[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Seoul" May 8th-12th

Back to Seoul again, for a very important errand...to check out this wicked cool Lee Soon-shin figurine at the Art Toy Culture fair at the Coex Center in Gangnam. OK, OK, I actually came back to report on the Seoul International Green Film Festival (SIGFF) and the Seoul International Agape Film Festival (SIAFF), but by dumb luck this convention was going on when I got back in and offbeat conventions are always fun. That's why paying attention to random advertisements can be worth the effort.

Anyway, the SIGFF...is not the most photogenic film festival. Truthfully most of them aren't, aside from official ceremonies, the red carpet and the like, and I only showed up after the weekend, too, which is when most of the action is. Incidentally, if your goal in going to a film festival is to watch movies, weekdays are the best time to do it because there are less people but the schedule tends to be identical. Just the usual ragtag bunch of short movies and themed feature length independent productions.

As usual, I decided to watch movies at random, given I knew nothing about what was playing. Through bizarre luck of the draw, I watched a disproportionate number of documentaries about birds, specifically their incomprehensible migration patterns, singing abilities, and the somewhat weird ways they die. Cats and windows, as to be expected, are the main culprits. Multiple films also dealt with the subject of songbird cooking, which I thought was interesting because Koreans have that too- 참새구이, or Grilled Sparrow. I couldn't get that much outrage worked up, though, because on general principle I have trouble seeing why any other common bird should get more respect than chickens.

But hey, politics comes with the territory at festivals like this. The "mean old developer wants to destroy nature" storyline is so overdone that one documentary about the Jumbo Valley even opens up with a voiceover acknowledging the oversimplification. The lack of immediate political relevance kept any of the films at SIGFF from hitting too hard for me, but again, I'd just got back from Gangjeong. Besides, every so often there was a comedy tossed in there that just so happened to be filmed at a generally beautiful location.

Razzle and dazzle were in more obvious presence at the SIAFF Opening Ceremony, which took place in a huge auditorium at Ewha University. The crowd was pretty well-packed. Imagine, all this interest just to watch "The Drop Box".

Beyond that, though overall attendance at SIAFF was relatively sparse compared to SIGFF. The former had full run of the two screens at the Ewha Film Forum, but the latter had access to four fairly large independent theater screens throughout Seoul- The History Museum, Cinecube, Sponge House Gwanghwamun, and IndieSpace. Logistically SIGFF is pretty well-designed. All four of these theaters are within walking distance of each other. Although that's just as much a sign of market oversaturation. Sponge House Gwanghwamun closed its doors permanently after SIGFF ended. There's just not that much demand for so many art house movie theaters in Seoul anymore, especially since CGV started its art house extension program.

But anyway, back to SIAFF. The opening ceremony was, well, pretty much what they always are really. The presenter speaks, talks about how great it is that the festival is going on for another year, jury members and what-not are introduced....yeah, I like SIAFF, and I like SIGFF. They do good work helping to bring obscure international movies to Korean audiences. At the same time, there's often frustratingly little to actually say about these kinds of big themed festivals. You got your environmentalism, you got your Christianity, but ultimately, the movies themselves are always more interesting than whatever surrounds them.

...Oh, and as far as surrounding goes, SIGFF does have the advantage of taking place in the same area as these covered tent restaurants (포장말차). They're like bars, except outside, and May's pretty good weather for that. Rest assured they were not invented solely to serve as scene settings for dramas. Usually I only see one at a time though. Central Seoul is the only place I see a dozen of them in a line like this.

Article by William Schwartz

Advertisement