SARAH WOODS TAKES US ON A RED CARPET SOUTH KOREA’S OWN RIDE THROUGH VERY TINSELTOWN

Even on an ordinary day, Busan is alive with the fast-paced buzz of a cinematic film as baseball-capwearing production staff prepare the city’s sets for another day of shooting amid the melee. Location scouts race around Korea’s second largest port city, framing street corners with their fingers while assistants trail behind. Seoul may be South Korea’s administrative lifeblood, but Busan is the pulsating heart of its film industry, a natural choice for a blockbuster flick with its low-rising hills, gorgeous ocean views and ambient cityscape.

It helps, of course, that Busan has its fair share of handsome, relaxed, friendly faces — all facets that boast the glossy good looks of a city that is a filmmaker’s dream. Busan’s film credentials are staggering with over 100 movies shot in the city each year — several of which topped budgets of US$10 million. Yet it is not just multimillion-dollar movies that attract the crowds in Busan — the audience for lowbudget films and art-house cinema is on a staggering trajectory. Welcome to Asia’s Hollywood: Korea’s celebrity-packed movie-making epicenter.

Korea’s 2,058 movie screens sold more than 160-million cinema tickets in 2008 — a reflection of the country’s ravenous appetite for films. Cinema has played a significant role in Busan since the 1930s when movie theaters and art house clubs started to appear. During Korea’s so-called “Golden Age” a few years later, Busan became synonymous with all things cinematic: from the era of silent films and small budget documentaries to razzle-dazzle melodramas and all-action epics. Soon, many of Korea’s most creative celluloid artisans were calling Busan “home” and movie bigwigs and celebrities frequented the city’s restaurants, bars and glitterati haunts.

Today a succession of trendy bars, chichi cafés and ritzy neon-lit cocktail joints enjoy the star-studded patronage of Asia’s biggest movie luminaries, including executives from Korea’s Myung Film, Fun and Happiness and Sidus Pictures. It also hosts the most impressive annual showcase of Asian cinema — the Busan Film Festival, considered the “Cannes of Asia” — an ultra-glamorous affair that attracts thousands of air-kissing stars and movie moguls from all over the world, including Tinseltown itself. A lavish program of several hundred movies includes Asia’s finest during which thousands of glasses of Champagne are poured for more than 11,000 guests at 50 decadent premieres. This upscale coastal resort — an hour’s flight from Seoul — pulls out all the stops at festival time with red carpets galore. Heroes, villains and leading ladies schmooze by glass tanks filled with sharks at soirées at the Aquarium, sipping rice wine spritzers and nibbling on canapés in seaside marquees. As the sun sets, clips of Silmido, TaeGukGi: Brotherhood of War, King and The Clown and The Host are projected onto the sand.

“Over 80% of our audience at the Busan Film Festival are in their teens and early 20s, so it’s a young event that bursts with energy,” explains world-renowned director and festival founder Kim Dong-ho. “It brings thousands of international film tourists to the city and is also an important event for Asia in competing against the US domination in the world’s film industry.”

Fireworks herald opening and “curtain up” as traffic jams toot at swarms of film devotees. Everyone pours onto the streets to catch glimpses of famous actors like Danish-born Anna Karina and A-list Korean stars such as Jang Dong-gun. During festival time, the upscale shopping district of Nampo-dong Street, the white sands of Songjeong beach and Busan’s sprawling fish market (itself the star of Silmido and Got You Babe) welcome actors like Park Chan-Wook and Lee Byung-hun and film bigwigs from over 30 nations, including Italy, Germany, Canada and the UK. Busan’s hotels, shops, restaurants and bars are no stranger to Asian’s top movie stars and celebrities — each film has a crew of around 40 to 50 people — and soon the prop guy, wardrobe girl, makeup team and special effects guru are familiar faces in town. Lounge bars become a waiting room for casting queues while restaurants accommodate script “run through” meetings, auditions for extras and production team congresses. Given its striking beauty at night, Busan lends itself to glittering twilight cruises on a backdrop of neon-lit side streets and the twinkling lights of the city’s soaring Tower.

