Following up his well-received 2021 feature A New Old Play , Sichuan-reared Chinese writer-director Qiu Jiongjiong continues to deploy heightened artifice and quasi-theatrical mannerisms (painted stage sets, rippling cloths representing water, actors in wacky costumes playing astral bodies or dogs, and so on) with his eccentric but addictive latest, Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting .

Although Fuxi runs a trim 135 minutes compared to New Old Play ’s three-hour run time, Qiu still manages to cover more than 2,000 years of myth, history and mythic history with a quartet of stories that revolve around special meals and banquets.…