THAILAND

Thailand's Mono Film (which sold the remake rights for romantic drama Me ... Myself to Korea's K&Entertainment earlier this year) is showing the latest footage of Fighting Beat (Pahuyut) - a martial-arts drama set on Phi Phi Island and directed by Piti Jaturaphat - and Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn's romantic comedy Gig Number 2.

Silvia Wong

SINGAPORE

The Media Development Authority of Singapore is leading a delegation which includes production companies Blinding Sight Media, World Without Borders and Julia Fraser's LeBrocquy Fraser Productions as well as post and location services companies.

Through World Without Borders, TV commercials director Edward Foo will unveil his feature debut, a trilogy entitled Year, Month and Day and animated feature You're My Sunshine, while Blinding Sight Media will sell Craig Ower's To Speak about a 12-year-old Cambodian girl who is pushed to her limit in pursuit of a better life for her family.

Silvia Wong

JAPAN

While several of Japan's major companies will be conspicuously absent from the AFM this year - including Shochiku and Kadokawa - there is still some interesting Japanese content being brought to market.

Toei will raise the curtains on The Invitation From Cinema Orion, a touching drama starring Ryo Kase (Letters From Iwo Jima) and based on a novel by Jiro Asada. The film is set in an old movie house, recalling Cinema Paradiso. Toei also has the erotically charged Nami - The Actress, directed by visual stylist Takashi Ishii (Flower And Snake) and starring Aya Sugimoto.

Stylejam brings Sad Vacation, which made its world premiere in Venice, to market. The company will continue its focus on unique family dramas with Then Summer Came, starring Joe Odagiri. Stylejam is also selling comedy Fine, Totally Fine starring Yoshino Kimura (Sukiyaki Western Django).

Both festival audiences and buyers will see the international premiere of Gaga's Into The Faraway Sky, written and directed by Isao Yukisada (Crying Out Love, In The Center Of The World) and starring Ryunosuke Kamiki and Chang Chen in a supporting role. Gaga also brings several other new films to market. Meanwhile, Nikkatsu will begin sales of Megane, which reunites the director and cast (plus Ryo Kase) of indie hit Kamome Diner. This time the story is set in a remote island inn.

Jason Gray

KOREA

From Korea, CJ Entertainment has West 32nd in the fest, a noirish thriller set in New York City's Koreatown underworld, starring John Cho. Also in CJ's line-up are San Sebastian thriller Shadows In The Palace - a costume mystery - and the market premiere of Love Now.

Cineclick Asia's slate includes Asian premieres of Lucky Miles in Piff's World Cinema section and Pang Ho-cheung's murder thriller Exodus. Cha Tae-hyun starrer Ba:Bo is making its world premiere in the market.

Lotte Entertainment has market premieres of horror film Rainbow Eyes and My Father, starring Daniel Henney as a Korean adoptee to the US who searches for his biological parents.

Studio 2.0 has the market premiere of San Sebastian title Epitaph, set in a hospital where love gives birth to horror. Studio 2.0 also has Sharaaku, in development, based on a mysterious 18th century Japanese artist.

Showbox is showcasing Lee Myung-se's M and Hur Jin-ho's Happiness, both of which world premiered at Toronto.

Indiestory is repping seven films in the Piff line-up including Korean Cinema entry Who's That Knocking On My Door' from director Yang Hea-hoon.

KM Culture is screening the world premiere of Somewhere Over Here (in the Korean Cinema Today section), along with detective film My New Partner and rom-com Whatever Happened Last Night.

Prime Entertainment has kidnap thriller Seven Days starring Yunjin Kim as a lawyer fighting for her child, and Sponge Entertainment is selling Jeon Soo-il's Venice entry With A Girl Of Black Soil.

Jean Noh

HONG KONG/CHINA/TAIWAN

Sellers from mainland China include Huayi Brothers Pictures, Movie Plus Group and state-owned China Film Promotion International.

Huayi Brothers is selling the opening film of this year's Pusan film festival, war epic Assembly, directed by Feng Xiaogang, along with Cao Baoping's romantic thriller The Equation Of Love And Death, and a $20m Tsui Hark action thriller (working title D-Project). The latter project features the Tang Dynasty adventurer Judge Dee, but should not be confused with an older project, Ming Productions' Murder In Canton, based on the same character.

Although no Hong Kong companies had booked a booth at the time of writing, most of the larger producer-distributors will be sending representatives to the Asian Film Market.

Among the hot titles being sold by Hong Kong companies are Jiang Wen's Venice competitor The Sun Also Rises, handled by Emperor Motion Pictures, Peter Ho-sun Chan's The Warlords, sold by ARM Distribution, and Mandarin Films' romantic thriller Missing, also directed by Tsui Hark. Meanwhile, Taiwan's Three Dots Entertainment will be attending the market with a slate headed by Robin Lee's romantic comedy My DNA Says I Love You. Arclight/Easternlight Films' Asian slate includes martial-arts epic Three Kingdoms - Resurrection Of The Dragon, starring Andy Lau and Maggie Q, and recent pick-up Royston Tan's 881, which topped the Singapore box office.

Fortissimo Films' Wouter Barendrecht and Raymond Phathanavirangoon will also be in Pusan, without a booth but with a strong line-up of Asian product. This includes Alexi Tan's Blood Brothers and Lee Kang-sheng's Help Me Eros, both fresh from Venice.

Liz Shackleton

PHILIPPINES

The Film Development Council of the Philippines is touting three independent films playing at Pusan.

Philippine Science (Pisay), the latest film by critically acclaimed director Auraeus Solito (The Blossoming Of Maximo Oliveros), is set in the 1980s at a school for the extremely gifted; Brillante 'Dante' Mendoza's Slingshot (Tirador) about thieves and pick-pockets, will make its Asian premiere at Pusan; and Foster Child, also by Mendoza, which premiered in Cannes this year and was sold to Ad Vitam for France and French-speaking territories.

Silvia Wong.