BEAUTY WATER and Korean Classics Invited to Top Chinese Film Festival

The Shanghai International Film Festival is welcoming four Korean films this year for its 24th edition, which is unspooling from June 11 to 20. These include one of Hong Sangsoo’s two new films this year, the hit Korean animation Beauty Water (2020), and the modern classics A Peppermint Candy (1999) and My Sassy Girl (2001).

The black and white film Introduction, which will feature in the ‘SIFF Highlights: Viva La Festival’ section, is director Hong’s 25th and had its world premiere earlier this year in the main competition of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, where a year earlier Hong had won the Silver Bear for Best Director for The Woman Who Ran (2020). Meanwhile, Hong’s latest film In Front of Your Face will screen at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Screening in ‘SIFF Animations’ will be Cho Kyunghun’s Beauty Water, the story of a young woman who begins using a dangerous product in an attempt to change her looks and her lot in life. The film has been a hit at global festivals, having screened at top genre events such as the Fantasia International Film Festival and the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, and also proved successful on local release, when it welcomed over 100,000 viewers last year.

The festival will also include newly remastered 4K versions of two Korean classics, Lee Changdong’s acclaimed drama A Peppermint Candy (1999) and Kwak Jaeyong’s romantic comedy My Sassy Girl (2001). The latter has been a big hit in China when it was originally released.