With the news of the 2014 PiFan Lady, the 18th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), to be held from July 17 to 27th, had its press conference on the 19th afternoon at the Shinsegae Cultural Hall. SHIM Eun-kyoung, the PiFan Lady was in attendance along with the Director of the festival, KIM Young-bin, Chief Programmer PYEON Jang-wan, Programmers YOO Ji-sun and LEE Sang-ho, and Managing Director of Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) Jongsuk Thomas Nam.

 

Despite the signature horror and genre-based image the festival has been carrying for years, the festival will be taking a lighter turn, with the slogan ‘Yes Smile, Go Pifan!’ and focusing on the themes of love, fantasy and adventure.

 

The festival will program films from 47 different countries with 210 films. The opening film, Stereo by Maximilian Erlenwein tells the story of a bike owner named Eric who is faced with a sudden change when a stranger comes to see him. He struggles to keep the happy life and family he has. The closing film is by director LEE Kwon titled My Ordinary Love Story, starring SONG Sae-byuk and KANG Ye-won. The film is said to be a romantic comedy until the mid-point where it switches to a mystery horror. The amalgamation of the genres is sure to be an interesting twist.

 

PiFan has special programs include a programming of the Godzilla films over the last 60 years. It will provide a good chance to look at the history of the monster genre and also this specific legendary monster which has a great following. There is also a selection of Latin America films, a set of classic films from around the world, and also a special program that supports co-production and academics, the ‘Harmony for 10 Years’ program. This particular program takes co-produced films made by the students of the Korea National University of Arts and the Beijing Film Academy, the filmmakers of our future.

 

SHIM expressed her gratitude for becoming the PiFan Lady and said that “I’m so happy to be a PiFan Lady this year and will work hard to expose the festival to as many people as possible.”