Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Film Festival Ajosshi

I'm feeling as giggly as a schoolgirl today as I've spent a fair while flicking through the Jeonju International Film Festival Catalogue picking films to watch. Thanks to the delightful 10 Magazine, I'm the proud owner of a press pass for this year's festival and with any luck I'll be seeing the following films whilst I'm down in Jeonju...

First off - Anyang, Paradise City the first feature film from Park Chan-wook's brother Park Chan-kyong (fresh from winning the Golden Bear at Berlin for his and his brother's short iPhone film Night Fishing). An interesting mix of documentary and fiction as he looks at "disasters such as factory fire accident, flood, temple site excavation, folk tale religion, and native history". I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm excited to see what he's created.

Next - The True Taste Show from Kim Jae-hwan, a film dealing with reality tv's portrayal of restaurants and the reality that lies behind it.

My third film is something a little more famous - Inside Job, the Oscar winning documentary by Charles Ferguson dealing with the financial crisis of 2008. Narrated by Matt Damon, it has received rave reviews and promises to be an excellent watch.



Continuing on the documentary theme, number four is - Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog's 3D exploration of the Chauvet cave in southern France that contains some of the world's oldest art. Herzog has proved himself to be superb documentary maker over the years and I'm curious to see if he can make good use of 3D where so many others have failed.



Next up is the Anifest Shorts collection. One Japanese and four Korean animated films. Midori-ko, Interview, Demag, Camels and Running Egg. No idea what to expect.

Then onto another documentary, this time Planet of Snail, a Korean film, directed by Yi Seung-jun, dealing with the life of a deaf-blind man and his attempts to communicate with the outside world. The trailer below convinced me that I had to see this unusual tale.



Another animation, this time from Columbia - Little Voices, a 3D docu-animation using Columbian children's pictures to tell their stories about war torn life. Based on director Jairo Carrillo's 2003 short film, it promises to be a little different to your average kid's cartoon.



And finally I get the chance to see one of my favourite Korean films on the big screen - Nowhere to Hide. This 1999 thriller is Lee Myung-se's masterpiece and is a must see for anyone interested in Korean cinema.



If any of you, my dear readers, happen to be down in Jeonju for the festival at the end of this month then let me know, hopefully I'll see you there.

In the meantime I'll leave you with my favourite scene from Nowhere to Hide.

No comments: