The 16th Annual Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, or PiFan 2012, rolled out the red carpet this week to celebrate the best in international niche cinema.
The largest genre film festival in Asia showcases a wide range of horror, fantasy, mystery, and animated movies, with particular attention paid to Asian cinema.
This year, a total of 230 short and feature films from 47 countries will be shown during its 10-day run and many of the films will be premiering for the first time there.

[Interview : Park Jin-hyoung, Event Programmer
Puchon International Film Festival] "Here at PiFan, there are films that you can't see at other film festivals, or other general theaters. It's where films with fantastically imaginative and provocatively challenging images can gather. That's what makes this film festival so special."

The international film festival kicked off with an advanced screening of the highly anticipated film "Horror Stories."
Japanese director Miike Takashi's "Love's Sake" is based on the popular 1970's manga series and will bring the festival to an end as the closing film.

PiFan's official competition selection called "Puchon Choice" will include 24 feature and short films from all over the world.
The films will range from inspirational stories of childhood dreams, like the Japanese film "Space Brothers," to monstrous tales of fear in the Irish film "Citadel".
In the "Vision Express" category, Taiwanese filmmakers present "The Soul of Bread" which puts a delicious twist on the typical love story.

Since 1997, the film festival has been hosted by Bucheon City and this year it will run until July 29th, with the award ceremony being held on the 27th.
Movie lovers will be sure to have their senses dazzled and be swept away with the festival's core themes of "love, fantasy, and adventure."