PiFan line-up to include Blind, The Yellow Sea

Asia’s largest genre film festival, PiFan has selected 127 features and 94 shorts from 34 countries. This includes 54 world premieres such as the Malaysian horror film Resurrection, co-directed by Woo Ming Jin (Tiger Factory) and Pierre Andre, and 23 international premieres such as Japanese comedian Shinagawa Hiroshi’s SlapstickBrothers, an adaptation of his bestselling novel.

For the Puchon Choice competition, programmer Jin Park noted, “We continue to try to show the current trends in genre films, how they are changing, and how directors are using genre principles and language to approach wider audiences. This year we see many young filmmakers actively taking genre trends and icons and using them in creative ways.” (See full competition line-up below.)

PiFan’s special showcases feature 3D genre films including the international premiere of Battle Royale 3D, the Hibotan Bakuto female yakuza film series, and retrospectives on 1970s Korean actor/director Park Nou-sik, French director FJ Ossang, and J-horror.

The previously announced Network Of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) It Project market’s line-up will be accompanied by industry screenings, forums on new media, sci-fi and the Fantastic Film School featuring workshops with producers Mike Macari, Tim Kwok and others.

The festival will close with the world premiere of Korean thriller Blind, the second feature from Arang director Ahn Sang-hoon, starring Kim Ha-neul and Yu Seung-ho.

PiFan runs from Jul 14–24, with the closing awards ceremony on Jul 22.

Puchon Choice Feature Competition line-up:

- Attack The Block (UK) Joe Cornish

- Hobo With A Shotgun (Canada-US) Jason Eisener;;

- Kill List (UK) Ben Wheatley;

- Operation Tatar (Mongolia) Bat-ulzii Baatar;

- Phase 7 (Argentina) Nicolas Goldbart;

- Resurrection (Malaysia) Woo Ming Jin / Pierre Andre;

- Revenge: A Love Story (Hong Kong) Wong Ching Po;

- Rubber (France) Quentin Dupieux;

- Seconds Apart (US) Antonio NEGRET;

- SlapstickBrothers (Japan) Shinagawa;

- StakeLand (US) Jim Mickle; and

- The Yellow Sea (pictured, Korea) Na Hong Jin.