Editor

24 April/2 May 2024 - Udine, Italy, Teatro Nuovo and Visionario

FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL 26

FROM “A CITY OF SADNESS” TO “RAISE THE RED

LANTERN”: FEFF 26  WILL BE HOSTING THE WORLD

PREMIERES OF RESTORED VERSIONS OF FIVE

PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE MASTERPIECES!

Chiu Fu-sheng, legendary producer of the five films,

will be receiving the FEFF’s 2024 Golden Mulberry

Award for Lifetime Achievement in Udine.

 Apart from being the five masterpieces we all know them as, 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? What they have in common is a legendary producer in Taiwan's Chiu Fu-sheng and also the fact that they have been impossible to get hold of for decades. Five masterpieces that won prizes and were venerated in the West (a Golden Lion for A City of Sadness, a Silver Lion for  Raise the Red Lantern and a triumphal trio of prizes at Cannes for To Live!). And this is where the Far East Film Festival of Udine comes into play: Chiu Fu-sheng has decided to restore the five titles, using the precious original negatives, and FEFF 26 (24 April/2 May 2024) will be hosting their world premieres!

This great news for all lovers of movies, not just of Asian cinema, was officially announced by Chiu Fu-sheng himself during a press conference which took place in Taiwan and which was attended by the heads of the Far East Film Festival, Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche. “We've always admired the talent and the work of Mr. Chiu,” says Sabrina Baracetti, “and we've worked hard to see this new dream come true. Because bringing five such important restorations, which are destined to make history, to Udine really is a dream come true: there's no other way of putting it!”

During the same press conference, Baracetti and Bertacche announced another bit of big news: the FEFF Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement 2024 will be awarded to Chiu Fu-sheng himself, an absolutely unique figure in the panorama of the Asian cinema of the last century.