Busan festival screens the best of Asian cinema

Movie 'Silent Witness' to hit screen on Sept 13

There was plenty to thrill audiences in Busan, too, from the world premiere of Korea's "Screen X" cinema, which gives audiences a 270-280-degree panoramic experience with the screen extending far into the left and right cinema walls. The first film to use the technology, The X, was light on plot and heavy on effects as the filmmakers tried to impress. Then there was the majesty of Korean director Bong Jong-ho's English-language thriller Snowpiercer, a ground-breaking international co-production that has been a surprise local hit - and was the first ticket most visiting guests tried to secure.

The festival's main New Currents award, which offers two prizes to first- and second-time Asian filmmakers, was handed to two films about modern versions of love. Korea's Ahn Seon-Kyong's Pascha looks at the relationship between a 40-year-old woman and her 17-year-old lover, while Mongolia's Byamba Sakhya's Remote Control focuses on one neighbor's obsession with another.

Cinema-goers thrilled to the 71-film retrospective of the work of 77-year-old Korean director Im Kwon-taek, who used the festival to announce plans to shoot his 102nd film. Jia was just one of many visiting directors to be caught sneaking into the back rows of screenings and declared after one that Im had been a huge influence on his own career and his desire to focus on aspects of his own society.

One of the other great surprises for audiences was the unscheduled arrival of two-time Oscar-winner Quentin Tarantino, who sat alongside Korea's Bong for an engaging Open Talk session in which he revealed the delight he experienced in seeing the Chang Cheh-directed martial arts classic The One-Armed Swordsman on the big screen the night before.

The American explained how he had grown up under the influence of Chinese filmmakers, including Huang Feng and the martial arts films he made for the Golden Harvest studio in Hong Kong.

He might have been speaking for organizers when he left the stage urging his audience to see "as many films as you can".

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