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Ang Lee will screen his new movie Lust, Caution at the Venice Film Festival. PHOTO: AP

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's (馮小剛) new war story The Assembly will debut as the opening movie at Pusan International Film Festival in October, organizers said Tuesday.

The Assembly is an adaptation of a short story about a soldier who seeks recognition for his comrades who fell during the Chinese civil war in 1949 between the Communists and the Chinese Nationalist Party, which retreated to Taiwan.

The movie has South Korean ties ?- it's a co-production between China's Huayi Brothers and South Korea's MK Pictures and its special effects were produced by computer artists who worked on the 2004 South Korean war movie Taegukgi.

One of China's most successful commercial directors, Feng's credits include A World Without Thieves（天下?賊), The Banquet (夜宴) and Cell Phone (手机). His next feature is a comedy called Royalty in Chinese, about wealthy people in Beijing.

Busan organizers also announced that the festival will close with a showing of the Japanese animated movie, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, a movie version of a 1995 TV animation series. The film was directed by Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki and Masayuki.

The Venice Film Festival opened its 75th anniversary edition Wednesday with a world-wide premiere competition for the coveted Golden Lion and a cascade of stars including George Clooney, Keira Knightley and Woody Allen.

The organizers of the festival reached out to young directors this year. Opening the 11-day festival is Atonement, the screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's best-selling novel. Venice closes Sept. 8 with the Hong Kong-Taiwanese gangster-thriller Blood Brothers (天堂口) by first-time director Alexi Tan (陳奕利).

But some Venice veterans will be making a return, including Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (李安), who, two years after previewing Brokeback Mountain at the Lido returns with Lust, Caution (色，戒), a Chinese-language spy-thriller set in World War Two.

This year's lineup boasts some of the most eagerly anticipated new films of the fall film season. Under director Marco Mueller, who took over four years ago, the festival has also earned a reputation for spawning major award contenders: films launched at Venice over the last three years have garnered 51 Oscar nominations.

This year's selection is heavily weighted toward Anglo-American productions with an unprecedented seven English-language films.

Mueller has been criticized for being under Hollywood's sway, but he has said that some of the strongest films were emerging from the English-language world, often grappling with the issues of politics and war.

The theme is expressed in Brian De Palma's oddly titled Redacted, a series of stories about US soldiers in Iraq, and Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah, which tells the tale of an Iraq War veteran gone missing after his return from a tour of duty.

Also vying for the top prize at Venice are Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney in a legal drama about a corporate firm battling a class-action lawsuit, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Shepherd.

Woody Allen premieres his Cassandra's Dream, which is showing out of competition. Starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, it tells the story of two brothers - one a chronic gambler and another in love with a beautiful actress - who try to improve their lives and become entangled in a sinister situation.

Kenneth Branagh is presenting a remake of the 1972 film Sleuth, with Michael Caine appearing, this time as a wealthy writer engaged in a battle of wits with a young actor having an affair with his wife. Jude Law reprises Caine's 1972 role as the younger man.

Asia is, as always, well-represented in Venice, with four movies in the main competition. Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike will be showing his Sukiyaki Western Django, a Japanese interpretation of the Italian Spaghetti Western of the 1960s and 1970s - a complement to the Spaghetti Western retrospective being held on the festival sidelines.

American director Tim Burton will be presented with a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement by Johnny Depp, who starred in such Burton creations as Edward Scissorhands. 

- agencies

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