To mark the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the European Union and its Member States are hosting the 2018 edition of the European Union Film Festival as an open-air event.

The festival, which continues through December 17, see the residences of EU Member State Ambassadors and EU cultural institutes in Bangkok opening their doors for the screening of 19 premium quality European movies.

“This is a truly rare opportunity as seven EU ambassadors will open their residences to the public for film screenings, thus enabling the audience to enjoy a unique open-air film festival experience at European heritage venues right in the heart of the city,” said Pirkka Tapiola, the ambassador of the European Union to Thailand.

The film screening venues include the residences of the ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, the Alliance Francaise Bangkok, the Goethe-Institut Bangkok, and House No 1.

The festival kicked off last Thursday at House No 1, a historical house with European heritage located on Captain Bush Lane with the screening of “Mademoiselle Paradis”, an Austrian film by a new-generation director Barbara Albert, which was showcased at both the San Sebastian and Toronto film festivals.

Other highlights include “The Other Side of Hope”, a Finnish comedy-drama which won its veteran director, Aki Kaurismaki, the Silver Bear Award for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017; I Am Not a Witch”, a British drama which was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival; and “The Commune”, a Danish drama which won its actress Trine Dyrholm the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

The European Union Open-Air Film Festival 2018 runs until December 17. All films will be screened in their original languages with Thai and English subtitles.

Admission to all film screenings is free, however, pre-registration is required for entry to each film screening.

For the list of films, synopses, trailers and screening programme, visit http://www.facebook.com/events/1126897370798882.

It’s not only K-pop that has made South Korea famous around the world. The country’s TV dramas too have been wowing audiences as far afield as China and the US with romantic comedies, modern and period pieces, action and horror all in the mix.

Now they are bringing yet another new element to the small screen with the release on Netflix of the augmented reality drama “Memories of the Alhambra”, which debuted this weekend in South Korea and is showing the world over.

Starring Hyun Bin and Park Shin-hye, “Memories of the Alhambra” is centred on Yoo Jin-woo (Hyun Bin), the chief executive of an investment company holding company who is attempting to win the rights to a video game. He travels to Granada, Spain in search of the mysterious creator of this innovative augmented-reality (AR) game, young programmer Jung Se-joo (Park Chan-yeol from K-Pop boyband EXO), and ends up at a hostel owned by former musician Jung Hee-joo (Park Shin-hye) and dons his company’s innovative “smart lens” to play the game.

The cast of “Memories of Alhambra” at the press conference in Seoul: from left, Park Hoon, Hyun Bin, Park Shinhye and Kim Euisung./Netflix photo

The story is written by the acclaimed scriptwriter Song Jae-jung, who has won praise for bringing fresh ideas to Korean drama. Her previous hits include “Nine: 9 time times travel”, where she plays with the idea of time travel when the key character obtains 9 incense items, which allows him to go back 20 years in time. In “W”, she tells the story of a super wealthy man who exists in the webtoon “W”, and a woman who is a surgeon in the real world.

The series is directed by Ahn Gil-ho of “Strangers” fame, whose realistic directing style is in direct contrast to the writer’s fantasy plot.

“We wanted to make it as realistic as possible. So rather than use too much computer graphics, we’ve based it in reality,” says the director. “The most difficult part about expressing AR is how you are going to execute it. AR is different from virtual reality so it had to be very real and when we did use CG, we had to find the right point to put these together.”

In the first two episodes, the audience is introduced to the world of AR through Jin-woo as he starts playing the game for the first time.

For the 16-episode series, the director has again opted for non-linear storytelling just as he did in “Stranger”, with details and secrets revealed in jigsaw form then pieced together in a way that keeps the audience glued to their seats.

But Ahn Gil-ho is quick to insist that while “Memories” is full of new technological elements, it doesn’t have a complex plot that non-gaming audiences would find hard to follow.

Netflix Photo

“It is a future technology so there’s a fantasy factor at play. The AR game is just a topic that we use in the drama but it doesn’t play the biggest part. We try to explain the story through the acting. Also, it is not just about a game; there’s romance in there too,” he explains.

“The idea was to bring this fantastic script to life and the actors achieved that. I think everybody will imagine it playing out in their own way,” he adds.

The title refers to the Alhambra palace and fortress complex in Granada, Spain and it is there than the AR game takes place.

“Why Spain? Historically speaking, Granada has an Islamic backdrop as well as traditional Spanish culture and those two factors make it a very unique city. Its medieval feudal scenery is the perfect match to the game backdrop of our story,” he says.

“I’ve never worked with augmented reality before and I was really curious to see how it would actually come out after all the post production work and CGI had gone into it. I guess curiosity really drove me to participate in this project,” says Hyun Bin, who has been away from TV dramas for the last three years. The actor, who reached the height of his fame in “Secret Garden” back in 2011, has preferred feature films to TV dramas since coming out of the army, starring in “Confidential Assignment”, “The Swindles” and Rampant”.

Director Ahn Gil-ho/Netflix Photo

Park Shin-hye of “Doctors” fame has also been away from small screen dramas for two years.

“I put a lot of thought into my next project, asking how I could rediscover myself. AR was a new topic for me and it wasn’t simply a matter of playing a game. It’s not like just an arcade game. I thought there was a message within and I could really connect to the script, which addresses some social issues as well. Also the character I play, she’s very human and very warm,” says the actress.

