hankyoreh

the 11th Pusan International Film Festival's opening film

"Traces of Love," the story of a man retracing a journey outlined in his dead lover's diary, premiered Thursday to get the 11th Pusan International Film Festival off to a successful start.

Stars and guests paraded along the red carpet near Haeundae Beach in the southern coastal city of Busan. The attendees were a mixture of Asians and Europeans, oscar-winning director Istvan Szabo of Hungary, Bruno Dumont of France and Chinese actor-turned-producer Andy Lau, as well as Kim Ji-soo and Yoo Ji-tae, the stars of the opening film.

No guests were known to have cancelled due to the recent geopolitical tension from North Korea's claimed nuclear test, organizers said, with attention focusing on director Kim Dae-seung's "Traces of Love." The spiced-up love story makes good use of the Korean landscape, including shots of the coastal highway No. 7 overlooking the East Sea. Kim, who honed his skills under Korea's representative director Im Kwon-taek and was lauded after the release of "Bungee Jumping of Their Own" (2001) and "Blood Rain" (2005), delves into the impaired heart of a man as he approaches a new relationship.

In his speech, Kim brought the controversial issue of South Korea's policy for domestic movies.

"Although I'm very honored and happy, on the other hand, I'm very sad because our screen quota system has been slashed to half," he said. South Korea reduced the mandatory quota to 73 days from the initial 146 days in July. The reduction was a long-held demand of the United States as a prerequisite to start free trade talks.

The film festival will present 245 films from 63 countries over nine days. The black comedy "Crazy Stone" by China's Ning Hao will serve as the curtain-closer on Oct. 20.

Alongside films and galas, this year's PIFF introduces its first-ever marketplace as it seeks to become a business center in which to trade Asian films. The Asian Film Market will operate from Oct. 15-18 with some 2,000 industry personnel from around the globe.

The festival lineup somewhat reflects the geopolitical situation faced by the host country. It has two documentaries about North Korea that are also world premiers -- British Daniel Gordon's "Crossing the Line," a story of Charles Jenkins, a U.S.

soldier who defected to North Korea and lived there for 40 years, and German Uli Gaulke's "Comrades in Dreams."

Ten films by first and second-time Asian directors will vie for the prize of the New "Currents" section, the only competitive section in the festival. "Driving with My Wife's Lover" by South Korea's Kim Tae-shik, "Eternal Summer" by Taiwan's Leste Chen, and "The White Silk Dress" by Huynh Luu of Vietnam are among the up-and-coming talents.

Programmers also decided it was the right time to showcase Southeast Asian films. In the section titled "A Window on Asian Cinema," 39 movies from 14 countries reflect the growing investment in cinema in the region, said Kim Ji-seok, the sectional programmer.

"I ask you to pay attention to movies from Vietnam, Malaysia or the Philippines. There have been government policies to promote home-grown movies in the region, and also the growth of independent movies on a private level," Kim said.

"The Korean Cinema Today" section offers a combination of commercial hits and low-budget movies. The diverse range covers box office record holders like Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" and Lee Joon-ik's "The King and the Clown," as well as low-budget, critically-acclaimed movies like "Family Ties" by Kim Tae-yong and "Woman on the Beach" by Hong Sang-soo. The controversial political film by Im Sang-soo, "The President's Last Bang," which depicted the last moments of former President Park Chung-hee before his assassination, will be screened in its original version for the first time, as some sensitive scenes were earlier removed from general theater screenings by a court order.

Many European movies presented at PIFF revolve around questions concerning contemporary humanity and the clashes of old and new values. "Requiem" by German Hans Christian Schmid presents a challenge to the religious tradition that has given European society much of its conventional identity.

For those interested in the early roots of Korea's booming movie industry, there is a retrospective section that presents dated films including "Sweet Dream" (1936), the oldest movie known to have survived to the present day, which depicted a woman's desire and her conflict with Korea's Confucian traditions, and "Bound by Chastity Rule" (1962), by the legendary director Shin Sang-ok, who died early this year.

The city of Pusan changed its spelling to Busan in 2001 to comply with the adoption of a new government-devised romanization system, but the film festival keeps the former name and its acronym PIFF.

Busan, Oct. 12 (Yonhap News)