Film industry stars and movie fans from all four corners of the globe have gathered on Korea′s southern coast for this year′s Busan International Film Festival... or BIFF as it′s also known.
It′s an even grander event this time around as the festival marks its 20th anniversary.
Our Kim Ji－yeon is there and she filed this report.
″The southern port city of Busan brims with excitement. Visitors crane their necks to get a glimpse of their favorite stars. The Busan International Film Festival is regarded as one of the largest film festivals in Asia... featuring more than 3－hundred films from 75 countries this year.″
The opening piece is ″Zubaan″ about a young man who takes on a journey to answer questions of life′s important values.
What′s surprising is that the festival′s opening piece is a debut film by Indian director Mozez Singh.
The decision to have ″Zubaan″ as the opening piece clearly reflects the significance the festival has for promising Asian directors like Singh to gain international recognition.
″The word ′Zubaan′ means mouth， it means tongue， it means speech， it means language. And it also means promise like I give you my word I give you my ′Zubaan.′ And in this film it means all of those things because the film is about music， the film is about keeping secrets， the film is about music being the language that connects all of these people together that connects the key characters to god that connects Sarah′s character to her brother.″
Some of the special events taking place to commemorate the festival′s 20th anniversary includes a special exhibition of the top 100 Asian movies including Thai film the ″Cemetery of Splendour″ by award－winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
The festival will close with Chinese director Larry Yang′s ″Mountain Cry″... based on the award－winning novel of the same title.
Kim Ji－yeon， Arirang News， Busan.
