Pusan Asian mart returns

Pre-market continues for second year

By DEREK ELLEY

LONDON -- Seventeen projects, including works by established Asian helmers like Fruit Chan, Wang Xiaoshuai, Garin Nugroho and Rithy Panh, will be unveiled at this year's Pusan Promotion Plan (Oct. 15-17), South Korea's nascent pre-market for co-financing and co-production.

Modeled after the CineMart fest held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, PPP made a splashy bow last year. Wrapped inside the Pusan Intl. Film Festival, the event attracted an impressive lineup of businesses interested in confabbing about the Asian market.

Planting roots

This year, with new head Jay Jeon and dates that clash with Mifed (Oct. 17-22), PPP faces a crucial test of its long-term viability.

Projects to be presented include Cambodian Rithy's "Who Are You?," Mainland Chinese Wang's "The Bicycle," Indonesian Nugroho's "Unconcealed Poetry" and Iranian Jafar Panahi's "The Cycle."

Cash prizes of upwards of $10,000 are available for each of the five winners, which will be determined by a panel. Last year, four of the 16 projects presented went on to find foreign coin.

'Candy' kickoff

This year's Pusan fest (Oct. 14-23), now in its fourth stanza, opens for the first time with the world preem of a South Korean movie, the political black comedy "Peppermint Candy," by Lee Chang-dong ("Green Fish"). Closer is Chinese helmer Zhang Yimou's "Not One Less," which was a Golden Lion winner at this year's Venice Intl. Film Festival.

The fest's sole competitive section, New Currents, features 12 titles from 10 Asian countries, with the winner getting either South Korean distribution or $10,000 cash.