The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has unveiled a 13-film Japanese Animation Special program, marking the first Korea visit in 17 years for animation master Rintaro alongside four next-generation directors.
Billed as a Special Program in Focus, the lineup puts a spotlight on Japan’s animation history across a full century, mixing formative classics with buzzed-about new releases and one European work that shaped generations of Japanese animators. Most of the lineup has rarely played Korean theaters, and several titles will have their Korean premieres at the festival.
“Phoenix 2772 (Space Firebird)” (1980) draws on Tezuka Osamu’s “Phoenix” manga saga, with Tezuka serving as writer and director on the project. Its 12-minute opening, which traces the protagonist’s growth using only music and imagery and no spoken dialogue, stands as one of the film’s most discussed passages.
“Metropolis” (2001) draws its story from a 1949 manga by Tezuka Osamu. Rintaro, whose credits include “Galaxy Express 999” (1979), directed the film, and Otomo Katsuhiro wrote the screenplay. Production took five years, with a budget among the largest in Japanese animation history at that point.
“Shiranui” is a 36-minute theatrical short produced by CoMix Wave Films, the company known for many of Shinkai Makoto’s biggest titles. The studio found first-time filmmaker Katanosaka Ryo and backed him in making an original work for cinemas. He personally hand-drew close to two-thirds of the picture’s 325 rough cuts.
The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, with venues centered on the Busan Cinema Center. The 21st Asian Contents & Film Market takes place alongside it, from Oct. 10-13.
