An incredible start to another incredible day. A few members of the writers team headed off early in the morning, after only about four hours of sleep, to attend the screening of yet another Hong Kong film, Seven 2 One (2009). The drama by Danny Pang was a 'patchwork' storyline, presenting the stories of seven different people, tied up together, and their actions that lead to a particular event. The ending of the film was quite brilliant, showing a 'what if' perspective - if a phone call was received earlier, if an agreement had been made, if a girl had changed her mind, then maybe things would've unraveled in a different way.
Afterwards followed a Chinese police thriller by director Wang Jing - Invisible Killer (2009), which gave insight into contemporary Chinese society and the subtle influence of the internet and prompted a big discussion between the two Chinese members of the writers team - Henry and Kevin about the ideology behind the two films from China over those two days - The Message and Invisible Killer. As the argument grew more and more passionate and the volume level grew in decibels, we attracted not only a few cameramen, who caught everything on video, but also quite a big audience, which was interested in what was going on and who were the people arguing so ardently.
As the day had just begun, all of us had planned a complicated working day, running from one place to another, trying to get as much as possible done before the sun goes down and then later perhaps we might have been able to get some sleep. Good thing we are in Italy and enjoying some decent coffee and nice food in the short breaks we get to keep us running (I am glad they have a bar in the theatre, as we don't really have the chance to go too far). :)
The documentary team had been working since the morning, as well, getting some establishing shots of Udine, Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine, the busy teams and anything else they can get their hands on. Writers were busy writing before we had forgotten our first impressions and important information about the films after seeing too many. Another busy day, indeed. On the schedule are also experimental filming and interviewing fellow students from other universities, so we had hopes everything would turn out pretty nicely.
The afternoon of our second day in Udine was also packed and stressful, including three films, a panel and a lot of writing. Nadia attended the screening of Phobia 2 (2009), a sequel to the very successful 2008 film 4bia, a Thai horror composed of five different stories. After that some of the members saw Lee Yong-ju's debut Possessed (2009), which totally creeped out everyone, especially poor Henry, who was watching through the holes in his paper sheet, which he held in front of his face for the most part. The last film on our schedule was Slice (2009) by director Kongkiat Khomsiri, by which time it was a struggle to stay awake and some of the membes made good use of the comfortable chairs and the fact that we couldn't see most of the screen from our seats.
The day also presented the opportunity for Spencer to interview the directors of Gallants Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok and the Shintoho panel presented a good opportunity for Michelle to get more information for her dissertation.
Overall, it was a stressful day, especially trying to get all the writing done before 7pm, whilst queueing to get good seats for the following screenings. With very few hours of sleep and almost no food in our stomachs, we are basically living on coffee and cigarrettes (myself, specifically), but we are excited to get to the next day and do more work.
For a short overview of the films during our second day (day 6 of the festival), visit CUEAFS's website and the website of our partner Cine-Vue.Labels: china, cine-vue, cueafs, danny pang, east asian film, far east film, feff, festival, hong kong, invisible killer, italy, lee yong-ju, phobia 2, possessed, seven to one, slice, udine, wang jing |
