The Marmot’s Hole

The annual Pusan International Film Festival is fast approaching, once again. And now that organizers have announced their complete lineup of movies, we have a better idea of what kind of fun stuff to expect this year. With 245 films being screened this year over the course of the festival (Oct. 12-20), there is certainly no shortage of things to see.
PIFF opens with TRACE OF LOVE (가을로), the latest film by Kim Dae-seung (the guy who directed BLOOD RAIN and BUNGEE JUMP OF THEIR OWN), about a guy who lost his girlfriend in the Sampoong Department Store collapse of 10 years ago. The closing film is the big hit from China CRAZY STONE.

Daniel Gordon’s new film, CROSSING THE LINE, will be premiering. Gordon has gotten a lot of flack (unfairly in my opinion) from some people for A STATE OF MIND and THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES for whitewashing the horrid North Korean regime, but his new movie is about several Americans who defected to the North, particularly James Dresnok. Given the subject matter, I think we will get a much clearer sense of North Korea this time.

There are plenty of other world premieres. We have Tsukamoto Shinya’s NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE.

What else? We have Patrick Tam’s new film AFTER THIS OUR EXILE. James Lee’sd BEFORE WE FALL IN LOVE AGAIN (he’s the guy who made My Beautiful Laundry Machine). And I am a big fan of Tsai Ming-liang — he new movie is I DON’T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE.

Oh, we also have the uncut version of THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG (not so different from the version that was released in the theaters, but I like the original footage). The official release does not mention the new Im Sang-soo film, THE OLD GARDEN, but I think there is going to be a few screenings of it, anyway.
And this year’s Korea Retrospective looks really strong. We have an old Shin Sang-ok film that was recently rediscovered and restored. Most of the Retrospective films are from the colonial period, providing a surprising look at what Korea and the film industry was like under Japanese rule.

Anyhow, come on down to Pusan (Busan, whatever). Reserve your yeogwan early, because this year promises to be more crazy than ever. Should be a great 10 days.