Editor

Three truly explosive titles for the much awaited Opening Night of the Far East Film Festival in Udine! On Friday 29th April at 20:00, the 13th edition will be launched with the European Premiere of Welcome to Shama Town, with the already "cult" 33 minute horror Night Fishing and, saving the best for last, with the International Premiere of a surprise film, which will have its debut in the Extreme Orient on 28th April! Let's take a closer look at this opening triplet ...

A film of action and mystery, made by the new and upcoming director Li Weiran, Welcome to Shama Town is a total immersion into the unknown China, in the Orient that brings with it a taste of the old West. Class of 1975, the director comes from the world of advertising and video clips, and is just one of the new names that FEFF will bring to the attention of the cinematographic world of the West.

As for Night Fishing, thanks to the last edition of the Berlinale, there is certainly no need to remind everyone that it carries the signature of a Korean genius, that of Park Chan-wook and that it was entirely shot using the iPhone4! It all starts with a man, who after crossing some woods, reaches the banks of a river and begins fishing. The hours slip by and the light of day gives way to the evening's shadows...

Without giving anything away about our surprise film, which will be revealed during our press conference on Monday 18th April, the same day in which the thirteenth edition of FEFF will be officially announced, we swiftly move our spotlight onto the Closing Night of Saturday 7th May: on screen we have the romantic comedy What Women Want, the Chinese remake with the same title as the Hollywood blockbuster starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, followed by the International Premiere of the revenge thriller Punished, produced by Johnnie To, directed by Law Wing Cheong and starring Anthony Wong in a state of grace!

HOW ASIA GIGGLES, "ASIA LAUGHS!",

AND A FOCUS ON THE JAPANESE EROTIC FILM GENRE, "PINK"

From the 1922 short silent movie and oldest Chinese film in conservation, to the James Bond parody from Malaysia of the '60s (alias Mat Bond!), and with the adventures of the Hongkongese Michael Hui (Asia's answer to Jerry Lewis), coming to Udine as the Festival's special guest, Asia Laughs! will also be published as a book, curated by Roger Garcia (Festival consultant and Director of the Hong Kong Film Festival). The book will be an addition to those volumes published up until now for cinefiles and film experts. Garcia's volume will bring to light comedic styles, authors, and productive strategies.

To complete this panorama on the past, we have the special focus on Pink Eiga, curated by Roland Domenig, featuring erotic Japanese art house films, that will reestablish the genre after being wrongly undervalued for so long. The programme of 16 titles will shed light on the legendary Japanese producer Asakura Daisuke (a woman operating under a man's name!) and her Kokuei, the production house she created in 1956 with the aim of making  educational films that went on to make low budget soft erotica in the '60s. From that moment on, the Japanese Pink films have confirmed their box office power with extraordinary creative liberty. Entire generations of (perfectly respectable) directors took their first film-making steps with Kokuei, making softcore films against a backdrop of philosophical reflexions (names such as Takita Yojiro, director of the Oscar winning Departures). Amongst the key events of the focus is our screening of the very recent Underwater Love by Imaoka Shinji, a unique example of a musical Pink film.

THE THIRTEENTH EDITION IN NUMBERS

One World Premiere, 15 International Premieres, 18 European and 14 Italian. 12 countries, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and, new entry, Mongolia (see the black comedy Operation Tatar by Baatar BAT-ULZII), will be represented by 87 films (chosen from 450 evaluated movies), showing the audience that which the Extreme Orient is capable of making: vivacious productions that break box office record after record, creating styles, anticipating fashions, and "enchanting" European audiences and Festivals alike.

All of this, is Far East Film, the Festival organised by the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche that for 13 years has opened the city's Friulan doors to passionate fans and scholars - with over 200 students and researchers from Universities around the world, plus journalists and buyers, making a total of more than 1000 accreditations!

This year the Far East Film Festival is 13 years old, and is to all intents and purposes the "good luck charm" Festival: that is why the hand symbol of the horns has been chosen to represent this year's edition, this Latin hand gesture par excellence, used to keep curses and bad spirits at bay. Clement Cheng, extraordinary director from Hong Kong (who came to Udine in 2010 with the Kung Fu comedy Gallants), even let the horns take centre stage in DOING IT RIGHT, the Festival trailer where flying zombies and Taoist priests carry out the most entertaining exorcism, using precisely the index and little fingers, pointed downwards...

9 complete Festival days, from 29th April to 7th May.

12 cinematographies! The selection includes 50 films in competition: from China (8), South Korea (12), Hong Kong (7), Philippines (3) Japan (11), Indonesia (1), Taiwan (1), Thailand (3), Vietnam (1), Singapore (1), Malaysia (2), Mongolia (1).

37 films in the two retrospectives making a total of 87 films!

50 guests coming from Asia to participate in the Festival: directors, scriptwriters, actors and actresses, and representatives from Asian distribution companies.

10 experts and producers taking part in the Ties That Bind workshop ("New Europe-Asia workshop for film producers" from 3rd to 7th May), of which 5 from Asia and 5 from Europe. 1000 is the increase in number of accreditations.

200 is the increase in number, of students and researchers with a massive quantity coming from Austria, Hungary, France, England, Sweden and from across the ocean, from the United States and Singapore.

50,000 is the number of people counted as Festival public attending the 2010 edition.