Launch of the 13th Florence Korea Film Fest

It will be the European premiere of "Roaring Currents" Kim Han-min, the blockbuster which soon earned the distinction of most watched film of all time in South Korea and that tells the epic battle fought in 1597 between the Korean and the Japanese fleet, to usher in the thirteenth edition of the Florence Korea Film Fest to be held from 20 al 30 March to the Odeon cinema and Stensen Florence.

The best of the festival also will arrive at the Casa del Cinema in Rome from 26 al 28 April and at the Spazio Oberdan in Milan from 19 al 24 June, as part of the events organized by South Korea for Expo 2015.

The festival, conceived and directed by Riccardo Gelli association Taegukgi – Tuscany Korea Association, inaugurated the fourth edition of the Spring Eastern, the event dedicated to cinematography eastern ones organized by the Society of Fondazione Sistema Toscana.

Il festival si avvale del contributo della Regione Toscana, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Korea and the collaboration of KOFIC (Korea Film Council); Kofa (Korea Film Archive); City of Florence. The festival receives the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Italy. Among the main sponsor of the Caffè Florian Florence.

The program of the thirteenth edition of the festival features 34 feature films and 11 short films, most of which national preview.

Four sections: Horizons Koreans, dedicated to cinematography more views in Korea, with titles blockbusters; Independent Korea, which hosts independent films that have no place in supermarkets (the film inside the two sections will compete for the prize of the public and critics); Horror Nights, usual appointment with the terror that this year doubles for all lovers of the genre cinema and the "Short, Short!”, comprising a series of short films that will be screened at the opening to each feature.

Among the innovations, the section K-War (Korean War) through seven films that tell the many faces of war, from the most atrocious and dramatic to the more human.

Among the guests of the festival the star Ahn Sung Ki, interpreter 100 film, with the first European tribute to his artistic; director July Jung who will present his first national A Girl at My Door (at Cannes 2014); director Shim Sung Bo, author of the closing film Haemoo, also premiered nationally and Kim Han-min with its Roaring Currents which will open the festival.

Screenings will be held at the Odeon cinema, while replicas of the best of the festival, in addition to those of the winners (in the days following the event) will be at the Stensen.

The thirteenth edition of the festival will be enriched by the exhibition New Media Art, staged the "Walled. Projects Contemporary Art "in the streets of the Walled.

The exhibition will include a selection of Korean artists active on the international scene and will be inaugurated 21 March (and open up to 9 may).

Inauguration 20 March, cinema Odeon con Roaring Currents, film that reconstructs the epic battle that saw the clash against the Japanese fleet in Korean 1597 al largo in Myeong-Nyang. One of the most resounding military clashes in history: the Korean contingent, In fact, with sun 12 ships defeated the better equipped Japanese fleet, he could count on 330 ships. Roaring Currents was seen, today, over 17 million viewers. Grossed more than 100 millions of dollars (is the biggest hit of all time at the box office in South Korea) and Italy will be distributed by Minerva Pictures for the home video market. The director will attend the screening.

Star del festival sarà Ahn Sung-Ki, interpreter 100 films and film stars Korean. The actor will be in Florence to meet the public and receive the award at the Florence Korea Film Fest Tuesday 24 March to the Odeon cinema, occasion during which will screen his latest film "Revire" by Im Kwon Taek, presented in 2014 at the Film Festival in Venice. The retrospective select some of the most important films of his career, eighties onwards. The collaboration with the great director Im Kwon Taek in the films "Festival" and "Revivre", where Ahn gives body and voice to characters tormented and dramatic, up to roles accents more comic-grotesque, such as those played in the movie "Radio Star" and "gag man" through unusual characters as in "Unbowed" up to the intensity of melodrama in "Our Joyful Young Days". Within the retrospective also "North Korean Partisan in South Korea", a dramatic story about the Korean War. In the long and glorious career Ahn Sung-ki reflected the achievements of half a century of Korean cinema, so much so that the national press has dubbed as "the Korean actor" par excellence.

La novità di quest’anno è la sezione K-War: "The initiative is meant - said Gelli - even during the hundred years of the First World War, to understand how, the other side of the world, They told the war with the cinema ".

The retrospective ranges from large frescoes nationalists and celebratory as the aforementioned "Roaring currents" to the award-winning "Taegukgi" (2004) the Korean War. Lacerating and hallucinatory story of the soldiers of "Silmido" (2003), who takes the title of the island where they brought a group of social outcasts and ex-offenders South Koreans for the necessary training to the assassination of the president of North Korea.

North and South Korea will be discussed in "The Front Line", film about friendship and hatred between the military on the border. The futility of the war is the theme of "Welcome to Dogmakgol" on forced coexistence between soldiers of South Korea and the North in a small village (it is no coincidence that the director Park Kwang-Hyun has declared its inspiration from the Italian film Life is Beautiful and Mediterranean) and the innocence of children during the war is at the center of the extraordinary "The DMZ" (1965), small masterpiece from the suggestions "neoraliste", for years considered lost.

Finally "White Badge" (1992), masterly work on the Vietnam War told through a Korean veteran who relives the horrors of the conflict through the novel he is writing. And of Vietnam will be discussed again in "Sunny" (2008), work that is of 320.000 Korean soldiers who were sent to fight alongside the Americans regiments.

Film di chiusura 30 March: Haemoo of Shim Sung-Bo, the presence of director. The first national "Haemoo" close the thirteenth edition of the festival. Based on a true story in 1998, the film tells the story of the crew of a fishing boat and its attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants to save the task. The plan fails during transport of about thirty people through a dense sea fog, and in the midst of chaos the youngest member of the group, Dong-sik, tries to protect a young immigrant he fell in love from the crowds captain Kang and other crew members. "Haemoo" was produced by Bong Joon Ho and Oscar nominee 2015 from South Korea for best foreign film.

Le altre sezioni: Horizons Koreans, Independent, K-Horror and Short,Short!

The Horizons section Koreans tells the best of contemporary cinema's most popular in Korea. Among the projections in the program to report "A Girl at My Door" Jung July (the presence of the director), presented at Cannes 2014, story of friendship between a cop and a girl abused by family. The section will range from detective films as "A Hard Day", in romantic works as "Hill of Freedom".

To complete the fresco, Independent section will offer a glimpse of the Korean independent film with a proposal of six titles including "Alive" on the terrible factory work that the protagonists live daily and drama familiiare "Entangled".

Section Short, Short! opens an overview of young first-time directors: section includes 11 film of the selection of the Asian International Short Film Festival.

Among the events already consolidated the Horror Nights, which this year doubles with two films on the themes of revenge and possession that have their roots in folklore: “Live Tv” e “Mourning Grave”.

Recoveries Mauro Pocci.

Michael Lattanzi

By the number 56 - Year II 18/03/2015