FESTIVALS
The restoration of The Black Magic with Buddha has also marked the beginning of the film’s rediscovery on the big screen.
After decades during which the film was primarily accessible through old video editions, the restoration process made it possible to bring The Black Magic with Buddha back before festival audiences, beginning with a series of screenings in late 2025.
These screenings form an important part of the film’s rediscovery: returning a rarely seen Hong Kong–Thai genre production to cinemas, introducing it to new audiences and allowing the restored film to circulate internationally once again.
L’ÉTRANGE FESTIVAL — PARIS, FRANCE
4 & 6 September 2025
The restored Mandarin Cut received its world premiere at the 31st edition of L’Étrange Festival in Paris.
Two screenings were held at the Forum des images, marking the first public presentations of the newly restored film and the beginning of its return to theatrical exhibition.
BANGKOK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL — THAILAND
5 & 8 October 2025
One month after its Paris premiere, the restored Mandarin Cut travelled to Thailand for two screenings at the Bangkok International Film Festival.
The return was particularly significant. The Black Magic with Buddha was shot principally in Thailand, with Thai locations, performers and local production support. Producer Gracy Tong remembers the film as a Hong Kong production made in close collaboration with Thailand, giving its return to Bangkok more than four decades later a special resonance.
The screenings brought the film back to the country in which most of its production had originally taken place, now presented to audiences in its restored form.
12 HOURS OF TERROR XIV — NASHVILLE, USA
19 October 2025
The film then crossed the Atlantic for its U.S. premiere at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, as part of the 14th edition of its all-night horror marathon, 12 Hours of Terror.
The Black Magic with Buddha was the final film of the marathon. Despite arriving at the end of an entire night of horror cinema, the theatre remained packed for the screening — an enthusiastic late-night audience discovering Lo Lieh’s film on the big screen more than forty years after its original release.
BETWEEN TWO VERSIONS
While the Mandarin Cut began its international festival life, restoration work continued in parallel.
The Mandarin restoration was brought to completion while the much more complex reconstruction of the Cantonese Cut continued over several months. Research into the surviving materials, comparison of the two edits and the recovery of missing Cantonese footage gradually revealed the extent to which the two versions represented distinct editorial configurations of the film.
The festival screenings therefore accompanied an ongoing restoration process rather than simply following its completion, allowing the film’s public rediscovery and its archival reconstruction to develop side by side.
SITGES — INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL OF CATALONIA
9 October 2026 — Sitges, Spain
Following the completion of the restoration work, The Black Magic with Buddha returns to the international festival circuit at the SITGES – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, where the restored Mandarin Cut is presented in the Brigadoon section.
The Sitges screening represents the latest stage in the theatrical rediscovery of a film that had remained difficult to see for decades.
A FILM RETURNING TO THE BIG SCREEN
Festivals play a central role in the rediscovery of The Black Magic with Buddha. Beyond the restoration of the film itself, theatrical screenings allow its imagery, practical effects and extraordinary mixture of horror, religion, grotesque comedy and fantasy to be experienced again in the context for which they were originally created.
From Paris to Bangkok, Nashville and Sitges, these screenings have begun a new chapter in the history of the film, opening the way for its continued circulation at festivals and cinematheques around the world.
This page will be updated as further festival screenings are announced.