By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Ten rising South Korean filmmakers present seriocomic stories about money matters in the omnibus project "
Short! Short! Short! 2009": Show Me the Money.
As much as the opening film for the 10th Jeonju International Film Festival is about money, the tight budget for the project ($5,000 per director) is most palpable. The screaming individuality and experimentalism of each episode compensate, but commercial prospects seem slight and the flick will most likely find a small niche in arthouse cinemas.
The omnibus reel opens with
Choi Ik-hwan's one-cut flick "Our Last Words, Live". The "
Life is Cool" director offers a mock home video featuring two despairing young men, who, defrauded, bankrupt and about to get arrested for false charges, try to assert their innocence by recording their last words on tape before committing suicide. But life ― and death ― are often beyond one's control.
In "A Tip for Cigarettes" by Nam Da-jeon, a news reporter stages a story about teenage smoking. What seemed simple enough ― paying an underage smoker to act like she is askin...
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Jeonju, a city about three hours southwest of Seoul, is known for its welcoming citizenry, its signature dish bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables with gochujang, red pepper paste) and some of Korea's loveliest surviving pre-modern architecture and folk culture.
In Korea's beautiful springtime, the city with the heart of a small town gets more cosmopolitan as it hosts the Jeonju International Film Festival, commonly known as JIFF.
The festival has made its name by sticking to its principle of focusing on promising digital, independent and experimental films, whereas most international film festivals usually boast their number of world or national premieres.
The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The 10th Jeonju International Film Festival will be held from Apr. 30 through May 8, featuring 200 films from 42 countries.
The festival will open with "
Short! Short! Short! 2009", a digital omnibus film about Korean society being obsessed with money.
The film, which intersperses humor with satire, was created by 10 up-and-coming Korean directors, including
Kim Young-nam (previous work "
Don't Look Back"),
Choi Ik-hwan ("...
More10th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) to Be Held April 30-May 8
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
In 2000, Jeonju, a small town in North Jeolla Province with a reputation for traditionally Korean things, became home to one of the country's most future-thinking film festivals. Over the first decade of the new millennium, the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) has grown to become a major attraction for independent and art house cinema ― as "the Locarno Film Festival of Asia".
JIFF celebrates its 10th birthday from April 30 to May 8 with a record lineup of 200 films from 42 countries. In addition to showcasing rare-to-see films from different corners of the world, various projects and events await festivalgoers for the special anniversary.
One of the JIFF's unique features is that it commissions special films for the annual event, festival director Min Byung-lock told The Korea Times, Tuesday, in Seoul. This year, Korea's
Hong Sang-soo, Japan's
Naomi Kawase and the Philippines'
Lav Diaz take part in JIFF's hallmark program, Jeonju Three Digital Shorts Project (
"Visitors"). Each year, the festival offers 50 million won to each of the three directors selected to produce a 30-minute work for the digital omnibus film.
"The Jeonju Three Digital Shorts Project has been like JIFF's faithful child", said Min. In 2007, the digital project won the Jury Award at Locarno. "It was the first time an omnibus film ever won the prestigious prize, and the Jeonju Festival became internationally known because of it. We received positive feedback from foreign cineastes, who urged us to push on with this project which gives filmmakers an opportunity to experiment", he said. For the festival's anniversary, a special DVD set of all 27 shorts made over the years will be on sale.
This year's event opens with another specially commissioned project, "...
MoreIn late April, Iron Man arrived in the Korean cinema, smashing the box office into very profitable pieces. In mid-May, Prince Caspian took the baton and kept up the pressure on Korean competitors. Last weekend, whip-wielding Indy joined the Hollywood-only party, roped in plenty of movie tickets sales.
The bombardment of Hollywood films dragged down the share of Korean films to a record low. But the bleak development was widely predicted since only a couple of new Korean releases were made. June might be slightly different, as eight Korean movies are set for release.
"
Girl Scout", directed by
Kim Sang-man, will hit theaters on June 5, featuring well-known actors such as
Kim Seon-ah,
Nah Moon-hee,
Lee Kyeong-sil. The film will test whether the audiences still have an appetite for a chase-the-money drama with fewer funny moments than publicized.
Waiting in line for the June 12 release are four Korean films: "
Life is Cool", "
Beyond All Magic",
"Spare" and
"Like Father, Like Son". "
Life is Cool", directed by
Choi Ik-hwan, will introduce a love story where three men fall in love with the same woman. The film uses "anigraphics", putting together conventional shooting of real actors and animation.
Kim Soo-ro,
Kang Seong-jin,
Kim Jin-soo play three close friends competing for the affec...
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