A first-ever South Korean film festival will be launched here in the second week of November to introduce South Korean feature films to the Myanmar audiences, according to sources with the South Korean Embassy here.

At the four-day festival beginning Nov. 10, four selected South Korean feature films with Myanmar sub-titles will be screened at the famous Thamada (President) Cinema in Yangon, said the sources.

These films are “Joint Security Area”, ” Art Museum by the Zou”, “Just Do It” and “My Sassy Girl”, the sources added.

South Korean TV series were first telecast by the Myawaddy TV of Myanmar in 2002 and since then South Korean artists have become popular in Myanmar.

In July 2005, a week-long Myanmar-Korean contemporary art show  took place here to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment  of diplomatic relations between Myanmar and South Korea,  displaying classical and modern works of artists of the two  countries with different views based on Eastern culture. The Myanmar side exhibits 23 works of artists, while the South Korean side 52.

In September the same year, South Korean stars including Kim Jae Won and involving three singing star groups — the Cross, Baby Vox and Wawa — gave performances in Yangon as part of their ASEAN tour to mark the 15th anniversary of South Korea-ASEAN dialogue  partnership..

Both activities provided opportunities for Myanmar audiences to have direct access to South Korean artists thus creating better understanding between the peoples of the two countries and enhanced bilateral friendship, local artists said.

Myanmar and South Korea share a common experience in nurturing a distinctive culture on the basis of tradition and creative adoption and digestion of foreign cultural influences, the artists noted.

Myanmar and South Korea forged diplomatic links in 1975 and the two countries have maintained continued co-operative relations in various areas including cultural, economic, technical cooperation.