2 Korean Films Awarded at 9th Deuville

Local blockbuster "The King and the Clown" and low-budget drama "Ad-Lib Night" took home two of the four main awards handed out the 9th Deuville Asian Film Festival in France. With a 5-day run this year from March 28 to April 1st, the event has, since its inception in 1999, been one of Europe's most prominent showcases for pan-Asian cinema.

Lee Joon-ik's dynamic Chosun-period drama of a slightly mad king's fascination with a duo of performing clowns, won the Jury Prize. The film has been invited to several festivals, an garnered a Best Film nod in Cape Town last year. Meanwhile Lee Yoon-ki's Berlinale Young Forum entry, "Ad-Lib Night", a low-key journey of a young woman who hesitantly accepts a stranger's strange proposal, won Deauville's Air France Critic's Prize. The top prize of Best Film went to Thai director Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL's Syndromes and a Century.

This year the festival also presented a special tribute to renowned Korean director Park Chan-wook, screening his latest work "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK", along with his celebrated Vengeance Trilogy, his first breakthrough "JSA - Joint Security Area" (2000), and several omnibus features to which he contributed.

Deauville also screened Hong Sang-soo's "Woman on the Beach", Kim Tae-yong's "Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family"), and three Korean action films in its Action Asia section, "The City of Violence", "Shadowless Sword", and "The Restless".

The festival also showcased on special on North Korea, presenting British director Daniel Gordon's acclaimed documentaries filmed within the communist country, "Crossing the Line", "A State of Mind", and "The Game of Their Lives".

Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)

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