Bucheon fest presents 'premium genre film showcase'
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Graphic by Cho Sang-won
By Jason Bechervaise
Entering its 19th year, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) has become one of the most significant genre film festivals in Asia. Focusing on “fantasy,” the festival encompasses horror, science fiction, suspense and action films that are not grounded in the real world.
Kicking off on July 16, the festival will screen 235 films (compared to last year’s 210) from 45 countries, which will include 64 world premieres, 14 international premieres and 61 Asian premieres.
This year, the festival will open with the Asian premiere of the British action comedy “Moonwalkers” directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet starring Ron Perlman (“Hellboy”) and Rupert Grint (“Harry Potter”) set in 1969 when a CIA agent is sent to London to hire Stanley Kubrick to film a fake landing of Apollo 11 should the real moon landing fail.
Closing the festival is the world premiere of the Korean horror movie “The Chosen: Forbidden Cave” directed by Kim Hui (“The Neighbors.”)
The film featuring local acting talent such as Kim Sung-kyun and Yoo Sun is based on Shin Jin-O’s 2010 novel “Moonyeogool” about a psychologist/exorcist who faces a powerful spirit during an exorcism.
This year there is a real emphasis on a wide range of genre films from across the world with the motto “premium genre film showcase” which includes a “Mexican genre film showcase.” Featuring names such as Guillermo Del Toro with his 1993 feature debut “Cronos,” it gives audiences an opportunity to discover the growing status of Mexican cinema and its filmmakers.
Danny Sang-ho Rhee, one of the festival’s programmers, says, “In Korea there are not a lot of people who know that the films from “Dusk Till Dawn,” “Pacific Rim,” “Gravity” and “Birdman,” which achieved amazing performances in terms of commercial success and reviews all around the world are actually the work of directors from Mexico.”
Rhee wants to invite the festival audience to “open the door to the world of Mexican genre films that the audience has never seen before.”
Reflecting the strong Asian presence this year, there’s a special program dedicated to the work of Japanese filmmaker Sono Sion co-hosted by the Japan Foundation that includes the international premiere of “Love & Peace” and the world premiere of his latest film “Tag.” Sono will be in Bucheon to meet with audiences.
Alice Yoo, a festival programmer, describes him as “Japanese culture’s eternal rebel, an activist for rebellion and anarchism and a writer of violence and eroticism.”
Fans of Hong Kong-based actor Simon Yam will be treated to a retrospective titled “Excellent Actor, Nice Guy Simon Yam” with the actor himself attending the festival. Films featuring part of the program include “Eye in the Sky” that was later remade by Korean filmmakers into the 2013 hit “Cold Eyes.”
Other strands of the comprehensive program include a look at Korean independent genre films and a special focus on science fiction classics giving cinephiles an opportunity to see films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Contact” on the big screen.
Furthermore, Bucheon Choice, the festival’s main international competitive section consists of twelve features including Canadian post-apocalyptic action film “Turbo Kid” and Han Jun-hee’s “Coin Locker Girl” that was invited to Cannes in May.
Also running alongside BiFan from July 19-22 is the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF), which was launched in 2008. It’s an in-depth industry program for global genre film professionals providing programs such as film development, co-production, financing and post-production. It also includes a project spotlight, which this year will focus on China for the second time.
Jong-suk Thomas Nam, managing director of NAFF explains, “When we first started NAFF back in 2008, the very first country spotlighted was China. At that time, the issue was whether it would be realistic for genre films to be successful in the Chinese market and, the general consensus at that time was it would be difficult.”
“Now we fast forward to year 2015 and genre films are all they are talking about in China (along with rom-coms). Even horror films and thriller films are doing fantastic at the box-office.”
“Still, indie and low-to-medium-budget genre film projects in China are not getting many channels to be made, and I thought we should re-examine the potential global possibilities of Chinese genre film projects through NAFF this year.”
This year’s BiFan takes place from July 16-26. More details about the festival and its lineup are available in Korean and English on the official website: