Bucheon fantastic film fest to thrill moviegoers

BUCHEON, July 20 (Yonhap) -- Fantasy, horror, cult and thriller. Whatever the genre, it's all there in the line-up of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) if you're a big fan of genre flicks.

A mecca of the country's comics and animation industry, the city of Bucheon, located just west of Seoul, is about to become an even more entertaining place when the 20th BIFAN opens Thursday for an 11-day run under the theme "love, fantasy and adventure."

A total of 302 films from 49 countries will make up South Korea's largest genre film festival, the largest-ever lineup in its 20 years of history.

"Captain Fantastic," a 2016 American drama film written and directed by Matt Ross about a man who attempts to reintegrate into society after living in isolation for a decade, will open the festival. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival early this year.

The closing film is "Seoul Station," an animated Korean film by Yeon Sang-ho which serves as the prequel to the "Train to Busan" that opened in South Korea on Wednesday. "Seoul Station" tells how the disaster in the zombie action film began.

Under the motto "a film festival remembered through movies," this year's festival will show more films that people would enjoy even if they don't consider themselves a genre film fan, according to the organizers.

The festival also classified titles into two main categories "blue" and "red" -- "blue" is for comedy, romance and fantasy films that people in all age groups would enjoy and "red" is for horror, cult and thriller works for genre film fans.

"We diversified the lineup and invited many quality films to cater to all audiences, including genre film fans," said Choi Yong-bae, chief of the festival's executive committee.

Celebrating the 20th year, the festival prepared a program for screening the best 20 films voted by the audiences among titles screened in the past 19 years.

In the "Best of Asia" section, visitors will have chances to see the top three latest box office hits from 10 Asian countries, including South Korea, China, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. "Veteran," "Assassination" and "Inside Men" will represent South Korea.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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