The 27th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) is set to return to pre-pandemic numbers of invited guests, full-capacity theatre seating, events and parties for the first time since the advent of Covid‑19. The international premiere of Hadi Mohaghegh’s Iranian film Scent Of Wind opens the festival on October 5, before it closes with Japanese director Kei Ishikawa’s Venice title A Man on October 14.
“Our motto this year is, ‘Seeing each other face-to-face again’ and ‘return to normality’. The winter has been rather long,” says Lee Yong-kwan, chairman of BIFF.
Indoor masking is still mandatory in South Korea, but other quarantine requirements have been dropped, including mandatory PCR testing upon arrival.
“We’re excited to see how audiences will take in what we have prepared, whether and how we will satisfy them,” adds Lee, with a nod to the changes in audience viewing habits that have developed over the pandemic with social distancing and the rise of OTT platform usage.
Aware of the growing global popularity of K-content, led by multiple Oscar winner Parasite and Netflix’s global phenomenon Squid Game, Lee says BIFF organisers nevertheless have no thought of leaning into this new and stronger wave of popularity.
“We are being very careful about [words like] ‘K-culture’ and ‘K-contents’ and things with ‘K’ stuck on them,” says Lee. “Busan Film Festival traditionally doesn’t assert things but prepares films and events where [notable trends] can be melted into them.”
Opening title Scent Of Wind will see actor/director Mohaghegh, who won BIFF’s New Currents award and Fipresci prize in 2015 with his second feature Immortal, returning to the South Korean port city with his fourth film. He also stars in the feature as a disabled man who must journey from town to town in order to replace a broken electrical part, and in the process gives and receives help from various people experiencing their own difficulties.
Supporting Asian cinema
The film is also screening in the inaugural Jiseok competition section, newly created to house all the candidates selected for the Kim Jiseok award for directors who have made three or more feature films. The competition was created in 2017 as a tribute to the late BIFF founding programmer, who dedicated his life to introducing and supporting Asian cinema and died at the age of 57 in Cannes that same year.
Candidates had previously stayed scattered throughout the Window on Asian Cinema strand but are now gathered together for the first time in a single section. Other Jiseok competition titles include Korean director Lee Kwangkuk’s A Wing And A Prayer, about the experiences of two friends who travel to the East Sea, and Japan-based Indian director Anshul Chauhan’s December, a story about a family starting over after the devastating death of a daughter.
Closing film A Man, an adaptation of Hirano Keiichiro’s award-winning novel of the same name, screened in Venice Horizons — as did the director’s 2016 debut Traces Of Sin. Satoshi Tsumabuki stars as an attorney asked to investigate the true identity of a woman’s dead husband, after his estranged brother appears at the funeral and claims the deceased is not the man she thought he was.
This year’s BIFF is screening a total of 354 films. Of these, 243 films from 71 countries are in the official selection, including 89 world premieres and 13 international premieres. The 111 films not in official selection are in the Community BIFF programme, which includes showcases curated by local audience members, short films made by local residents, and real-time interactive on- and offline events with audiences and film professionals in Busan and overseas.
The festival will use 30 screens in seven theatres including in its own Busan Cinema Center, CGV Centum City and Lotte Cinema Daeyoung.
Gala Presentation will feature this year’s Berlinale Panorama opening film Nobody’s Hero, with French director Alain Guiraudie on hand, as well as Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener Scarlet with Italian director Pietro Marcello in Busan to present.
Asian filmmaker of the year award-winner Tony Leung will be at the opening night ceremony to accept his prize. The Hong Kong star, who was recently seen in Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, will stay on to present some of his films that are being showcased. The actor personally selected six titles, including Happy Together, Infernal Affairs and In The Mood For Love.
The New Currents competition for first- or second-time feature film directors from Asia this year showcases 10 world premieres. These include Kashmir-set The Winter Within from Indian actor/director Aamir Bashir, whose debut feature Autumn screened at festivals such as Toronto and Rotterdam, and Singaporean director He Shuming’s debut feature Ajoomma, a Singapore-Korea co-production shot in Korea.
“One of the interesting phenomena this year is works shot by foreign directors in Korea. It seems to have become a place among the many countries in Asia where filmmakers find subject matter or themes to work with,” says programme director Nam Dong-chul.
“Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker seemed to have opened the door to this phenomenon and he will be attending this year,” Nam adds. The Japanese director’s first Korean-language film, which won the best actor prize at Cannes this year for Korean star Song Kang-ho, will be screening in BIFF’s Icons section.
Expanding titles
Other work shot in Korea by non‑Korean directors in the lineup include Cambodian-French director Davy Chou’s Cannes Un Certain Regard title Return To Seoul and Japanese director Takashi Miike’s Disney+ series Connect, set to make its world premiere in the On Screen section — expanded this year from three to nine titles. Both directors will attend to present their work.
Other guests include New Currents jury members Ryo Kase and Kamila Andini, Kim Jiseok award jury member Naoko Ogigami, Filipino director Brillante Mendoza with the world premiere of his latest film Feast in the Icons section, and actor Lee Byung-hun, giving a mastertalk in Community BIFF.
The festival will also be holding a showcase of 10 films from new Japanese directors who made their debuts after 2010 — including former assistant director to Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Emma Kawawada’s My Small Land. Another special showcase will be New Perspectives on 21st Century Documentary, featuring 10 titles including Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction and Wang Bing’s Three Sisters.
As always, BIFF will also be showcasing much-talked-about films from the festival circuit. This year, this includes a slew of Cannes titles such as Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness and Lukas Dhont’s grand prize winner Close, as well as Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras and Rithy Panh’s Silver Bear winner Everything Will Be OK.
“We have been going through many difficulties during the pandemic — some financial, but also because of cultural changes. Our greatest concern is that people have lost the habit of going to theatres,” says Nam. “We want the festival to confirm for people that going to the cinema is important. We are back to preparing a lot of events where people can do more than just watch films — they can also meet with actors and enjoy talks with directors.”
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