The 14th Pusan International Film Festival opened last night in the southern port city of Busan with over 5,000 people in attendance. The prestigious festival will run for nine days through Oct. 16.

Every year around this time, thousands of people head to the southern port city of Busan, where the smell of the sea riding a crisp autumn breeze mingles with the faint scent of filmstrips at the Pusan International Film Festival.

The festival, now in its 14th year, is set to screen its biggest lineup ever, with 355 films from 70 countries.

Part of the festival’s success can be attributed to the fact that it brings something new every year to cineastes who wait anxiously for the festival’s autumn opening.

“This year’s PIFF will have the largest number of films ever, and we will be graced with the most glamorous guests we have ever had,” PIFF director Kim Dong-ho said.

Kim, who has been with the festival since its inception, has good reason to be proud of this year’s lineup. The event will play host to 98 world premieres and 46 international premieres (films that are being shown there for the first time outside of their home country), which he says reflects the festival’s growing prestige.

Another feature of the festival is that it will screen more Korean films, both old and new, than ever before.

With the opening film “Good Morning President” at the head of the list, a number of first-run Korean films will be screened during the festival, according to event organizers. In the “Korean Cinema Today – Panorama” section in particular, premieres will outnumber previously released films.

There will also be four retrospectives on Korean cinema. The first spotlights the late Korean director Ha Kil-chong, who was an icon for contemporary intellectuals in the 1970s; this year marks the 30th anniversary of his death. There are also two retrospectives on the late director Yu Hyun-mok and the late actress Jang Jin-young, both of whom passed away this year. The final retrospective titled “Archaeology of Korean Cinema” is the outgrowth of a program that works to restore Korean films. The section features three Korean movies rarely screened for general audiences.

The festival has generated a good deal of buzz in the weeks leading up to its opening, largely due to the extraordinary lineup of Korean and overseas celebrities who are expected to attend. Among them are three international heartthrobs – Lee Byung-hun from Korea, Josh Hartnett from the United States and Takuya Kimura from Japan. All three star in the movie “I Come with the Rain” and will be featured in the festival’s Gala Presentation.

Hartnett shared his excitement about his first visit to Korea and meeting his fans in a letter released this week by the film’s local promotion agency, in which he wrote: “As you may know, I’ll be attending the Pusan Film Festival this year to promote the film ‘I Come with the Rain.’ I am very excited about my visit. Byung-hun Lee has told me many great things about Korea, and now I get to see it for myself. I’m looking forward to meeting our fans, eating some good food, seeing the sights. I hope you enjoy the film. See you soon.”

The film made headlines after tickets for the Busan screening sold out in less than a minute when online ticketing began late last month. The festival’s opening and closing films also sold out just as quickly.

But no worries, there are hundreds of other films in the festival’s main competition section, “New Currents,” which features outstanding films from Asian countries. Meanwhile, the “Flash Forward” section, which has been turned into a competition section this year, is more devoted to films from non-Asian regions like Europe.

“All the films featured in the New Currents section are either world or international premieres,” festival director Kim said. “And in general, the range of films that will be screened during the festival has been expanded to include underrepresented regions in African and Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.”

Films will be screened in 11 different sections, including New Currents, Flash Forward and several special programs, during the festival. Screenings take place at four theaters in the Haeundae Beach area – Megabox, CGV-Centum City, Lotte Cinema-Centum City and the outdoor theater at the Busan Yachting Center – and two in Nampo-dong, downtown Busan (Daeyoung Cinema and Cinus).

The wide selection of films will be accompanied by various special events. PIFF Village, located in the Haeundae Beach area, is expected to be the main spot for major activities, such as actor and director question-and-answer sessions with fans.

In addition, there will be concerts every evening at 7:30 p.m. from today through next Thursday at outdoor theaters in Haeundae, giving audiences a chance to enjoy music and movies under the starlit autumn sky in Busan.

Meanwhile, the festival’s only audience-oriented party, “Cinematic Love,” will rock the beach from 10 p.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. the following day. The event features performances by bands Drunken Tiger and Daishi Dance.

