THE TEENAGERS GATHER in the covered driveway of the Island Shangri-La - close enough to keep an eye on things, but far enough away so as not to raise the ire of the team of doormen who control the comings and goings.
The cameras around their necks are the first sign that these kids are here for a purpose, not merely to escape the Friday afternoon downpour that briefly turned the road outside into a torrent.
A press conference for Italian footballing giants AC Milan has finished upstairs and some of the world's most famous players - Paolo Maldini and Andriy Shevchenko among them - are milling around the hotel entrance, looking bemused for once by the lack of attention they are receiving, as they wait to be carted off to their next engagement. The footballers may be heroes to millions across the globe, but the kids outside look straight through them. They're more concerned with what's happening on the hotel's top floor, where interviews are being held as part of a publicity push for the South Korean film Windstruck.
It speaks volumes for the relentless rise in popularity of Korean cinema in Hong Kong that the two stars of Windstruck - Jun Ji-hyun and Jang Hyuk - have eclipsed the Serie A champions.
Teams of TV crews and reporters have flown from Seoul to join the local contingent for a day of interviews. And upstairs they are milling around talking, some even catching a quick nap on the hotel couches, waiting for their allotted 20 minutes with the principals.
My time finally comes to talk to 28-year- old Jang - known to local audiences thanks to 2002's Volcano High and his turn in local director Fruit Chan's Public Toilet. First he has his hair professionally messed by an assistant, then a dab of makeup. Now he's ready to talk about why his country's film output has been turning heads.
'Hong Kong has long had an established, internationally known industry,' he says. 'Taiwan is known for its dramas, and its TV shows, and Japan has everything covered. As for Korea, we are relatively new - and people like that. It's fresh and new, undiscovered. And the more popular it gets, the more people become involved in it. We have directors now who are willing to try anything.'