The Asian World Film Festival is preparing to launch its first edition later this month in Los Angeles, and opening the inaugural event will be the North American premiere of OH Seung-uk’s romantic thriller The Shameless. Closing film will be HOU Hsiao-hsien’s arthouse martial arts pic The Assassin. Both films debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

 

The sophomore work of OH, who debuted with Kilimanjaro in 2000, The Shameless premiered in Cannes as part of the Un Certain Regard lineup in May, which also featured the Korean feature Madonna by SHIN Su-won. Starring JEON Do-yeon, who picked up the Best Actress prize in Cannes in 2007 for LEE Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, and KIM Nam-gil, the film tells the story of a karaoke salon madam and her burgeoning relationship with a homicide detective who is investigating a murder case with her boyfriend as the main suspect. The dark thriller-romance was executive produced by famed filmmaker PARK Chan-wook and was released theatrically in Korea in May, though it only managed to attract just over 400,000 viewers.

 

Following Cannes, the film was invited to the official competition section of the Shanghai International Film Festival, where it snagged and Outstanding Artistic Achievement award. OH’s film was also invited to the Bali International Film Festival and most recently the Busan International Film Festival, where it screened in the Korean Cinema Today-Panorama section.

 

The inaugural Asian World Film Festival will take place from October 26th to November 2nd.