All seven of Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang's feature films will be screened at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival, to mark the 10th anniversary of the filmmaker's death, it was announced today.
That Day, on the Beach (1983), The Terrorisers (1986), A Confucian Confusion (1994), Mahjong (1996) and Yi Yi: A One and a Two... (2000) will be featured at this year's festival together with newly restored versions of Taipei Story (1985) and A Brighter Summer Day (1991) in a programme entitled "Edward Yang, 10-Year Commemoration". Yang's regular collaborator, screenwriter Hsiao Yeh, as well as Yang's wife Kaili Peng will also attend and share their memories of the pioneering auteur with festival audiences.
Born in Shanghai, Yang grew up in Taipei where he became one of the most influential voices of the Taiwanese New Wave, alongside the likes of Hou Hsiao Hsien, Tsai Ming-liang and Ko I-Chen. A regular fixture on the festival circuit, Yang won Best Director at Cannes in 2000 for Yi Yi, which would prove to be his final film. The same year, Yang was diagnosed with colon cancer, and died in 2007.
A new Blu-ray release of Taipei Story was announced earlier this week by the Criterion Collection, scheduled for release in May, where it will join A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi. The HKIFF's retrospecitve will give audiences a rare opportunity to revisit all of his works on the big screen, as part of the festival's 41st edition, which runs from 11-25 April 2017.