`City of Light` Hosts Film Festival

The Second Gwangju International Film Festival will be held in Gwangju, Chollanam-do from Oct. 25 through 31. The two-year-old film festival will put its focus this year on exploring experimental movies by young directors and honoring great works by renowned filmmakers.

Total 220 films from some 20 countries will be introduced across eleven different sections such as `Young Cinema,` `Master Directors,` `Recollection on Korean Films,` `French Crime Movies` and `Nikatz Erotic Movie Collection.`

`Master Directors` places the spotlight on French director Jean Luc Godard, one of the most influential directors in postwar era who led the age of Nouvelle Vague. His works in the 1980s such as `Keep up Your Right,` `Forever Mozart` and `History of Filmmaking` will catch eyes of movie lovers.

Late Korean director Lee Man-hee is remembered with his movies like `Homecoming,` `Steps of Devil` and `Marine That Never Returns.`

`World Cinema Best` corner introduces `Hush, We are Shooting a Movie,` a film made by Egyptian director Yusef Shahin, `Childhood in Proto` by Portuguese Manoelle De Olivaira and many others.

What draw most attention, however, is the `Nicatz Erotic Movie Collection`. Since the 1960s, Nikatz Studio in Japan has mass-produced erotic movies filled with sensual lovemaking scenes, opening the way for the so-called roman porno films that are original and ambitious yet sensational. Ten roman porno movies including `Record of Abe Sada`, `Love Hotel`, and `Ichijo Sayuri, possessed by sexual desire` are set to make their Korean debut.

This year’s opening and closing film are Korean movie `White Room` and `Welcome to Collinwood`, a comedy produced by Steven Soderburg and George Clooney. Admission fee costs 4,000 won. www.giff.or.kr

Hee-Kyung Kim susanna@donga.com