Busan IFF Update - Gossip from the forest from a well-connected observer

A close observer of Korean cinema advises: When the Koreans dig in they dig in. The stoush with the Busan Mayor is only part of the problem. Conservative forces at the national level also look on the film industry as a hot-bed of lefties. No matter that some of those people who helped boost the film industry in the 1990s got rich, old grievances die hard in Korea..... Another festival which ran afoul of civic authorities was BiFan (nee PiFan aka Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival) which saw the Director deposed when he had a blank moment when introducing the Mayor on stage (I was there - it was the fifth or sixth name in succession). This was opening night. The Director was subsequently fired. The Korean film press, which at that time included at least 4 weekly magazines, vowed never to cover the festival again and they kept to their vows for about 3 or 4 years.

Like I said when the Koreans dig in, they really dig in.