Yay this time I'm in Busan!!!

So for the last two years I've written, lamented about the Busan International film Festival. About how cool it is, the fantastic line up of films, about how far away it is and that I only read about it. This year I committed, I took the plunge and said to myself, I shall be there! No easy task, but guess what? I'm here in Busan!!!! HELL YEAH! I made the decision before the program was out but I thought it would be a safe bet. There have been no disappointments.  

outside the cinema centre

All my favourites are here. Hong Sang Soo (2 films), Sion Sono, Brillante Mendoza, Kim Ki Duk. If I see just these films I shall die happy. But there is oh so more. My pass/badge allows me 4 films per day, I'm here for 9, so the challenge is to resist just being in the cinema all day, all night. Must pace myself. You can book films up to 2 days in advance. So far it has turned out well but if you don't get in early films can be sold out.

Pascha by Seonkyoung AHN is the 1st Korean film in the account.
Love, desperation, melodrama and pussycats. I was in a bit of a delirious haze having just got in that morning but I do remeber some great scenes in this film. Like digging the frozen ground with a knife and thermos of hot water so that they could bury their cat who did not survive the surgery. Like insisting on wanting her freshly aborted fetus so that she could take it home to her boyfriend and the tension as she unwrapped the packaged for the grizzly reveal. Great performances by KIM So-hee 김소희,SUNG Ho-jun 성호준,SHIN Yeon-sook 신연숙 ranging from quite over the top but believable to sublimely understated and sharp as a knife. This was a world premier and although I was not in the best state for watching I'm glad I was there.

The intense love of Pascha

Death March by Adolfo ALIX JR is the first film from the Philippines.
This is a depiction of a brutal march of American & Filipino soldiers at the hands of their Japanese captors. A WWII POW film? you may ask. But beside the story, it is the way the film has been shot that makes it of interest. The majority is studio shot and the settings or the sets are very stylised.
In a world where we are used to our war films being 'real' this decision allows the audience to get deeper into the characters. The other decision that helps this is to present a series of vignettes of occurrence rather than a narrative arc of the main cast. These snippets are presented in a linear fashion but we jump forward and experience moments and then we jump forward to the next.
These moments are brutal, emotional and very human.