Zhang Yimou addresses The Assassin(s) row as Busan jury chief
The man leading the jury at Asia's biggest film festival has stepped into its loudest argument without having seen the film at its centre.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou, president of the competition jury at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, said he had not watched Hur Jin-ho's The Assassin(s) but had noticed the dispute around it, as reported by Variety on 7 Oct 2026. He was speaking at the jury press conference in Busan. He had not seen it.
The jury he leads has seven members and will judge 13 titles in competition. Fellow jurors include Korean filmmaker July Jung, the director of Next Sohee, and Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan, with the festival confirming the line-up for its 31st edition. A competition jury, in plain terms, is the small panel that watches the selected films and picks the winners.
The Assassin(s) centres on the 15 Aug 1974 shooting that killed first lady Yuk Young-soo, wife of then-President Park Chung-hee. South Korea's official inquiry held gunman Mun Se-gwang solely responsible for the attack. Hur's film declines to state who was behind it, Variety reported.
That refusal has sparked a fierce debate about fact and creative freedom. Conservative politicians and online critics have accused the film of distorting history, according to an earlier Variety report on 5 Oct. Earlier coverage in The Straits Times on 1 Oct described the film as suggesting government involvement in the 1974 attack.
The row has spilled beyond cinemas. A former Seoul city councillor from the People Power Party asked Seoul police to investigate Hur, the production company's chief executive and the film's two writers for defamation. The Directors Guild of Korea said attacks on individuals over the film had crossed the line, while wider industry figures rallied around the team, according to ScreenDaily on 6 Oct.
Asked about the clash, Zhang said history is written by people and questioned whether history itself is truly real. Jung was blunter about the mood. She said her heart feels so cold as a filmmaker.
On the commercial front, the controversy has not slowed ticket sales. The Assassin(s) topped the Korean admissions chart, a ranking based on tickets sold, over the 2-4 Oct weekend. It is set to open the Singapore International Film Festival on 21 Oct.
What makes this stand out is the stage. Busan is a festival, not a courtroom. Yet its jury press conference became the place where questions of evidence, memory and invention were put to working directors, and their answers will follow the films out of Busan to audiences elsewhere.
