When this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) opened with Jang Kun-jae’s “Because I Hate Korea,” many foreign journalists wondered why the film about disgruntled young South Koreans was chosen.
Based on Chang Kang-myoung’s bestselling novel, the film follows a 20-something Korean woman’s emigration to New Zealand in pursuit of happiness away from the stifling Korean society.
Nam Dong-chul, BIFF’s chief programmer, said the film with a provocative title was chosen because it honestly portrays lives of young people anxious about their future and resonates with a broader audience.
“The title ‘Because I Hate Korea’ refers to a specific country, but in some ways, I thought it could be seen as a phrase that effectively expresses the difficulties that the younger generation often faces universally,” Nam said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“One of the important values in filmmaking is the question of how honestly a film reflects our lives. In that regard, I thought the movie has a special
value,” he added.
The poster of “Because I Hate Korea,” the opening film of the 28th Busan International Film Festival, is displayed at the facade of the Busan Cinema Center in the southeastern port city on Oct. 3, 2023. (Yonhap)
Although the film’s title is certainly not a pick for government slogans, it illustrated the artistic freedom that local filmmakers enjoy, which is considered one of the driving forces behind the success of Korean movies.
Korean cinema was not on the map when strict censorship was in place in the 1970s and 1980s, but a new breed of bold, daring directors began to draw acclaim from international festival circuits in the late 1990s and 2000s.
In line with growing attention to the cinema industry, BIFF was created in 1996 to introduce new films and first-time directors from Asian countries and showcase Korean movies to the global audience.
The Busan International Film Festival raises the curtain during an opening ceremony held at the Busan Cinema Center in the southeastern port cit
y on Oct. 4, 2023. (Yonhap)
Now in its 28th edition, the festival has served as a bridgehead for Asian movies to the global scene and drawn much-needed attention to local films, which delved into Korean history in unconventional ways or featured a distinctive genre style.
In 1999, director Lee Chang-dong’s “Peppermint Candy,” a painful retrospective of Korean modern history, was chosen as BIFF’s opening film and drew critical acclaim from around the world.
The wave continued as director Park Chan-wook’s cult classic “Old Boy” (2003) was awarded the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Korean cinema reached a pinnacle when director Bong Joon-ho’s gripping sociopolitical thriller “Parasite,” (2019) grabbed four Oscars, including the Best Picture, which was given to a non-English language film for the first time.
Korean American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, best known for his Golden Globe-winning immigrant film “Minari” (2020), said Korean movies appeal to global audience by presenting their contempor
ary stories in distinctive styles.
“A lot of cinemas here are so uniquely Korean. It’s a cinema that’s borne out well. Let’s figure it out ourselves and not look to other models,” Chung said during a press conference Friday. “I think there’s a deep Korean spirit that runs through generations, connects all of us and unites all of us in the way that we approach work and the things we aspire to do: courage and boldness.”
Director Lee Isaac Chung, director of Golden Globe-winning film “Minari,” speaks during a press conference at the Busan International Film Festival in the southeastern port city of Busan on Oct. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)
Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat lauded Korean movies for covering a wide spectrum of subjects without limits.
“I think the competitive edge of the Korean cinema lies in its freedom. I highly think of their broad range of subjects and freedom in creation,” Chow said during a press event Thursday. “Sometimes I even wonder, ‘Can they cover such stories?'”
As an iconic actor who led the go
lden era of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s, Chow expressed regret over China’s strict censorship and stressed the need to reflect the “Hong Kong spirit” in movies.
While the Hong Kong film industry once earned the nickname “The Hollywood of the East,” its film industry has been suffering anemic box office and funding shortages under China’s strict censorship in place after it took over the former British colony.
“We have a lot of censorship requirements in mainland China. Scripts must go to many departments. So, we must have clear and direct situations in scripts,” Chow said, “We have to pay attention to our government and (its) direction. Otherwise, it will be hard to get the money to make movies. The mainland market is so huge.”
Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat speaks during the Open Talk session held at the Busan Cinema Center, the main venue for the Busan International Film Festival, on Oct. 5, 2023. (Yonhap)
Although South Korea has emerged as a cultural hot spot, challenges remain as the local movie indus
try is grappling with a sluggish box office following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of moviegoers hasn’t recovered to the pre-pandemic level amid lack of smash hit movies and a hike in ticket prices.
This year, action comedy franchise “Roundup: No Way Out” was the only Korean film that surpassed 10 million admissions, a symbolic figure for success in a country with a population of some 50 million.
With prolonged delays of theatrical releases, a growing number of moviemakers have been partnering with Netflix and other over-the-top (OTT) platforms to replicate the global success of Netflix series “Squid Game,” leaving less room for art house and independent films.
Movie buffs say they want to watch more diverse films on the big screen, complaining about limited choices of Korean films except for the popular genres, including crime thrillers, action comedy flicks and dramas with nationalistic themes.
“These days, it is hard to watch slow-burn drama stories in local theaters. I came to BIFF to watch a va
riety of genre movies,” Kim Soo-yeon, an office worker from Busan, said. “After ticket prices rose, I tend to be more cautious when picking a movie to watch at a theater.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency
