Monday, October 2, 2008

1
Monday, October 2, 2008
&
Pusan
daily
the
Q&A
How Kim Dong-ho
turned PIFF into
Asia’s premier
film festival.
SPECIAL WORLD
REPORT BEGINS
ON PAGE 7
Pusan
daily
the
Thursday,
October 2, 2008
THR.com/pusan
&
Dreams collide with
reality in Shinya
Tsukamoto’s
prequel
day
1
1
Looking East
Asia opens doors to best of West
By Gregg Kilday
L
‘Nightmare Detective 2’
By Maggie Lee
lthough “Nightmare Detective” and its sequel are both
directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, they are as different in
style as “Nightmare on Elm Street” is
REVIEW
from “The Devil’s Backbone.” Like Part 1,
“Nightmare 2” also deals with the paranormal phenomenon of murders committed in the realm of
dreams. But Tsukamoto has eschewed the bloodshed and
crude shock tactics of the original.
Functioning more as a prequel, the film unravels the secrets
continued on page 17
A
OS ANGELES —
“East is East,
and West is
West, and never
the ’twain shall
meet,” Rudyard Kipling
proclaimed in 1892. But more
than a century later, Hollywood
is determined to prove the
poet wrong.
This summer, DreamWorks
Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda,”
facing down criticism from
some quarters that it exploited
Chinese culture, became the
top-grossing animated film ever
at the Chinese boxoffice.
Hark’s ‘Women’stays home
By Karen Chu
Coming Friday: review of opening-night film “The Gift to Stalin”
150,000 in India film strike
By Nyay Bhushan
EW DELHI - About
150,000 Indian film
industry workers began an
indefinite strike Wednesday in
Mumbai protesting against low
wages, late payments and the
employment of non-union
members in Bollywood.
The strike was called by the
N
Federation of Western India Cine
Employees, a group that has
more than 20 affiliate unions
representing the interests of
actors, technicians and camera
operators, among others.
This was the first time in the
50 years of the federation’s existence that such a protest has
been staged. FWICE is hopeful
for an early resolution. ∂
Universal’s action
sequel “The
Mummy: Tomb of
the Dragon
Emperor” — a
co-production
with Shanghai
Film Studios,
Beijing Happy
Pictures and the
China Co-Production
Film Corp. — opened in
China in the wake of the Beijing
Olympics and pulled in $14 million in its first 14 days.
“There’s a tremendous awareness of American tentpole blockbusters, and there’s a tremendous
continued on page 19
ll About Women,” Hong
Kong director Tsui
Hark’s entry at the 13th
Pusan International Film Festival, has been withdrawn.
The film, produced by Beijingbased J.A. Media and Tsui’s Film
Workshop, is in the process of
obtaining a permit from the Chinese authorities for its release in
China, but it could not be
approved in time because of the
Chinese National Holidays, J.A.
Media vp marketing and strategy
Mandy Chong said Wednesday.
Chinese films can’t be
“A
screened outside the country
before being officially approved.
“Women” was scheduled to
hold its world premiere Saturday
as a gala presentation. It will not
be replaced in the lineup.
Tsui will make an appearance
at the festival Sunday to give a
master class. ∂
WHAT’S INSIDE
>Reviews. PAGE 16-17
>The Biz. Entertainment news
from around the world. PAGE 20
news
THR.com/pusan
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Fest focus on wider scope
By Steven Schwankert
Pusan Daily Edition
Office 115, Seacloud Hotel
Haeundae-Gu,
Busan, Korea 612-020
“The Gift
to Stalin”
K
azakhstan will plant
its flag firmly into
South Korean soil
tonight when Rustem
Abdrashev’s “The
Gift to Stalin” kicks off the
Pusan International Film Festival as the opening film.
It will be one of two times that
the Central Asian nation draws
the spotlight at the 13th annual
festival, which will feature 315
films from 60 countries, including 48 international premieres.
Producer Gulnara Sarsenova
(“Mongol”), who is based in
Kazakhstan, will receive the
Asian Filmmaker of the Year
Award on Monday night.
Richard Pena, program director at New York’s Lincoln Center, will get the Korean Cinema
Award. Both Sarsenova and Pena
will receive the awards on Asian
Filmmakers’ Night, which starts
at 10 p.m. at the Paradise Hotel.
Alongside the festival is the
third Asian Film Market, the
region’s top co-production and
film distribution event. It will
be stationed at the Paradise and
Seacloud hotels in Busan’s Hae-
Eric Mika
Publisher
Elizabeth Guider
Editor
David Morgan
Deputy Editor
Deeann J. Hoff
Director — Art
Asian Film Funds Forum will
feature presentations by leading
regional film-finance representatives, including Asian Film
Fund vp Bey Logan, Irresistible
Films director Buddy Marini
and RGM Entertainment CEO
Devesh Chetty. Asian Film
Funds Forum events will be held
at the Paradise.
AFM is presenting Korean
Producers In Focus with the
Producers Guild of Korea, featuring five films and a Korean
co-production panel, with producers from Korea, Thailand,
Japan and Hong Kong.
PIFF closes Oct. 10 with the
premiere of Yoon Jong-chan’s
“I Am Happy,” featuring Korean
television star Hyun Bin. ∂
undae Beach area.
Included in the AFM is the
11th Pusan Promotion Plan,
designed to support young, predominantly Asian filmmakers
with finance and distribution
options. Thirty films from 16
countries and territories were
selected from 200 applicants. It
will run Friday-Monday.
Also part of the AFM is the
three-day Asian Film Funds
Forum, which opens Friday
against the backdrop of global
financial uncertainty. Seminar
panelists include Continental
Entertainment Capital CEO Benjamin Waisbren, ACTI CEO Intaek Yoo and Irresistible Films
managing director Nansun Shi.
