We picked up our media passes and got into the first screening, excited to see the beginning of what we are about to endure for the next four days. The first film we saw was The Message (2009) - a Chinese spy thriller in its European premiere in the spirit of Agatha Christie, which filled the group with a lot of excitement and optimism as to the selection of films they have prepared for us this week. The soundtrack was absolutely amazing, which was adding to the spectacular cinematography and the complicated and yet interesting story was only a bonus to all that to make the experience invaluable.

Then, having been sat in the theatre for more than two hours, we quickly regrouped to see the other film they had on schedule, Gallants (2010) from Hong Kong, which was preceded by a lovely speech by the two directors, Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok. The tone and mood we had submerged into during The Message was shifted to 100 degrees - a long way to go from a spy thriller into a martial arts comedy with dramatic moments, made in the spirit of traditional Kung-Fu Hong Kong cinema.

Throughout all that excitement and anxiety, the documentary team was busy filming everything and anything, trying to get opinions and events on camera, and we were even interviewed by an Italian radio station...

The only drawback was the lack of time for food and the group ended up eating the breakfast panettone for dinner, as well. Our emotions took very long to cool down, as we sat together in the living room chatting up until about half past three in the morning.

Overall, a very nice way to start our professional experience here, taking care of a lot of the stress and the anticipation, once we don't need to worry about finding hotels or theatres and making our way around Udine. Tomorrow we will start from seven in the morning with a group meeting, then attend some screenings, a panel on the Japanese production company Shintoho and try to write about everything and put it on our on-line platforms, whilst the documentary team is following us around. :) A busy day, indeed, and I couldn't be more excited about it.

For a short overview of the two films we attended and reviews of the two films, visit the websites of CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue at:

Overview of festival days 5 and 6 (first and second day of the society in Udine)
The same overview on CUEAFS's blog space, translated in Chinese by Kevin Weng
Review of The Message (by me)
Review of Gallants (by Nadia Baird)
Same review of Gallants on CUEAFS's blog space