Busan Competition Title ‘The Storyteller’ Celebrates Satyajit Ray

Netflix must like working with South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho. With a new season of “Hellbound” on the way and an adaptation of the manga series “Parasyte: The Grey,” another series from Yeon is coming to the streamer.

Netflix is staying in the Yeon Sang-ho business, confirming production on his latest creation, The Bequeathed. A suspense drama, it weaves an intricate family history into a subject matter deeply rooted in Korean tradition: family burial grounds. 

Netflix announced an upcoming thriller Korean series, The Bequeathed, to be written by Train To Busan and Hellbound director Yeon Sang-ho.South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday (October 18) that Netflix had decided to produce the brand-new series written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho. The streaming platform also announced the casting of actors Kim Hyun-joo (Trolley, Love All Play) and Park Hee-soon (A Model Family, My Name) in lead roles for The Bequeathed.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions nabbed “Somewhere in Queens,” a heartfelt comedy from writer-director Ray Romano. Romano, who stars in the movie as a working-class dad, also directed, co-wrote and produced “Somewhere in Queens” in his feature filmmaking debut. The film will be released theatrically by Roadside Attractions in 2023.  “I am so excited to know that Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will be bringing this movie to theaters everywhere,” Romano said. “I lived with every facet of this production for years, as a director, co-writer, actor and producer. It’s such a personal story for me, and it’s inspiring to see these two companies step up because they believe in the movie as much as I do.”

BTS have unveiled the official performance of ‘Proof’ B-side ‘Run BTS’ from their recent Busan concert.On October 15, the boyband held their ‘Yet To Come’ concert in Busan as part of the city’s World Expo 2030 bid, marking their first show in six months. At the concert, BTS also debuted the performance of ‘Run BTS’ from their June 2022 compilation album ‘Proof’.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The free concert by K-pop sensation BTS in Busan, Korea, was viewed by upwards of 49 million people on Saturday. The free-of-charge “BTS ‘Yet to Come’ in Busan” concert was held in support of Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo and represented an attempt to introduce the city and Korean culture to global audience. After a change of venue, the physical component was held at the city’s Asiad Main Stadium and attracted some 50,000 in-person guests. An additional 10,000 people in the city watched a live retransmission at the Busan Port, and a further 2,000 gathered in Haeundae, the tourist area that recently played host to the Busan International Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran Chorki, one of the leaders in Bangladesh’s fiercely competitive Bengali-language streaming landscape, has revealed a strong 2023 slate. The 25-strong lineup is director-driven, helmed by 25 of the leading lights of the Bangladesh industry. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (“No Land’s Man”), leads the slate with “Ministry of Love,” details of which are under wraps at the moment. Abdullah Mohammad Saad, whose “Rehana” was at Cannes and Busan in 2021, also has an under wraps projects in the lineup. Abu Shahed Emon (“Jalal’s Story”) has thriller “Mercules” in the works for Chorki, where a woman must find out if the love of her life and father of her unborn child is a rapist.

Korean filmmaker Lee Jeong-hong’s A Wild Roomer and Shivamma, from India’s Jaishankar Aryar, were the winners of the New Currents Awards at the close of an encouragingly busy Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 5-14).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean film “A Wild Roomer” and India’s “Shivamma” have been announced as the joint winners of the New Currents competition, the prestige discovery section of the Busan International Film Festival. “We were particularly sensitive to the lightness and subtlety of the director’s view of his characters. Through his innovative cinematography, he creates original circulations between the characters within a house, and builds a very contemporary universe,” the competition jury said of the Lee Jeon-hong-directed “A Wild Roomer.” “We appreciated the originality and intensity with which the director was able to tell this very contemporary story. Here documentary and fiction meet in an organic and spirited way of making cinema. The generosity of the actors and the scenes create a closeness with this universal story that takes place in an Indian village,” the jury said of the Jaishankar Aryar-directed “Shivamma.”