On Saturday and Sunday, the
‘Sparrow’flies highest at APSA noms
By Pip Bulbeck
SYDNEY — “The Sparrow,” a
crime adventure from Hong
Kong director Johnnie To and
part of the Pusan International
Film Festival’s A Window on
Asian Cinema sidebar, led the
way at the second Asia Pacific
Screen Awards with four nominations Tuesday.
Turkish film “Three Monkeys,” screening in PIFF’s World
feature “Waltz With Bashir”
(Israel), are co-productions
with European countries.
“Sparrow” also picked up
nominations for directing, cinematography and acting (Simon
Yam), while “Monkeys” also
received nods in the director
and cinematography categories.
Thirty-seven films from 17
countries will compete in nine
categories, with the winners to
be announced Nov. 11. ∂
Cinema section, received three
noms.
The films are in the running
for best feature film alongside
“Om Shanti Om” (India), “The
Red Awn” (China) and “Tulpan”
(Kazakhstan).
Six of the
nominated
films, including For a complete
“Monkeys,”
list of
“Tulpan” and
nominees
the animated
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q&a
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
Iconic French actress-writerdirector-producer-composer-singer
Anna Karina will bring her wide talents into play this year as head of the
Pusan International Film Festival’s
New Currents jury.Darling of the New
Wave,the Danish-born Karina first
came to prominence as the muse and
later wife of director Jean-Luc Godard.
She starred in many of his films,
notably “Pierrot le fou”and “Alphaville,” and also starred in films from
New Wave luminaries Agnes Varda
and Jacques Rivette.Karina’s second
film as director,“Victoria,” is being
presented in PIFF’s World Cinema section this year.On the eve of her first
trip to South Korea,she talked to
The Hollywood Reporter’s French
correspondent Charles Masters.
How are you approaching your
role as jury president in Pusan?
Anna Karina: It’s not the first time
I’ve been president of a festival
jury; I’ve done it several times
before. Obviously it’s an adventure because it takes place in a
country that I don’t yet know, so
I’m quite excited. I’ve heard a lot
of good things about this festival,
so it should be a wonderful
vital stats
Anna Karina
> HEAD OF NEW CURRENTS JURY
Nationality: French
Date of birth: Sept. 22, 1940
Film in Pusan: “Victoria”
(World Cinema)
Selected filmography: “The
Nun” (1966), “Pierrot le Fou”
(1965), “Alphaville” (1965), “The
Outsiders” (1964), “The Little
Soldier” (1963), “Cleo From 5 to 7”
(1962), “A Woman is a
Woman” (1961)
Notable awards: Cesar nomination best supporting actress,
“Cayenne Palace” (1988); Berlin
International Film Festival best
actress award, “A Woman is a
Woman” (1961)
French ones, played by JeanFrancois Moran and Emmanuel
Reichenbach. It’s a road movie
which recounts their adventures on tour and their
encounter with the mysterious
Victoria, who is played by me.
At times you wonder what’s
going on, but you don’t know
until the end. If you like, on one
level it’s a human manipulation;
she sort of kidnaps them. It’s a
micro-budget film that we shot
in 19 days. We must have covered 4,000 miles because Quebec is enormous. It’s an entirely
Canadian production produced
by Hejer Charf.
adventure. The first thing is to
see the films. I’m not going to tell
you how I work; I’ve got my own
little system. But I think you have
to speak with your heart, and we
have to agree among us which
are the three best films.
You’re going to see 14 films from
very diverse origins across the
wider Asia region. Are you familiar
with Asian cinema?
Karina: I know the kind of Asian
cinema that finds its way to
Paris. But I can’t say I know it as
well as French, Italian or other
European cinema because there
are fewer (Asian) releases here
(in France). But it’s a very interesting prospect to discover
these films. I hope they’re subtitled in English, otherwise I
won’t understand much.
This is your first film as writerdirector since “Living Together” in
1973. What made you go back
behind the camera?
1
Karina: I was on tour for 6 ⁄2
years with Philippe Katerine.
We met Hejer Charf in Spain
when we were giving a concert
in Bilbao, and she invited us to
Canada and said why don’t you
shoot the film here? She said
she’d produce it, so I wrote the
screenplay. At the last minute,
Katerine couldn’t participate in
the film as an actor, but he
wrote the music, because there
are songs in the film.
You’re also going to present your
latest film as director, “Victoria.”
What is the film about and how
did you come to make it?
Karina: In fact it was a film that
was initially destined to be
made with two French singers
and set in Quebec. It was going
to star Philippe Katerine, who’s
now a star in France. But he
couldn’t be in the film because
he went on tour. So I transposed
the story and found two Canadian singers to replace the two
cinema here in Pusan on Oct. 8.
What kind of lesson would you
like to give?
Karina: I don’t exactly how this
class will be structured. I suppose people will ask me questions and I’ll answer. It depends
what people ask, but I’ll try to
answer with my heart. You
know, everyone is so different in
this world that I don’t think you
should impose your point of
view. Life’s like a game of chess
with feelings. I started in cinema aged 14, so it’s been a long,
long road full of adventures and
good moments but also some
disappointments. We sometimes think we’ve made a good
film, but of the 80 or so films
I’ve made, they aren’t all masterpieces. It still gives me great
pleasure that I receive a lot of
letters from some very young
people, and when I present
films abroad its usually to audiences of between 15 and 35 years
old, which proves that films like
“Pierrot le fou” still have an
appeal, even for a 17-year-old
today. That gives me a lot of
pleasure.
For more
Q&A with
Anna Karina, go to THR.com/pusan.