Park Sun-young
source-http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2911043

April marked the beginning of the “Good Movie Film Festival” in Seoul, South Korea, and we featured an article depicting the festival’s popular outdoor movie screenings. The festival will continue screening movies under the stars until October, presenting local, independent, and popular Korean films. One of the films screened is “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” a revolutionary picture in the children’s genre. Director Hayao Miyazaki has yet again transcended the boundaries of juvenile cinema, presenting a film that is profound and enjoyable for children and adults alike. The following is a review of the film from The Japan Times. This film is just another gem not to be missed at The Good Movie Outdoor Film Festival. You can read the original blog post about the outdoor cinema event here.

Hayao Mizayaki is the reigning giant of Japanese animation — and the Japanese box office. Since “Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki’s Delivery Service)” in 1989, every Miyazaki film has been a smash hit, drawing the widest possible audience. In 2001, his coming-of-age fantasy “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)” set an all-time Japanese box-office record — ¥30.4 billion.

But this, and other Miyazaki megahits, including “Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)” (1997) and “Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle)” (2004) are anything but lowest-common-denominator entertainment. Even though his heroines (rarely heroes) are usually in their early teens or younger, their adventures unfold in rich visual and narrative matrices, with everything from personal memories and contemporary environmental concerns to ancient Japanese mythologies and fantastic European cityscapes tossed into the mix, in combinations that would only occur to Miyazaki’s well-stocked, endlessly inventive mind. One reason his films keep the turnstiles spinning is that they repay — even require — repeated viewings.

But Miyazaki’s most beloved film in Japan — “Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)” (1988) — is also among his easiest to understand. Even tots can thrill to the film’s epic ride on the Cat Bus — one of the coolest forms of transportation ever invented, as long as you’re not allergic to felines.

His latest feature animation, “Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea),” exceeds even “Totoro” in simplicity, with a core target audience about as old as its hero — 5. This is not to say that those who have mastered hiragana (or the alphabet) will be bored, as long as they leave their expectations for the usual Miyazaki film at the door.

Miyazaki has made what is for any adult — but especially a 67-year-old anime veteran — an extraordinary leap: In “Ponyo” he is not just telling a story to tikes, but imaginatively becoming one himself. I was reminded of the famous opening of James Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” with its recital of the hero’s earliest memories in the language of infancy (“Once upon a time there was a moocow coming down along the road and . . .”), as if the author were re-inhabiting an earlier self.

At the same time, Miyazaki revisits themes from other, more adult-focused films, such as humanity’s destruction of the natural world, and nature’s revenge on its human tormentors. Also, the animation is Miyazaki’s familiar mix of the realistic and fantastic, with extinct sea creatures swimming contentedly alongside their contemporary — and accurately rendered — descendants. In other words, there is still plenty to engage the mind and eye, as well as keep the small army of Miyazaki explicators busy.

The title character, Ponyo (voice by Yuria Nara), is a girl fish with a human face who decides one day to leave her underwater home — and her school of smaller sisters — to see what lies on the surface. Riding on the back of a jellyfish, she is nearly trapped by a drift net, but escapes — with her head stuck in a glass jar. Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), a boy who lives on a house on a seaside cliff, spots Ponyo in the shallows and rescues her. He is delighted with his new pet — and Ponyo is delighted to be in the human world at last. She says her first words, to Sosuke’s astonishment — and begins a transformation from half-fish to human.

Outdoor Movie Screenings at the Good Movie Outdoor Film Festival

Meanwhile, her human father, Fujimoto (George Tokoro), who lives in an undersea manse with Ponyo’s sea-queen mother (Yuki Amami), starts to search for her. With his long hair, beaky nose and tormented, bags-under-the-eyes expression, Fujimoto looks like a decayed aristocrat from a shojo manga (girls’ comic), but he possesses magical powers over the waves, which become like living creatures under his command. What can a mere kid, if one with a feisty mom he calls Lisa (Tomoko Yamaguchi), and a good-natured, if mostly absent, ship-captain dad (Kazushige Nagashima), do to stop him?

“Ponyo” is not about a simplistic struggle between good and evil, however. Fujimoto is more of a worried father than a scarily powerful villain. Also, with the aid of her sisters, Ponyo unleashes powers of her own, with awesome, if unintended, consequences.

The film meanders into various byways, such as the day-care center for the elderly that Lisa runs, with a female clientele that runs the gamut from the cute to the cranky — and serves as a Greek chorus to the action.

