A new “letter” is being added to the story of the 28th Far East Film Festival: K. K stands for Korea, and also for KOCCA – the Korea Creative Content Agency. One of the key highlights of this year’s edition is a new collaboration between the Udine-based festival and KOCCA, the South Korean government organisation…
Tag: film
“Pursuit of Jade” Review: Why the C-Drama Is a Massive Success
Camp, or genuinely excellent? Many C-Dramas teeter between the two. Widely beloved, The Untamed is a prime example of plentiful awkward effects being forgiven on account of its compelling story and believable chemistry between characters. On the complete flip side, recently aired Whispers of Fate boasts its budget on all the VFX necessary for a…
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival: “The Black Cannon Incident” Review
The Hong Kong International Film Festival has celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. This year’s special programme, “Revisiting Chinese Cinema: The Beginning of a New Journey,” features a curated selection of Chinese-language films for which HKIFF served as a gateway to international recognition for both the films and their filmmakers. The 1980s were a golden…
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival: “We Are Nothing At All” Review
Between 2023 and 2025, Herman Yau churned out seven China–Hong Kong co-productions and mainland Chinese films, including large-scale, action-packed blockbusters like the gritty customs thriller Customs Frontline (2024) and the trilogy capper The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell (2023). These films demonstrate Yau’s capacity to produce commercially satisfying spectacles with remarkable speed and energy,…
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival: “We Are All Strangers” Review
Celebrating its Golden Jubilee, the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2026 opened with Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers. Spending over ten years, Chen wrapped up the “Growing Up” Trilogy after Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), with these films determined to reflect on the revolving cityscape of Singapore alongside the growth of the…
28th Far East Film Festival: Wim Wenders to Present Lifetime Award to Koji Yakusho in Udine
It begins with a friendship – and then, a film that has moved audiences around the world. On 25 April, Wim Wenders will be in Udine to personally present the Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award to his friend and Perfect Days star, Koji Yakusho, on the stage of the Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine.” Shot…
To Be Seen, Yet Unheard: Mahesh Menon Explores Family and Identity in “A Letter for Tomorrow” – Exclusive Interview
When the Indian filmmaker Mahesh Menon brought his moving short A Letter for Tomorrow to this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, I was truly taken aback by how wonderful the film was. Drawing from his own upbringing in a matriarchal household, Menon explores the complexity within families – particularly how love is often…
Far East Film Festival 28 Unveils 76-Film Programme, Opening with Anthony Chen’s “We Are All Strangers”
What began in the spring of 1998 as a bold and somewhat puzzling experiment has grown into one of Europe’s most important showcases of Asian cinema. When the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche (CEC) in Udine shifted its focus from Italian retrospectives to a programme dedicated to Hong Kong films, few could have predicted the outcome. Yet…
Gaho Uncovered: From Solo Work to KAVE – Exclusive Interview
Gaho, a South Korean singer, is a one-of-a-kind artist with a strong and characteristic voice that’s easy to recognise and can really imprint on you. The more you listen, the more compelling his sound becomes. Long before the global rise of K-dramas turned their soundtracks into cultural exports, Gaho’s voice was already doing something rare:…
28th Far East Film Festival: FEFF Campus Returns for Its 12th Edition, Welcoming Ten Aspiring Voices to the Global Film Community
The Far East Film Festival Campus initiative continues to bring film lovers together from across the globe, and if that sounds like the beginning of a great film, it’s because, in many ways, it is. As the 28th Far East Film Festival returns from April 24 to May 2, 2026, the FEFF Campus celebrates its…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “ìfé: The Sequel” Review
Across much of West Africa – and Africa more broadly – LGBTQ+ lives continue to exist under immense pressure. In countries like Nigeria, same-sex relationships are not only socially stigmatised but also legally criminalised, with laws such as the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act reinforcing a culture of fear and invisibility. While there have been small…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: In Conversation with Lexie Bean, Director of “What Will I Become?”
Lexie Bean is a trans multidisciplinary artist whose work moves across writing, film, and community-based practice, always based on questions of identity, memory, and the body. For over fifteen years, they have worked closely with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, creating spaces for storytelling through books, performances, and visual work. Their practice is collaborative…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “Satisfaction” Review
Something is unsettling about Satisfaction, not because it shocks in obvious ways, but because it does not offer simple answers. It stays in discomfort, in silence, in the spaces where language fails, and in doing so, it asks one of the most difficult questions a film can pose: how do we make sense of our…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “What Will I Become?” Review
Across both the United States and the United Kingdom, the mental health crisis affecting transgender young people has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Studies consistently show that trans youth experience significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts than their cisgender peers. In the U.S., research from organisations such as The Trevor Project has…
