Despite being held every year during the typhoon season, our
festival was fortunate in not having received a direct hit from
one of these storms. In 1997, however, a typhoon did approach
the island of Kyushu during the festival and public transportation
was halted as a result. Shops closed temporally and the festival
office was forced to give up a part of its planned screenings,
which led to a drop in attendance from the previous year, to
14,117. Attendance may have dropped, but to the festival came
the largest number of participants – a total of 64 individuals,
who exchanged lively discussions with the audience. This was
due to many guests from the Philippines, the country featured
in our 1995 festival, who came their own expense. Another international
film festival was launched in 1997 – in Pusan, Korea, only a
40 minute flight from Fukuoka. As the festival was held at the
same time as our festival, many guests moved to Pusan after
Fukuoka.

　Including masterpieces by the great filmmaker, Lee Hsing, our
Taiwan Films Collection presented 7 films seeing their premier
in Japan. Some of these films were made prior to TaiwanUfs New
Wave Cinema coming to the forefront. At the Symposium, Lee Hsing,
as well as other individuals representing Taiwan’s film industry
such as Wan Jen and Wang Tong, gave summaries on the history
of Taiwanese films. The Symposium, as a result, turned out to
be a very fruitful event. One of the festival participants was
film director Chang Tso-Chi, winner of many awards including
the Grand Prix Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival
in 1999. Set in Japan, the Hong Kong film, Hiroshima 28, saw
its premier in Japan more than 20 years after it was made. The
novel, melodramatic film, focusing on victims of the atomic
bomb, drew the wide attention of the audience.

　The Korean film, A Hot Roof, was an excellent comedy created
by a newcomer to the film industry. Starting with this film,
our festival began exhibiting more of Korea’s new generation
films.
Children of the Heaven(Iran) and The Long Journey(Vietnam),
being favorably received in Fukuoka, caught the eye of film
distributors, which eventually led to their release in Japan.

　Starting in 1997, the Fukuoka City Public Library began exhibiting
masterpieces in Japanese cinema during our festival, with English
subtitles made especially for our festival guests.

　Having had four of his films exhibited at our festival, Im Kwon-Taek,
a prominent Korean film director, received the 1997 Arts and
Culture Prize of the 8th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize.