A Netflix period war drama produced by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook opened Asia’s largest film festival Wednesday, the first time a streaming title has kicked off the event. Directed by Kim Sang-man and featuring Korean megastar Gang Dong-won in a lead role, “Uprising” is one of 224 official entries at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which runs until October 11. The film has attracted significant attention ahead of its world premiere thanks largely to the involvement of Park, best-known for ultra-violent thrillers like 2003’s “Old Boy”, which played a key role in bringing South Korean cinema to the global forefront.
Park was a screenwriter and producer on “Uprising”, a story set during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty about two friends who grow up together — but become enemies when war breaks out in the country. “I believed it was a work that could appeal to the public (the most) among all the (BIFF) opening films in history,” Park Do-shin, the festival’s acting director, has said of the choice. Streaming-only content like Netflix’s “Squid Game” and the Apple TV+ series “Pachinko” have contributed to a significant surge in the global visibility of Korean and Korean diaspora stories in recent years.
Busan’s 2024 line-up reflects how that content has become an “important part of our culture,” BIFF programmer Jung Han-seok said. Unveiled to the press prior to the opening ceremony, “Uprising” was a war flick tha.
