Film festivals aim to offer new experience

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Three festivals - Puchon International Film Festival, Jecheon International Music and Film Festival, Chungmuro International Film Festival - are aiming to attract moviegoers.

Unlike general-purpose movie events, the Puchon, Jecheon and Chungmuro film festivals rightly focus on providing genre movies that offer new cinematic pleasures.

The Puchon International Film Festival kicked off its run on Thursday with the Japanese action thriller "M.W." The opener was based on manga series by the late Osamu Tezuka, dubbed the "father of anime" in Japan. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the late Tezuka`s birth.

PiFan will screen some 200 films from 41 countries through July 26 under the theme "Love, Fantasy, Adventure." The festival name still uses the older spelling for the host city of Bucheon.

Celebrating its 13th anniversary this year, PiFan organizers said the event pays special attention to horror films, focusing on the unlucky number 13. Since its birth in 1997, PiFan has grown steadily, focusing on various genres of horror, thriller, mystery, animation and fantasy.



PiFan gives out six awards in its official competition section, the Puchon Choice Feature, selected by five jurors led by renowned British film critic and screenwriter Tony Rayns.

A total of 38 films will be screened for the first time in the PiFan, which consists of eight sections: Puchon Choice, World Fantastic Cinema, Fantastic Short Films, Forbidden Zone, Family Fanta, Ani-Fanta, Special Programs and Retrospectives.

Meanwhile, movie buffs are expected to flock to Jecheon, where a special combination of music and film unfolds.

The fifth annual Jecheon International Music and Film Festival will kick off its six-day schedule on Aug. 13. The opening film is "The Soloist" by Joe Wright, which tells the real-life story of a homeless Julliard trained musician.

The festival will select the winner of its 10 million won ($7,700) grand prize from 10 music-related films in the international competition section. "Anvil`s Heavy-metal Story" and "Dancing Zoo" are among the candidates this year, with the winner to be screened as the closing film.

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The festival, to be held at the multiplex theater TTC Cinema, Jecheon Media Center and Cheongpung Lake Stage, is Asia`s first music-oriented film event where moviegoers and music devotees can enjoy both.

This year`s Cine Symphony section, a selection of recent films whose central theme is music, will feature 11 works. Sixteen music documentaries will be screened in the Music in Sight section.

Korean music director Chung Sung-jo will receive the Jecheon Film Music Award, established to honor the accomplishments of local film music masters who have had significant influence on the film and music culture of Korea.

When the summer vacation season races toward its end in late August, the Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul will attempt to extend the excitement for movie fans.

The festival will run from Aug. 24 through Sept. 1 in major theaters and art houses in central Seoul. The opener is "New York, I Love You," a collective work of 11 short romance films which was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall.

This year marks the third anniversary of the event sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and named after a district in the city known as the centre of Korea`s film industry.

"Chungmuro is the very birthplace of Korean movies, and we should revitalize this culturally important area to boost the brand value of Korean films," said Jung Dong-il, chief organizer of CHIFFS.

"The film festival has successfully solidified its foundation in the past two years, partly due to the support from the local and central governments, and we plan to hand over the operations to Korean filmmakers from the fifth edition," Jung said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Jung said audiences will also be invited to retrospectives of Korean actor Shin Sung-il and the late U.S. actress Marilyn Monroe.

Asian action films will be screened in the Cine Asia section, while Cine Forum and All That Cinema sections will be screening rare art films from South America and the Czech Republic.

(insight@heraldm.com)



By Yang Sung-jin