Qiu Jiongjiong’s Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting has premiered in the Tokyo International Film Festival competition. Conceived during the pandemic, the film connects four historical periods through meals. Its Taiwanese cast learned Sichuan’s Leshan dialect, with Lee Kang-sheng playing elderly women and Lee Hong-chi portraying the poet Su Dongpo.
Chinese painter and filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong’s Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting is competing at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film had its first screening there on October 29, followed by a discussion with Qiu and cast members Lee Kang-sheng, Lee Hong-chi, Annie Chen and Wang Hai.[1], [2]
Qiu began developing the idea during the pandemic, when gathering around a table and returning to everyday life felt especially desirable. The film follows four short stories in chronological order, with meals recurring across different eras. Each chapter uses its own fantastical language to approach eating. Qiu described food as a way into questions of life and death.[1]
This structure differs from Qiu’s earlier feature A New Old Play, which followed an individual’s personal history. Fuxi instead moves between four periods, giving each of its short stories a place within that longer chronology.[1]
All dialogue uses the Leshan dialect of Sichuan province. Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng plays elderly women in two eras, including a dying grandmother in the prehistoric chapter. He said he faced extensive dialogue in a dialect he did not understand. He and Taiwanese actor Lee Hong-chi, who plays Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo, worked with dialect coaches. Fuxi is Qiu’s first feature made with professional actors.[1]
