Busan Film Festival, Successful with Tony Leung, Welcomes Chow Yun-fat This Year

Screening 269 Films from 69 Countries... Budget Reduced by 2.1 Billion
Host Song Kang-ho as the Opening Ceremony Closer

The Busan International Film Festival invited Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat (Jou Yun-pa) this year, following Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Leung Chiu-wai), who led last year's box office. Actor Song Kang-ho will step in to fill the vacant positions of chairman and executive committee chairman at this year’s opening ceremony.

Nam Dong-cheol, acting executive committee chairman and chief programmer, stated at the online press conference for the 28th Busan International Film Festival held on the afternoon of the 5th, "Following Tony Leung last year, this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year award recipient, the elder brother representing Hong Kong cinema, Chow Yun-fat, will visit Busan."

Chow Yun-fat Photo by EPA·Yonhap News

Chow Yun-fat’s new film One More Chance will be screened at the outdoor theater, and his representative works A Better Tomorrow (1987) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) will also be shown to audiences. Programmer Nam said, "I believe many people still vividly remember A Better Tomorrow."

Regarding the consecutive awarding of the Asian Filmmaker of the Year to Hong Kong actors following last year, Programmer Nam explained, "We reviewed many films before making the selection," adding, "We judged that a great actor with undeniable achievements deserves appropriate encouragement and applause."

Song Kang-ho will play a leading role as a representative figure welcoming guests at this year’s Busan International Film Festival opening ceremony. Programmer Nam said, "This year’s Busan International Film Festival must be held with the positions of executive committee chairman and operations committee chairman vacant. Despite the difficult situation, Song Kang-ho willingly stepped forward to help the festival in these challenging times. He is expected to welcome many filmmakers."

This year’s Busan International Film Festival will screen 269 films from 69 countries at the Busan Cinema Center, CGV Centum City, Lotte Cinema Centum City, and Lotte Cinema Daeyoung. The number of screenings has decreased compared to last year (354 films from 71 countries).

The budget is 10.9 billion KRW, down from last year’s 13 billion KRW. Kang Seung-ah, acting operations committee chairman, explained, "Due to the situation, there were some difficulties securing sponsors, which led to a reduced budget." This year’s festival emphasizes selection and concentration. Programmer Nam said, "We will prepare by focusing on events directly related to films, such as screenings."

[Photo by Yonhap News]

The opening film is Jang Kun-jae’s I Hate Korea, and the closing film is Ning Hao’s Emperor of the Cinema. Other notable films meeting audiences include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, which made waves at the Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach’s My Old Oak, and Luc Besson’s Dogman.

The festival will screen To Jini, featuring the last interview of the late Sulli (Choi Jin-ri), who passed away in 2019. This is a Netflix original work known under the title Persona: Sulli. It remained an unreleased work after Sulli’s passing in October 2019 and will be unveiled in Busan this year.

The Korea American Special Exhibition will also be held. Director Lee Isaac Chung and actress Youn Yuh-jung from the film Minari, director Justin Chon of Apple TV+’s Pachinko, and John Cho from the film Searching will attend. Additionally, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, Japanese director Shunji Iwai of Kyrie’s Song, and director Ryusuke Hamaguchi of Drive My Car will visit Busan.

The 28th Busan International Film Festival will be held for ten days from October 4 to 13 around the Busan Cinema Center area.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.