You are giving a master class in
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| day 1
world
SPECIAL REPORT:
KIM DONG-HO
THR.com/pusan
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Fest
Man
Under the shrewd stewardship of
Kim Dong-ho,the Pusan International
Film Festival has rapidly become
Asia’s premier film showcase
By Mark Russell
SEOUL
CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES
— In 1995, Kim Ji-seok and his partners were at an
impasse. For three years they had worked on creating a major
film festival for Korea, a place where people could come and
see that there was more to cinema than Hollywood blockbusters and local melodramas. They chose Busan, the port
city on the southern end of the Korean Peninsula, to avoid the
egos and turf wars of Seoul, the nation’s sprawling capital.
But their ambitious plans never got much traction. Few
outside Korea’s then-tiny movie community knew who they
were, and without government or commercial support, raising the $2.5 million they needed for the festival was pretty
much impossible.
Clearly, they needed a representative, someone with the
clout and connections to open doors, help them navigate the
government’s Byzantine bureaucracy and force the powersthat-be to take the plans seriously. And so, on a hot August
afternoon in a fancy hotel lobby in Seoul, they asked Kim
Dong-ho to be their guide and festival director.
It would quickly prove a fortuitous choice.
Born in the mountainous Gangwon Province in 1937, Kim
graduated from Korea’s prestigious Seoul National University in
1961 and promptly joined the Ministry of Culture. He worked
there for 27 years, eventually rising to the rank of vice minister,
before serving stints as head of the Korea Motion Pictures
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| day 1
special world report | kim dong-ho salute
Promotion Corp. (the forerunner of the
Korea Film Council), the Korea Performance
Ethics Board and the Seoul Arts Center. In
short, he was the ultimate cultural insider.
Right away, Kim got to work in his new
role. The then-vice mayor of Busan was an
old friend, so Kim arranged a meeting.
That led to a meeting with the mayor himself and soon they had their first significant pledge of funding — more than
$400,000. Fundraising dinners and special
events were arranged, and within a few
months they had raised nearly all the
money they needed for that first festival.
On Sept. 13, 1996, the Pusan International Film Festival made its debut. It was
chaotic but undeniably successful, with
good would PIFF be if government scissors
could chop up offending ideas before anyone saw them?
Having led the Korea Performance Ethics
Board for a time (before being removed for
being too lenient), Kim knew just how the
organization worked. So he came up with a
novel two-pronged strategy: drink and
delay. Kim met often with review board
members and, while consuming more than
a few alcoholic beverages, asked for some
leniency and understanding. While Kim
played nice by night, the rest of the PIFF
staff did their best to gum up the works,
holding off answering the committee’s
questions for as long as possible and backlogging the whole process.
sional and educational events — including
the Asian Film Market, Pusan Promotion
Plan, and the Asian Film Academy — all
designed to improve the Korean and Asian
movie industries. And this year it will
break ground on the Busan Film Center,
the future home of PIFF.
“The thing about Kim that I love and
respect so much is that he’s the picture of
integrity,” said Richard Pena, program
director at the New York Film Festival and
Film Society of Lincoln Center. “The reason that PIFF gained so much respect so
quickly is that it set a high standard for
itself and it kept to it. I don’t think it was
just a mouthpiece for Korean cinema, it
was a mouthpiece for very good Korean
“My great pleasure and
honor was that first PIFF.
I will never forget it.”
184,000 people attending over the event’s
nine-day run.
“My great pleasure and honor was that
first PIFF,” Kim says. “I will never forget it.”
“There could have been no better front
man for PIFF than Kim Dong-ho,” film
critic and longtime PIFF adviser Tony
Rayns says. “(Kim was) extremely well
connected throughout the government and
with the heads of various jaebeol (conglomerates). His involvement cut through
much red tape and drew sponsorship from
all and sundry. Thanks to him, the festival
got off to the best possible start.”
Another vital impact Kim had was helping the festival overcome the Korean government’s infamous penchant for censorship. One of the major goals of PIFF was to
present films and ideas that normally could
not make it into Korea. Despite opening
greatly since the end of military rule, Korea
remained a conservative, Confucian culture
with a heavy-handed bureaucracy. What
It might seem like a pretty passiveaggressive resistance strategy, but it
worked. The committee’s reviewers agreed
to travel to Busan to prescreen the movies
(usually these screenings were only done in
Seoul). And by the time they got to the festival’s headquarters, there was too little
time to review all the movies.
PIFF GM Oh Seok-geun, meanwhile, did
his best to distract the reviewers whenever
sex and nudity turned up on the videos and
kept the most controversial films out of
sight as much as possible. The distributor of
David Cronenberg’s “Crash” ended up submitting an expurgated version to the festival, but most of the films made it to that
first PIFF without censorship, and many
avoided being prescreened altogether.
Since then, PIFF has grown into one of
the most important events on the Asian
movie industry calendar. In addition to
promoting films from all over the region,
PIFF today also features an array of profes-
Festival director
Kim Dong-ho
at a PIFF news
conference
cinema, and that’s why people began to
trust it — for that and other films.”
In recognition of all that Kim has
accomplished, The Hollywood Reporter is
presenting Kim with a Nielsen Impact
Award at this year’s PIFF.
In addition to Kim’s skills within Korea’s
corridors of power, he proved equally
adept at working with filmmakers, executives and bureaucrats from around the
world. He travels constantly, frequently
serving on film juries and attending more
than a dozen film festivals each year. And
his drinking prowess is legendary, with
Kim going late into the night, night after
night, only to arise early the next day for
breakfast and exercise (only in the last
couple of years has Kim been forced to cut
back, due to doctor’s orders).