The focus, though, stays mostly on Sosuke and Ponyo, whose relationship undergoes a change from master/pet to protective older brother/bubbly, if trouble-prone, younger sister. There is something dreamlike about their adventures in both the thrilling wish-fulfillment of them and their spooky shape-shifting. Small children, who naturally live on the borderline between reality and fantasy, will have no trouble following along.

As with most Miyazaki films, I walked out of “Ponyo” thinking less about the rambling story, based loosely on “The Little Mermaid,” than certain strangely gripping scenes, such as a grimly determined Lisa zipping along a seaside road in her mini car, with Sosuke at her side, as angry anthromorphic waves crash and lash around them, or Sosuke and Ponyo puttering idyllically over a submerged town in a toy boat powered by a burning candle, which has magically grown big enough to hold them.

No one but Miyazaki could have created anything like these moments, with anything like his mastery. If “Ponyo” is the start of his artistic second childhood, I say welcome to the sandbox.

Source: “It’s kids’ play for anime king” by Mark Schilling -The Japan Times. Read full article at: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20080711a1.html.

Two months ago we featured an article about the outdoor movie screenings at the Seoul Good Movie Festival. The outdoor film festival presented 280 movies at 690 free screenings including popular and arthouse films alike. One of the films shown was “The Good, the Bad, the Wierd”, a Korean take on spaghetti westerns. The following is a review of the film from The Hollywood Reporter. You can read the original blog post about Seoul’s outdoor cinema screenings here.

Costing not just a few dollars more than Serge Leone’s spaghetti westerns, Korean genre-twisting auteur Kim Jee-woon’s $17 million homage to Leone’s tour de force “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” is a make-or-break venture that, given the precarious status of the Korean film business at the moment, could influence prospects of Korean mega-bucks film investments. Notwithstanding such pressure, the direction shows no signs of fluster, resulting in a jaunty, happy-go-lucky adventure that packs a fistful of dynamite in the spectacular showdown.

Unveiled at Cannes Out of Competition, key producer CJ Entertainment claimed it sold to selective European territories and reported more post-fest sales worldwide. Domestic and Asian (especially Japanese) audience response could be enthusiastic. Kim’s genre crossover may also prod the curiosity of those traditionally raised on the Western.

One line of dialogue sums up the action in a nutshell: “Life is about chasing and being chased.” The first half hour whizzes by like a stray bullet, taking in a railroad explosion, a train robbery, an ambush in the marketplace, followed by many forms of chases in exotic locations and costumes. A subplot about the legend of “The Finger Chopper” introduces fusion elements of stylishly shot martial arts stunts.

After about an hour of digressive comic relief, the film hurtles toward a grand finale at the pace of a galloping stagecoach. Lone riders, cavalry and jeeps rush against each other across a boundless arid plain in sweeping panoramic shots that proudly show off where the money went.

Outdoor Cinema Screenings at the Seoul Good Movie Festival

The film retains the outline of the original characters: a feral gangster, a wacko train robber and a bounty hunter. All are after a map of buried Manchurian dynastic treasure. Song does a cocky, charismatic turn as the Weird on autopilot, making his role less of a weasely buffoon as Leone’s Tuco than a resourceful man of mystery. But he lacks the “loser” qualities that made him so human and sympathetic in comic roles for Kim Jee-woon’s earlier “The Quiet Family” and “The Foul King.”

Cast against type but coming up tops is housewife heartthrob Lee Byung-hyun (“A Bitter Sweet Life”). As the Bad, he exudes villainy with a maniacal relish, like Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and better suits the energetic mood of this film than Lee Van Cleef’s inscrutable Angel Eyes. Leading romance actor Jung Woo-sung (“Daisy”, “A Moment to Remember”) holds his own as the Good, having grasped that his role is about poise rather than performance.

“The Good, The Bad, The Weird” fondly revisits a popular Korean subgenre in the ’60s known as “Manchurian Western,” set along the Chinese-Korean border in the ’30s, when Japanese colonialism made China’s Northeast a frontier land for resistance fighters, outlaws and carpetbaggers.

The meticulous recreation of this period backdrop is one of the film’s most fascinating elements. It gives a cultural-historical dimension to the archetypical Western plot of a treasure hunt, tracing the bounty hunters’ mercenary behavior to the psychological scars of lost nationhood. Location shooting is done in the Gobi Desert, China’s true Wild West, adding a further touch of authenticity.

