Acknowledged as the most important annual film event in Asia, Korea's Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) opened its 13th edition on Oct. 2 under several clouds. The glittery opening ceremony, stuffed to the rafters with Korean celebrities, was more subdued this year owing to the same-day suicide of popular actress Choi Jin Shil — "Korea's Meg Ryan," as she was called. At the very least, Choi's death robbed the festival of many of its Korean entertainment journalists, who hurried back to Seoul from the southern port city in order to cover the tragedy.
However, the bigger cloud was the general poor state of Korea's own film industry, not to mention its economy. Once the miracle of Asian cinema, the Korean Wave has "crested," as The Hollywood Reporter put it. Years of production over-runs and a glut of films, not to mention the end of the government film quota that produced the miracle in the first place by requiring theaters to show domestically made movies for a minimum number of days per year, thus guaranteeing ticket sales, have taken their toll. The Asian Film Market, which is held in conjunction with PIFF, was attended by fewer buyers than in previous years and sales were reportedly sluggish.
Foreign journalists had mixed opinions about the quality of the selections. With more than 300 films representing 60 countries, there was certainly something for everyone, but PIFF's claim to global attention is its rich cross-section of new Asian films, and at least two reporters who've been coming to PIFF every year since it started in 1996 told me they felt there was too much focus on independent cinema and not enough on mainstream commercial fare.