BUSAN, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- The ongoing Pusan film festival on Sunday inaugurated a business market dedicated to Asian works, giving it momentum to become a center for the regional cinema industry.
The Asian Film Market brought together some 2,000 movie industry personnel from around the world, including giant distributors Toho-Towa Co. and Shochiku Co. of Japan, organizers said.
"The Asian Film Market will be a complete marketplace for those interested in Asian movies, both artistic and commercial, and those who are really interested in signing deals with them", said Park Kwang-su, the market's director and a film director who made "A Single Spark -- Jeon Tae-il", an acclaimed real story of a laborer who gave his life to protest authoritarian suppression.
The Asian Film Market will have sales booths set up by 156 companies from 40 countries during the four-day event at the Grand Hotel along Haeundae Beach. Asian stars and their management companies will join the sales pitch.
"We hope that people will come to think they can do any kind of Asian film business when they come to Busan", Park said.
Famous Asian actors from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and even Hollywood are visiting Busan to attend press conferences, screenings and parties of the Asian Film Market.
Riding on the boom of cross-border productions and casts in Asia, the film market provides a special program introducing actors and their management to global producers and directors. Its guest list includes Hwang Jeong-min ("Blood Ties") and Jang Jin-yeong ("Blue Swallow"), Japan's Kashii Yu ("Starlit High Noon") and Hayato Ichihara, and China's Guo Xiaodong ("Summer Palace") and Zhou Xun ("The Banquet"), as well as Vietnam's Do Thi Hai Yen ("Story of Pao"). Actors of Korean descent working in Hollywood, like Leonardo Nam ("The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift") and Will Yun Lee ("Elektra") will also make appearances.
The Asian film industry has produced an increasing number of movies with joint investments and cross-border casts. The latest such film is "Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon", a co-production planned by South Korean and Chinese firms and directed by Daniel Lee and starring Andy Lau and Maggie Q.
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