“Gaming is an industry that is loved the world over. It’s cultural content that everybody in the world really enjoys and we melted this into the narrative of the drama to make it more fun. We made a conscious effort to ensure that people who don’t play games can follow our story and I think we have created a world where they feel like they’re really enjoying a game,” says the director.

Actor Park Hoon plays Cha Hyung-seok, the chief executive of IT company New World. A former school friend of Yoo Jin-woo, he co-founded Jaywon Holdings.

“My company makes a smart lens that you wear when you log into the game. In fact, that’s how you start playing: your put these smart lenses into your eye and people who aren’t accessing it via the smart lens don’t see what’s going on in the game. I had to really use my imagination to play it. For example, I’m fighting a certain character with certain weapons that can only be seen through the lens so while I can see what’s going on, people will look at me and wonder what’s wrong with me. That means we had to shoot from many different angles so that the audience is seeing what’s going on from my perspective and from the perspectives of others,” the actor explains.

He adds that time constraints complicated the shoot somewhat. “We were overseas and needed to repeat the shoots as many times as possible within a limited amount of time and that was quite difficult. I found it awkward at first but when I started playing the game, my acting levelled out and things improved. I’m at a very high level right now in terms of game acting capability,” he adds with a smile.

“The series has a lot of fantasy-based scenes and that makes it difficult to relate it to most Korean dramas. Yet I think we have found a Korean chord in explaining this fantasy world. The shifting relationships between the characters is also interesting,” says Park, who appeared in “Descendants of the Sun” as a smart solider in the squad of Captain Yoo Si-jin (Sung Joong-ki).

K-pop idol Park Chan-yeol, who plays programmer Jung Se-joo, was recommended by actress Park Shin-hye and Ahn Gil-ho found him particularly suited to the role.

“He’s a great actor and he has the image that really goes with Chan-yeol’s character. He connects all the characters together but that’s all I’m revealing,” laughs the director.

And of course the fact that he is a member of a superstar band is going to draw his fans all over the world to tune in.

The drama started shooting in May and the final scenes are now being shot. Ahn Gil-ho says the post production work on the visual effects is still to be completed.

He admits that it is a burden to live up to expectations after his acclaimed “Stranger”.

“‘Memories of the Alhambra’ is completely different from ‘Strangers’, the direction is different, the overall story and the style are different.

“We’ll be competing with a lot of other Netflix content but I think we have our own unique colour. Song has written a very tight story with solid characters and our actors have expressed it in a very immersive manner so I think it will capture audience attention on the global stage,” he says.

Filmed entirely in Taiwan with an all-Taiwanese cast, the second season stars Kuo Shu-Yao as she reprises her lead role as Xiao Zhen, alongside new cast members including two-time Golden Bell Award-winning actress Wen Chen-Ling (“The Last Verse”) and rising star, Fandy Fan (“HIStory”).

The eight-episode second season of “The Teenage Psychic” is scheduled to premiere in 2019 and will be available across Asia on HBO GO, HBO, and HBO On Demand.

“We are delighted that the first season of “The Teenage Psychic” was well-received in the region and even received the prestigious recognition at the Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan. It was an obvious decision for us to renew the series for a second season – the show absolutely deserves it,” says Jonathan Spink, chief executive of HBO Asia. “We are always looking for opportunities to produce more local language productions such as ‘The Teenage Psychic’ and working with local talents and crews across Asia.”

The new season of “The Teenage Psychic” continues with Xiao Zhen trying to lead a typical teenage life while going through high school. Meanwhile, Xiao Zhen’s beloved drama club is also facing the possibility of being shut down with news of her best friend relocating overseas with her family and reducing the number of members in the club even further. Juggling the multiple pressures from school, the drama club and the demands of the spirit world, things are about to take a turn for the worse for the 17-year-old.

New cast members for season two include award-winning actress, Wen Chen-Ling, who plays Zhan Xiao Tong, a neglected student with low self-esteem. Receiving encouragement from Xiao Zhen, Xiao Tong joins the drama club and discovers her talent for acting. As her life begins to turn around, she soon finds herself faced with more challenges. Also joining the cast is Fandy Fan who plays Zhang Yu Xuan, a sickly teenage boy who is raised in a restricted and overprotected environment. Unhappy to remain silent, Yu Xuan is determined to take control of his own life and escape the constraints of his upbringing.

“The Teenage Psychic” season two will be directed by up-and-coming director Liu Yan-Fu (“Life List”). Chen Ho-Yu, director of “The Teenage Psychic” season one, will executive produce.

The first season of “The Teenage Psychic” told a coming-of-age story that revolves around a teenager who just wants to lead a typical teenage high school life. Born with the ability to see spirits, her life will never be normal. Throughout the series, she had to juggle the pressures of teenage life – first love, academic success and peer pressure – with the demands of the spirit world.

“The Teenage Psychic” season one clinched the coveted Best Mini-Series (TV Movie) award and Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series (TV Movie) award for Nana Lee at Taiwan’s 52nd Annual Golden Bell Awards 2017 and received two nominations at the 22nd Asian Television Awards 2017 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Chen Mu Yi and Best Cinematography.

“The Teenage Psychic” has also inspired HBO Asia’s one-hour original Mandarin documentary, “The World Behind The Teenage Psychic”, which explores how the distinct blend of Taoist, Buddhist, Chinese folklore and indigenous belief systems continue to flourish in modern Taiwan. “The World Behind The Teenage Psychic” premieres on Sunday, December 16 at 7pm on HBO. The documentary will also be available on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox.