According to the film distribution agency Showeast on Jan. 5, director Chen Kaige, actress Cecilia Cheung and actor Hiroyuki Sanada will come to Seoul before the new fantasy feature film entitled The Promise starring Jang Dong-gun is released in the country on Jan. 26.

They will attend a press conference along with Jang after watching a preview of the film to be shown at Daehan Cinema on Jan. 19 at 2:00 p.m.

The Promise was produced by Chen to target the global film market. It was already released in Chinese-speaking areas suc...More

A promotion of Korean films will be launched at the American Film Market (AFM) in early November. The AFM, the world's largest trade fair for films, will be held in Santa Monica in the U.S. on Nov. 2-9.

Public and private Korean agencies will proactively engage in the promotion of Korean films at the event by jointly opening a PR hall for Korean films. Such agencies include the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), as well as nine private film distribution agencies.

The AFM is the world's largest trade fair for independent films, where about 500 million dollars' worth of films and TV products are produced and distributed annually. It is held under the sponsorship of the ITFA, a global agency of independent film and TV program producers and distributors. About 7,000 independent film producers from around ...More

The movie "April Snow", starring actor Bae Yong-joon, will be shown in China with Chinese subtitles at the enthusiastic request of the actor's Chinese fans.

The movie's investor and distributor Showeast said the Chinese distributor of "April Snow" will show the movie with Chinese subtitles at selected theaters. The decision not to dub the movie into Chinese was made because the actor's Chinese fans flooded the firm with requests to allow them to hear Bae's original voice.

"That is quite unprecedented in China, where even Hollywood movies are dubbed into Chinese", said a person from Showeast.

Chinese audiences generall...More

Following his exploding popularity in Japan, actor Bae Yong-joon, nicknamed "Yonsama" in Japan, is now set to take China by storm as well. Bae will make his first official visit to China on Nov. 11 along with director Heo Jin-ho to promote the movie "April Snow" prior to its opening in that country.

Bae was invited to China by Huaxia, the local distributor of "April Snow", and Ju...More

September 10, 2005 ㅡ Along the sunny beaches of the Adriatic, there are temptations other than blue waves and golden sunshine. The 62nd Venice Film Festival, currently under way on Lido Island, is raising the summer temperature by a degree with an Asian flavor. Movies from Asia have been selected for both opening and closing films, an honor that had been usually reserved for Hollywood. With Tsui Hark's "Seven Swords" ("Qi Jian") released as the opening film, the festival is due to wrap up with a Chinese musical by Peter Ho-sun Chan, titled "Perhaps Love".
Posters for Asian movies such as Park Chan-wook's "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", are easily spotted, and audiences swarmed in front of the theater for Japanese director Kitano Takesh's latest work. This year the cinema competition lives up to its status as an "international" film festival. "The selection of Asian cinema was not out of special consideration on our part, but a result of the rapid growth of the Asian movie industry", said festival director Marco Muller.
To festival insiders, "Seven Swords" is regarded as the product of a strategic alliance between Korea, China, Japan and Hong Kong. At t...More