“I am very proud of my career at the
Ministry of Culture,” Kim said, adding with
a laugh, “But I prefer now, working with the
film side at PIFF. It’s my second life.” ∂
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8
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CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES
The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008
AFM bumper issue: OCT. 31
AFM dailies: NOV. 5 – 10
The most
comprehensive
source for the
AFM
AFM BUMPER
ISSUE DATE: OCT. 31
SPACE AND MATERIALS
DEADLINE: OCT. 16
AFM DAILIES
ISSUE DATES: NOV. 5 – 10
SPACE AND MATERIALS
DEADLINE: OCT. 29
BONUS DISTRIBUTION
THROUGHOUT THE
AMERICAN FILM MARKET
FOR ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES PLEASE CONTACT:
Los Angeles: Andrew Goldstein
+1 323 525 2012
New York: Ingrid Morris
+1 646 654 5621
Europe: Alison Smith
+44 20 7420 6143
Asia: Ivy Lam
+852 2880 3405
A collaboration with CNN International,
UNESCO and FIAPF.
An initiative of the Queensland Government, Australia.
NIELSEN IMPACT AWARD HONOUREE
CONGRATULATIONS KIM DONG-HO
ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS VALUED
JURY MEMBER INAUGURAL YEAR 2007.
FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT APSA AND
FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE ACADEMY
OF THE ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS.
Congratulations on this recognition of your outstanding and globe-spanning contributions to Asian
and international cinema, and for the impact you have made in bringing Korean films to the world.
Your valued role as an international jury member in the inaugural APSAs, and ongoing involvement
as a member of The Academy of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, continues your lifetime contribution
to bridging cultures, and creating tolerance and understanding.
We thank you for helping us to encourage dialogue, collaboration and opportunities for filmmakers
across the 70 countries and areas of our region.
ACADEMY PATRON
Jack Thompson AM
ACADEMY MEMBERS to date include:
Fei Zhao
Feroz Abbas Khan
Gao Feng
Garin Nugroho
Gauri Khan
George Miller
Gerhard Meixner
Gisele Aouad
Gökhan Tiryaki
Gotot Prakosa
Gulnara Sarsenova
Habib Ahmadzadeh
Hadeel Kamel
Hanan Turk
Hanna Lee
Hansen Liang
Hassan Agha-Karimi
Helen Barnes
Henryk Romanowski
Hiam Abbass
Hong Sang-soo
Hong-Joon Kim
Hooman Behmanesh
Jafar Panahi
Jean Chamoun
Jeannette Paulson Hereniko
Jeon Do-yeon
Jimmy Jack
Joan Chen
Joanna Moukarzel
Johnnie To
Karl Baumgartner
Keith Griffiths
Kero Nancy Tait
Kiiran Deohans
Kim Dong-ho
View APSA Nominees 2008 online now
www.asiapacificscreenawards.com
Kim In-soo
Kim Jee-woon
Kim Yoon-suk
Kioumars Pourahmad
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Klaus Maeck
Konrad Ng
Lee Chang-dong
Lee Mogae
Lee SeungGu
Li Xudong
Lin Nianxiu
Linda Cordova
Mahdi Moniri
Mai Masri
Marg Slater
Mark Ping-bin Lee
Mark Turnbull
Masahiko Minami
Max Mannix
Mehdi Homayounfar
Mehrdad Seddiqian
Menardo Jimenez
Miao Pu
Michael James Rowland
Mohammad Atebbai
Mohammad Belhaj
Mohsen Abdolvahab
Nadine Labaki
Nafisa Ali Sodhi
Nam Kyu-sun
Nik Powell
Noritaka Kawaguchi
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Oleg Kirichenko
Omarbekova Nesipkul
Önder Çakar
Palitha Perera
Paul Morales
Peng Tao
Peter Thompson
Philip Cheah
Pierette Ominetti
Puad Onah
Raimond Goebel
Rajat Kapoor
Rakhshan Bani etemad
Raphaël Berdugo
Renuka Balasooriya
Reza Naji
Roman Paul
Rosnah Mohd Kassim
Russell Edwards
Ryu Deok-hwan
Sachiko Tanaka
Sally Ayre-Smith
Sanjeev K Bijli
Sasson Gabai
Serge Lalou
Sergey Dvortsevoy
Sergey Melkumov
Sergey Selyanov
Sergey Trofimov R.G.C.
Setiawan Djody
Sevil Demirci
Shabana Azmi
Shawkat Amin Korki
Siham Haddad
Simon Field
Simon Yam
Socorro Fernandez
Soheir Abdel Kader
Suha Arraf
Sun Xiaoxi
Tainui Stephens
Tan Chui Mui
Tao Yang
Thanassis Karathanos
Theirry Garrel
Tian Zhuangzhuang
Tristram Miall
Vahid Mousaine Simani
Valerie Fischer
Valerio De Paolis
Vardan Hovhannisyan
Vincent Ward
Wang Shunsheng
Wang Yu
Xie Fei
Yael Nahlieli
Yasmine Al Masri
Yutaka Sugiyama
Zeynep Özbatur
Zhanna Issabayeva
Zhou Meiling
APSA1207 HR1008
Aamir Khan
Adrienne Mc Kibbins
Ajay Bijli
Akie Namiki
Alireza Aghakhani
Amir Muhammad
Anne Démy-Geroe
Anne-Dominique Toussaint
Antonio Gloria
Ari Folman
Ari Sihasale
Aruna Vasudev
Auraeus Solito Jr
Aziza Semaan
Azize Tan
Baran Kosari
Behnam Behzadi
Bulat Galimgereyev
Cemal Noyan
Chen Weidong
Cheng Siu-keung
Daria Moroz
Dervis Zaim
Ehud Bleiberg
Eilon Ratzkovsky
Elena Yatsura
Elissa Down
Endi Balbuena
Eran Kolirin
Eran Riklis
Erkan Can
Erros Djarot
Erwin Navarro
Evgeniy Antropov
Fabienne Vonier
Fatih Akin
special world report | kim dong-ho salute
The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008
Prince of
Pusan
Q&A
THR’s Nielsen Impact Award
honoree discusses
Korea’s cultural evolution,
the current state of the
film business and
the future of the
Pusan International
Film Festival
Kim Dong-ho has been a
formidable force in Korean culture
for five decades,working at the
Ministry of Culture,the Korea
Performance Ethics Board,the Seoul Arts
Center and,for the past 14 years,as the head
of the Pusan International Film Festival.The
recipient of the Nielsen Impact Award recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter’s
Mark Russell about his past and PIFF’s future.
