'The Remarried Empress' had only a single cast list released when every seat for its Busan screening disappeared. The 31st Busan International Film Festival opens on October 6, and two sold-out marks have appeared on the booking page. The other one is 'Sapiens', a title that is still provisional.
Seats for 'The Remarried Empress' disappeared after general booking opened on September 21. Shin Min-a is listed as Empress Navier, Lee Se-young as the runaway slave Rashta, and Ju Ji-hoon as Emperor Sovieshu. It happened with only the cast list made public.
'Sapiens' will be shown for the first time at this festival. It follows a figure who becomes the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a third-generation chaebol heir. Jung Sung-il, Yoo Jae-myung and Ryu Hyoun-kyoung are coming to Busan. Director Lee Hu-bin, who helmed the film, will also take the stage.
Seats went first for works no one has seen.
The festival runs from Tuesday, October 6 to Thursday, October 15, ten days. The main venue is the Busan Cinema Center. The organizing committee released the full lineup of invited films on September 1, and booking closed three weeks later.
Screens are going outside the theaters as well. The Korean Academy of Film Arts is holding the 'Airport Cinema Club' at Gimhae International Airport. Short films by Bong Joon-ho and Choi Dong-hoon are on the program. Sections named '10-Minute Cinema' and 'Cinema Warehouse' have been prepared.
A short film slips into the time spent waiting for a plane. The sound of suitcase wheels scraping the tile floor, the sound of announcements falling from the ceiling, and between them a ten-minute film runs. The audience has not bought tickets and the seats are not assigned. It is the festival pushed out to the edge of the city.
Some works are coming from abroad. 'Look Back' has been officially invited to the Gala Presentation section. It won five official independent awards at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and had its North American premiere at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.
The original is a manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto. It is a work by the artist who drew 'Chainsaw Man'.
The 'Look Back' team will meet audiences in Seoul from October 8 to 10. The Busan schedule comes before Seoul. Whether director Hirokazu Kore-eda will join has not been confirmed. Deguchi Natsuki and Makita Aju are listed as staying in Seoul for three days.
A box-office signal arriving before the opening cuts both ways for a festival. A sellout is good news. At the same time it means that many viewers could not get tickets. The more the heat concentrates on a few talked-about titles, the greater the risk that the smaller films deep in the lineup will screen to empty seats.
Busan started screening before the opening. One film at Gimhae Airport, ten days at the Busan Cinema Center, and the schedule carries on to Seoul.
There are still options for those who missed out on tickets. Canceled tickets come up until right before a screening. The Gimhae Airport screenings require no ticket.
