NEWSLETTER: March 2022

EAST ASIA FILM FESTIVAL IRELAND March 2022 Newsletter

Hello there!

The sixth edition of the East Asia Film Festival Ireland (EAFFI) returns both in-cinema and online this year, bringing innovative and inspiring East Asian cinema to IFI screens, online nationwide on IFI@Home, and introducing EAFFI On Tour in venues in Galway, Cork, and Limerick.

There’s a rich choice of drama, documentary, Japanese New Wave cinema, and self-reflexive video essays on offer, so we hope you can join us!

Commenting on this year’s in-cinema and online programme, the festival's Artistic and Programming Director Marie-Pierre Richard said, 'Another year of the festival, and another year of wonderful support from the Arts Council and the Irish Film Institute. This year, we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to invite Chris Berry, Department of Film Studies at King's College London, and film producer in Taipei, Chuti Chang, both who have been invaluable advisers to the festival, to curate two new features for the programme. Despite all the madness in the world, it's wonderful to see the vitality and diversity of East Asian cinema with so many insightful and universal stories of human endeavour and strength and this year, we are also thrilled to be able to tour films from the programme in venues in Galway, Cork and Limerick. Enjoy!'

The festival opens on Thursday 31st of March at the IFI with Hong Sangsoo's witty In Front of Your Face, in which protagonist Sangok, played by Lee Hye-young, adjusts to life back in Seoul after living in the US. This pared-back character study of a middle-aged former actress is full of light and simplicity, alongside the gravity of everyday conversation.

Also screening are Longman Leung's new biopic Anita which follows Hong Kong pop icon Anita Mui, from her early rise to stardom to her death from cervical cancer at aged 40; Anita was the closing film at the Busan International Film Festival 2021 and has been a Box Office hit in Hong Kong across 2021.

Both In Front of Your Face and Anita screen in venues in Galway, Cork, and Limerick (see screening details in the Schedule below).

In classics, Pale Flower screens in stunning 4K, freshly restored from the original 35mm negative by the Shochiku Company, in cooperation with the Japan Foundation. Masahiro Shinoda’s classic film noir forms part of the Japanese New Wave cinema of the 1960s, and takes inspiration from yakuza gangster thrillers. Shot on immaculate black and white CinemaScope, and with a jazz score by composer Toru Takemitsu, this 1964 gem is visually and narratively thrilling.

White Building by Cambodian director Kavich Neang draws on his personal history to talk about the capital city of Phnom Penh, addressing intergenerational, spiritual, local and global tensions; and Ripples of Life, Wei Shujun's second feature which follows a film crew on location in the remote town of Yong'an in southern China, showing us three chapters of filmmaking, satire, and the thrill of a local restaurant owner standing in as the movie star. Dear Tenant follows piano teacher and gay man Jian-Yi Lian (Best Actor, Taipei Golden Horse Awards, 2020), who is the tenant of a rooftop apartment owned by elderly Mrs Chou, who is suffering from late-stage diabetes. Both White Building and Dear Tenant are available to rent online on IFI@Home for the duration of the festival.

Also screening is the beautiful I Was A Simple Man by Honolulu-born director Christopher Makoto Yogi, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and tells the story of Masao (Steve Iwamoto), an elderly man of Japanese descent who lives alone in Hawaii; The Real Thing, Koji Fukada's (A Girl Missing, EAFFI Selection 2020) 232-minute drama about a chance encounter between a young businessman and a woman in distress; and Jet Lag, the new film from Zheng Lu Xinyuan (The Cloud In Her Room, EAFFI selection 2021). Shot in the middle of lockdown, Xinyuan captures family stories with imagery of travel and displacement in a black and white video essay.

The festival will also feature a number of directors' Q&As available to watch on eaffi.ie and IFI@Home as bonus content, and introductions to our in-cinema screenings.

In another new initiative for 2022, EAFFI is delighted to be partnering with Young Irish Filmmakers on the Young Irish Critics program. The Young Irish Critics initiative aims to create more informal education space for young people to engage with international and youth-authored/classic and independent cinema (film and animation). We will publish reviews of selected films on our website so keep an eye out for their work.

Tickets for EAFFI 2022 films are now available to book!

All the best for now,
Marie-Pierre Richard and Maria O’Brien

We would love you to follow us on social media if you don’t already!

Twitter: @EastAsiaFFIrl
Facebook: @EastAsiaFFIrl
Instagram: @eastasiaffirl