Busan - a view from a bus

Exiting Busan rather than catching the subway to the KTX station advantage was taken with free tickets on the Busan City Tour Bus. Sitting on the open top deck afforded some sights of the city until now unseen. And what a delight, perfect weather matched a very scenic tour. As South Korea's second largest, it's not quite the megacity of Seoul but set on the ocean it's a beautiful, big visual feast. This here the home of BIFF, I love this city!

The commute

ever building

bridges

elevated transport

more bridges

The Docks

and more docks

natural headlands

and unnatural headlands

Harbour Views

spanning the harbour

The Cinema Centre

The Fish Markets

The River

The Apartments

The sun sets on this glorious city

This was my third visit to this city and I will return, still so much to see and do. Maybe one day without the distraction of that little annual film festival they hold? We shall see.

A Big Push in Busan

For all you fans of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) there’s been a little bit of news floating around that s very concerning. Call it trouble in paradise, just plain bullying or maybe it’s both. There are forces at work that want to remove the head of the festival, Director Lee Yong-kwan. This is not a mutiny on the good ship but the calls are coming from a once dear ally and supporter. 

BIFF is one of Asia’s premier film festivals and it is coming into it’s twentieth year. It is intrinsically linked to the City of Busan, having it’s own purpose built cinema centre that not only functions as the festival hub but also as a shiny example of the city’s ingenuity and vision. It’s a showcase of advanced architectural and engineering know how featuring the world’s largest outdoor cinema and the world’s largest cantilever roof, along with some beautiful cinemas, meeting rooms and offices.

It really is spectacular!

Busan Cinema Centre

The city supports the festival and the festival supports the city, it’s a symbiotic relationship and it’s been a happy marriage for many years. That is until last year.

Three events occurred in 2014 that are coming to a head now.

In April last year South Korea was in mourning after the ferry Sewol sank. Over three hundred people drowned, most of them school children on holiday excursion. Reeling in the tragedy the Nation came to a stand still and questions were asked of how and why this could happen. The new government of President Park came under the spotlight and many started to blame it’s inefficiencies and incompetency for the high death toll. Many questions have remained unanswered through stonewalling and blame shifting.

 

The second event was that, not surprisingly in a democratic country, this became ripe subject matter for a documentary and one was made that concentrated on just one aspect of the botched recue efforts. It’s subject and title was ‘Diving Bell’ (The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol) and it focused on the media coverage, the distortion of truth, the delays in deployment and the absolute hopelessness of the situation. It wasn’t entirely about finger pointing at the government but they didn’t come out of it looking too pretty. Six months later the documentary was scheduled to premier at BIFF, quite a coup for the festival, as this was politically hot! Controversial was an understatement.

The topsy turvy, it works both ways 'Diving Bell' BIFF Poster

 The third event was that 2014 saw a new mayor of Busan. Suh Byung-soo took up office in the July after ten years of his predecessor Hur Nam-sik. Normally the city left the programmers alone to do their job but before the festival started in October Lee Yong-kwan received a request from the City of Busan to withdraw the documentary from the festival. One could only speculate as to why ???

But as a true champion of the festival he declined the request and the documentary got two screenings, one with a Q&A session. This delighted the filmmaking community and cinephiles but city hall was not amused.

Protesters outside the Busan Cinema Centre getting the attention of the media prior to the first ‘Diving Bell’ screening. BIFF 2014

Both screenings were sold out and the Q&A was jam packed with media.

Diving Bell’  Producer & Director Q&A session post screening BIFF 2014

Photo: Brayden Alden

Fast forward to now, it’s pay back time.

City of Busan officials met with Lee Yong-kwan and requested he step down as Director of BIFF even though he has a bit more than a year left on his contract. Lee was a founding member of the festival in 1996, has been a programmer, a deputy director and has been its director since 2011.

The reasons for their request? The evolution of the festival, apparently there has also been some dissatisfaction from the city with how the festival has been run and how the budget has been spent.

Whatever the real reason is the filmmaking community is well alarmed and there is talk about boycotting the 2015 20^th edition of BIFF. There is lots of talk and dismay about politics getting involved with the festival’s programing but there is not a real lot of surprise. Critics of the current political regime of South Korea are becoming ever increasingly cynical.

Niu Doze Chen-Zer (Paradise in Service) & Lee Yong-kwan at last year's opening ceremony

The good news is that again in true champion style Lee Yong-kwan has refused to resign and BIFF management is bewildered that they are yet to be consulted on what is ultimately their responsibility and their decision regardless of where there support is coming from. This will be an ever evolving story because these just feel like opening shots of something that has the potential to be much bigger with ramifications to be felt far and wide.

