movie by Joyceln Yen Yen Woo & Colin Goh

- Many thanks to the FEF press office and to Sabrina Baricetti -
www.fareastfilm.com

- Links of interest:
- From Far East Film 5, Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche, : CLICK HERE
An affair to remember: Hong Kong cinema in 2002, by Tim Youngs
Decline and Fall, Hong Kong box office in 2002, by Ryan Law
INTERVIEWS by Tim Youngs: with Herman Yau, Sam Leong, Riley Ip and Johnnie To

- From Filmfestival.com:
Far East Film Fest is Underway by Paolo Bertolin , April 28, 2003 Click here
Infernal Affairs Takes Udine by Storm by Paolo Bertolin, May 3, 2003 Click here

- Related links in HK Cinemagic:
- Interview with director Joe Ma and actress Miriam Yeung
- Interview with directors Soi Cheang and Thomas Chow

Page by Thomas Podvin, May 2003