The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The celebration of the 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Bucheon City, South Korea was both a personal and a public experience.
Personally, I was invited to the festival on the merit of my writing annual Philippine cinema of the Made in Asia book published by BiFan as part of its major component, the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF), a project market of the fest to determine and analyze business trends of respective Asian filmmaking countries and to encourage international productions and co-prods with the Asian and other continental participants and stakeholders.
The 2022 BiFan was a show window and an interactive exchange of cultural, socio-political and economic realities of moviemaking in the world especially on genre contents and perspective as it is a platform for genre films like horror, fantasy, thriller, legends, sci-fi, supernatural, folklore and other wonderments. BiFan is considered the largest fantastic film event in Asia.
It was my second time in BiFan—the first one being PiFan (Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival) when it was named after the other name of the attributed place, Puchon City. In 2011 I was the very first Filipino film student at the Fantastic Film School (FFS) where we (other selected students from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and China) were taught the rudiments of conceptualizing, pitching, producing, marketing, networking and screening genre projects.
This year, the FFS had expanded its Asian and international enrollment and scholarships of students like Filipino KC Contrevida (although there were already Filipinos in the past like Bianca Balbuena, David Corpuz, Richard Soriano Legaspi), Vietnamese Sam Nguyen, Hindu Sapna Bhavnani, Nepalese Saurav Ghimire, French Gergoire Graesslin, Indonesian Kevin Rahardjo, Malaysian Thim kian Cheng and Japanese Katie Rong.
During my FFS time, we had Jonathan H. Kim, former president of the Korean Film Producers Association, producer of the box-office hit “The Ring” and currently advisor of the Film Division of CJ E&M; Tim Kwok, producer of Jacky Chan’s “The Medallion,” etc.; Patrick Frater, Variety writer; Mike Macari, Hollywood producer; Thierry Wase-Bailey, international marketer of Celsius Entertainment Ltd.; Hong Sungkee, president of Korea Entertainment Law Society; Choi Miae, CEO and Producer of Treefilm; David Kaplan, American director and producer; John Heinsen, a digital production mogul and Kay Heeyoung Kim, Executive Producer, Macrograph, Inc.
This year 2022 FFS had Brian Yuzna, the genre film master who produced and directed the blockbuster American film “Society” in 1988 and other hits as Dean of the School; Alexandre Philippe, US director and producer; Andrew Hunt, Canadian filmmaker; Annick Mahnert, Austrian film artist; Mattie Do, Laotian director; Yee Wei Chai, Singaporean producer and Lee Dongha, Korean actor.
My first day at BiFan was a memorable one with one of the young guys of volunteer youth (a film student in a Korean university) of the event who fetched me up from the cab designated for foreign guests and accompanied me to my room at Hotel Floce who asked me to take off my shoes behind the door before going to the main part of the spacious and luxurious accommodation.
On my second day, I went to a park near my hotel as early as seven o’clock in the morning to do my calisthenics. After the workout, I went to the breakfast table of the hotel where they served inspiring Korean food.
After breakfast, I took a shower and went immediately to Koryo Hotel, a stone’s throw from my hotel, where most of the BiFan events were held. Meanwhile, the showing of films were done in CN Mall in the heart of the city where most of the films were box-office hits, one of them Yuzna’s “Society” and other new world releases.
At Koryo, I met Arleen Cuevas, the Filipino filmmaker and producer of Raya Martin’s “Independencia” etc. and Adolf Alix, Jr.’s “Adela.” Arleen was in 2022 BiFan because her film as producer, “Last Resort” from Cinematografica Films was selected as one of the thirteen NAFF It Project’s submissions of film projects in development. Cuevas, I learned, has been away from the Philippines not too long ago as she teaches Film Production at the Breda University in The Netherlands. She’s married to a German but she still connects with her filmmaking buddies in the Philippines. Her “Last Resort” is a Philippine-Malaysian co-production.
At the opening of the B.I.G. (BiFan Industry Gathering) of NAFF and its components like It Project, Made in Asia, Spotlight, Fantastic 7 (a section which made collaboration with the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival), Blood Window (a category of international genre films) and FFS, I was privileged to rub elbows with international celebs like Yuzna, Mike Hostench, former Deputy Director of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain, Patrick Frater, a Variety correspondent and writer, BiFan programmer Jongsuk Thomas Nam etc.
