Busan International Film Festival 2014 | Teach English In Korea
The Busan International Film Festival 2014 (also known as BIFF) took place in October and we got to go experience some of the fun!
Held around the famous beach area of Haeundae, the festival is one of Asia’s most prominent film festivals featuring hundreds of films and international premieres. We watched a few of the movies, got mistaken for celebs and even got to ask the Director of “Roaring Currents”, the biggest film in Korean box office history, a question when he came up on stage after the movie.
But I’m getting ahead of myself… It’s all here in the video, so check it out:
[youtube JjXrq-_LnsY 640 360]
Busan International Film Festival 2014
BIFF is definitely one of the most prominent film festival’s in Asia, if not the world. This year was it’s 19th edition and the festival has grown hugely since it’s inception.
Because it’s an international film festival there is a large focus on foreign films and bringing in guests from all over the world.
Cost Of The Busan Film Festival For Teachers
One of the great things about teaching English in Korea is you have the time and the money to get to events like this and have an amazing weekend like we did.
All it involved was a 2 hour train ride, booking into a nice but affordable hostel and then paying for a few dinners out. Didn’t break the bank at all and I still expect to save my monthly $1000.
Attending “Roaring Currents” Premiere
The highlight of the Busan International Film Festival 2014 for me was attending the English Premiere of “Roaring Currents” (also known as The Admiral). Not only did we get to watch this incredible movie but we also had a Q&A after the movie with 2 of the major actor’s of the film AND the director/co-writer.
Roaring Currents is the biggest box office success in the history of Korean cinema, with over 16 million admissions and grossing over US $100 million.
Naturally I thought this would be a great opportunity to use my very basic Korean in front of the entire cinema and director-actor trio when they came up for Q&A… I also asked the director a question about how long the movie took to make (4 years!).
Funnily, after the bit you saw in the video the director commented about the quality of the subtitles and asked me (“the guy in the red shirt over there!”) if I thought they were good. I told him they were good. Actually they weren’t perfect but I didn’t mention that 🙂
Premiere Of “The Gate”
Another great movie at the Busan International Film Festival 2014 was “The Gate”, the story of a French man captured by Kaing Guek Eav (also known as Comrade Duch), a rebel responsible for the torture and death of over 12000 people.
I went into this movie not knowing much about the Cambodian struggle and came out a little more educated and a whole lot more sympathetic for the people of a nation that suffered so much.
The director Régis Wargnier came up before the movie and gave an introduction, telling the audience this was a film he had wanted to make for over 20 years.
Final Thoughts
Overall the Busan International Film Festival 2014 was a great experience and I’d highly recommend everyone go if they have the chance. One of the great things about teaching in Korea is it affords you the opportunity to do cool things like this all the time.
If you want to find out more about how to get started teaching English in Korea feel free to contact me and we can help you get started 🙂