How has Korea’s cultural landscape
changed since you began at the Ministry
of Culture in 1961?
Kim Dong-ho: In the 1960s, Korea’s film
industry was weak for many reasons. There
was strong censorship from the government,
especially from 1972. Just after the military
government started, they instituted the Motion
Picture Law in 1962, which I helped write, which
restrained filmmaking, distribution and importing.
It started a quota system for importing films.
Before 1961, foreign films were most common, but
after the quota, there were only 20 to 25 foreign films a year.
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special world report | kim dong-ho salute
The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s was
the first Golden Age of Korean cinema. The
second Golden Age was from about 1997 to
2006 or ’07. It was my experience to work
at the Ministry of Culture in the 1960s. I
was very impressed and pleased to be
working in culture. It was my first experience with culture of any sort. But in the
1960s and ’70s, the culture industry was
very weak. In 1972, I helped establish
long-term cultural policies in the government. It was our first five-year plan for
cultural promotion policies. We established the Korean Cultural Foundation and
made cultural laws and cultural policy. We
also established fundraising policies from
the theaters. In the cultural budget, the
first priority was maintaining and restoring our cultural heritage. After that, we
invested in the other arts, such as literature, painting and performance. Then,
there was no support system for the film
industry. We just restricted foreign films
and had the quota. You could make big
money then if you imported foreign films,
therefore we wanted those people to
invest in Korean films.
You spent time in the early 1990s as the head
of the Korea Performance Ethics Board, the
organization responsible for rating movies
and, back then, censoring them. But as the
head of PIFF, you were a key proponent of
ending censorship. How do you reconcile
those two positions?
Kim: I only worked for the Ethics Board for
two years because there was too much trouble between the government and me back
then. For example, I allowed “The Crying
Game” and did not cut it at all. I also allowed
in (Sergei) Eisenstein films like “Battleship
Potemkim” and “October,” which had been
banned before then. And Oliver Stone’s
“Natural Born Killers.” So the government
disliked my way of running the board.
The film festival circuit these days is seriously
competitive. There are many challenges — from Japan,
Hong Kong and China. Therefore, we have to have
creative works, we need to develop creatively.
right size, but creatively, on the project and
the programming side, we need to make
more and more efforts.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Kim: During my time at the Ministry of Culture, I have been mainly in the creative
fields. I helped establish the Korean Cultural
Foundations. And after that, I planned the
construction of the Seoul Arts Center and
Independence Hall. While I was president of
the Korea Motion Picture Promotion Corp.
(the forerunner of KOFIC), I established the
construction of the Namyangju studios.
Now at PIFF, we are building the Busan Film
Center, and will finally start construction
this year. I am very proud of my career at the
Ministry of Culture. But I prefer now, working with the film side at PIFF. It’s my second
life (laughs).
What is in the future for PIFF?
Kim:: My hope is that PIFF will be the center of the Asian film industry. It’s possible
Korea could be the center of Asian film
because of several factors — there’s PIFF
itself, plus there are many universities with
film departments in Busan, so there are so
many film professionals being produced
there. Also, KOFIC and many studios will
move to Busan around 2012, when the
Busan Film Center will be done. Then, I am
confident Busan will be a center for the
Asian film industry.
How would you like to be remembered?
Kim: My great pleasure and honor was that
first PIFF. I will never forget it. We faced
many challenges, first all, the budget. It
was a big problem raising enough money
for our first festival. Another big problem
was how to avoid the influences of the city
and national governments, especially political influence. But because of my career in
the government, I knew how to protect the
festival.
What has been your biggest
disappointment?
Kim: I don’t have any (laughs). Personally,
I am living with all the possibilities of
achievement, and I have an optimistic view.
So I guess I have not faced disappointment
yet. ∂
What can PIFF do to help the local film
industry?
Kim: The film festival circuit these days is
seriously competitive. There are many
challenges — from Japan, Hong Kong and
China. Therefore, we have to have creative
works, we need to develop creatively. From
2006, the 10th anniversary of PIFF, we
established the Asian Film Academy and
the Asian Cinema Fund. I personally think
that the festival itself must maintain the
Kim Dong-ho, left, and Tokyo
International Film Festival
chairman Tom Yoda attend the
Japanese Pavilion party at the
Hotel Majestic Barriere during
May’s Festival de Cannes
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MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES
Why has the Korean film industry been having
problems recently?
Kim: The slump of recent years is because of
two major reasons. One reason is that many
blockbusters failed. The other is that production costs have grown too high. Because
of those problems, investors now hesitate to
invest in Korean movies and therefore the
number of films being made has gone down.
CONGRATULATIONS
MR. KIM DONG-HO
ON WINNING
NIELSEN IMPACT AWARD
KOREAN FILMS
ARE PROUD OF YOU!
FROM A FRIEND OF PIFF,
SHOWBOX / MEDIAPLEX
reviews
‘Cape No. 7’
By Maggie Lee
T
AIPEI, Taiwan — In
Wei Te-sheng’s “Cape
No. 7,” a motley crew
of goofballs and
eccentrics form a band
to perform in their hometown’s
biggest gig ever. There are colorful character sketches, rowing
and bonding, love interests and
family feuds, the pursuit of
dreams — old riffs you’ve heard
before, from “The Commitments” to variations like
Korea’s “This Happy Life.”
