The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) has unveiled an expanded lineup for its 7th edition, which will be held from July 10-19 in the Korean city of Bucheon, near Seoul.

With three more screening venues added and a total of 190 films, the festival now claims to be the largest fantastic film festival in Asia.

Opening the event will be the world premiere of Kim Moon-saeng's highly anticipated sci-fi animated film Wonderful Days, which at $10m ranks as one of Korea's most expensive films ever.

Two films have also been selected to close the festival: Canadian director Vincenzo Natali's Cypher and the world premiere of Wishing Stairs, the third in an acclaimed series of Korean horror films set in girls' high schools.

A ten-film competition section for feature films will include Josef Fares' Kops, Hong Kong director Sam Leung's The Stewardess, the world premiere of US director Greg Pak's Robot Stories and local critical sensation Save The Green Planet!.

Special sections will also be devoted to Bollywood Cinema, Guy Madden, the recently deceased Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku and a collection of restored Shaw Brothers films from Hong Kong.

A Korean Cinema Retrospective will feature four works by the largely forgotten horror movie director Park Yun-kyo, while contemporary Korean cinema will be represented by recent releases Wild Card, The Classic, Conduct Zero and others.

For the first time, a series of industry/press screenings of local commercial films will also be held for the benefit of visiting film professionals.

PiFan is following up its most successful year ever in 2002, in which it recorded over 57,000 admissions.

2003 Puchon Competition Section

999-9999 (Thailand), dir. Peter Manus
The Antman (Germany), dir. Christoph Gampl
Better Than Sex (Taiwan), dir. Su Chao Pin & Lee Fong Nor
Kops (Denmark/Sweden), dir. Josef Fares
Moon Child (Japan), dir. Takahisa Zeze
Occident (Romania), dir. Cristian Mungiu
Robot Stories (US), dir. Greg Pak
Save The Green Planet (S Korea), dir. Jang Jun-hwan
The Stewardess (Hong Kong), dir. Sam Leung
They're Watching Us (Spain), dir. Noberto Lopez