Source: “Film Review: The Good, The Bad, The Weird” by Maggie Lee -The Hollywood Reporter. Read full article at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=11262.

Seoul is offering 280 free movies and outdoor film screenings to citizens at seven local theaters, the Cheonggye Plaza and the Olympic Park. The 14th annual Seoul Good Movie Festival kicked off on April 11 and continues until the end of October featuring 280 movies at 690 free screenings, including outdoor movie screenings, which are always popular.

The repertoire includes hit movies such as “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” and “Speed Scandal,” independent movies such as “Daytime Drinking’” and “Lovers” and animations such as “Ponyo on the Cliff” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” There are also 12 movies that have not been released in Korea.

Started in 1996 as a summertime outdoor film screening event, the Seoul Good Movie Festival has earned positive reactions from Seoulites. The festival broadened its coverage to art films and provided expert explanations on movies. The outdoor cinema screenings have continued to be the highlight of the festival.

To reduce the inconvenience for irregular screening times and theaters, the city designated seven local theaters as base cinemas ― Cinus Danseongsa, Cinus Gangnam, Film Forum in Sinchon, Kring Cinema, Jungnang Public Library, Nowon Culture Center and Jeongseon Memorial Hall. These cinemas will show movies at a designated day and time.

During the month of May, a movie plaza will open at the Gwansu Bridge on the Cheoggye Stream with showing short independent films by Korean directors. Outdoor movie screenings are located at Olympic Park and the Han River Park.

The venues and schedules are available at the Web site www.seoulgoodmovie.com or call 120 for more information. Reservations are required to watch the movies.

Source: “Seoul Offers Free Movies” by Kwon Mee-yoo -The Korea Times. Read full article at: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/04/113_43244.html.

City Sofa, the future of film palace in Busan by MVRDV Architect

http://www.shearyadi.com/myworld/city-sofa-the-future-of-film-palace-in-busan-by-mvrdv-architect/

The aspiration for this new film palace in Busan can be read as a demand for a strong and attractive ‘figure’ that celebrates the festival atmosphere and becomes a remarkable and festive background for the Busan Film Festival and the other activities.

The site imposed specific urban requirements. In order to arrange for a strongly visible building, the later program was positioned at the northern side of the terrain, adjacent to the future media industry environment.

The needed volume is imagined as a single layer of the demanded program, to be sorted in clear functional zones that allow for independent usage throughout the year. In these programmatic zones the different volumes are positioned in a series of ‘boxes’ with streets in between.

The palace can thus be conceived as a cinematic ‘village’, which incorporates all programmatic elements. All programs participate in the functioning of the palace. This volume, this organization diagram has been ‘curled’ up to create a ’sandwich’ of festive places: an interior valley-like palace positioned between dramatic plazas below and an unprecedented urban open air cinema on top.

It combines an interior space with a covered and an open exterior space, suitable for different times of the year. It makes a remarkable volume, an urban ‘chair’. It allows positioning the building within the maximal coverage of the site.

Outdoor movies and inflatable movie screens have been appearing in locations all around the world. Over time we will be adding links to articles about outdoor movies and open air cinema events. These articles are listed according to the country where the inflatable movie screen has been set up or the country where the outdoor movie event takes place.

A

• Abkhazia – Republic of Abkhazia
• Afghanistan – Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• Akrotiri and Dhekelia – Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (UK overseas territory)
• Åland – Åland Islands (Autonomous province of Finland)
• Albania – Republic of Albania
• Algeria – People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
• American Samoa – Territory of American Samoa (US territory)
• Andorra – Principality of Andorra
• Angola – Republic of Angola
• Anguilla (UK overseas territory)
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina – Argentine Republic
• Armenia – Republic of Armenia
• Aruba (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• Ascension Island (Dependency of the UK overseas territory of Saint Helena)
• Australia – Commonwealth of Australia
• Austria – Republic of Austria
• Azerbaijan – Republic of Azerbaijan