But with a little rearrangement
to suit local taste, plus
plenty of heart from cast and
crew, the film hums its own
sweet melody.
The film won the Grand
Prize of the Taipei Award this
year at the Taipei International
Film Festival. The homecooked brew of grassroots sentimentality, extremely local
vernacular and light, cheery
score propelled local boxoffice
takings to about $1.6 million.
The film is suitable for musicfriendly festivals.
Aspiring rocker Aga (Van)
failed to cut it in Taipei’s band
scene and bides his time as a
postman in his seaside town.
When asked to assemble a
warm-up band for an outdoor
gig by a hot Japanese singer, he
is at first skeptical as his
recruits are like extras suddenly given leading roles in a
blockbuster.
Anyone who enjoys seeing
small-time dreamers learn their
groove, bicker, struggle and
finally jell as a team will not be
disappointed. The characters,
though caricatured for comic
effect, are pulled straight out of
> A WINDOW ON ASIAN CINEMA
BOTTOM LINE
Sunny rock band blues beats
with the rustic pulse of
provincial Taiwan.
CAST: Van, Chie Tanaka, Min-Hsiung,
Ma Nien-Hsien, Ying Wei-Min, Shino Lin.
DIRECTOR-SCREENWRITER: Wei Tesheng. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:
Jimmy Huang, Wei Te-sheng.
PRODUCERS: Jimmy Huang, Lin TienKui, Lewis Lu, Tong Hu, Chang Chang-ti.
SALES AGENT: Good Films Workshop.
No rating, 133 minutes.
THR.com/pusan
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Taiwan provincial life, including
a Chinese banjo player in his
80s and an aboriginal who
keeps breaking into indigenous
folksong.
The love plot between Aga
and Tomoko (Chie Tanaka), an
over-the-hill Japanese model,
alternates with a romance
between a Japanese teacher in
colonial Taiwan and the local
girl he abandoned when made
to repatriate at the end of
World War II. The two couples’
entwined fates emerge through
recitation of the teacher’s love
letters to his fiancee.
Although the film gives too
much screen time to each minor
character, which makes the narrative very spread out, its guileless charm makes one overlook
its flaws. The ace cinematography shows off the stunning natural beauty of Taiwan’s southern coastal towns. ∂
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The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008
| reviews
By Maggie Lee
OKYO, Japan — Charting
the highs and lows of a 10year marriage is a film subject as prosaic as a TV ad for life
insurance, but in the hands of
Ryosuke Hashiguchi (“Hush”), it
is nothing short of transcendent. “All Around Us” connects
intense personal experiences
with the troubled zeitgeist of
Japan’s post-bubble ’90s.
Despite taking characters to the
emotional deep end, it offers
optimism as precious and fragile
as the human bonds it depicts.
The film enjoyed an unexpectedly long run domestically,
but its gently undulating rhythm
and self-effacing style might not
catch the eye of auteur-hungry
viewers. Making its overseas
debut at Toronto gives it the
recognition it deserves.
We enter the lives of Kanao
(Lily Franky) and Shoko (Tae
Kimura) in 1993 as the newlyweds strive to conceive. Subtitles indicate keystone years,
such as Kanao’s new job as a
court illustrator, Shoko’s
descent into depression after
their baby’s death and family
gatherings that are by turns
tense and tender. In the courtroom, (fact-based) trials of lurid
T
‘Nightmare 2’
continued from page 1
of the eponymous hero’s past
like a detective thriller with
rudimentary Freudian logic.
Exploring the nature of fear, it
probes into characters’ psyches to reveal vulnerability
rather than evil, eliciting not
fear but pity. The horror mas-
> MIDNIGHT PASSION
BOTTOM LINE
Inward-looking horror film
exploring the nature of fear.
CAST: Ryuhei Matsuda, Yui Miura,
Hanae Kan, Miwako Ichikawa.
DIRECTOR: Shinya Tsukamoto.
SCREENWRITER: Shinya Tsukamoto,
Hisakatsu Kuroki. EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER: Kaz Tadshiki. PRODUCERS: Shinya Tsukamoto, Shinichi
Kawahara, Takeshi Koide, Yumiko
Takebe. SALES AGENT: Movie-Eye
Entertainment. No rating, 97 minutes.
‘All
Around
Us’
> A WINDOW ON ASIAN CINEMA
BOTTOM LINE
A soul-stirring portrait of
married life, for worse or better.
CAST: Lily Franky, Tae Kimura, Mitsuko
Baisyo, Susumu Terajima, Akira Emoto.
DIRECTOR-SCREENWRITER-EDITOR:
Ryosuke Hashiguchi. PRODUCERS: Eiji
Watanabe, Tetsujiro Yamagami. SALES
AGENT: Celluloid Dreams.
No rating, 140 minutes.
crimes and sordid corporate
corruption form a grim undercurrent that accentuates the
couple’s defeated morale, until a
vow of committment heralds a
ter of the “Tetsuo” series
already has a collectivist fanbase that laps up whatever he
makes, but this work has the
emotional depth to move
beyond such circles to a more
mainstream market.
Ryuhei Matsuda has perfected his art as grungy, Hamlet-like hero Kyoichi, who can
read minds and enter people’s
dreams. Yukie (Yui Miura), a
high school girl, seeks his help
because her classmate
Kikukawa (Hanae Kan) has
disappeared after Yukie and
her friends played a prank on
her. She thinks Kikukawa is
invading their dreams to terrorize and kill them. Kyoichi
becomes intrigued by
Kikukawa’s resemblance to his
mother, who’s abnormally
high strung and attacks people
when scared.
The jumpy editing never
shows a complete figure of
moving transformation.
Verbally, the film sustains a
graceful, sometimes heartbreaking silence, but images orchestrate a symphony of feeling.
Kanao’s mechanical sketches of
intractable criminals and hysterical victims contrast starkly
with Shoko’s exuberant drawings of flora and fauna. Both
mirror their states of mind. Body
motions become poetic tools of
self-expression. In a scene
denoting ineffable joy, a pregnant Shoko strokes Kanao’s back
during a stroll. Toward the end,
they lie on a temple tatami;
close-ups of their feet entwined
Kikukawa, and her face
remains blurred until the
denouement. Her elusiveness
is the most unnerving element
in the film. Although there is
no orgy of Tsukamoto’s trademark body-mutation effects
to blow one away, some
inventive facial distortions
playfully together evoke
renewed love and desire.
Celebrity artist Franky makes
a startling screen debut. His
awkwardness in front of the
camera actually gives him
authenticity as the homey, taciturn Kanao. Veteran Kimura
conveys an unpredictable rawness beyond professional pitchperfection. Supporting performances also are as natural as
breathing. The limpid cinematography has the fluidity of
water colors, connecting
changing moods like a ride
through the tunnel into emerging light. ∂
occurring in timely moments
imbue the atmosphere with
the surreal color of Dali’s
paintings.
When tracing Kyoichi’s
relationship with his mother,
Tsukamoto uses the same
flashbacks too many times.
However, their accumulative
effect is finally felt at the end,
when the same scenes are
suddenly given a new context
with a moving resolution.
Tsukamoto subverts the
horror genre by making the
‘villain’ a timid creature terrified of everything rather than
a demonized, vengeful power.
He suggests that human
nature is scarier than any
supernatural being — the
hyper-sensitive protagonists
live in fear only because they
read people’s minds and realize what monsters they are.
Originally reviewed at the
Festival de Cannes in May.
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The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008
| news
East and West
continued from page 1
want-to-see in China,” Hong
Kong-based producer Andre
Morgan said.“And the Chinese
are also doing a better job of controlling DVD piracy.”
But when films move from
East to West, they don’t always
meet the same reception.
Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon,” a co-production between the China Film
Co-Production Corp. and
Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia — the Sony arm
has a long-standing presence in
the region — set the bar when it
was released stateside in 2000.
It made $128.1 million to
become the high-grossing
foreign-language film in America, a record no other film has
since come close to challenging.
This past year, for example,
Stephen Chow’s “CJ7,” an
effects-filled fantasy produced
by Chow’s Star Overseas and
Columbia Asia, was a hit in foreign markets, grossing more
than $47 million and topping
the 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) mark in China. But on U.S.
shores, its limited release
attracted a little more than
$200,000.
The U.S. market for foreignlanguage films is so depressed
that distributors aren’t offering
more than mid-six figures for
North American rights. As a
result, with no serious offers
coming from buyers, such big
Asian action movies as Peter
Chan’s “The War Lords” and
John Woo’s “Red Cliff” are currently without American distributors.
The hard truth is that most of
the Asian-produced films that
will screen at the 13th Pusan
International Film Festival will
never win U.S. exposure. And
even big-budget American
movies can get lost in translation when they try to conquer
Asian markets.
Still, when Hollywood eyes
Asia, it sees an enormous opportunity simply because there are
so many ticket buyers lining up
to see both locally produced
product and American imports.
In 2007, according to the
MPA, Asia accounted for the
“CJ7”
“Forbidden
Kingdom”
largest number of ticket buyers
in the world. While North
American moviegoers racked up
1.4 billion admissions, the Asian
Pacific region registered 4.17
billion. In terms of U.S. dollars,
Asia Pacific rang up $6.92 billion, closing in on the $9.63 billion in North American boxoffice revenue.
Given the size of the potential
Asian audience, Hollywood is
stepping up its efforts in some
parts of Asia, looking to foster
local productions that will play in
their home markets as well as the
occasional crossover hit that can
travel to other territories. If in the
process it further opens doors for
the exhibition of Americanmade titles, all the better.
Universal, which also has
been ramping up its international production arm — Universal Pictures International
Studios, led by Christian Grass
— sees developing ongoing relationships in territories as part of
its larger international strategy.
“To be competitive overseas,
it’s vital that we are also making
movies for those international
audiences,” Universal co-chairman David Linde said.
In the case of China, Linde
and James Schamus, who heads
Uni’s Focus Features, have a
long-standing relationship with
Hong Kong producer Bill Kong,
with whom they worked on
“Crouching Tiger.” That has led
to a multi-tiered partnership:
His production services company paved the way for “Mummy”
to film in China, he distributes
Uni titles in both Hong Kong
and mainland China through his
company Edko, and the studio
expects to make two or three
local movies with him during
the coming year.
At the same time, in Japan,
where it has one of its own execs
in place, Uni has set up a couple
of co-productions, “Dororo”
and “Midnight Eagle.” And last
month, Uni and Focus joined
forces with Korean’s CJ Entertainment to co-produce director Park Chan-wook’s next film,
“Thirst.” CJ will distribute in
Korea and retain international
sales rights, while Focus will
handle the North American
release of the vampire tale about
a priest who volunteers for
medical experiments.
“Films like ‘Old Boy’ and
‘Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’
got sold internationally after
their domestic release, but in
the case of ‘Thirst,’ it is a first
for a Korean film to get U.S. studio investment and distribution
in North America before its
domestic release,” said Park,
acknowledging that the deal
reflects his growing profile
abroad.
In May, Fox Filmed Entertainment launched Fox International Prods., headed by San-
ford Panitch, and quickly
became the latest studio to lay
down a marker in Asia. At Hong
Kong’s Asia Media Summit last
month, Fox and satellite broadcaster Star, both units of News
Corp., announced a new joint
venture, Fox Star Studios, to
develop local-language films.