“It’s a source of great pride to Busan’s four million inhabitants that their hometown is Asia’s LA,” admits a spokesman for new movie initiative, the Busan Promotion Plan. “Our pre-market Asian film event brings filmmakers, movie financiers and producers to this city from all over the world — to a dynamic setting in which ideas and projects can be shared, to great effect.”

According to official records, the Korean film market saw its first film import and screening in October of 1897 before it established a permanent movie house in 1902. Today Korea’s robust movie-making sector has a major economic impact on Busan, especially now that a growing number of Seoul-based film executives take the high-speed train down to Busan rather than shoot a film in the capital itself. Production costs are lower on the coast and Busan also offers a wider variety of locations, from enchanting beaches, old-meets-new cityscapes and jagged mountain peaks.

Being close to Japan has also made the Korean city an increasingly tempting prospect for Japanese producers. Since 2001, over 10 Japanese features, including the smash hit Hero, have been shot in Busan. Yet the city is not just a local film hub as it’s been recognized by filmmakers further afield, too. In 2008, a US$34.4 million, 71,160ft2 post-production center equipped with film development, editing, sound recording, CGI, digital intermediate and other digital processes was unveiled in Busan — a vast complex of high-tech wizardry that has drawn international productions to the city. Over 50 Busan films have been developed using city grants that support regional talent, including With a Girl of Black Soil (directed by Jun Soo-il), My Dear Diary (directed by Jung Seung-ook) and Dodari (directed by Bak Junbum). When Beverly Hills Ninja 2, a sequel actors Aaron Yoo, James Kyson Lee and Moon Bloodgood around town is great!” says June Suk Choo at the Busan-North American Investment Forum. “It’s a reflection to of a symbiotic era between Korea and the US in film-making and investment terms.”

Yet, for many in Korea, it was the heart-warming comedy My Sassy Girl that captured the hearts of the nation — a film that outsold both the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter flicks, attracting the largest audience ever in Korea in a single day. Starring Jeong Ji-hyun and Cha Tai-hyun, the film was shot all over the city. Not only did it showcase Busan’s topography; like the motion picture Chingu, it also brought the city ‘s beauty to a broader audience. Even the purists had to admit director Kwak Jae-yong had pulled off a major cinematic coup. The mega blockbuster won applause across the entire Asiatic region, attracting comparisons to the across-the-age draw of epic romance Titanic.

“Busan and its characters have plenty of star quality too!” says Go Kwang Cheol, director of Busan Tourism Association. “To travel to Busan is to discover the true magic, drama and romance of Korea. Every night is ‘Premier Night’. Such is the charm of the city, from the expressive faces of the people to the twilight sky, sea views and twinkling stars.”

GET STAR-STRUCK!

Taste and see these flavors and sights of Busan, which figured in many famous Korean flicks

Barter for squid, eels and octopus at Korea’s largest fish market Jagalchi — a vast portside array of freshly caught seafood famously captured in all its glory in the movie Chingu.

Savor dongnae pajeon (Korean style pancakes) — a savory local delicacy that’s a favorite with American-Korean Heroes actor James Kyson Lee.

Explore the dramatic scenery around the east gate of Geumjung sansung along Mt Geumjung — the backdrop to a scene in My Sassy Girl.

Stroll along the stone-walled streets near Dongseo University in Busan, the location for a chilling scene in the revenge drama Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

Marvel at underwater coral gardens rich in varicolored marine life at Busan’s mega-aquarium on Haeundae Beach, the scene of MBC’s melodramatic romance One Fine Day.

In My Sassy Girl and Chingu, the Yeongdo Grand Bridge is featured. It links the mainland to Yeongdo and offers stunning nighttime views of Busan.

Enjoy coffee, cocktails and fresh juices in the Grand Hotel, Busan Lotte or Napalggot Restaurant — these are popular hangouts of the cast and crew of the 100 movies that are filmed in Busan every year! — Sarah Woods