The second edition of the Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul (CHIFFS) will bring a mixture of old and new to screens September 3rd, opening fittingly with director HIGUCHI Shinji's 2008 remake of a classic 1958 KUROSAWA Akira film, The Hidden Fortress. The curtain raiser and closing film will screen at the National Theater of Korea with the rest of the fest's 175 films screening at various venues across Chungmuro district, the traditional center of the Korean film industry.
This year adds a competition section to CHIFFS, bringing 13 contemporary features from around the world to compete for US$ 40,000 in prizes. Korean feature, Happiness by director
Heo Jin-ho will participate in this section alongside Johnny TO's Mad Detective (Hong Kong) , Qunshu GAO's Old Fish (China), and t...
MoreChungmuro in central Seoul used to be the of the local film industry, with the landmark Daehan Cinema one of Korea's first movie theaters.
However, as film production facilities and movie studios have moved out to other areas as well as multiplexes mushrooming in Seoul, it is now more remembered as a historic of symbolic center of Korean cinema.
Efforts have been underway to counter the phenomenon and an international film festival was launched last year to restore the fame of Chungmuro as the center of Korean filmmakers. This is the annual Chungmuro International Film Festival.
Last year, the festival emphasized the reinterpretation of classical movies from Korea and elsewhere, but this year's festival, to be held Sept. 3–11, is shifting its focus to more current films, which have the potential to become classics.
The film festival will feature 170 films from 40 countries at the Daehan Cinema, C...
MoreWhen the Chungmuro International Film Festival (CHIFFS) hit central Seoul last year, it was widely regarded as somewhat of a throwback festival. The event featured films dripping with nostalgia from when Chungmuro was the heart of the Korean film industry.
Longing for the past, however, can only take a festival so far. For the second edition, organizers drew up a list of films that not only reminisce over years gone by, but also look to the current film scene.
"Like last year, we wanted to still focus on older movies, but now we also want to expand to the current repertoire of movies", said festival planning chief
Cha Seung-jae at a press conference at Chungmuro's Daehan Cinema yesterday.
Yesterday, organizers of the festival announced ...
MoreTen Korean features will have their World Premiere at the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) this spring. Now in it's 9th edition the festival will run May 1st – 9th in the attractive and historical city of Jeonju, in North Jeolla province.
Korean highlights include documentary director
Kim Dong-won's latest, "63 Years On", about the 'comfort women' enslaved by the Japanese military in stations across Asia during WW2. The film provides an historical investigation along with interviews with victims still living in Korea, China, and the Philippines. KIM is best known for his 2003 film Repatriation which raised the documentary genre to commercial prominence in South Korea.
In the Korean Cinema on the Move section, presents 10 new independent features mostly by debut directors. Among the most interesting are "Synching Blue" by SEO Won-tae, a director whose shorts films have garnered praise for their visual arrangements. This HD feature is about a man who seeks comfort in adult web sites but is unable to function in a relationship with a real woman.
"Children of God" by director YI Seung-jun is a documentary about the coexistence of life and death along a holy river in Nepal where people go to cremate their loved ones. "My Dear Diary" by debut directing duo KIM Baek-joon and JEONG Seong...
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