June 13, 2014 - 12:36 AMT
Bong Joon-ho hit thriller “Snowpiercer” opens Los Angeles Film Fest

On a typically temperate June evening, the 20th Los Angeles Film Festival launched Wednesday, June 11 with Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer”, an evocation of a massive train in a frozen future world, Variety said.

Shot two years ago in the Tyrolian Alps in Austria, Bong recalled that dealing with all the snow and ice was tricky.

“There are so many different kinds of snow,” he mused at the afterparty at L.A. Live. “I have a lot of different emotions when I see snow now.”

He admitted that one of the more challenging “Snowpiercer” scenes involved a torch battle on the train. “It was hard since the torches were the only illumination because we wanted a primitive look — and it got really hot,” he added.

Stars Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Song Kang-ho and Go Ah-sung attended while Chris Evans sent a video greeting — all expressing pleasure over being the opening night film.

Radius-TWC is opening the film in the U.S. on June 27 — nearly a year after it opened with over $50 million in South Korea. “It’s the end of very long road,” he admitted.

For festival director Stephanie Allain, the film evoked the fest’s key guideline. “I loved seeing ‘Snowpiercer’ again tonight — it’s very artistic but accessible,” she noted.

It’s the third year that she’s directed the festival. “I can finally relax now and just show up at everything,” she said. The festival moved downtown to L.A. Live in 2010 and Allain praised the venue. “We plan on being here for a long time,” she said.