10 Films you cannot miss at the 20th Bucheon International Animation Festival

By Asian Film Festival on October 12, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )

These are ten films you cannot miss at the 2018 Bucheon International Animation Festival, taking place from October 19th – 23rd, in Bucheon (Korea).

Flavors of Youth by LI Haolin, Joshua Yi, Takeuchi Yoshitaka
China, Japan | 2018 – 74 min.
Section: International Competition

Flavors of Youth is an anthology film in three parts, each in a different Chinese city. In the first part, ‘Hidamari no Choshoku,’ a young man working in Beijing recalls the childhood he spent in his hometown with his grandmother. Then he learns that she is very sick. ‘Chiisana Fashion Show’ exposes a quarrel between two orphan sisters. One of them wants to become a model while the other pursues further studies. ‘Shanghai Koi’ is set in in 1990s Shanghai. A young man is in love with his childhood friend but has never confessed his feelings. In adulthood, they both move away, but an event brings them back together.

Trailer:

Green Days by Ahn Jaehun, Han Hyejin – Korea | 2011 – 98 min.
Section: Ani-together

One day, I-rang runs in a relay race, the only event she is confident in. But for fear of others passing her and losing the race, she falls down on purpose. Having lost her sense of confidence and in contemplation, she happens to meet a sturdy transfer student named Sumin, and somewhat unbalanced boy named Cheolsoo. They spend a joyful and emotional time together thinking more deeply about their dreams and their futures.

Schedule:
October 21st | Sunday | Bucheon City Hall | 15:00

Trailer (Low Resolution):

Millennium Actress by Kom Satoshi – Japan | 2002 – 87 min.
Section: Special Program

As Genei Studios is torn down, a filmmaker produces a documentary celebrating the 70th anniversary of its founding. The film is to feature the studio’s legendary star, Fujiwara Chiyoko. Producer Tachibana and a cameraman visit the now elderly Fujiwara, who is retired and living in seclusion. Tachibana hands her a key, which he believes she lost at the studio, and which is a token of her first love. Filming starts with the story of ‘the key that opened the most precious thing,’ which her first love left behind, and Fujiwara’s confessions about her life and work.

Schedule:
October 20th | Saturday | Korea Manhwa Museum | 13:30

Trailer:

Motel Rose by Yeo Eun-a – Korea | 2018 – 77 min.
Section: International Competition

She longs to be like her idol, ‘Rose,’ Mina, a middle school student, starts working at Motel Rose because of her family’s financial difficulties. The motel in a back-alley red light district downtown. There, while doing the cleaning, Mina meets ‘Hanna’, a teenage runaway who resembles ‘Rose’. Hanna sells her body at the motel, but Mina secretly wishes to become like ‘Rose’ one day.

My Beautiful Girl, Mari by Lee Sunggang – Korea | 2001 – 80 min.
Section: Ani-together

This film uses a narrative structure in which Namwoo and his friend Junho, now adults, meet again, and through a series of flashbacks, uncover the childhood innocence they might have lost. Notable here is the radical style that contrasts with such a reflective narrative. The film features a two-dimensional composition resembling canvases that have been successively put together using discontinuous editing, maximized camera angles, and a contrast between everyday life and fantasy. As a new discovery and masterpiece of Korean animation, this film brings the audience to a place hidden behind rain pouring down in a criss-cross pattern.

Schedule:
October 21st | Sunday | Bucheon City Hall | 13:00

Trailer (English Trailer):

Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond by Omori Takahiro, Ito Hideki
Japan | 2018 – 104 min.
Section: Feature Perspective

Since she was little, Natsume Takashi could see monsters that no one else could see. Natsume’s grandmother Reiko would battle with the monsters and when they lost, she made them write their names in the ‘Book of Friends.’ When her grandmother dies, Natsume inherits the ‘Book of Friends’ and starts to give the monsters their names back with Mr. Meow, who claims to be a security guard.

Trailer:

Okko’s Inn by Kosaka Kitaro – Japan | 2018 – 93 min.
Section: International Competition

After losing her parents in a car accident, Okko goes to the countryside to live with her grandmother who runs a hot-spring ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. There, the young girl encounters friendly ghosts who help her get used to the ryokan life. She becomes her grandmother’s apprentice and the ryokan’s future proprietress.

Trailer:

Perfect Blue by Kon Satoshi – Japan | 2004 – 81 min.
Section: Special Program

Mima, who left a girl-pop group and began a career as a new actress, is significantly embarrassed by jobs as a sexy bikini model and an actress in TV drama coming to her against her will. At the same time, murders happen one after another around her, and then….

Schedule:
October 21st | Sunday | Korea Manhwa Museum | 20:00

Trailer:

The Haunted House: The Secret of the Cave by Kim Byung-gap
Korea | 2018 – 68 min.
Section: Ani-together

Hari and Duri are a sister and brother living in the Shinbi apartment complex, which is more than a hundred years old. Living with them is a 102-year-old goblin named Shinbi. One day, they find a secret cave hidden in the woods. Swept up by the power of the cave, they’re taken 22 years into the past, to 1996. Hari, Duri and Shinbi find themselves in their village, but their apartment doesn’t exist, They meet their mother, Yujimi, who’s just a child. With her, they go on an adventure following Yujimi’s treasure map. They meet a golden goblin named Geumbi, and start a spooky adventure all together.

Trailer:

The Moon in the Hidden Woods by Umehara Takahiro
Korea | 2018 – 90 min.
Section: International Competition

Shooting star hunter Jang-gu is looking for star fragments when he meets Nabilera, a girl born with the destiny of the moon. As their fates cross, they uncover the secret of the suddenly vanished moon – the true nature of a conspiracy that has lasted for a thousand years.

Festival’s Trailer: