Korean Film Festival - ‘A cultural bridge between South Korea and SL’

The Korean Film Festival, now underway at the PVR Cinemas in Colombo, is more than a cinematic showcase — it’s a cultural bridge between South Korea and Sri Lanka, according to Korean ambassador to Sri Lanka, Miyon Lee.

- BY IFHAM NIZAM

Speaking to The Island Financial Review at the opening ceremony on Thursday ambassador Lee expressed hope that the event will spark greater appreciation for Korean entertainment and encourage lasting cultural exchanges.

“This Korean Festival will be able to bring Korean films, Korean entertainment and Korean arts to Sri Lanka. We hope that we will be able to have more cultural exchanges between Sri Lanka and Korea, ambassador Lee said.

The festival features two films — ‘Extreme Job’, a wildly popular action-comedy and ‘Myeongyang: The Roaring Currents’, a historical epic that depicts Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s legendary 16th-century naval victory. While modest in scale this year, the ambassador said the intention is to grow the event in the future.

“No, unfortunately this time it was very difficult to bring a lot of films. So this time we are going to have only one each, two films, she explained. “But we hope that now you have a very large scope of movie filmgoers and that PBR or Scope will be able to bring more Korean commercial and entertainment movies to show to the Korean-Sri Lankan filmgoers.”

Ambassador Lee, a self-professed history enthusiast, shared her personal appreciation for both films in the line-up.