By JU Sung-chul “Taekwondo martial-arts films,’ a genre that was once considered to be extinct is now waiting to be introduced to the public once again. The film is The Kick , with Taekwondo and K-Pop as its concepts, with the participation by Ong Bak action choreographing team, which is responsible for providing fresh, astonishment to the global [...]

“Per Jai Mak (I’m very satisfied)!” A calm orchid-like smile illuminated the face of director BANJONG as the staff screening came to an end. At the end of July, 2010, the monsoon was about to start in Bangkok and the air was humid as ever. However, the screening room at Bangkok’s film company GTH, packed with 20-something staff members, was filled with curiosity and tension.

A taciturn Asian male lead kisses a tomboyish blond girl. Western cowboys fire guns to the rhythm of Samul-nori, a Korean traditional music with 4 different percussion instruments, and an Asian warrior swings his sword to rhythm of an electric guitar.

When the Korean cinema was still at its infancy, CHUNG Chang-wha was dominant in the Hong Kong film industry and made his name famous at the world stage. His movie Five Fingers of Death created a sensation for topping the US box office over The Poseidon Adventure in 1973 and the movie also stormed the European box offices.

After the success of his 2008 debut feature film The Chaser, great expectations were put upon director NA Hong-jin’s shoulders as he was quickly urged to follow up on his psychopath action thriller. The film starred HA Jung-woo as a serial killer pursued by KIM Yoon-suk as an ex-cop running a “massage service” who is trying to catch him and save one of his girls.

Attention on Korean films started to increase as news of awards flew in ceaselessly from overseas film festivals and Korean Wave (dubbed ‘Hanryu’) swept all across Asia. However the heat slowly began to cool down after hitting its peak in 2005 and 5 years have already passed.

Since 1984, the Korean Academy of Film Art (KAFA) has been a leading film school in Korea which raised many filmmakers. KAFA trained student to produce from a short to a long feature with the condition like a field. And IM Sang-soo, HUR Jin-ho, BONG Joon-ho, KIM Tae-young, CHOI Dong-hoon are the directors who were trained and learn at KAFA. KAFA has held the KAFA SHOWCASE since 2007, which is a presentational screening of KAFA students’ works.

‘Cultural discount’ is a concept used as an index for calculating the possibility of cultural exchange between regions. It is believed to indicate the rate of acceptance of a cultural product from a particular region by others. For example, pansori, a traditional Korean folk performance, has a high rate of cultural discount, which means that it is not easily translated or accepted in non-Korean territories.

Passing through the most dramatic shifts in Korean film history, BAE Changho has been a hit film director and writer, moving from popular mainstream to independent genres, slowly transforming during the last 30 years as a cine-artist who’ve captured the essence of Korean sentiments in his films. At the peak of his success, BAE had pondered on film aesthetics and cinematic authenticity, which he continues to do even today.

The 15th PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) is taking place from Oct. 7th to 15th. PIFF, which has emerged as the largest Asian film festival, will provide a chance to prospect the flow of not only Asian but also world film trends. The 15th PIFF is also meaningful in rounding up the growth of Korean films which is strongly rising from a slump of the industry. KIM Sang-yong, Korean cinema programmer of PIFF, talks about noteworthy Korean movies including aspects of Asian Film Market being held from October 10th to 13th.