Big Hit Music has issued a new statement addressing the “unauthorised use” of BTS‘ trademark ahead of the band’s forthcoming ‘Yet To Come’ concert in Busan, where the label says it will crack down on “counterfeit” merchandise.The statement, written in both Korean and English, was shared on Big Hit Music’s official social media channels yesterday (October 11). The label revealed that it has been taking “strict measures against companies that have been repeatedly producing, selling and distributing products that infringe on BTS’ portrait and trademark rights (‘rights violating products’)”.The label also announced plans to “conduct on-site inspection[s] and investigation[s] of counterfeit products” at and around the venue of BTS’ forthcoming ‘Yet To Come’ concert in Busan, slated to take place this weekend on October 15 at the Busan Asiad Main Stadium.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Rithy Panh, director of “Rice People” and “S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine” is an icon of art-house cinema, at once political, unique, and charming. The iconic image may be another of his confections – a palatable work built on uncomfortable facts. On the incomplete evidence of a 50-minute on-stage dialog at the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday, Panh comes across as simultaneously contrarian and principled. A curmudgeonly veteran and yet a filmmaker still curious to learn. “If there were no Khmer Rouge maybe I would not be a filmmaker,” he said of the Communist insurgents, who won the Cambodian civil war in 1975 and whose brutality and atrocities he has spent a lifetime documenting and exposing.

Naman Ramachandran Director Natesh Hegde and producer Rishab Shetty, whose “Pedro” was in the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival in 2021, are at this year’s Asian Project Market with “Vaghachipani” (“Tiger′s Pond”). “Pedro” won best director for Hegde at Pingyao, best film at the Nantes Three Continents Festival, and had a stellar festival run including the BFI London Film Festival, Golden Horse and IndieLisboa. Set in a sleepy hamlet, “Tiger′s Pond” will follow an under-aged shepherdess who is discovered to be pregnant. Her employer, who is hellbent on becoming the chair of the village council, makes every effort to cover it up.

Rebecca Souw TITLE: Behind The Scenes For Singapore-Korea Co-Production “Ajoomma” And Its Journey Ahead Post-Busan The past few weeks have gone by in a blur for Singapore-Korean co-produced comedy film “Ajoomma.” In a short span, it had a world premiere at the 27th Busan International Film Festival, earned four Golden Horse nominations including best actress, best new director, best original screenplay and best supporting actor. And Singapore has selected the film as itOscars contender. But it took seven years to get his far. At a Busan workshop on Saturday, first-time director He Shuming, co-founder of Giraffe Pictures and the film’s executive producer Anthony Chen and co-producer Lee Joon-han discussed the how the film came to life. “Ajoomma: The Curious Case Study of a Singaporean-Korean Co-production” was presented by mylab at the Asian Contents & Film Market.

Korean series Extraordinary Attorney Woo and Squid Game were the big winners at Busan International Film Festival’s Asia Contents Awards (ACAs), which featured a star-studded red carpet and welcomed back international guests for the first time since the event’s inaugural edition in 2019. Extraordinary Attorney Woo took the Best Content Award, the top prize of the ceremony, as well as Best Actress for Park Eun Bin, who heads the show in the role of a young female lawyer with autism. The series was broadcast in Korea on the ENA cable channel where it set the record for the highest ratings in the channel’s history. Netflix also started streaming the show in select territories from June, after which it topped the streamer’s non-English language weekly rankings for two months straight. Netflix’s Squid Game won the Technical Achievement Award and Best Supporting Actor for Park Haesoo, who plays the childhood friend of Lee Jung-jae’s main character in the Emmy award-winning series. Best Actor was presented to Suzuki Ryohei, star of Japanese series Mobile Emergency Room, which was broadcast on Japanese channel TBS and Disney+, while Best Supporting Actress went to Sora Ma of Singaporean series This Land Is Mine. Best Newcomer went to actress Bao Shang En for Chinese show Love Behind The Melody and actor Yokohama Ryusei for Japan’s The Journalist. China’s Wang Xiaoshuai (So Long, My Son) and Yang Yishu were awarded Best Writer for Wang’s first foray into drama series, The Pavilion, produced by Chinese streamer iQiyi. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing was awarded the ACA Excellence Award.