B

• Bahamas, The – Commonwealth of The Bahamas
• Bahrain – Kingdom of Bahrain
• Bangladesh – People’s Republic of Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus – Republic of Belarus
• Belgium – Kingdom of Belgium
• Belize
• Benin – Republic of Benin
• Bermuda (UK overseas territory)
• Bhutan – Kingdom of Bhutan
• Bolivia – Republic of Bolivia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Botswana – Republic of Botswana
• Brazil – Federative Republic of Brazil
• Brunei – Negara Brunei Darussalam
• Bulgaria – Republic of Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burma – Union of Myanmar
• Burundi – Republic of Burundi

C

• Cambodia – Kingdom of Cambodia
• Cameroon – Republic of Cameroon
• Canada
• Cape Verde – Republic of Cape Verde
• Cayman Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Central African Republic
• Chad – Republic of Chad
• Chile – Republic of Chile
• China – People’s Republic of China
• For “China, Republic of”, see Taiwan
• Christmas Island – Territory of Christmas Island (Australian overseas territory)
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands – Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australian overseas territory)
• Colombia – Republic of Colombia
• Comoros – Union of the Comoros
• Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Congo – Republic of the Congo
• Cook Islands (Associated state of New Zealand)
• Costa Rica – Republic of Costa Rica
• Côte d’Ivoire – Republic of Côte d’Ivoire
• Croatia – Republic of Croatia
• Cuba – Republic of Cuba
• Cyprus – Republic of Cyprus
• Czech Republic

D

• Denmark – Kingdom of Denmark
• For “Dhekelia”, see Akrotiri and Dhekelia
• Djibouti – Republic of Djibouti
• Dominica – Commonwealth of Dominica
• Dominican Republic

E

• East Timor – Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
• Ecuador – Republic of Ecuador
• Egypt – Arab Republic of Egypt
• El Salvador – Republic of El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea – Republic of Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea – State of Eritrea
• Estonia – Republic of Estonia
• Ethiopia – Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

F

• Falkland Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Faroe Islands (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark)
• Fiji – Republic of the Fiji Islands
• Finland – Republic of Finland
• France – French Republic
• French Polynesia (French overseas collectivity)

G

• Gabon – Gabonese Republic
• Gambia, The – Republic of The Gambia
• Georgia
• Germany – Federal Republic of Germany
• Ghana – Republic of Ghana
• Gibraltar (UK overseas territory)
• Greece – Hellenic Republic
• Greenland (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark)
• Grenada
• Guam – Territory of Guam (US organized territory)
• Guatemala – Republic of Guatemala
• Guernsey – Bailiwick of Guernsey (British Crown dependency)
• Guinea – Republic of Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau – Republic of Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana – Co-operative Republic of Guyana

H

• Haiti – Republic of Haiti
• Honduras – Republic of Honduras
• Hong Kong – Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Area of special sovereignty)
• Hungary – Republic of Hungary

I

• Iceland – Republic of Iceland
• India – Republic of India
• Indonesia – Republic of Indonesia
• Iran – Islamic Republic of Iran
• Iraq – Republic of Iraq
• Ireland – Ireland
• Isle of Man (British Crown dependency)
• Israel – State of Israel
• Italy – Italian Republic
• For “Ivory Coast”, see Côte d’Ivoire

J

• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jersey – Bailiwick of Jersey (British Crown dependency)
• Jordan – Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

K

• Kazakhstan – Republic of Kazakhstan
• Kenya – Republic of Kenya
• Kiribati – Republic of Kiribati
• Korea, North – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
• Korea, South – Republic of Korea
• Kosovo – Republic of Kosovo
• Kuwait – State of Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz Republic

L

• Laos – Lao People’s Democratic Republic
• Latvia – Republic of Latvia
• Lebanon – Republic of Lebanon
• Lesotho – Kingdom of Lesotho
• Liberia – Republic of Liberia
• Libya – Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
• Liechtenstein – Principality of Liechtenstein
• Lithuania – Republic of Lithuania
• Luxembourg – Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

M

• Macao – Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Area of special sovereignty)
• Macedonia – Republic of Macedonia
• Madagascar – Republic of Madagascar
• Malawi – Republic of Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives – Republic of Maldives
• Mali – Republic of Mali
• Malta – Republic of Malta
• Marshall Islands – Republic of the Marshall Islands
• Mauritania – Islamic Republic of Mauritania
• Mauritius – Republic of Mauritius
• Mayotte – Departmental Collectivity of Mayotte (French overseas collectivity)
• Mexico – United Mexican States
• Micronesia – Federated States of Micronesia
• Moldova – Republic of Moldova
• Monaco – Principality of Monaco
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Montserrat (UK overseas territory)
• Morocco – Kingdom of Morocco
• Mozambique – Republic of Mozambique
• For “Myanmar”, see Burma

