Lee Kang-sheng Stars in Qiu Jiongjiong’s ‘Fuxi: Joy in Four Chapters,’ Selected for Hong Kong Project Market

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Chinese auteur Qiu Jiongjiong‘s upcoming drama “Fuxi: Joy in Four Chapters,” starring acclaimed Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng, has been selected for the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that runs concurrently with Hong Kong FilMart, as a work-in-progress.

The production weaves together four Sichuan tales spanning thousands of years, connected through the universal language of food and feasting.

The film marks Qiu’s follow-up to his award-winning “A New Old Play,” which won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno and the Firebird Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

It won the Project D Award at HAF last year. “Fuxi” unfolds across four distinct periods: a funeral feast 4,000 years ago, where a grandmother severs her tail as a gift to descendants; a spring festival 3,000 years ago featuring a former king reincarnated as a cuckoo; a 1990s mid-autumn banquet where spirits honor an ancient poet; and a century-old birthday celebration where a waif encounters underworld deities. “I wanted to make a film that spans thousands of years — four feasts, where gods, mortals, immortals, spirits and ordinary people from Sichuan’s myths, legends and history all sit at the same table and eat together,” says Qiu. “It extends the spirit of myths into the present, returning it to the everyday.” The Taiwan-Hong Kong-Japan-France co-production carries a budget of $1.2 million, with producers confirming they’ve already secured 70% of the financing.