Way beyond the confines of South Korea’s second largest metropolis.

Gwangandaegyo Bridge, Busan

   

Connecting the left hemisphere with the right or just bypassing the grey matter in between

where the Suyoung River meets the sea

Just one of many spectacular links in the city of Busan

Korean Tourism Organisation

Especially at night!

Gwangandaegyo Bridge, Busan.   부산 광안대교

Kim Ki Duk is all over BIFF

Moebius

Almost 90min of no dialogue but certainly not a silent film.
Par for the course, Kim Ki Duk (김기덕) ROARS in this film. And as the man says himself conversation is made up of laughing, crying and screaming and there is plenty of this in Moebius, so the characters do speak!
Initially banned in South Korea this is the follow up film after Pieta which picked up the Golden Lion at Venice (1st Korean film ever) and like Pieta it's in your face and confronting but also it has some quite funny moments. Mind you I questioned myself that I was laughing (it'll be a lifelong inquiry). Moebius really does take you on a journey into the weird, the perverse, the unspoken realm of human nature. A place where things aren't quite what they seem, recognisable but broke? Sometimes the bumpy road is the track worth taking.

Lee Eun-woo (이은우) is amazing as the mother and the lover. At BIFF this year I saw her play 4 roles, 2 in Moebius, one in Godsend and as herself in 2 x Q&As. Wow, she is good. It was retrospective that I learnt she played the two roles in this film. Not for a moment watching the film did I pick it, a clear sign of good acting, being totally immersed in the character.
In both roles she plays an unhinged siren, totally seductive, totally dangerous! Neither is similar in any way demonstrating her great range, she is 100% given to this film. it is rare for me to hunt down films through their actors but in this case I will watch anything that she is in.
Cho Jae-Hyun (조재현) as the father is the instigator of this torrid tale, succumbing to carnal lust but once his wife finds out his character becomes quite weak and soon, quite literally, impotent. Another great performance portraying the horror of witnessing the cause & effect of his actions on others. He never regains his mantle of head of the family always wracked by guilt, always trying to make amends. Very powerful, non-heroic stuff.

Lee Eun-woo, Cho Jae-Hyun & Kim Ki Duk post Moebius Q&A BIFF 2013

Perhaps Suh Yeong Ju (서영주) is the only innocent in this world. Mother extracts revenge on father through son.
Oh yeah that is, she chops his dick off! With no manhood he is subject to much ridicule and humiliation at the hands of many but his father sympathise (I wonder why?). He liases with dad's lover, he sleeps with mother and progressively that innocence is eroded away.
With dad's help he learns to live without that which defines a man, he learns to achieve orgasm through other means. So much has been written about the chop, his, his dad's and the local punks (how many dicks can you chop in the one film?) but I'm more interested in how they all learn  to get pleasure from pain.
Google can teach you anything and in this case dad learns these dark arts from endless late night surfing.
The results are pretty gruesome. Have you ever watched someone rub themselves raw with a rock?
But it gets better. Dad's lover learns how to pleasure the son via a dagger in the back. What starts out as truly brutal turns humorous as she masturbates the dagger and soon he is overcome with ecstatic pleasure and of course it is a happy ending!

So you kinda get the idea, Moebius is pretty weird shit but it is also cloaked in ample good filmmaking, great performances, great visuals, many many great moments and after the film hearing the master talk about this film was quite amazing. Director Kim spoke of the struggle to raise enough money to make this film. Now this amazed me, even he of such high standing and achievement has to scratch in the dirt to find the funds. He spoke of the digital revolution and how he by-passed a DOP because the cameras are small enough for him to operate himself. Wow! and this helped him communicate with the actors on a more intimate and creative level, it allowed him to make the film quicker (ie less money) and it allowed him to forgo having to translate his thoughts into words in order for that DOP to then capture his vision on film. Makes a lot of sense really.
At no point was there ever a question about quality when I was watching, format or craft.

Moebius.... not for everyone that's for sure but a whole lot more than a controversial film.
Kim Ki Duk.... can't wait to see what's next but will continue to view the back catalogue till it arrives.

Film Fuel, Food Found 먹다

So, of course, in between the BIFFo sessions one must eat and between Centum City & Haeundae there was plenty of choice. On the whole cheap and plentiful, you pick.
But it took a few expeditions to discover the fresh food, not that I could cook (lack of facilities) but there is something comforting about fresh produce and in the case of Busan something totally exciting and fascinating.
Just take a look.