Cordial Sammo Hung in Busan

Sammo Hung has come to Busan for the first time for the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF homepage), the Hankyoreh tells. He is in a very cordial mood: "I'm excited that moviegoers still remember me. I'm for the first time in the Pusan Film Festival, and it's fine to see such a well-made festival. Busan is very beautiful, more beautiful than Cannes." In fact I haven't been to Cannes but I've been to Busan. Let's assume that Sammo Hung was being the comedian that he is when he commented the beauty of that city... • Hankyoreh writes his name according to the Mandarin (Putonghua) pronunciation of his Chinese name (洪金寶): Hong Jin-bao (홍진바오), and not according to the old Korean practice of using the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters, which in his case is Hong Kûm-bo (홍금보). And the Cantonese pronunciation of his name that he uses is Hung Kam-bo... • The Chinese names are increasingly written in Korea according to the Putonghua pronunciation, even in the case of Hong Kong celebrities whose Chinese names are internationally known in their Cantonese form. But I guess in everyday speech the old habit of using the Korean pronunciations will prevail: Chu Yun-bal, Yi Yôn-gôl, Yi So-ryong, Sông Ryong, Chang Man-ok (Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung) etc. • Just for those who might wonder what's that with the spellings Busan/Pusan, Busan is the current official form of the city, and Pusan is how the film festival writes it. The festival started when the official spelling was Pusan, and they didn't care to change the festival name with the new official spelling. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: literature/movies ∙ cities ∙ Koreanlanguage