The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) is set to launch its 10th edition July 13th – 22nd in Bucheon City, a suburb west of Seoul. The festival is said to be rejuvenating itself after a dispute last year with the local city government resulted in the firing of then festival director KIM Hong-joon. What followed was an exodus of festival staff, an industry boycott led by big-name stars and directors, and the near demise of the festival. The 9th PiFan had its lowest turn-out ever, while a once-only alternative festival, Real Fanta, organized by KIM as a form of protest, ran in Seoul during the same dates as PiFan to sell-out crowds.
This year’s event has a new festival director, veteran filmmaker LEE Jang-ho, who actually helmed the first PiFan. With a new programming team and “Love, Fantasy, and Adventure” as it themes, the 10th PiFan hopes to lure back its loyal fans while also appealing to families and younger audiences. The festival’s organizing committee says it will screen 251 films from 35 countries during the 10-day event.
In addition to “Puchon Choice”, the usual competition section, 10th PiFan highlights will include retrospectives on Italian horror films including horror-guru Mario Bava, late Japanese cult-film director Ishii Teruo, the silent-films of Fritz Lang, and oddly enough a spotlight on Audrey Hepburn.
For Korean film buffs, PiFan is working with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) to present some rare and classic films that were formerly censored but have now been reconstructed the way their directors intended them. Included are one of the milestones of the 70s, HA Kil-jong's March of Fools (1975), as well as LEE Won-se's A Small Ball Shot by a Dwarf (1980), LEE Doo-yong's The Last Witness (1980), festival director LEE Jang-ho's own Children of Darkness (1981) and PARK Chong-won’s Guro Arirang (1989). There will also be a very special spotlight by Korean film giant SHIN Sang-ok who died earlier this year. In his lifetime he directed and produced over 70 films, included several in North Korea to where he was abducted in the late 1970’s.
The opening film this year will be South Korean director JEON Gye-soo's The Ghost Theater, a fantasy-musical about traveling ghosts that resembles the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Edmond Pang Ho Cheung of Hong Kong will close the festival curtains with his film Isabella.
As part of a sister-relationship with Japan’s Yubari Fantastic Film Festival, a competition section called "Kids' Fanta" will be added with a jury of young judges from Korea and Japan. Another family-orientated event will be a special exhibition revealing the technology behind such films as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the remake of King Kong, as well as recent fantasy-blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
By Nigel DSa