N

• Nagorno-Karabakh – Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh)
• Namibia – Republic of Namibia
• Nauru – Republic of Nauru
• Nepal – Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
• Netherlands – Kingdom of the Netherlands
• Netherlands Antilles (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
• New Caledonia – Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies (French community sui generis)
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua – Republic of Nicaragua
• Niger – Republic of Niger
• Nigeria – Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Niue (Associated state of New Zealand)
• Norfolk Island – Territory of Norfolk Island (Australian overseas territory)
• Northern Cyprus – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• Northern Mariana Islands – Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US commonwealth)
• For “North Korea”, see Korea, North
• Norway – Kingdom of Norway

O

• Oman – Sultanate of Oman

P

• Pakistan – Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• Palau – Republic of Palau
• Palestine – Palestinian Territories
• Panama – Republic of Panama
• Papua New Guinea – Independent State of Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay – Republic of Paraguay
• For “People’s Republic of China”, see China
• Peru – Republic of Peru
• Philippines – Republic of the Philippines
• Pitcairn Islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Poland – Republic of Poland
• Portugal – Portuguese Republic
• For “Pridnestrovie”, see Transnistria
• Puerto Rico – Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (US commonwealth)

Q

• Qatar – State of Qatar

R

• Romania
• Russia – Russian Federation
• Rwanda – Republic of Rwanda

S

• Saint Barthélemy – Collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Helena (UK overseas territory)
• Saint Kitts and Nevis – Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Martin – Collectivity of Saint Martin (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon – Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French overseas collectivity)
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa – Independent State of Samoa
• San Marino – Most Serene Republic of San Marino
• São Tomé and Príncipe – Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
• Saudi Arabia – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Senegal – Republic of Senegal
• Serbia – Republic of Serbia
• Seychelles – Republic of Seychelles
• Sierra Leone – Republic of Sierra Leone
• Singapore – Republic of Singapore
• Slovakia – Slovak Republic
• Slovenia – Republic of Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia – Somali Republic
• Somaliland – Republic of Somaliland
• South Africa – Republic of South Africa
• For “South Korea”, see Korea, South
• South Ossetia – Republic of South Ossetia
• Spain – Kingdom of Spain
• Sri Lanka – Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
• Sudan – Republic of the Sudan
• Suriname – Republic of Suriname
• Svalbard (Territory of Norway)
• Swaziland – Kingdom of Swaziland
• Sweden – Kingdom of Sweden
• Switzerland – Swiss Confederation
• Syria – Syrian Arab Republic

T

• Taiwan – Republic of China
• Tajikistan – Republic of Tajikistan
• Tanzania – United Republic of Tanzania
• Thailand – Kingdom of Thailand
• For “Timor-Leste”, see East Timor
• Togo – Togolese Republic
• Tokelau (Overseas territory of New Zealand)
• Tonga – Kingdom of Tonga
• Transnistria – Transnistrian Moldovan Republic
• Trinidad and Tobago – Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
• Tristan da Cunha (Dependency of the UK overseas territory of Saint Helena)
• Tunisia – Tunisian Republic
• Turkey – Republic of Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Turks and Caicos Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Tuvalu

U

• Uganda – Republic of Uganda
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• United States – United States of America
• Uruguay – Eastern Republic of Uruguay
• Uzbekistan – Republic of Uzbekistan

V

• Vanuatu – Republic of Vanuatu
• Vatican City – State of the Vatican City
• Venezuela – Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
• Vietnam – Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Virgin Islands, British – British Virgin Islands (UK overseas territory)
• Virgin Islands, United States – United States Virgin Islands (US organized territory)

W

• Wallis and Futuna – Territory of Wallis and Futuna Islands (French overseas collectivity)
• Western Sahara – Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Y

• Yemen – Republic of Yemen

Z

• For “Zaire”, see Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Zambia – Republic of Zambia
• Zimbabwe – Republic of Zimbabwe