Busan film festival opens on a smaller scale

Stills from the 21st Busan International Film Festival’s opening film “A Quiet Dream” / Courtesy of BIFF

BIFF hit by typhoon, new law and in-fighting

By Park Jin-hai

The 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) kicked off for a ten-day run in the southern port city, Thursday.

Starting with the opening film “A Quiet Dream,” directed by Korean-Chinese director Zhang Lu, the festival will screen a total of 299 films from 69 countries, a scale almost as large as last year's 304 films from 75 countries.

However, crippled by a triple whammy of unexpected issues ― typhoon Chaba that swept the festival’s outdoor venue on Haeundae Beach, Wednesday, the new anti-graft law, which saw many trips and sponsoring events canceled, and most importantly, two years of in-fighting surrounding the festival’s artistic freedom.

Asia’s largest film festival will see a fewer number of movie stars and guests from the local film industry this year. Compared with 207 who walked the red carpet for the last event, 158 will be present this year.

Dampening the mood has been the new anti-graft law, the so-called Kim Young-ran Act, named after the former head of the Anti-Corruption Civil Rights Commission, which bans public servants, educators and journalists from receiving free meals valued over 30,000 won ($27), gifts worth more than 50,000 won or congratulatory or condolence money of more than 100,000 won.

The nation's four major film distributors ― CJ Entertainment, Showbox, Next Entertainment World and Lotte Entertainment ― cancelled their annual parties to promote their upcoming film projects to the media, while their red carpet events have also been scaled back since the sponsoring companies can no longer cover the expenses including airline tickets and accommodation costs formerly provided for guests.

Poster for 21st Busan International Film Festival

“Since the main guests are filmmakers, many of whom also teach at universities, we explained the issue (and why we cannot sponsor their travel fare),” said Kim Jung-yoon, a BIFF organizing committee official.

“It is the first major international event after the new law takes effect. We made a thorough review of our programs to see if any of them might be breaking the law,” said another official. “Although we agree on the purpose of the law, we are concerned that it may hamper the festive mood.”

What also weighed on the festival is typhoon Chaba, which struck the BIFF Village with the festival’s opening just a day away. The venue that would have housed various press conferences and hand-printing has been wrecked and the organizers had to hastily move to another location at the last minute.

Organizers of the Busan International Film Festival, including BIFF Chairman Kim Dong-ho, third from right, and its executive director and actress Kang Soo-youn, second from right, unveil hand prints of Hong Kong film director Johnnie To, American actor Harvey Keitel and German actress Nastassja Kinski, on the eve of the annual event at BIFF Square, in Nampo-dong, Busan, Wednesday. / Courtesy of BIFF

However, the biggest blow came from within.

The internal wrangling between BIFF and Busan Metropolitan Government, which was provoked two years ago by former festival executive director Lee Yong-kwan’s decision to screen a controversial documentary on the Sewol ferry disaster ― “Diving Bell.” The movie’s screening caused discord between Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo – also the BIFF organizing committee chairman ― and moviemakers.

Although the mayor stepped down from his organizing committee post, BIFF had to face an unprecedented audit of festival organizers and a drastic budget cut, which caused a boycott by nine movie industry groups.

A scene from “The Handmaiden” by Park Chan-wook

Four out of the nine, including the Producers Guild of Korea (PGK) and the Directors Guild of Korea (DGK), have not lifted their boycott even after Suh stepped down, saying that the festival's independence has not been assured and Lee’s honor has not been restored.

As a result, local blockbusters “Train to Busan” and “Tunnel,” which drew 11.5 million and 6.5 million viewers respectively, will not be screened because the former film’s chief producer Lee Dong-ha and the latter’s director Kim Seong-hun are members of the PGK and DGK, respectively. Directors Park Chan-wook and Bong Jun-ho will also be absent.

A scene from “Bleed for This” by Ben Younger

Movie highlights

These adversities have made a big dent on the acclaimed annual film festival, but it has managed to open as scheduled with various programs and movies prepared to attract movie lovers.

The festival opener is the Korean movie “A Quiet Dream,” a tale of a young woman who runs a bar and takes care of her paralyzed father. Three men try to woo her, but they don’t have much success as each have their own flaws.

The festival’s closer Hussein Hassan’s “The Dark Wind” is about love, traditional values and the collision of conflicting religious beliefs.

A scene from “Your Name” by Shinkai Makoto

In the Gala Presentation section, the latest works of four respected contemporary directors ― “Bleed for This” by Ben Younger, “Daguerrotype” by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, “Rage” by Lee Sang-il and “Your Name” by Makoto Shinkai ― will be screened.

Special programs include retrospectives for veteran Korean filmmaker Lee Doo-young and Abbas Kiarostami, the award-winning Iranian director who died in July; and a focus on Colombian cinema.

Visitors are also invited to various forums.

A scene from “The Dark Wind” Hussein Hassan

An open debate, Looking Back on the BIFF Crisis, will take place at BIFF Hill, Sunday. On Monday, the Virtual Reality Forum will be held to discuss the new form of VR cinema.

During the festival, three veteran directors of the Asian film industry ― Hou Hsiao-hsien of Taiwan, Koreeda Hirokazu of Japan and Lee Chang-dong of Korea ― will participate in a special talk about solidarity in Asian cinema. Actors, including Koreans Lee Byung-heon and Son Ye-jin, Japanese Ken Watanabe of the thriller “Rage” and American Miles Teller of the boxing film “Bleed for This,” will meet fans through Open Talks.