Panorama picks Asian five

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Festival News

Five Asian films including South Korean mega-production My Way 마이 웨이 (2011) and omnibus 10+10 十加十 (2011), produced by Taiwan auteur HOU Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢, are among the first films selected for the Panorama section of next month's Berlin International Film Festival (9-19 Feb 2012).

The selection also has a place for Headshot ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า (2011), the upside down thriller by Thailand's Pen-ek RATANARUANG เป็นเอก รัตนเรือง, which premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival and played in competition in the Tokyo International Film Festival 東京国際映画祭. Vietnamese gay drama Lost in Paradise Hotboy nổi loạn (2011), which also premiered in Toronto, also makes its way into Panorama.

The sexually explicit drama From Seoul to Varanasi 바라나시 (2011), by South Korean director JEON Kyu-hwan 전규환 | 全奎煥 (Town trilogy), also makes an appearance in Panorama, having launched its festival life at the Busan International Film Festival 부산국제영화제. Jeon's previous film, Dance Town 댄스 타운 (2010), screened in the Panorama section one year ago.

The $30 million WWII epic My Way (pictured) has a strong international cast including Japan's ODAGIRI Joe オダギリジョー and China's FAN Bingbing 范冰冰 as well as South Korean superstar JANG Dong-geon 장동건 | 張東健. However, the film has fallen badly short of expectations at its local box office. As of 1 Jan, after ten days on release, it had accumulated only 1.74 million ticket sales. Most box office analysts forecast that it would score more than seven million admissions and that it might need ten million to break even in the domestic market.

The final Panorama selection will be announced in late January.

 
BERLIN PANORAMA SELECTION — ASIAN FILMS ONLY

• From Seoul to Varanasi; dir. Jeon Kyu-hwan [South Korea]
• Headshot; dir. Pen-ek Ratanaruang [Thailand/France]
• Lost In Paradise; dir. VŨ Ngọc Đãng [Vietnam]
• My Way; dir. KANG Je-gyu 강제규 | 姜帝圭 [South Korea]
• 10+10; dirs. WANG Shau-di 王小棣, WANG Tung 王童, Kevin CHU 朱延平, HO Wi Ding 何蔚庭, WU Nien-jen 吳念真, SHEN Ko-shang 沈可尚, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Sylvia CHANG 張艾嘉, CHANG Tso-chi 張作驥, CHEN Yu-hsun 陳玉勳, CHEN Kuo-fu 陳國富, Arvin CHEN 陳駿霖, YANG Ya-che 楊雅喆, CHENG Wen-tang 鄭文堂, CHENG Yu-chieh 鄭有傑, HSIAO Ya-chuan 蕭雅全, Leon DAI 戴立忍, CHUNG Mong-hong 鍾孟宏, WEI Te-sheng 魏德聖, HOU Chi-jan 侯季然 [Taiwan]

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