Since 2005, the Filmasia Film Festival in Prague has been bringing highlights from the world of contemporary Asian cinema into the Czech capital.
In past years, the festival has been responsible for hosting the Czech premieres of films from directors like Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), Takashi Miike (13 Assassins), Johnny To (Drug War), Bong Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer), Wong Kar-wai (The Grandmaster), and many others.
This year’s Filmasia festival kicks off today, December 6, with a screening of the South Korean feature A Taxi Driver (pictured above), from director Jang Hoon.
Based on true events, A Taxi Driver tells the story of Kim Sa-bok (played by Song Kang-ho), a South Korean taxi driver who took German reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter (Thomas Kretschmann) to cover the 1980 uprising in Gwangju that culminated in a massacre resulting in hundreds of deaths.
The film is South Korea’s official submission to the 2018 Academy Awards.
It won’t be the only 2017 South Korean feature to premiere at Filmasia: on Tuesday, the historical epic The Fortress, from director Hwang Dong-hyuk, and the serial killer drama V.I.P., from director Hoon-jung Park (best known as the screenwriter of the acclaimed I Saw the Devil), will also screen at Lucerna.
A special section at this year’s Filmasia festival devoted to recent features from Hong Kong will feature Gallants, winner of Best Film at the 2011 Hong Kong Film Awards, with directors Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng in attendance (Kino Lucerna December 8 at 18:30).
Gallants actor Teddy Robin will also be on hand to present the film, followed by a screening of his own latest movie, the anthology Lucid Dreams (Kino Ponrepo, December 9 at 20:00). The showing will represent Lucid Dream’s European premiere.
Other recent hits screening at Ponrepo include Johnny To’s PTU: Police Tactical Unit (December 9 at 22:30), Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (December 10 at 20:00), and Alan Mak and Andrew Lau’s classic Infernal Affairs (December 9 at 17:30), which served as the basis for Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed.
All films screening at the Filmasia Film Festival in Prague will be shown in their original language with both Czech and English subtitles.
More info can be found at the official Filmasia Film Festival website and Facebook page.
