“King and the Clown” Wins Film Festival Award

Director Lee Jun-ik and his movie “King and the Clown” won the Jury Award at the 9th Deauville Asian Film Festival yesterday. Deauville is a seaside resort city of northwest France and the festival was held from March 28 to April 1.

“Ad-Lib Night,” a film by Lee Yoon-ki, won the festival’s Critic’s Prize. Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul took home the Best Film award for “Syndromes and a Century.”

Several South Korean films were featured at the festival. In the main competition section, named “Competition,” three movies were included: “King and the Clown,” “Ad-Lib Night” and “Family Ties” (directed by Kim Tae-yong). “Shadowless Sword” (by Kim Young-jun), “The City of Violence” (by Ryu Seung-wan) and “The Restless” (by Cho Dong-oh) were in another competition called “Action Asia.” And the festival’s Panorama section screened “The Old Garden” (by Im Sang-soo), “I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK” (by Park Chan-wook) and “Woman on the Beach” (by Hong Sang-soo).

The festival hosted a tribute to director Park Chan-wook, and three documentary films about North Korea were shown.

gold@donga.com