my own film festival

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has started; with Busan just a small hop away from where I am, it's tempting to skip over there this weekend to drink in all the movie-ness. But, no: my moviegoing plans are more modest. Ron Howard's "Rush" is out soon in Korea (October 9), and I want to see it. Hayang, being the small town that it is, doesn't seem to have much in the way of movie theaters; those are, for the most part, in nearby Gyeongsan City and the much larger Daegu. So it's just a question of visiting one of Korea's big-ass portal sites, Naver (the other big portal is Daum), looking up "Rush," and finding a Theater Near Me. My mission—if I choose to accept it.

The other movie I'm hoping to see—and I have no clue when this might be out in Korea—is Alfonso Cuarón's "Gravity," which is getting raves from critics: it's holding at 97% on Metacritic, and two initial reviews that I had read sounded as if the writers had been blown away by the near-orbit adventure. The concept for "Gravity" holds a strong attraction (no pun intended) for me—the drama is about as simple and stripped-down as you can get: two astronauts are lost in space and trying to survive. That's it. That's like a minimalist play, as far as I'm concerned, but in this case, because the story occurs in the vastness of space, it's a minimalist play performed on a maximalist set.

Those two movies, "Rush" and "Gravity," are the only two movies I'm interested in at the moment. "Rush," a story of two racing rivals who become buddies, purports to deal with life, death, and friendship. "Gravity" is about life and death, and the human will to survive impossible situations. Both look mighty interesting.


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