Rebecca Souw Korean independent film sales agency, Indiestory is presenting four titles at Busan’s ACFM starting on Saturday. All were produced in 2022, and two of them “The Ripple” and “Dream Palace” are screening at the Busan International Film Festival.  “Dream Palace” depicts the lives of 2 people who move into a new apartment building, only to receive news that their new homes will be back on sale. Inspired by 2010 real estate crises, the film deals with the ordeals of losing a home yet extending compassion to one another. Featuring Kim Sunyoung (“Broker,” “Three Sisters”) and Lee Yoonji (“Good Morning” and hit TV series, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”), “Dream Palace” is premiering at the Busan festival’s Panorama section.

Naman Ramachandran After “Sunrise” in 2014 and a double whammy with “The Wayfarers” and “Nirvana Inn” in 2019, Indian thespian Adil Hussain is back at the Busan International Film Festival this year with two more films – “The Storyteller” in the Jiseok section, and “Max, Min and Meowzaki” in the Open Cinema strand. Hussain, best known internationally for “Life of Pi” and “Star Trek: Discovery,” also won global plaudits for “What Will People Say” and “Hotel Salvation.” Both of the actor’s Busan films this year are by festival alumni – “The Storyteller,” is by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, whose “Bittersweet” was in Busan 2020 and “Max, Min and Meowzaki” is helmed by Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy, who was at Busan in 2016 with “A Billion Colour Story.”

Rebecca Souw Independent Korean film sales agent, M-Line Distribution is bringing a total of 26 films to Busan’s Asian Content & Film Market (ACFM) this year. Eight of them are screening at the Busan International Film Festival and a handful have planned releases in the fourth quarter of 2022 or early 2023. M-Line is handling sales on “Jiseok,” the documentary feature about the Busan festival’s co-founder and former head programmer who died in 2018 and now has a festival section named in his honor. The film plays at the festival as a BIFF Special Screening. “A Letter From Kyoto” depicts the story of a widow who raised her three daughters after her husband passed away. One of her daughters chanced upon a letter written in Japanese which sparked her curiosity. As mother and daughter delved deeper into her mother’s past life, secrets buried for decades begin to surface. Directed by Kim Min-ju, this is her debut feature and stars Cha Mi-kyeong and Han Seon-hwa. The film was also selected for BIFF’s Panorama section. 

Rebecca Souw “Bogota: City of the Lost,” one of the most expensive Korean films ever made, heads the sales slate presented at Busan by Megabox Plus M, part of Korea’s J Contentree listed company. Crime noir, “Bogota” took 21 months to produce and saw its principal photography start in January 2020 but soon become a victim of COVID. Song Joong Ki (“Space Sweepers”) stars as a young man moving to Colombia with his family for a better life, but he ends up living from hand to mouth. He later goes against all odds to dominate Bogota’s black market. The picture also stars Lee Hee-jun (“The Drug King”) and was directed by Kim Seong-je (“The Unfair”).

Naman Ramachandran A heavyweight producers panel discussed the modalities of producing independent films in Southeast Asia at a mylab panel on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival on Thursday. Panelists included: Liza Diño, former chair of Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) who had greenlit several films during her tenure; Indonesia’s Yulia Evina Bhara, producer of Venice-winner “Autobiography” that’s also playing at Busan; Thailand’s Donsaron Kovitvanitcha, producer of Locarno and Busan title “Arnold is a Model Student,”; and Malaysia’s Haris Sulong, producer of “Beautiful Mind.” The discussion was moderated by Variety Asia editor Patrick Frater.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kamila Andini, Indonesian filmmaker and member of the jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that she would look out for “Asian texture” among the films presented in the festival’s premiere New Currents competition section. French director Alain Guiraudie said that he would be seeking “new colors” and “new flavors.” He added that he thought Asian cinema could be “enigmatic and mysterious.” Both were speaking at a meet the press event on Thursday, the first full day of the festival. And jurors have yet to start screening the competition titles.