Far East Film Festival 2015

Once again, JoRafCinema was glad to be able to attend the Far East Film Festival in Udine (Italy), the largest European showcase for Asian popular cinema, even if for only four days (April 29th - May 2nd).
By now the festival routine is well known to us: registration for a Press accreditation in April, reservation of a room at the off-center bucolic Agroturismo residence Nit des Sicilis own by the very welcoming family Gon (Luciano and Regina), organisation of the not-so-straight-forward train trip to the capital of the Friulu region (the connection has become so difficult that a co-blogger and a friend of JoRafCinema could not attend the festival), and the daily rush for watching many movies, drinking as many Espressi and keeping free time to enjoy the local Cuisine.

 

This 17th edition of the festival was not among the best we have seen. First the weather was colder than usual and we couldn't even eat outside once, the sky was grey every day and on the Friday it even poured rain continuously. In addition the movie selection on our first day was very poor, leaving us in bad mood. Fortunately the second day reminded us why we go to that Festival as it made us discover a couple of unexpected cinematographic jewels that you will never see on the screens in Europe, and will have a hard time finding in DVD. Followed another day of poor quality, fortunately ending with a more positive note and three good movies on the last day, forgetting about the closing movie The Taking of Tiger Mountain by Tsui Hark, not really part of the Festival but shown here to please the less cinephiles of the attendees.

Nansun Shi received the Golden Mulberry award for lifetime achievement as movie producer, in particular for Tsui Hark movies. Strangely, I thought producers were supposed to contain the creative madness of directors and deliver a movie that the audience would like and that would generate profits...

Out of the fourteen movies seen, there are really only five to save, in chronological order of projection:

• The Last Reel: first movie from Cambodia ever shown at the FEFF, it is also our favorite this year
• 0.5 mm: An interesting Japanese movie in spite of its more than three hours duration
• Where I am King: A naive but touching Filipino slum comedy
• Siti: Neo-realistic melodrama from Indonesia in a beautiful Black & White
• Unsung Hero: Part-comedy, part-reality for this funny trip behind the scenes of Japanese super-hero movies

Rudolf, friend of JoRafCinema present during the whole Festival, can further advice the following:

• Ode to my Father (JK Youn - South Korea) a family Drama
• Sara (Herman Yau - Hong Kong)
• Dragon Blade (Daniel Lee & Jackie Chan - Hong Kong/China) which was introduce by Jacky Chan himself

He also liked:

• Confession (Lee Do-Yun - South Korea)
• Rubbers (Han Yew Kwang - Singapore), a condom Comedy (!)
• Breakup Buddies (Ning Hao - China)
• My Ordinary Love Story (Lee Kwon - South Korea)
• Ecotherapy Gateway Holiday (Okita Shuichi - Japan)

And some great movies from the Sitges Reloaded selection (i.e. not from Asia) that I am eager to watch myself:

• The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland - UK)
• The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpytskiy - Ukraine), a shocker about a group of deaf & dumb.
• Alleluia (Fabrice Du Welz - Belgium/France)

View of the beautiful main venue of the FEFF from the front stage.

As every year, the Festival catalog is a trove of information about the movies but also the cinema productions is all Asian countries thanks to dedicated articles. Just by reading the foreword I was amazed to learn that in 2014 for the first time the income generated by some American movies was larger in China than in the USA, and that this impacts the way those movies are generated, the most striking example being the recent Big Hero 6 that takes place in a Japano-American city and incorporates sensibilities of different cultures, and even movies like Transformers 4: Age of Extinction are set in Asia for half their duration.

The Festival catalog next to the highly recommended Black Dragon accreditation.

I always have the feeling that there are two opposite aspects to the FEFF: one is the popular, naive or cheap side that can be seen in the programming of some blockbusters, cheesy romantic comedies or improbable Japanese experimental films, but also in the trailer of the Festival. Sign of our times, it looks like the budget is ever tighter at the FEFF: not much decoration in front of the theater entrance, increased accreditation cost, lack of a proper retrospective replaced this year by a best-of the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival that had nothing to do with Far East (but showing excellent movies from other genres like the Belgian Alleluia).

The poorly decorated entrance of the Teatro Giovanni da Udine

On the other hand, the FEFF is the best organized Festival I had the opportunity to participate to, which can be seen in the professional video coverage of the event for example, the special care taken to Black Dragon accreditation holders, or the impressive list of guests from Asia invited to promote their movies (the FEFF makes a point at keeping this aspect strong in spite of budget restrictions) and the organized panels to which the public or medias are free to intervene. Unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to attend such panel this year as they were taking place at the same time as movies we wanted to see.

Many guests presenting their movies at the FEFF. From left to right: SOTHO Kulikar director of The Last Reel, ANDO Sakura and the T-shirt of the movie 0.5 mm she stars in, director YAMAZAKI Takashi and producer MORIYA Keiichiro for Parasyte, director Carlos SIGUION-REYNA for Where I am King, and director TAKE Masaharu of Unsung Hero.

The FEFF would not be the same if it was not taking place in Udine, a city we enjoy visiting every time. There was not much time for sightseeing this year (I didn't even climb the stairs to the Castle!) partly because of the weather, but enough restaurants from which we can recommend:

• Dok Udine 33 Cento, very close to the Teatro Giovanni da Udine, proposes an excellent selection of prosciutto in spite of being a franchised place (but with only six branches)
• Al Vecchio Stallio, hard to find in a narrow street, is composed of many rooms decorated with farm and stable antiques (thus the name of Old Stables) and proposes some typical dishes of the Friuli region
• La Nicchia, a Sarde restaurant that we discovered some years ago and that never ceases to delight us with its original menu prepared with the best ingredients, and served by the most friendly team.
• Via Manin, a rather small place apparently new Terzo Tempo proposed among other things a selection of Italian beers like the surprising Donkere Vader.

Finally we skipped a few movies to attend one organized FEFF night event: the concert of Asian Dub Foundation, followed by Northern Lights Sound System and preceded by Les Tambours de Topolò that we particularly liked. Not much to do with the FEFF but a good way to let off steam in a dark concert room after a day spent in a dark theater.

See you next year Udine!

The FEFF Night of May 1st: Les Tambours de Topolò, Asian Dub Foundation and Northern Lights Sound System.