PIFF Submissions
FINAL UPDATE
By most accounts, PIFF was a success, although not without it's problems. For next year, we hope to increase our coverage of the event with more submissions, more media types and more hype. Pusanweb thanks everyone who took the time to share their cinematic experiences and hope you all come back next year.
And now for the final updates:
The Left Flank wraps things up with Cute Face, Blank Eyes and Search for the (South) Korean Eldorado
The Lonely Planet adds his final notes in his review of Fados and Ezra.
If you have content you'd like to add to Pweb's PIFF, it's not too late! Directions on how to add your own content is a bit further down the page. Scroll and submit. Thanks again to everyone who posted, and visit them often. They don't just write well about cinema.
TUESDAY UPDATE
Before getting into the blog round-up, it was pointed out that I stupidly forgot to post the actual link to the PIFF website. (slapping forehead!). So, far too late for this year, here's the link: www.piff.org
And on to the round-up:
The Lonely Planet blogger is back with more from PIFF. Check out his reviews of the documentaries Full Metal Village and Cocalero and The Ferryman, a movie that was, in the words of the blogger: "tedious, grating, cliched, unbelievable, horribly acted, cheesily lighted, and about 95 minutes too long, clocking it at 97." I guess you win some, you lose some.
The Left Flank blogger posted A Light from the Gate, a review of the popular Korean film, Secret Sunshine.
We have a new voice chiming in on Pusanweb. User seeplecash reviews Control, the movie about Ian Curtis, lead singer of the British post-punk band Joy Division.
Busan Mike blogs about his experience at one of the outdoor films that happen nightly at the Busan Yacht Club.
In snooping around the blogosphere, I found the blog, The East Windup Chronicle. The blogger wrote a preview of the festival, The Pusan International Film Festival–Asia’s Finest Film Fest Kicks off Oct. 4 (wish I had found it earlier!) and an update: PIFF’s Patience Paying Dividends for New Asian Cinema
The RiskyBusinessBlog has a section dedicated to PIFF which has entries that focus more on the atmosphere than the films. A decent read.
And finally, pix from some of the ladies that graced the red carpet, check out this post from RUKorean.
Got more links? Got something to say? Let us know!
WEEKEND UPDATE
Sunday is usually the busiest day for PIFF and the most difficult to buy tickets for. Some people got lucky, others didn't. If you saw something on Sunday (or Saturday, or Friday!) let us know. Scroll down the page for the "how to".
PIFF Update from Homely Planet
TRIBES
The Philippines, 2007
Tribes
is my second movie at this year's PIFF, and also a movie concerning itself with youth gangs (I was supposed to see Ken Loach's new one last night, but this flu/strep throat nastiness put me down for the count, so the tickets went unused...). But unlike the super-stylized and downright silly CROWS - Episode 0, this one's actually good.
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Everything I said last night about my blighted love affair with PIFF was reinforced today. And, I have a name for my problem with the long form movie: self-indulgence.
It's not as if, as a blogger, I don't know about granting myself liberties. Left Flank doesn't have an 800-word limit per post rule. But then, I don't go around whoring for money for my projects. And, judging by my stats counter, many readers have decided to take my advice pre-emptively, and have decided not to access my blog before we disagree about everything. Once in a while, I wonder how to make this blog better, yet few set me straight. Perhaps, directors have the same problem. Lack of, or incompetence in, editing is the serial crime most directors commit in the filmsfeatured at PIFF.
FRIDAY UPDATE
We are now into day 3 of PIFF, and the second full day of films (the opening day only shows the opening film). Bloggers from The Left Flank and from Homely Planet have started blogging the festival. Here's what they sent on to Pweb. Also, if you're blogging PIFF, let us know and we'll put the word out.
From the Left Flank:
The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) lost its cineaste’s novelty in April, when BUDi fought and nearly won my affections. BUDi, or the Busan Universiade for Digital Content, is for the short film format what PIFF is for the long form, the conventional (dare I say, classic 120-minute format). Like the LP, I fear PIFF is at a disadvantage in the age of attention deficit disorder and IPODs. So, I started slow this 12th iteration of the venerable autumn convocation for camera-empowered artists in all phases of self-expression, from pic snappers to the silent news crews, the flash-resistant stars and their directors, and finally to the producers and scriptwriters dreaming of the limelight. I picked a selection composed of four short segments, In Our Time, by four different Taiwanese (or is that the Chinese Taipei contingent?) directors.
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From Homely Planet:
It's that time a year once again, kiddies. The Pusan International Film Festival is underway, and during the next week I'll be catching screenings during any available downtime and posting short reviews here and over at http://www.pusanweb.com.
I missed the opening last night - a Chinese war epic called Assembly - due to a nasty flu that has descended upon me, sapped me of all my energy, and shat in my joints. I feel like refried camel dung, but that hasn't stopped me from already taking in one film this morning. Here are my thoughts.
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