Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, recognized as one of the premiere film schools in the United States, in continued partnership with South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Asia’s largest film festival, today announced the official program for the upcoming Busan West Asian Film Festival, November 11-13 in Orange, Calif.Busan West 2011 will feature eleven feature films from five countries: China, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Three of thos...

  Influential Director Bong Joon-ho to Receive Busan West Icon Award and Present Opening Night Film - The North American Premiere of "The Host" in 3D   Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, recognized as one of the premiere film schools in the United States, in continued partnership with South Korea's Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Asia's largest film festival, is proud to announce the Busan West Asian Film Festival, November 11-13 i...

By Moze Halpernin Those of you who live in Paris have likely noticed the frightening abundance of misery-stricken, wet, baffled, crushed, torn, tempest-tossed Korean widows plastering the Paris metro stations.  Lurking behind every endearingly Parisian puff of urine with that worn mien, waiting to shatter commuters’ iPoded complacency, silently bemoaning the woes, the burdens, the weight of motherhood.  Actually, said Korean widows are just one Korean widow, played by Hye-Ja Kim, sta...

In 2008, Bong Joon-Ho was a member of the trio directing Tokyo! which screened in Certain Regard, his co-filmmakers being Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. This year, Certain Regard has selected the Korean director's latest film, the suspenseful Mother. A widow, determined to prove that her son is innocent of the murder accusation leveled against him, single-mindedly pursues the real killer herself. Bong, whose monster movie The Host, which screened at Directors Fortnight in 2006, ...

The BAFF 2009 International Jury made up of Wong Tuck Cheong, board member of NETPAC; Naoko Ugigami, filmmaker; Adrià Monés, Teuve acquisitions manager and Philipp Engel, journalist and film critic, has decided to grant the BAFF 2009 Golden Durian Award, a 6,000 € prize courtesy of Casa Asia, to the South Korean feature film BREATHLESS, by Yang Ik-June.By this decision, the Jury wishes to reward this impressive and very physical study of domestic violence in the South Korean underworld, whic...

Thursday, February 22---Korean director Bong Joon-Ho will be feted with a min-festival retrospective of his signature cinema of black comedies, gritty crime dramas and horror thrillers, including the 2006 Cannes Film Festival sensation THE HOST. The IFC Center, downtown Manhattan's most ambitious cinema complex, will present the program on Monday, February 26 and Tuesday, February 27, with the director himself in attendance at the Tuesday evening screening of THE HOST.The film series begins ...