Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Beageal]

I've just discovered that everything I want to see is sold out. It makes me sad.

But once a particular film is sold out, are you really SOL on getting in? At the Toronto International Film Festival they have rush lines where they let people in to fill empty seats. Do they do that in Busan?

[Homer]

In my experience....full is full at the PIFF.....

Sorry.

I learned this like you...the hard way.

Now i buy well in advance.

[re:cursive]

Damn...I was considering going to this.

[Beageal]

Aw crap.

Crap, crap, crap.

[Beageal]

I was just exploring the PIFF ticket purchase website (http://piff.banktown.com/), when I saw this:

10% of seats for screening will be available
for walk-in purchase at temporary PIFF box
offices on the very day of screening during
the festival.

This seems somewhat hopeful. Homer, do you know anything about this?

[Arkady]

Homer knows nothing. He's clearly as helpful and aware as Homer Simpson.

You can but them on the day, and also buy tickets that other don't need anymore.

[Beageal]

Don't be mean to Homer. The man's just offering his thoughts.

Though I like yours better, Arkady (if only because you're telling me exactly what I want to hear). Care to share a few more? How reliable is this same-day buying bit? Will I need to line up 3 hours before the box office opens?

As for buying tickets that others don't need, are you talking about scalpers or cancellations? If it's the former, any guess how much they tend to want for those 5,000 won tickets? If it's the latter, will I need to keep a constant vigil on the online ticket sales site in hopes that some become available?

By the way, if it seems like I'm asking questions I could just as easily find out on my own by just going out and trying to get the damn tickets myself, the reason for this is that I don't live in Busan, and I don't know if I want to take the train from Seoul all the way down to Busan if I'm just gonna be shut out. So thanks for all the help. I'm definitely appreciating any tips anyone can offer.

[liehtzu]

I haven't heard about the 10% thing. Anyone know for sure? Where does this info come from?

I also learned the hard way last time I lived in Korea, arriving in Busan and everything sold out - the only thing I got (and I was lucky to get that) was a last-minute to some obscure, unmemorable Swedish flick. I've already stupidly missed out on the Jeonju Film Fest this year, and since it's so rare that I get to a film festival I was pretty prepared for PIFF this time round. As soon as the site went up yesterday at 9:00 AM I was there furiously trying to get seats. Most were sold out within an hour. I doubt there are too many seats for anything anymore, except the ones that no one has any desire to see.

Tics sold out for several shows within minutes, and I ended up getting about 75% of what I was after, only really not getting a few big fish. Still, with time leading up, there are slim hopes that someone will sell spare tickets to a screening of those that eluded me yesterday. As it stands, though, I'm getting in to the new film by the guy who's quickly become one of the filmmakers I most look forward to seeing a new film by, helmer of nutty, head-scratcher Thai flicks Apichatpong Weerasethakul (try saying that three times really fast). Strangely, no Korean films save for Korean-American Kim So-yong and, of course, Hong Sang-soo's latest, and only one English-language film. Here's the list:

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
In Between Days (Kim So-Yong)
The Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)
Transylvania (Tony Gatlif)
Luxury Car (Wang Chao)
Life is About Friends (Murali Nair)
Requiem (Hans-Christian Schmid)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
The Optimists (Goran Paskaljevic)
Bamoko (Abderrahmane Sissako)
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-Liang)
The White Silk Dress (Huynh Luu)
Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)
Scream of the Ants (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
Hamaca Paraguaya (Paz Encina)


The ones that got away (sold out in no time):

Summer Palace (Lou Ye)
Half Moon (Bahman Gohbadi)
Flanders (Bruno Dumont)
Fraulein (Andrea Staka)

But people are allowed to cancel tics and whatnot online, you might want to check in the glimmer that someone'll cancel theirs. Can't hurt to check online daily.

In a perfect world, I would be able to score tickets to "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," which has all of one screening at Pusan.

In a perfect world.

[VanIslander]

Yes, there's a percentage reserved for showtime.

I went to PIFF last year and saw all 10 of the films I wanted to see. Booked enough ahead of time. But I saw plenty of people buying tickets at the last minute, asked my Korean friend and festmate about it and she said that indeed there's a walk-up component for those willing to brave the lines (they can get mighty long at PIFF).

And the majority of films I saw were NOT packed theaters, several had lots of empty seating.

Be vigilant and alert and it isn't too late.

I actually found the Jeonju film festival in the spring to be just as good filmwise and surprisingly easy to get tickets for Friday morning (though some others had problems trying on Friday night, seems there was a surge in the afternoon, duh).

This years selection includes a lot less documentaries for some reason, though more non-Indian, non-Chinese south east asian flicks (a couple of love stories from malaysia, a drama and comedy from the philippines, a cambodian/euro joint, another cambodian/usa film. There are a few Thai films again, about the same amount, and I enjoyed the two I saw last year. I was surprised to see very few iranian films too, relative to the Indian and scandinavian showings. There's a mali joint production that looks great. i almost wish i were going, but i've made other plans for that weekend.

Enjoy!

[Beageal]

If I can convince my cohort to take the risk, I think I'll head down to Busan with nary an admission ticket to my name. Even if it all goes crappily, I've been to Busan before, it's a nice place, we can make the best of it. Thanks for all the help, good people.

By the way, for those of you who are, like me, feeling Borat regret, Cine21 has it listed as getting a release here in January (http://www.cine21.com/Movies/Mov_Movie/movie_detail.php?id=20710). I swear I checked a week ago and it said nothing. I guess being in the PIFF helps.

Edit: Hey, the official website (http://www.foxkorea.co.kr/borat/) begs to differ -- it says it'll be out in December. And it's got a Korean-subtitled trailer up, so hopefully this won't be one of those ghost movie releases. Excellent. No need to be bummed out if I don't get into that one. But I'm still going to Busan.

[liehtzu]

The Borat in Korea in December or January? Wicked. That means I don't have to sweat missing it at PIFF and can safely stick to my obscure art films.

By the by, a Borat "interview:"

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.06.06/features/feature.php

Especially the bit about the wizard's sleeve. Oh my.

[khyber]

I've heard that they sell/reserve a LOT of tickets for each movie for the press.
decks!

[Beageal]

I wonder what it would take to convince them that I'm press...