Korean movie stars gather at “Asiana International Short Film Festival”!
The 14th Asiana International Short Film Festival (AISFF) started last Thursday on November 3rd, at the Cine Cube Theater located in Gwanghwanmun, Seoul.
Many celebrities including the festival director Ahn Sung Ki, Kim Min Jeong, Han Yeri and Cho Jin Woong, who serves as the special jury, came to the opening ceremony.
Korea’s master director such as Lee Jun Ik was also present to celebrate the 14th anniversary.
The ceremony started with the opening speech of the main committee members, Son Sook and the festival director Ahn Sung Ki, followed by the Acapella singing performance. This year’s jury members include Director Choi Dong Hoon (of “The Thieves” and “Assassination”) as the Head of jury.
The reception was held after the opening ceremony where celebrities also came to chat with guests from all around the world.
And on Sunday, the 6th, “The Collection from Short Shorts Film Festival” was screened at Myungdong Station Cine Library Theater. After the screening, the MC introduced SSFF & ASIA festival director, Seigo Tono, programming manager, Shoko Takegasa and Director Hiroki Inoue of “Hypnotism For Love.” Tono greeted the audience by explaining the brief history of SSFF & ASIA and its history of collaboration with AISFF.
Takegasa talked about the trend in Japanese shorts, saying that there are many adolescent/high school dramas in the last edition of SSFF & ASIA in June. Also she spoke about “Branded Shorts” which are the short films to
promote corporate images through entertaining stories.
Director Hiroki Inoue and of “Hypnotism For Love” came all the way from Tokyo to join the screening and participate in the Q & A as well. Many audience members were keen to ask the director about the making of “Hypnotism For Love,” a short film about two high school girls, Kyoko and Kana who hypnotize their crushes to make them like them back. However, when Kyoko discovers that the boy whom Kana likes is having feelings for
Kyoko, she and Kana enter a crazed spiral of speculation.
Questions from the audience included: “Did you have any film director in mind during the pre-production of the film?” Director Inoue replied, “Yes, actually, I was thinking of the film “Innocent Garden” directed by Park Chan Wook. He is my favorite director.” The other audience member asked Inoue, “I saw the shots of the sky and the cloud in the film, and when they appear, they seem to change the color and shapes. Were they relevant to the emotions of the two main characters?” Inoue replied with his thumb up, “That’s exactly!” When asked about how the director found the two main young actresses, he said, “I auditioned more than 200 girls, and I couldn’t find the main actress for the role of Kyoko. So, I was consulted by a friend producer who introduced to me a young actress who had played the daughter of Masaharu Fukuyama in the film “Manatsu no Hoteishiki.” That’s how I found
Juna Aoki.”
When the MC asked Inoue for his last comment, the director said that he was happy to see so many people had come out for the screening, and to have such a great audience. Inoue said, “Next year, I will be back here with my new short film in the competition!” And the audience gave him a big applause.