Asia’s hottest young stars on casting board in Busan
The six actors chosen for this year’s Casting Board speak to industry insiders and press at BEXCO in Busan on Monday. From left: Kim Woo-bin, Kim Go-eun, Mark Chao, Sandrine Pinna, Takeru Satoh and Masami Nagasawa. (Yonhap)
BUSAN — Kim Woo-bin, Kim Go-eun, Mark Chao, Sandrine Pinna, Takeru Satoh and Masami Nagasawa — the hottest rising stars from Korea, Chinese-speaking countries and Japan — sat onstage together Monday at BEXCO in Busan.
The unlikely gathering of young A-listers was for “Casting Board,” a new event added to the schedule for this year’s Asian Film Market, part of the ongoing Busan International Film Festival.
“We are so glad to present Casting Board and Curtain Call, an expansion of last year’s pilot casting market,” said Susan Chae, a member of the Asian Film Market Committee. According to Chae, this expansion of the AFM “reflects the rapid rise of the Asian market in the global film industry, and an increase in cooperative multinational projects.”
Casting Board is an opportunity for industry insiders to meet the top rising stars in the Korean, Chinese-language and Japanese markets, and explore opportunities for casting them in multinational projects. It is simultaneously translated into Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.
“I want to work in more countries and (with) more writers and directors. It would be great to work with them,” said Sandrine Pinna, a Taiwanese actress who starred in “Touch of the Light.”
Her sentiment was echoed by all the stars onstage.
“I wouldn’t dare to name a particular director I want to work with in the future,” said Kim Woo-bin, star of TV dramas like “The Heirs” and this year’s comedy hit film “Twenty.” “I hope to work with a variety of directors.”
Kim Go-eun, who has been building up an eclectic filmography with movies like 2012’s “Eun-gyo” and this year’s “Coin Locker Girl,” said that she was eyeing China.
“I can speak Chinese, so it will be easier,” she said. The actress lived for 10 years, most of her childhood, in Beijing.
Pinna, who said that she was a fan of Korean dramas and had visited various filming locations on personal trips to Korea, said that she hoped to participate in projects in Korea.
The event was followed by Curtain Call, another new event which chooses one actor in Asia to honor for their contributions to the film industry both in their home country and abroad. This year, the honoree was Song Kang-ho of “Snowpiercer” (2013) and the current box-office hit “The Throne.”
The first-ever Casting Board and Curtain Call didn’t go completely smoothly, with some sound and video issues as well as awkward silences that the host, film critic Oh Dong-jin, struggled to fill. Still, it was an interesting new attempt by the Asian Film Market, which also expanded its reach this year by adding an entertainment intellectual property market.
The 20th Busan International Film Festival runs until Oct. 10.
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