Chinese celebs visit Seoul for Chinese movie festival

Countless cameras flashed whenever a celebrity appears on the red carpet. Chinese movie director Wang Jiawei, Chinese movie star Liang Chaowei, and Korean actors including Song Hye-gyo, Jang Dong-geon and Jeong Woo-seong posed for cameras at the photo zone on the red carpet.

With the opening ceremony on Sunday, the 2013 Chinese Movie Festival began its five-day journey at CGVs in Seoul’s Yeouido and Busan’s Centum City. Since the launch in 2006 to facilitate cultural exchanges between Korea and China, the two countries have taken turns in hosting the movie festival each year. When China hosts the festival, the title becomes “Korean Movie Festival.” This year marks the fifth Chinese movie festival in Korea, which is hosted by the Korean Film Council, Chinese film management administration and the Chinese Embassy in Korea and organized by CJ CGV and CJ E&M.

This year’s theme is “Meet with Best Chinese Actors,” and the opening movie was "The Grandmasters" by director Wang Jiawei, in which Chinese actors Liang Chaowei and Zhang Ziyi and Korean actor Song Hye-gyo starred. The movie, which is about the life of martial-arts master Ip Man who trained Bruce Lee, also kicked off this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Wang said, “Compared to the previous movies focused on action scenes, this movie delves into the world of fighters and their philosophy.”

A total of 11 Chinese movies will be introduced during the festival, including “Caught in the Web” by movie director Chen Kaige who is famous for his 1993 movie “Farewell My Concubine,” “Simple Life” starred by Andy Lau, and “Ocean Heaven” starred by Li Lianjie. “Over the past 10 years, about 600 to 700 movies were produced in China each year, while the movie market has grown to be 17 billion yuan (2.8 billion U.S. dollars). Utilizing this opportunity, I hope more Koreans could appreciate Chinese movies and Chinese film professionals will have more chances in Korea,” said Zhang Hongsen, head of the Chinese Movie Control Administration, in a news conference.