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In many respects, the Udine Far East Film Festival is not like other film festivals. Held in the small Italian city of Udine, about a 90 minute drive from Venice, the festival has been showcasing popular films from Asia for more than a decade and a half. Its approach is more mainstream than the arthouse approach of Europe’s most famous film festivals, with the intention of showing the kind of films that young Asian audiences take an interest in. But its selection of films is also broader than Europe’s many fantastic film festivals that specialize in genre films of a darker color: thrillers, horror, SF, action, etc. Udine’s audience is unusual in being so open-minded: it is just as interested in melodramas and comedies as it is in a good thriller.

 

That makes it a good match for the varied output of the Korean film industry, and sure enough, over the years it has developed a special relationship with Korean cinema. In any given year one can expect to find 8-12 new Korean films in the program, and many years there are also classic titles featured as special screenings, or as part of a retrospective.

 

The FEFF’s 17th edition, which ran from April 24 to May 2, was no different, with 10 Korean feature films from the past year as well as a special screening of LEE Jang-ho’s 1988 classic The Man with Three Coffins. Directors were in attendance for six of the Korean films: BOO Ji-young’s social drama Cart, LEE Do-yun’s coming-of-age drama Confession, LIM Charn-sang’s marital drama My Love, My Bride, LEE Kwon’s genre-bender My Ordinary Love Story, LEE Won-suk’s period costume drama The Royal Tailor, and YOO Young-sun’s low-budget thriller The Wicked. The four films presented without guests included JK YOUN’s blockbuster hit Ode to My Father, KANG Hyoung-chul’s gambling epic Tazza: The Hidden Card, YOO Ha’s gangster thriller Gangnam Blues, and E J-yong’s melodrama My Brilliant Life. There was also a screening of Leste CHEN’s Chinese feature 20 Once Again, which is produced by CJ Entertainment and based on the Korean hit comedy Miss Granny (2014).

 

It might have seemed at the outset that Korean cinema would be somewhat overshadowed in this edition, given the burst of Asian star power which opened the event: a concert by renowned Japanese composer HISAISHI Joe, and a special appearance by Hong Kong superstar Jackie CHAN. But this proved not to be the case, with the Korean titles ranking among the most-talked about screenings at the festival.

 

In general, the relationship between the audience and visiting filmmakers is central to the festival. Each film is screened only once, in the 1200-seat, four-story Teatro Nuovo which hosts concerts and theater productions during the rest of the year.There are no Q&A sessions at screenings (viewers can ask questions to directors at separately-scheduled seminars), but guests present their works on stage before the film starts, and then stand for applause during the end credits (inevitably followed by long autograph/photo sessions with viewers in the lobby). With the theater often filled to capacity for evening screenings, the audience is known for its warm, vocal reaction to the films it sees – sometimes breaking into spontaneous applause midway through the screening. For filmmakers, some of whom have seen their film underperform or be overlooked at home, it can be a memorable and uplifting experience.

 

There is no separate jury in Udine; instead, the audience chooses the awards. But the audience can hardly be described as an impartial, cold judge. Over the years, certain filmmakers have become beloved by the audience, which looks forward to their new works with anticipation. This was surely the case for director LEE Won-suk, who won the audience award in 2013 for the rapturous response to his debut film How to Use Guys With Secret Tips. By now a minor celebrity at the festival, LEE presented a very different sort of work in his second feature The Royal Tailor, about a fictional genius hanbok designer of the Joseon Dynasty, but it too was well received.

 

The other Korean directors were visiting Udine for the first time, but each of their films made an impression in different ways. Viewers were surprised to hear that YOO Young-seon’s The Wicked was shot on a budget of only $10,000, and impressed at the technical quality of the work. BOO Ji-young’s Cart moved many viewers to tears and also provoked much discussion in the subsequent seminar about the status of workers on temporary contracts in Korea. LEE Kwon’s My Ordinary Love Story drew high marks for its daring genre twist halfway through the film, and IM Charn-sang’s My Love, My Bride proved to relate just as well to young European audiences experiencing or thinking about marriage. Finally, LEE Do-yun’s Confession was praised as a highly impressive debut that injected life into a familiar genre.

 

The screening of LEE Jang-ho’s 1988 classic The Man With Three Coffins was also noteworthy. In the past several years, the FEFF has devoted a part of its program to special screenings of classic Asian films that have been digitally remastered and released on DCP format. This has coincided nicely with a program being run by the Korean Film Archive and CJ PowerCast in which a number of titles are selected each year for digital color correction, remastering and other post production work. Following on from a screening last year of BAE Chang-ho’s debut People of the Slums (1982), the presentation of The Man With Three Coffins was especially significant because of the color correction work carried out in consultation with the director. When shooting the film, LEE had a very specific and unusual color tone that he wanted to achieve, but given the technical limitations of the time he was never able to get a print that matched his intention. In this sense, the new DCP represents the first time that we can see the visually ravishing work in the way it was intended to be shown. Roughly 300 people were in attendance for the screening in Udine.

 

At the festival’s closing ceremony, awards were presented to the films that received the highest ratings from the audience. Among the 54 contemporary films that were eligible for the award, the top three vote-getters were all Korean: Ode to My Father at #1, The Royal Tailor at #2, and My Brilliant Life at #3.The prize for Ode to My Father demonstrated that despite its focus on a particularly Korean historical situation, the film contained a universal message. The Royal Tailor also received a separate My movies award from Italy’s leading cinema website.

 

This “hat trick” for Korean cinema was unprecedented in the history of the festival, and was surprising considering that there were numerous films from other Asian countries that also drew forth a strong response from the audience. Among the top ten vote getters there was also one more Korean film: Cart, which placed at #6. Moreso than the awards, however, the visiting directors expressed appreciation for the hospitality shown to them and the warm response of the audience to all of the screenings. It seems likely that many of them may end up back in Udine after their next films are released.