The 9thPusan International Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night with the firstfestival screening of Wong Kar-wai's re-edited version of 2046.

The film, which receives its commercial release in Koreaon October 15, was shown on a massive outdoor screen with Wong and lead actorTony Leung in attendance. The 5000+available seats reportedly sold out only four minutes after going on sale twoweeks ago.

Anticipatedtitles at this year's festival include Lakeside Murder Case by ShinjiAoyama and Blood and Bones, a Yoichi Sai film starring Japanese starTakeshi Kitano.

Due to a conflict with MIFED, the industry events at thisyear's PIFF have also been pushed up to the start of the festival. The Busan International Film CommissionShowcase opened on Thursday morning with various events including awell-attended presentation by China Film Group, which expressed a stronginterest in building closer co-operation with Korean film companies.

Over 56film commissions from Asia and other parts of the world are in attendance atBIFCOM. Other special events scheduledfor the first few days include a panel about financing Korean films and afirearms demonstration by Hong Kong company PROPS.

Local filmcompanies are also using the festival to promote upcoming local pictures, withbig budget films in production like CJ Entertainment's biopic Rikidozanbeing launched with elaborate publicity drives.