October is always typhoon season around Korea and Japan, and this year was no different. I followed Typhoon Trami as it battered Japan; my flight to the Busan International Film Festival this year was via Tokyo and I got there the day after Trami abated. No sooner had I landed in Busan than warnings for Typhoon Kong-rey were issued. We managed to make it to the festival centre the day the eye of the typhoon hit the city, soaked to the skin, but it became bright and sunny by the afternoon.
In the past few years, the Busan festival had been hit by a political typhoon. In 2014, much to the displeasure of the powers that be, the festival screened The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol, an account of the ferry tragedy that had occurred earlier in the year that left some 300 people — mostly schoolchildren — dead. The film was critical of the government’s approach to the disaster. The government was unhappy that the festival screened the documentary, and the festival was embattled for four years.
All is well in 2018. The unpleasantness is a thing of the past and the festival is bigger and better with record attendances and increased delegates from the world over. The highlight for me was Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s Burning , an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story. Those familiar with Murakami will recognise the solitary young man on the fringes of society, the free-spirited girl to whom men are drawn like moths, and of course a cat. The film spends an hour looking like a coming-of-age tale and then segues into a tense, but philosophical thriller. It provides no answers and it is left to the audience to put together an explanation. In short, the best kind of film — one that makes you think while watching it, and leaves you thinking about it for days afterwards.
The festival has always been a strong showcase for Asian and Indian cinema and this year was no different. Vijay Jayapal’s début feature Revelations had its world premiere at Busan in 2016. This year he was back at the Busan Asian Project market with psychological horror Nirvana Inn that is now shooting in Manali. His next film, The Yellow Jade , promises to be a cracker. It will explore the close historical and modern ties Chennai has had with Korea, with a particular emphasis on Busan. The film found some initial funding from a Singaporean company at the Busan Market and will feature a Korean male lead and an Indian female lead.
Apart from the obvious pleasure of discovering new cinema, Busan is also a great platform for filmmakers to rub shoulders with their peers from around the world. This begins with networking events sponsored by the film commissions of various countries — sometimes four or five of them every evening, back-to-back or overlapping. Those with energy to spare end up at the hundreds of tiny bars and restaurants around the city’s popular Haeundae Beach, exchanging ideas till the small hours of the morning.
Naman Ramachandran is a journalist and author of Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography, and tweets @namanrs
