Love & Peace in Bucheon

So I moseyed on down to Bucheon the other day just an hour and a bit by subway, south of Seoul.
BIFAN was on and i wanted to see this International Fantastic Film Festival for myself. Especially since they were presenting a Sion Sono retrospective, I am (not) Sion Sono.

I was only there for two days so I decided to see his two new films Tag and Love and Peace but all his classics were showing on the big screen and the man himself was in town to do Q&A's and a master class or two.

 When I saw Love and Peace, he was there to answer questions after the film. They translated each question and answer into Korean and Japanese and then a small group of us English speakers had our own personal translator on the fly. Not only a really fascinating film, very unlike a Sono film but just great to hear him break down the production process and hear his thinking behind some of the decisions.

and afterwards he patiently signed autographs for the throng of fans and then even allowed photo ops for the patient ones. Yes I was among them and waited till the end and we had a very stilted but warm chat. Part Japanese, part Korean and part English. I have enjoyed his films for a long time and it was so wonderful to meet such a gentle soul who is so imaginative and creative and prolific.

 You can read my review of Love and Peace for Filmed in Ether here

touched by the hand of God!

As for Tag, well maybe that's another day? But I will be seeing The Virgin Psychics at BIFF 2015 in October, actually in a few days. I hope one day to get back to BIFAN and immerse fully into their program because this massive highlight was only one of many. A really cool festival