HÀ NỘI — South Korean A-list actor Ahn Sung-ki will attend the South Korea - Việt Nam Film Festival’s opening ceremony on December 15 in Hà Nội.

This is a good chance for Korean movie fans in Hà Nội to meet Sung-ki, who is regarded as a Korean national icon and is one of the most famous artists in South Korea. Along with Lee Byung Hun, he was one of the first Korean actors to leave his footprints in Hollywood in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in 2012.

"Sung-ki is a legend in Korean cinema," said the Korean Cultural Centre’s director and festival organiser Park Hye-jin. "He is still one of Korea’s hardest working actors and he has made his contribution to bring popular Korean culture and Korean film to the world."

Sung-ki began his acting career at the age of five with The Twilight Train by Kim Ki-young. He had a small role in the famous The Housemaid in 1960 at the age of eight. He took a break of about 10 years from film acting, graduating from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies’ Vietnamese Study Department.

He won the respect and admiration of audiences and critics. His first international award was for the best child actor at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1960 for his role in Defiance of a Teenager.

Vietnamese film The Tailor will be shown with English subtitles on December 15 at Âu Cơ Theatre, 8 Huỳnh Thúc Kháng Street.

The opening ceremony will show Unbowed at 5.30pm, with Sung-ki in the leading role. The film is directed by Chung Ji-young based on by the true story of a maths professor. It was produced on a low budget with the actors’ willingness to receive little pay. The film became a box office hit with 3.4 million tickets sold.

A talk with the actor will be held before the film showing, which will be presented by Korean ambassador to Việt Nam Lee Hyuk and popular Vietnamese television actresses Bảo Thanh and Hồng Diễm.

Festival-goers will see other Korean films, animated films and Vietnamese Cô Ba Sài Gòn (The Tailor). The film will be the Vietnamese representative at the US Academy Awards 2019 for the best foreign language film. The Tailor will be shown with English and Korean subtitles at 5.30pm on Saturday at Âu Cơ Theatre.

The Great Battle, The Accidental Detective 2: In Action and Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days are among the Korean movies made this year. The animated movies include Tayo Bus, Larva and Hello Jadoo. The animated movies will be shown at 10am on Sunday with Vietnamese dubbing. All Korean films will have English and Vietnamese subtitles.

Register for free tickets at https://vietnam.korean-culture.org/…/425/board/169/read/93265 or on the Korean Cultural Centre website: https://www.facebook.co/vietnamkcc/. — VNS