The 2014 Asian Games opening ceremony was held on Friday, 19 September 2014 at the newly built Incheon Asiad Main Stadium. It began at 7:18 pm and ended at 10:20 pm Korea Standard Time (UTC+9). It was directed by two renowned Korean film directors: Im Kwon-taek who directed famous films such as Chunhyang (2000) and Sopyonje (1993) and Jang Jin who directed The Front Line (2011). Entertainer Kim Seong-ju and KBS emcee Yun Su-yeong were the host of the ceremony. The music of the ceremony's artistic performance was performed by Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra.
Proceedings
Countdown
A countdown footage was shown with a Pop-up book featuring sceneries of the 45 participating nations of the Asian Games. Fireworks released all over the stadium, forming the words: "Welcome", marking the beginning of the ceremony. This was followed by a video of the mayor of Incheon, Yoo Jeong-bok introducing his city to the audiences.
Prelude
The ceremony started with a few introductory performances. The first one, featuring a little girl named Kim Min rolling a hoop across the main stadium to actor Jang Dong-Gun who in turn gave the hoop back to her,in a act that remembered the 1988 Summer Olympics opening and closing ceremonies,the “Hoop Boy and Girls” performances. Kim is a young rhythmic gymnast attending Incheon Cheongil Primary School who hoped to represent Korea in the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was later joined by 44 other hoop-rolling children from various schools to represent the 45 participating nations of the games as well as the population of the Asian continent of 4.5 billion. In the second one, a few women dancers in traditional costume gathered at the center of the stage to form Cheongsachorong, a traditional Korean lantern to mark the arrival of notable guests including Park Geun-hye, then the President of South Korea. The third performance featured soprano Sumi Jo who sang "The Song of the Asiad," dedicated by poet Ko Un, along with Incheon Metropolitan Citizens Choir, a choir consisting of 919 residents of the host city symbolising the event's opening date. The performance was composed by Kim Youngdong, a representative composer for traditional music of Korea. At the end of the performance, Sumi Jo sang the Korean traditional folk song Arirang with 10-vocalist choir. Before the start of the main performance, a video of the 2014 Asian Games torch relay was played with British band Coldplay's single, Viva la Vida as background music.
Main event
The cultural performance covered four sections that tells the story about Asia, which were "Asia a long time ago", "Asia, connected through sea routes", "Asia becoming family and friends", and "One Asia the future we meet today". South Korean actors Jang Dong-gun and main cast of My Love from the Star, Kim Soo-hyun led the stories, with Jang narrating the first story and Kim appearing through a video during the second stage. Section one "Asia a long time ago" tells about the beginning of Asia, which was built upon one continuous land and people live peacefully as a part of nature together with other living things such as trees, animals, plants and flowers. After sometime, the continent is being separated alongside its people and natural beings. Section two "Asia, connected through sea routes" started with a footage about Girl on a Ship, Sim Cheong a devoted daughter in a fairy tale who sacrificed herself by jumping into the sea to become a sacrifice to sea-god and rescue her blind father. This was follow by a second footage, featuring the hoop girl, Kim earlier aboard the ship with Kim Soo-hyun and travel to all parts of Asia to meet the different people around the continent and take them together to visit Incheon. Five musical artists Ock Joo-hyun, Michael K. Lee, Cha Ji-Yeon, Yang Joon-Mo and Jung Sung-hwa performing "We meet again" while the second footage was playing. In section three "Asia becoming family and friends", Prince Biryu, a founder of an ancient nation in the port city of Incheon thousands of years ago and Sim Cheong meet together in modern Incheon and witness the scenery and infrastructure of the city such as mail services, telephone services, rail transport system, airport, bridges, buildings, Incheon Asiad sports complex and seaport. During section four "One Asia the future we meet today", Ahn Sook-sun, Prince Biryu, Sim Cheong and the people of Incheon welcome home the ship that arrive to Incheon carrying Kim Min, Kim-Soo Hyun and the different people from all parts of Asia. The Sail of the ship was raised to represent hope for new future, united and modern Asia and Asia as one.