19th BIFF, 2014. Build it and they will come

Yes I'm back in Southern South Korea, Busan to be exact.
and I'm back to attend the 19th Busan International Film Festival.
and yup I'm pretty excited again!

the cinema centre before the crowds

I've been writing about BIFF for the last four years and this is my second time attending.
There has always been a common theme for me and if you run through the blog archive (right hand side) each year around October you will read what I mean.
Sion Sono, Hong Sangsoo and Kim Ki Duk are three favourites who regularly deliver to this festival and this year is no exception.

 Tokyo Tribe is Sono's foray into the world of Hip Hop!!!! or is that just a gross misrepresentation?? Who cares? because anything Mr. Prolific does is guaranteed to be quite fucked up even if it be a journey closer to the mainstream

Hill of Freedom is Hong's shortest feature to date but still promises a lot of loop de loops with his fantastic narrative style with lashings of wry sense of humour.

One on One is Kim Ki-duk's brutal commentary on life today in Korea, though of course done in his own abstract kinda way....aparently. They say not his best work to date but hey, I'll watch his films anyday cause he's a fascinating story teller and a fascinating filmmaker.

 For me seeing these three films is enough and only Sion Sono is not in town for Q&A's but I secretly think he will jet in at the last minute, cause it's only just around the corner for him eh?

This is just the start, there is so much more going on at this festival but more on that later.

The 19th BIFF, 2014 is happening early October for about 10 days and one of the pleasures of being here a little bit early is that I see the stage get built, little bit by little bit.

Haeundae Beach

A Few of my Favourite Things

The wall of talent

Director Jazz in Love

Director of Sapi

                  Director of Prologue to the Great Desaparecido  & Norte, the End of History

Director of Transit

Director of Sana Dati (If Only)

Director of

Why Don't You Play in Hell?

Director of Our Sunhi & Nobody's Daughter Haewon

Director of Moebius

Director of Safe

Director of Mystery Road

These are some of my favourite directors from Busan.
Certainly not all of them and in no particular order.
But hey! What a bevy of talent and then you look at the whole wall....WOW!
Certainly not a veteran of festivals, esp on this international scale but I was a pig in shit at Busan and if you are partial to cinema of the east I think you would be too. Exciting stuff, so much to see.

With stars in my eyes I'm trying to take a little bit away

Next Stop Seoulywood

KOFFIA is upon us again, how lucky are we?
Once a year The Korean Film Festival in Australia tours our east coast.
Starting in Brisbane (14-18th Aug), sailing through Sydney (21-29th Aug) and ending in Melbourne (5-11th Sept). This years theme is the many faces of Korean Cinema.

Not only is  it packed with South Korean Cinematic yumminess (check the program) but for the second year running they are running a short film competition.
There are some good prizes up for grabs and they will be decided by an illustrious jury that always includes a guest filmmaker from South Korea. This year we welcome Moon Byoung-gon.
Ten films are short listed from the entries and screened in Sydney (the home of the festival and of the Artistic Director Kieran Tully). This year you can catch them at the Event Cinemas in George Street on Sunday 25th August, starting at midday.
In 2012 I entered an ode to my favourite Korean director Hong Sangsoo but the feedback I got was that a lot of people didn't 'get it'. It relied on not only knowing this director's film work but specifically knowing the trailer for one of his films. This year I approached the competition in similar fashion to last years entry The Way He Arrived, short, sharp, sweet, with the minimum of fuss but I opened up the subject matter to a wider audience.
It's a little story about an audition. Ian Dixon plays the role of a Director who wants to break into the Korean film market with his next film and he is casting for a Korean speaking woman (Joanne Tran) to fill one of the roles, problem being he can't speak Korean, oh and she's not Korean!
So what appears to be a very spooky scenario around the casting couch quickly gets subverted with the woman fully taking advantage of the director's ignorance and prejudice. It even features Google Eyes or Google Glasses and everyones most accurate language aid Google Translate.
She gets what she wants and he is left happily in his blissfully ignorant world.

This films satisfies a lot of wants, I got to play with language, dubbing, actors and I got to use some music from Nylon Pink, The New Black, an original not one of their K-POP covers.
I didn't make it to the screening last year but this year I'm going to blitz Sydney for the day and check out all the other films in the screening.
And the bonus this year???? There is always a bonus with KOFFIA
This year they the session will also include a special screening of Jury 주리, the acclaimed directing debut of Kim Dong-ho, former Festival Director of Busan International Film Festival.
I saw this short at MIFF 2013 and it's one of the best shorts I've seen for a long time. 
Should be a lotta fun.

 

And as for the rest of the festival? I'll catch it when it's in Melbourne. See you there?