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.”
A hand-drawn concept illustration by director Qiu Jiongjiong in which the moon and the sun sit on a seesaw, a symbolic visual from the film’s conceptual world.
Qiu Jiongjiong
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. The production team is targeting HAF to close remaining funding gaps and connect with international sales agents and distributors.
“Qiu Jiongjiong is one of the most original and aesthetically singular filmmakers in contemporary China,” said producers Zhao Jin and Ding Ningyuan. “Without question, he is a Chinese filmmaker whose work deserves to be seen on the world stage.”
The film, shot entirely on soundstages using painted sets, blends theatrical artifice with cinematic methods to create what Qiu describes as “a cartoonish form and a comical flavor” moving between “the real and the surreal, what the eye sees and what the mind imagines.”
The only officially released still from the film shows Auntie (played by Lee) following the fourth King of Sichuan (played by Fan Guangyao), who has transformed into a cuckoo and is flying away.
Rise Pictures Co. is producing the film, with plans to complete post-production in Taiwan and Europe; the pic will launch its festival journey later this year. The project’s producing team includes veteran David Tang, whose credits include “Red Cliff” and “Silk,” alongside Zhao and Ding, who previously collaborated with Qiu on “A New Old Play.”
Qiu Jiongjiong, Ding Ningyuan, Zhao Jin
Rise Pictures Co., Ltd.
