Celebrated director Park Chan-wook's star-studded murder comedy will open Asia's biggest film festival Wednesday, which launches its first fully fledged competition lineup as South Korea projects its soft power worldwide.
The 30th edition of Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) arrives after the global success of critical works exploring Korean culture and experiences, such as "Squid Game", "Parasite" and this year's megahit "KPop Demon Hunters".
The festival, which has long focused on emerging talents in the region, is undergoing a revamp this year, launching its first major competition section featuring 14 titles, including four South Korean pictures.
The section includes seasoned Chinese director Zhang Lu's "Gloaming In Luomu" and Taiwan's megastar Shu Qi's directorial debut "Girl", and will be judged by juries headed by South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin.
The latest edition "sought not only to further expand its long-standing role as a platform for discovering emerging Asian talent, but also to effectively showcase the works of acclaimed Asian masters", festival director Jung Han-seok told AFP.
Karen Park, the festival's program director, said the lineup was designed to honor Asian cinema in the way it wishes to be understood.
"I believe it is meaningful that an Asian film festival, which understands Asian culture and its linguistic and historical contexts, evaluates Asian films and offers its own perspectives on them," she said.
Auteur Park Chan-wook -- best known for "Old Boy" -- which thrust him into the international spotlight in 2004 -- returns to Busan with his latest feature, "No Other Choice", after it featured at the Venice Film Festival which ended earlier this month.
Based on American writer Donald E. Westlake's 1997 novel "The Ax", the film, this year's BIFF opener, follows a desperate laid-off worker who decides to kill off potential competitors for a new job.
It stars South Korea's top actors -- "Squid Game" star Lee Byung-hun and "Crash Landing on You" actress Son Ye-jin -- in the lead.
The film was warmly received at Venice in August, with specialist outlet Variety calling it a "dazzling murder comedy" and a "masterclass in controlled chaos".
The opening film marks a shift from last year's choice of Netflix's period war drama "Uprising", which drew criticism in South Korea's cinema community given BIFF's tradition of championing theatrical films.
This year's edition features 241 official entries from 64 countries, including 90 world premieres.
Among them is "Hana Korea", a North Korean refugee drama with "Pachinko" star Kim Min-ha, and "The People Upstairs", from South Korean actor-director Ha Jung-woo, which centers on the issue of inter-floor noise.
BIFF will also host a singalong screening of Netflix's K-pop fantasy hit "KPop Demon Hunters".
As for emerging talents, there has been a "wave of exciting new voices emerging" in Asia, "especially in short films where sensitive themes are tackled with remarkable freedom", said Park Sung-ho, one of BIFF's programmers.
"In much of Asia, freedom of expression is still not widely guaranteed, yet within shorts young directors have revealed their individuality in striking ways, offering reasons to feel optimistic about the future of Asian cinema," he told AFP.
Among the star-studded guests are Asia's celebrated auteurs Bong Joon-ho and Jia Zhangke, French actress Juliette Binoche, American star Milla Jovovich, "KPop Demon Hunters" director Maggie Kang, and Hollywood auteur Michael Mann.
