As a part of the 2007 China-Japan Culture and Sports Exchange Year, the second Chinese Film Festival in Yokohama will be held in the central Japanese port city from Monday, according to organizer.

Famous Chinese directors, including Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yang, are scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of the festival, the theme of which will be "Beijing" in order to express good wishes to the Beijing Olympic in 2008.

Six Chinese movies will be shown during the week long festival, which will also be a section of the Beijing Culture Week organized by Beijing and Yokohama.

Organizer said the film festival is aimed at improving Japanese people's understanding about China, boosting Japanese youths' interests in the Chinese culture and expanding the influence of the Chinese film industry in overseas markets.

During the festival, some promotion footage for the Beijing Olympic will be shown and an Olympic pictures exhibition will be held.

Chinese films have been popular recently in Japan's pan-capital region, with the upcoming Tokyo Film Festival having set up a special section for Chinese films.

The Chinese Film Festival in Yokohama was first held in 2006 to be the first formal Chinese film festival in Japan.
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(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2007)