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Int'l Awards Only the Start for Jeon, Kang

A crowd swarmed Haeundae Beach in Busan on Saturday, hoping to catch a glimpse of "the lady of Cannes" and "the lady of Venice". Kang Soo-yeon, winner of the Best Actress award at the 1987 Venice Film Festival for her role in "The Surrogate Woman", and Jeon Do-yeon, who won the same award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for "Secret Sunshine", were the star guests of an open talk show at the 12th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF).

Past open talk shows at PIFF have always included foreign actors. This was the first with only Korean actors, but the crowd was bigger than ever. Kang had high praise for Jeon, saying she is jealous of Jeon's acting skills. Jeon responded, "I've been a fan of Kang since her 1987 movie 'Springtime of Mi-mi and Cheol-su' and to be here with her now is a privilege for me".

Kang couldn't hold back her tears as she watched Jeon winning her award at Cannes on TV, she said. "When I saw her taking the platform, joy and tears welled up in my heart. I was very, very happy -- as if it was me who won the prize", Kang said. Jeon, meanwhile, was trying not to appear too tense. "I struggled to hide my nervousness", she told the crowd at Busan. "I tried to look confident so as not to freak out". She also congratulated her fellow Korean actors. "I may have won the award thanks to my predecessors' efforts", she said.

The audience at the talk show wanted to know about the actresses' dreams. Having accomplished so much, a college student asked Kang, what are her dreams now? "Attaining fame with one film does not mean success", Kang replied, as the audience clapped. "I feel like I take my first step whenever I start work on a new film. My dream is to keep acting into my 70s, like the actress of "The Way Home"". To the same question, Jeon said, "I want to be a respected actress even when I'm old. Like Kang, my dream is to keep trying to be a good actress".

"Teens have dreams for teenagers, middle-aged people have their own dreams, and seniors have their own dreams too, I think", Kang said to the young audience. "Holding on to our dreams and always trying to make them come true will make us happy". The weather forecast said a typhoon would be coming, but on Sunday Haeundae Beach was especially bright.

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