At the Japan Night I also hobnobbed with world celebs like June Goh, a Singaporean make-up artist who was part of Epicmedia Productions when it shot “In My Mother’s Skin,” It Project selection in 2021, in Bacolod City with director Kenneth Dagatan and stars Beauty Gonzales and Ronnie Lazaro.
I also bumped into Filipino film artists Ian Celest Bernardez, daughter of award-winning thesp Angel Aquino who was the representative producer of Epicmedia’s “Posthouse,” a sole Philippine entry to be directed by Nikolas Red. The project in dev won two international awards, New Discovery in Asia and VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organization) with matching cash prizes.
In the group, Filipino director Ida Anita del Mundo, popular director of “K’na (The Dreamweaver)” which starred Mara Lopez was also around. Ida was a juror of the Short Film category of the 26th BiFan.
BiFan’s main contest was different from B.I.G. search.
At the Philippine luncheon at Koryo, Liza Diño-Seguerra was conspicuously absent because she had to attend to the smooth transition of the new leadership of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) in the Philippines. Liza will be succeeded by Tirso Cruz III as the FDCP Chair. Instead, FDCP Division Manager of the Philippine Film Archive Don Gervin Arawan filled up the shoes of Diño-Seguerra at the BiFan, especially at the Made in Asia Forum. At the luncheon and forum, Arawan talked about the recent developments in the market trend of Filipino filmmaking.
The Philippine Night was hosted by FDCP, Arawan and his team and the Philippine Embassy in South Korea headed by Ambassador Maria Theresa Dizon-de Vega and Cultural Officer and Attache Anthony Rafael Gil Z. Cornista.
Filipino actor Richard Quan, child star Jewel Phiona and actress Sue Prado missed the BiFan showing of their film “Clairvoyant,” a foray into a child’s mental condition which was exhibited at the XL section of the fest. It was patronized very dearly by the audience composed mostly of Koreans.
At the awards night of NAFF, I met German filmmaker Robertcecil Beerbohm who was very passionate about adapting K-drama into German multimedia platforms. After a few days of attending the 2022 BiFan, Robertcecil went to the Philippines where he renewed his another ninety-day stay in Korea with, interestingly, his Korean girlfriend.
During my return to the Philippines, something very memorable and touching story had unfolded.
The transport service of BiFan picked me up at my hotel at 3 pm to get to the Incheon International Airport for my flight at 7:45 pm.
I purposely went early to the airport to minimize stress from haste departure protocols because I didn’t want to be surprised of other requirements not advised by authorities although I read intently at the Cebu Pacific terms and conditions about travel.
It’s been raining hard since the morning of my last day in Bucheon City.
I had two pieces of luggage, one, a suitcase and the other, a shoulder bag. I had this black wallet/pouch with my small amount of paper bills in pesos, dollars and won plus my bank passbook. While inside the taxi, the pouch laid barely at the backseat. I was confident I would have it carried in my armpit even instead of putting it inside the pocket of my jacket.
Tam, the Korean cab driver, was a friendly soul although he couldn’t speak straight English. He was all smiles when I would talk to him in broken English all throughout the highway.
When we reached the airport, it was still raining cats and dogs. Tam got off the car and pulled out my luggage from its compartment. He then opened its door. He led me to pick up and carry the suitcase and bag in the middle of the rain at the airport entrance. I was in haste because I felt my kidney would explode any moment as I had water therapy hours before my hotel checkout and the cold weather had induced its explosion. I thanked and bid Tam goodbye and went almost running inside the airport with my two baggage in tow going to the john.
Relieved of my pee emergency, I noticed that my pouch wasn’t clipped in my armpit as I kept on touching it while looking around. I even asked some janitors and guards if they saw a black pouch. They all shook their heads in regrets.
Although I panicked a little I was resigned to its loss even if the small money in it could save me a lot back in Manila.
Still, I went to the Lost and Found Department. The receptionists said that if the item got lost inside the airport premises, it would be easy for them to locate.
While narrating and explaining the way I lost my wallet, I noticed at the corner of my eye someone was at my back. I looked back and saw Tam smiling and handing me my pouch.
I wanted to hug him but I suddenly withdrew out of coyness if not consciousness. Instead, I thanked him profusely and tearfully. I asked him how I could repay him. “No,” he quickly said. It was the easiest and kindest word and gesture he could muster.
“No” was spelled “honesty.”
I immediately thanked BiFan who provided me with my transport service and honest cab driver.