The Kaohsiung City Government has long found off the encroachment of the cultural desert, especially where film is concerned. The first Kaohsiung Film Festival will unspool 37 films from Korea, Japan, India and Thailand at the city's San Do Cinema (三多影城) starting today and continuing for the next eight days.
The film festival is focused on Asian films and organizer said this year's event will concentrate specifically on the development of Korean cinema. It will also play host to an international symposium on that trendiest of film topics; joint investment and the post-Crouching Tiger phenomena of how to market Asian films to the rest of world. Most appealing to film fans, though, is the price of admission to screenings. NT$99 buys you a ticket to any film and NT$400 will buy five tickets.
The festival opens with two unconventional romances: One Fine Spring Day, by Korean director Hur Jin-ho, and Monsoon Wedding - which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival - by female director Mira Nair. Monsoon Wedding Centers around a young woman's large, complex family. A joyful and colorful film, it received shouts of "Bravo!" from its Venice audience.
Closing the event will be Taiwanese talent Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) What Time is it There (你那邊幾點) and Chang Yun-hyon's big-budget Korean thriller Tell Me Something, which broke box office records back home.
The festival's other big draw is sure to be the international film seminar on Sunday. There will be producers, investors and bankers discussing co-funding for Asia films.
Leaflets for the festival with programs and schedules are available at Eslite Bookstores, the Kaohsiung Cultural Center and all the Acer ticketing outlets.
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