Korea’s Busan film festival reels in the stars

Organisers of Asia’s largest film festival have issued a rallying cry to its supporters as the event emerges from years of starring in its own political drama.
The Busan International Film Festival hopes to draw a line under its role in a bitter row over the sinking of the Sewol ferry — one of South Korea’s deadliest ever disasters — which divided and traumatised the nation.

“This edition of the festival is a reunion,” said Lee Yong-kwan, chairman of the Biff organising committee.

“This year is about our recovery and a return of our status. It’s about expansion and reformation.”

The festival opens on Thursday with the world premiere of South Korean director Jero Yun’s Beautiful Days, which focuses on a North Korean family reunited after the mother escapes south looking for a better life.

Its theme of reconciliation seems a fitting one considering the troubles Biff has endured since the festival screened a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol was critical of the then-government’s handling of the tragedy in April 2014 that left more than 300 people dead, most of them schoolchildren.

Investigations into and charges against festival organisers followed, along with significant funding cuts, as the dispute between Biff and the government played out in public.

Lee and former deputy festival director Jay Jeon were initially removed from their posts but have been reinstated for this year’s edition, while the new government of President Moon Jae-in has thrown its support behind the festival.

“We hope this year to become a place that once again brings filmmakers together and that the festival can be back on track,” said Biff programmer Nam Dong-chul.

The 23rd edition of the Biff runs from October 4-13 and will feature 323 films from 79 countries, including 115 having their world premieres.

The Korean film industry is expected to be out in force on opening night with an array of local celebrities gracing the red carpet, including star of the opening film Lee Na-young, as well as Park Hae-il and Moon So-ri, who have brought the Zhang Lu-directed romance Ode to the Goose to the festival.

K-Pop star turned actress

Joining them will be the likes of Hollywood producer Jason Blum (of Oscar-nominated Whiplash and Get Out fame), acclaimed Chinese art-house darling Zhao Tao (Ash is the Purest White) and Indian hit-maker Rajkumar Hirani (3 Idiots).
Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will also be in town to accept Biff’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award as well as to perform on opening night.

Highlights of the festival’s main programmes include the world premiere of multi-award-winning Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan’s latest, the theatre-themed First Night Nerves.
Local films as always feature prominently, with 16 world premieres in the Korean Cinema Today section including the debut as a lead actress from sometime K-Pop star Choi Soo-young (Girls Generation) in Memories of a Dead End.

The festival’s main competition — the New Currents award for first- or second-time Asian filmmakers — will this year be contested by 10 films from seven countries.
Hong Kong filmmaker Yuen Woo-ping — famed for his work on the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and on Hollywood’s Matrix franchise — has returned to the director’s chair for the actioner Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.
The film will bring the festival to a close on October 13 with its world premiere.
“The unique part of Biff is that it represents a wide range of cultures and filmmakers,” said Yuen.
First-time Malaysian director Zahir Omar is among the new talents on show.
Omar is bringing his stylised thriller Fly By Night to Biff for its world premiere and said being accepted by the region’s pre-eminent festival felt “surreal”.
The Busan festival “allows us the space and support to develop our art,” said Omar.
“Many international festivals overlook [Asian filmmakers’] efforts, but [Biff] has become a festival that we all aspire to get into at some point in our careers.
“To say it is a big event would be an understatement.”