The 15th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) will open this week and tickets have gone on sale online. Opening night is sold out, but there are still plenty of more films to see as well as a chance to catch the opening movie later in the week. This year, PIFF features and short films from around the world as well as special sections highlighting Korean new releases and classic films. This year, tickets are not only available on the festival grounds and online, but also through smart phones, at all GS25 Marts in Korea, and at Busan Bank ATMs. The opening film is the Hong Kong/Chinese film Under the Hawthorn Tree directed by Zhang Yimou.  Zhang has recently been directing big budget action films like Hero and House of the Flying Daggers but is returning to his roots with a more thoughtful film of innocence of first love set in the era of the cultural revolution. The closing film is  a Korean/Japanese/Thai co-production called Camellia which features three directors– Wisit Sasantieng,  Isao Yukisada, Jang Jun-hwan– telling very different love stories set in Busan.  Below are the other sections from the PIFF program as listed on its website:  Gala Presentation (9 films, 9 countries), A Window on Asian Cinema (56 films, 24 countries), New Currents (13 films, 11 countries), Korean Cinema Today (22 films), Korean Cinema Retrospective (10 films), World Cinema (75 films, 37 countries), Wide Angle (66 films, 25 counties), Open Films (7 films, 8 countries–one is a co-production), Flash Foward (11 films, 11 countries), Special Focus (25 films, 12 countries)– Special Focus Sections are divided into A) Kurdish Cinema B) Spanish Masterpieces from the Franco Regime C) Czech Film Now D) Tribute to the Late Kwak Ji-kyun, and finally the Midnight Passion section (12 films, 11 countries).

Details of the festival, the screening schedule and information on each film, can be seen at the PIFF official English-language website: http://www.piff.org/structure/eng/default.asp