Beginning with a unit in India,
under the direction of Vijay
Singh, they’re also planning
Greater China and Southeast
Asia operations.
“Outside of Japan, Star is the
largest satellite provider in Asia,
so for us, it felt like a natural
partnership to take on an essential TV player,” Panitch said by
phone during a stop in Tokyo on
his way to Pusan. Since American films only command 5%7% of the market in India, the
key to success there is developing local movies with appeal in
their home territory.
“As a global distribution
company, if there is an opportunity to find a ‘Kung Fu Hustle’
or a ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ or a ‘La
Vie en Rose,’ a movie that has
the potential to cross over, that
is great,” he added, “but our
primary goal is for the movie to
be successful in the market that
it’s made for.”
Fox also has turned its attention to Japan, where it is putting
together a slate of Japanese-language movies. First up, in partnership with Fuji TV, is a theatrical remake of “Sideways.”
Warners, where Richard Fox
handles international production efforts, has been seeking
local partners since 1999, producing and/or distributing more
than 230 films outside the U.S. It
recently scored in Japan with the
two “Death Note” movies as well
as Hideo Nakata’s thriller “L:
Change the World.”
“Many of these films may
never be seen beyond their
national borders, but they represent an important contribution to cultural
diversity,
entertainment
and business
sectors in their Full story at
THR.com/pusan
countries and
help Warner
Bros. to develop relationships
with directors, producers and
talent,” studio spokesman Scott
Rowe said. ∂
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the biz
THR.com/pusan
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Universal in the lead
DIGEST
DreamWorks execs closing in on new distribution deal
By Carl DiOrio
L
OS ANGELES — Universal is the prohibitive
favorite to win distribution rights on films produced by the new
DreamWorks, with ongoing talks
focused on a related $150 million
NBC Universal loan to the soonto-launch new company.
The loan could be drawn upon
only if other bank funds were
exhausted, and its recoupment
would be subordinate to DreamWorks’ senior bank debt. Universal has offered the backup
funding as part of a DreamWorks financing package of up
to $1.3 billion.
Reliance Big Entertainment
recently agreed to provide
$550 million for a 50% stake in
“Quantum
of Solace”
the company. JPMorgan Securities is overseeing the remaining
debt portion of the package.
The investment bank itself
will put up at least $100 million,
so with the NBC Uni contribution that would leave about
$500 million for
JPMorgan to raise
through a syndication of other banks.
It’s also possible
that JPMorgan or
RBE will find
Spielberg
another bank to
put up an additional big chunk
on its own, making it possible to
keep the syndication to a more
manageable $400 million or so.
“All of this stuff is going to
probably take until the end of
December to close,” a participant in some of the talks said.
Disney remains a distant second in the contest for distribution rights. But should it prevail,
the Burbank studio would be
expected to provide a loan similar to what Univerasl has offered.
Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks chairman David Geffen
and DreamWorks CEO and cochairman Stacey Snider already
have given notice to Paramount
of their financing plans. Par
responded by letting the execs
out of their contracts immediately, and the studio also served
noticed that 150 other DW employees are free to leave as well.
Under current plans, DreamWorks will try to get a first film
project into production by September and gradually ramp up
to an annual slate of six films by
2010. ∂
Bond’s passage to India
By Nyay Bhushan
NEW DELHI — James Bond is
making an unprecedented side
trip before his next adventure
reaches the U.S.
Sony Pictures Releasing India
said Tuesday that “Quantum of
Solace” will open Nov. 7 in India,
marking the first time a major
Hollywood title has opened here
before its U.S. premiere. The film
will debut in U.K. theaters Oct. 31
“James Bond has a huge
equity in this country,and
Bond films have always
been a hit here.”
—Kercy Daruwalla, Sony Pictures
Releasing India
and be released Nov. 14 in North
America.
“James Bond has a huge equity in this country, and Bond
films have always been a hit
here,” said Mumbai-based
Kercy Daruwalla, managing
director of Sony Pictures
Releasing India.
“Solace” will be released on
about 700 prints dubbed into
regional languages Hindi, Tamil
and Telegu, “which could make
this the biggest Hollywood
release of the year here,”
Daruwalla said.
Directed by Marc Forster,
“Solace” picks up where things
left off in the previous Bond
film, 2006’s “Casino Royale.”
Daniel Craig returns for his second outing as Agent 007. ∂
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20
“Everybody
Hurts”
HBO wrestles with Lear
LOS ANGELES — In his first major
collaboration with HBO, TV icon
Norman Lear has teamed with the
premium cable network for a
drama series project set in the
world of 1970s pro wrestling.
Written by Aaron Blitzstein and
produced by Lear’s Act III Prods.,
the character-driven drama is tentatively titled “Everybody Hurts.”
‘Panda’pairing
LOS ANGELES —
Jack Black is reuniting with “Kung Fu
Panda” writers
Jonathan Aibel and
Glenn Berger for an
untitled live-action
Black
action comedy at
Universal. Black will produce with
his Electric Dynamite partner Ben
Cooley. A sort of comedic “The
Bourne Identity,” the story sees
Black as an American who finds
himself washed up the shores of
Cuba with no idea of who he is and
how he got there. He comes to the
conclusion that he must be a superspy, though in reality he is far from
one. Universal picked up the project
as a pitch in a seven-figure deal.
Bangkok ends strong
BANGKOK — Tuesday’s world premiere of “Nanayo,” shot almost
entirely in Thailand by Japanese
director Naomi Kawase, closed out
a Bangkok International Film
Festival that organizers are terming a success. Organizers
expressed delight that 14,000
tickets were sold.
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