Twin festivals present films produced in mainland China

Features

Published: 01 Sep. 2006, 21:24

Twin festivals present films produced in mainland China

Korea’s fall kicks off with the addition of a new Asian film festival, the “CJ China Film Festival,” in Seoul and Busan. The Seoul festival began yesterday and runs until Sept. 5; in Busan from Sept 4 through 6.
A total of 20 Chinese films, all from mainland of China, represent 100 years of Chinese film history divided into five generations. Unlike Hong Kong movies, it is difficult to see films made in mainland China, due to the Chinese government’s rigid cultural control.
Korean actress Kim Hee-sun and Chinese actor Chen Kun attended the festival opening in Seoul, Chen will also be at the Busan opening. Chinese directors Lu Chuan, Ma Li Wen and Huang Jian Xin will hold question and answer sessions after the screenings of their respective movies.
The opening film at the Yongsan CGV theater was “The Missing Gun” (2000, directed by Lu Chuan). The closing film is “You and Me” (2005, directed by Ma Li Wen). Director Lu Chuan is a new director and, in his first film, “The Missing Gun,” he expresses the suspense and mystery between the past and the present and between popularity and artistry. Ma Li Wen, another talented new director, said her second film, “You and Me,” is based on her own experience and summarized the plot as “one landscape, two people and four seasons.” At the CGV Seomyeon theater in Busan, “The Music Box” (2006, directed by Chen Yi Fei and Wu Si Yuan) will be the opening film and “Goddess” (1934, directed by Wu Yong Gang) will close the festival. “The Music Box” depicts the life of a barber from the time of China’s anti-Japanese struggle to its liberation. Chen, the original director, died last year so his friend Wu Si Yuan finished producing the film.
Movie fans who attend “Stand Up, Don’t Bend Over” (1992, directed by Huang Jian Xin) will also get to meet the director after the film. The film follows three families undergoing radical changes during the revolutionary reformation.

by Sun young Chang

Tickets can be purchased on-line from the Web site www.cgv.co.kr or from CGV Yongsan in Seoul or CGV Seomyeon in Busan. Admission to each film costs 3000 won, or $3.17, per person. Cards for 30,000 won (limited to 50 cards only) allow unlimited viewings at CGV Yongsan during the festival. CGV Yongsan is located at Shinyongsan subway station, line No.4, exit 4. To get to CGV Seomyeon, take the Busan subway to either Beomnaegol station, line No.1, exit 6, or Jeonpo station, line No.2, exit 1.