Thursday, July 20, 2017

Bucheon Film Festival






Since arriving in Seoul, a good portion of my time has been devoted to Korean cinema. This is mainly due to one of my two courses I'm enrolled in being a course on Korean film study, but also because of my never ending preoccupation with film. Thus far, this course has been extremely informative in both the subject area of the history of Korea as well as its unique film output. The course has been structured to provide a historical context for each film covered. This has given me both a better understanding of Korean history as well as the strong correlation that exists between sociopolitical circumstances and Korean cinema (a fact that makes Korean film output all that more interesting).

Naturally, when I heard about a film festival taking place in a town just outside of Seoul I decided to go. The festival, taking place in the town of Bucheon and aptly titled Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, was about an hour and fifteen minute subway ride away from where I'm staying. So I selected two Korean films to see that looked interesting and headed out. The two films I selected coincidentally starred the same actress, Jeon Do-yeon. The first film was The Contact (1997). A romance set in the time when messenger communication on computers was new technology, it portrays a realistic view of relationships. As the film was letting out I ran into my professor who informed me, by happenstance, that Jeon Do-yeon was making an appearance at the screening of the second film, to sit in on the showing and give a talk afterwards.

The second film I saw was Secret Sunshine (2007). This was a film about the tragedy that befalls a mother and her son after moving to her late husband's hometown. Deeply unsettling and extremely human, this film is a no frills look at the extent of our ability to cope with tragedy. 


Here is Jeon Do-yeon appearing before the showing of Secret Sunshine




Bucheon city hall, where the second film screening took place.





It was my first time going to a film festival, and I am thankful it was in Korea.

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