South Korea’s Barunson E&A has secured international sales rights to My Dearest Fu Bao, a documentary about the first giant panada born in Korea who became a beloved local celebrity before being returned to China. Pre-sales will begin ahead of Venice and Toronto.
Directed by Shim Hyeong-jun and Thomas Ko, the feature is set for a theatrical release in South Korea on September 4, of which the distribution will also be handled by Barunson E&A.
The documentary follows the journey of giant panda Fu Bao and zookeepers Kang Cher-won and Song Young-kwan from the time of her birth in July 2020 at Everland – Korea’s largest theme park – to her last three months before she was relocated to China in April.
The film is produced by animation and character merchandising firm Acommz and Everland Resort. Animated sequences will be integrated through the documentary to recreate scenes from when Fu Bao was a cub and the initial meeting between her parents and the zookeepers among other key moments.
Fu Bao was born in July 2020 to giant panda couple Ai Bao and Le Bao, who were sent to South Korea by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 20216 as a symbol of friendship between the two nations. The young panda was the first to be born in Korea through natural breeding and gained fame during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, with videos of the cub generating around 500 million views across social media and YouTube.
Fans followed the relationship with her zookeepers, including Kang who became known as ‘Grandpa’, over three-and-a-half years. But she was relocated to China’s Sichuan at the beginning of April, under China’s endangered species conservation agreement, which details that all pandas born oversees must be returned to the country before they turn four-years-old. Thousands of fans flocking to Everland to bid her farewell and Kang accompanied Fu Bao to China.
The documentary marks the directorial feature debut of Shim and Ko, of which the former has credits including Netflix travel series Moo No Plan and the latter has made several shorts such as Charida and Picnic that have been selected for international film festivals.
Barunson E&A is the Korean sales and production company behind Oscar-winning drama Parasite, which expanded into international co-production, financing and sales in 2022.
Before Venice and Toronto, the outfit will begin pre-sales of My Dearest Fu Bao as well as upcoming titles including Vietnamese fantasy drama Don’t Cry, Butterfly by Duong Dieu Linh, which will world premiere at Venice Critics’ Week and go on to play at Toronto. Barunson E&A representatives will attend both festivals.
Further titles on its slate include adventure comedy Amazon Bullseye, starring Ryu Seung-ryong (Extreme Job, Moving) and daring comedy Forbidden Fairytale.
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