Korean film festival spotlights M'sian directors

Three emerging and first-time Malaysian directors were welcomed to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), Asia’s largest genre film event.

Amanda Nell Eu, Cho We Jun, and Ananth Subramaniam made a splash at the South Korean film festival with their respective projects.

Eu, who recently won the critics week grand prize at Cannes for her debut feature ‘Tiger Stripes’ is continuing the festival circuit run.

Tiger Stripes made its Korean premiere this week to sold-out screenings and was praised by festival director Shin Chul and programme director Ellen Kim who described it as an “amazing debut”.

For Eu, BIFAN is a homecoming of sorts as the festival’s project market initiative, NAFF, was a crucial early supporter of Tiger Stripes during its developmental stage.

“The project started out with just my producer Foo Fei Ling and me, and we were both aware that we needed to learn more about development and international co-productions.

“NAFF was a great introduction to the genre market for us, to connect with so many genre-focused people in the industry and to see the many possibilities that we had within that market,” Eu said.

Meanwhile, ‘Hungry Ghost Diner’, the debut feature from director Cho We Jun, made its world premiere at the festival.

Starring local talents Chen Keat Yoke, Eric Chen Puie Kong, Sam Chong, Fabian Loo, Chen Puie Heng, and Joyce Hon, Hungry Ghost Diner transports audiences into a captivating world of spirits and culinary delights.

The story revolves around a food truck operator named Bonnie, who finds herself stranded in her family’s old kopitiam in rural Behrang Stesen during an unexpected Covid-19 lockdown.

Little does she know that her family diner is about to be haunted by the ghosts of her deceased relatives.

Following the screening of the film, a Q&A session took place with the cast and director in which the mostly Korean audience expressed their intrigue about the Chinese festival celebrated by the community in Malaysia.

Chen, who plays the lead character, expressed her initial reservations about the film’s reception by the Korean audience because of the perceived difference in language and culture. However, her reservations were quickly dispelled after receiving a warm reception.

Producer Benji Lim was also overwhelmed by the response at the festival.

“To be quite frank, when we first developed Hungry Ghost Diner, I never thought for one minute that it would have an international presence, let alone an international appeal. We are grateful to BIFAN for giving us the platform,” Lim remarked.

Festival programmer Cho Jaewhee praised the movie’s perspective which is “sometimes comic and sometimes full of warm empathy” and for “bringing a unique touch that distinguishes it from typical horror movies which portray ghosts as objects of fear.”

Hungry Ghost Diner is set for release in Malaysian cinemas nationwide on Aug 10, 2023.

As the festival slowly draws to a close, Ananth Subramaniam, director of ‘The Passport’ was announced as the winner of the Bucheon Award, the highest prize at the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) project market following a unanimous decision from the jury.

The black comedy drama will receive a cash prize of KR₩15 million (RM53,000) and in-kind support from production labs.

The Passport is a Tamil-language film set in the 1970s chronicling the life of an Indian punk rock musician whose inability to balance the line between tradition and identity summons an unwanted imaginary friend.

Subramaniam, an alumni of the Locarno film festival and the 2018 BMW Shorties grand prize winner, described the project as “a conversation I wanted to have about the relationship between parents and children and how often they fail to find a common ground between their belief systems.”

It is expected to move into production in early 2025.

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