The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) kicks off today in Pusan, South Korea. It’s one of the biggest and glitziest film festivals in Asia and it’s projected to attract nearly 200,000 people. It’ll have a handful of American entertainers dropping by to promote their films. Leading the way will be Josh Hartnett who will be in Pusan to talk about “I Come with the Rain,” a film that co-stars him and Lee Byung-Hun, who was Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe this past summer. Justin Chon of Twilight fame is to make an appearance as well as a few other Korean-American actors. Other Hollywood folks that will be making appearances are Bryan Singer (director of “X-Men” and “The Usual Suspects”) and Jon Landau (producer of “Titanic”).
PIFF head of programming Park Do-Sin says the festival is “the window to the world for Asian films”.
“Many independent and artistic films from Asian regions have been presented here and have gone on to achieve worldwide attention,” he said.
The programme boasts 98 world premieres among its 355 scheduled films from 70 countries, as the PIFF fights back against growing competition from elsewhere in the region.
Update: The stars were out last night at one of the premiere entertainment events in Asia at the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF). On opening night last night was Josh Hartnett walking down the red carpet with his co-star from “I come with the Rain,” Lee Byung Hun. It must’ve been difficult for Josh being surrounded by a bunch of Koreans who can’t speak to much English. I’m sure he had fun nonetheless. Also on hand from America was Kim Yun-Jin of “Lost” fame. There are a lot of beautiful people in Korean entertainment.
