This weekend, I took the Korea Train Express (KTX) to the city of Busan on the southeastern coast of the Korean peninsula to attend the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). On Friday morning (since I do not have classes) I woke up early and walked to the bus stop in the rain in order to catch a bus to Seoul Station. From there, I took the KTX to Busan. The distance from Seoul Station to Busan Station is about 325 kilometers (or 202 miles), but only took two and a half hours. To pass the time, my friends and I watched the movie Train to Busan, which we felt was the only appropriate choice for the trip.
We arrived in Busan around noon to dark skies and pouring rain as Typhoon Kong-rey began to approach the peninsula. From Busan Station we took a bus to Busan Cinema Center, the primary venue for the festival. This year, BIFF is featuring more than 300 films from 79 countries over the course of 10 days. The mission of this year’s festival is focused on “the achievements and dynamics shown by fast growing Asian countries,” as well as supporting “artists in developing countries discovering young Asian talent.” We spent about an hour walking around exploring the exhibitions; watching and listening (though not understanding) interviews with directors and actors whom we had never heard of; and had an interview of our own with a Korean TV station called ‘Showbiz Korea,’ asking us about the Korean actors and their clothing choices at the opening ceremonies on Thursday night. We tried our best to answer the questions despite not having any idea who the hosts were talking about and not actually watching the opening ceremonies. Hopefully they didn’t air the interview.
We originally had plans to visit Igidae Park, a coastal walkway with gorgeous views of the East China Sea and the Busan city skyline, but the park had been shutdown due to the impending typhoon making its way toward the coast. Instead, we took a taxi to our accommodations on the beach at the Hotel Marianne in the Haeundae neighborhood of Busan. The Haeundae neighborhood is named after the Haeundae beach, and features dozens of hotels, casinos, bars, restaurants, and clubs. We got settled in our rooms overlooking the city and the ocean and waited for a pause in the rain. After the rain finally stopped, we went out to explore the surrounding area and walk along the beach. We went to the beach and hung out for a few hours, but were surprised to see that many of the people that had been there when we arrived had cleared out very suddenly. We had the beach entirely to ourselves, but hadn’t bothered to check the most recent weather forecast, which would have told us that the wind and rain were coming. But it was too late, and we got caught on the beach as the downpour began and the wind threatened to sweep us away as we struggled to put our shoes on. We ran to a nearby restaurant, where we were able to dry off and get warm food. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel, as the typhoon had begun to descend on Busan and we were all very exhausted.
On Saturday morning I woke up to the sensation of the 22-story building swaying back and forth. I looked out my window to see debris flying all around and flooding on the street below. Typhoon Kong-rey was there in full force and there was no way that we would be walking outside to the bus stop in order to catch a morning movie. I checked the festival website and many of the events were cancelled or postponed until further notice. Very suddenly, around 1300, the rain stopped, the wind died down, and the sun came out. The typhoon had passed by as quickly as it had come and we went out to make up for the morning stuck inside. We took a bus to the festival box office and stood in line for movie tickets, but by the time we made it to the window many of the big-name movies had sold out. We chose a film at random called “Minding the Gap” that would be showing later that night. To kill some time before the movie, we went across the street to Shinsegae Centum City, the largest department store in the world. I did not expect to be impressed, as I grew up in the Twin Cities and had been to the Mall of America dozens of times, but this department store was on another level. It had hundreds of stores and restaurants, as well as a large spa facility, an ice rink, and an amusement park.
Finally, it was time to see our first (and, unfortunately, the only) film of the festival. Ironically, the one we had chosen at random turned out to be an American-produced documentary about a group of young boys from Rockford, Illinois who grew up skateboarding together to escape their abusive family life. The documentary, was phenomenal, and we all spent quite awhile discussing it over dinner afterwards. I realized that it was the first time I had watched an American production since coming to Korea, but it felt like I had an entirely new lens through which I could look at American culture, or at least that which was portrayed by the film. I found myself constantly wondering what all of the Koreans around me were thinking about the United States and American culture as they watched the film. It occurred to me that if they extrapolated some of the activities, behaviors, and values portrayed by the film to all of American culture, they would end up with an extremely skewed image. I learned later that the documentary had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT earlier in the year and won several awards there. I am eager to find out how it does at BIFF.
On Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful day of sunshine and 75 degrees, only to have to check out of our hotel room and catch an early afternoon train to Seoul. Admittedly, we did not do much planning aside from travel and accommodations for the trip, but it turned out to be a success nonetheless and I am excited to return to Busan someday.