A Netflix interval struggle drama produced by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will open Asia’s largest movie pageant Wednesday, the primary time a streaming title has kicked off the occasion.
Directed by Kim Sang-man and that includes Korean megastar Gang Dong-won in a lead function, “Uprising” is considered one of 224 official entries at this yr’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which runs till October 11.
The movie has attracted vital consideration forward of its world premiere thanks largely to the involvement of Park, best-known for ultra-violent thrillers like 2003’s “Old Boy”, which performed a key function in bringing South Korean cinema to the worldwide forefront.
Park was a screenwriter and producer on “Uprising”, a narrative throughout Korea’s Joseon Dynasty about two buddies who develop up collectively — however change into enemies when struggle breaks out within the nation.
“I believed it was a work that could appeal to the public (the most) among all the (BIFF) opening films in history,” Park Do-shin, the pageant’s performing director, advised reporters.
Streaming-only content material like Netflix’s “Squid Game” and the Apple TV+ sequence “Pachinko” have contributed to a big surge within the world visibility of Korean and Korean diaspora tales lately.
Busan’s 2024 line-up displays how that content material has change into an “important part of our culture,” BIFF programmer Jung Han-seok mentioned.
The resolution to open this yr’s version with a serious streaming title, nonetheless, has sparked criticism inside South Korea’s cinema group, as BIFF has lengthy been devoted to supporting rising abilities in Asia in addition to small-scale, impartial movies.
“I find it disappointing that a streaming title was selected as the opening film,” Kay Heeyoung Kim, who owns movie studio Okay-Dragon, advised AFP. “The challenges confronting the theater-based physical film market and filmmakers can be partly attributed to the streaming platforms.”
This yr’s version additionally comes as organisers nonetheless grapple with the fallout from former pageant director Huh Moon-yung, who resigned final yr amid accusations of sexual misconduct. The director place stays vacant.
The South Korean authorities’s funds for supporting movie festivals together with BIFF was additionally slashed by half this yr.
Despite these setbacks, this yr’s twenty ninth version is presenting about 15 extra movies than final yr, organisers mentioned, with 86 world premieres.
BIFF will posthumously honor South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, screening six of the actor’s movie and tv works, together with “Parasite”, “Our Sunhi” (2013) and a portion of TV sequence “My Mister” (2018).
Best identified globally for his starring function in Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 Oscar-winner “Parasite”, Lee was discovered lifeless in an obvious suicide final yr after a two-month investigation into suspected drug use, sparking public outrage over what many perceived as an extreme police interrogation.
Meanwhile, filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, finest identified for his contributions to the Japanese horror style, will obtain the pageant’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year award, becoming a member of the ranks of earlier winners reminiscent of Hong Kong legends Tony Leung and Chow Yun Fat.
The Japanese filmmaker is showcasing two of his new movies at BIFF this yr: the violent thriller “Cloud” and “Serpent’s Path”, a French-language remake of his 1998 movie of the identical identify.
Other notable world premieres embrace “RM: Right People, Wrong Place”, a documentary on Okay-pop sensation BTS member RM and the making of his second solo album.
Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo’s drama “Spirit World”, that includes French display icon Catherine Deneuve as a legendary singer who visits Tokyo whereas mourning the lack of her canine, will shut the pageant.
BIFF’s trade platform, the Asian Contents and Film Market, will host a convention targeted on the mixing of AI in content material manufacturing — a present hot-button concern in Hollywood.
Companies together with South Korea’s CJ ENM, Chinese VOD service iQIYI and Microsoft will participate.
© 2024 AFP