I'm psyched for LSK and JYM--they're two of my favorite actors. I don't think I've ever disliked JYM's projects. The Great Gye Choon-Bin is one of my recent favorites (special thanks to you for the recap so I could understand the jokes!)

The official website for Venice International Film Festival

http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/festival/

There's information on every movie that will be screened at the festival. I found the website very helpful.

You can also purchase tickets to the festival online.

I suppose if anyone is celebrity crazy enough, you can stalk them at the Venice Film Festival since the screenings are public.

*dreams of autograph session*

The films competing for the Golden Lion are really... intense.

Natalie Portman's Black Swan

Vincent Gallo's Promises Written in Water is about this girl who's terminally ill. She refuses to go for treatment and chooses to kill herself when the pain is unbearable. She forms a bond with a photographer and asks that he ensure she be cremated. So, he takes up a job in a funeral home so that he can cremate her himself.

The best part : Promises is a black and white film.

There's other stuff like Matsuyama Kenichi's Norwegian Wood which features.. lots of sexually troubled people. Ok. I mean, they don't know love when they see it and when they realise they're in love, it's lost.

There's Balada Triste de Trompeta, a film about two clowns falling in love with a trapeze artist during a war.
Very sad.

There's Potiche. I think this will be funny.

Lots of other stuff. Lots of very intense, emotionally troubling and sensitive stuff.

I would love to watch Reign of Assassins. I'm going to the Hawaii International Film Festival in October. Hopefully it will screen there the same time as it screens in Korea.

If not, there's always the internet and dvds when it's out.

Can anyone explain what "Chungmuro" means?

Yeah~ yeah~ the Grand Canal is all romantic and exciting, however the grocery and farmers' markets there are a blast to walk in and sort. Very delicious variety of regional food.

Venice has a lot of beautiful people already, so seeing some stars are not any differ. Maybe I'm immune to the beauty since I see so much of it in Hollywood every day.

Chungmuro refers to the korean version of Hollywood. ie where all the big movie producers and agents are located.

Read elsewhere that the 4 leads of the Invincible will not be present in Venice. I rather like it this way.

so is oki's movie a (prequel) follow up to the short hong sang soo made for the Jeonju Digital Project: Lost in the Mountains (2009)?

To me as an american,

i always constantly see asians coming to America to get into Hollywood.
But all they do is fighting,swords and less acting.
Honestly,I'm sick with all these kung fu stuff they have and ain't gonna watch another jackie's chan or jet li's show again.
All they have are cool moves and broken english,I'm sadden by the fact that Hong Kong movies and even Taiwan is so much more worse than I thought.
No one can do movies like South Korea,they have a mix of comedy good acting and good script to go with.
Seriously,if asians want to come to Hollywood,act normally,you don't have to fight with Kung Fu or whatever crap you got...Coz on the end of the way people only think you good at kung fu,not acting...
Sick of all these kung fu artises..

But Korean movies takes a little step ahead :)