2006 Korea Film Festival Opens in London

The 2006 Korea Film Festival will open in London September 27.

Organized by the Korean Culture Center in the U.K. and the Korea Culture & Content Agency, this year's festival will mark the year of mutual visits to South Korea and the U.K. The festival will screen eight domestic hit movies and four anime films for families with the aim of raising British public interest in Korean films. The eight films include "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", "Marathon", "Welcome to Dongmakgol", "April Snow" and "Crying Fist", among others. The anime films include "Pororo to the Cookie Castle", "Shark Bait" and "Hammer boy".

"Typhoon" directed by Kwak Gyeong-taek, who had previously been invited to the London Film Festival for his movies Friend and "Mutt Boy", has been selected as the opening film of the Korea Film Festival.

After the screening of "Typhoon" on the first day of the festival, the film's director will meet with audiences at a talk show that will be hosted by a film critic from the British newspaper The Independent.

Families with children will be able to have free Polaroid pictures taken of them with the Pororo animation character on September 30 and in front of the theater on October 1. All anime films will be screened free of charge.

The Korea Film Festival was previously introduced in Britain at the London Film Festival, with about a dozen Korean movies shown in British theaters through the British distributor Tartan, including "Old Boy", "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring", "A Bittersweet Life" and "Untold Scandal".

The Korean Culture Center in London said Korean films have been gaining recognition among British viewers recently, with a rising number of British fans of actor Song Kang-ho, the lead actor of the film "Memories of Murder", and director Park Chan-wook, who directed "Old Boy" and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance".

The center also added that it will hold the festival every year, screening adult and children's films to raise interest in Korean films among both children and adults, and hold a touring festival next year to screen Korean films in major British cities. The center is also considering charging viewers for tickets.