Bowling over Busan

Collaborative tales

Hong Kong's reach in terms of coproductions was on show as well. There was the South Korea-Hong Kong produced documentary Lash (2019) from acclaimed director Jung Yoon-suk, about AI and its effect on human relationships. There was also Feast (2022): the latest drama from Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, backed by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society. It tells the tale of a family coping with the fallout from a hit-and-run.

Industry watchers also reported the conspicuous presence of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) at the four-day ACFM. The HKTDC was in town to drum up support for what it hopes will be the return to normalcy of its own flagship film-industry event — Hong Kong Filmart — scheduled for March. Pandemic restrictions permitting, the aim is for Filmart to be an in-person event again, after three years of online editions, and for it and the concurrent Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum to help rekindle the fortunes of the domestic industry as it emerges from the pandemic.

High hopes for the future were also shared by the acclaimed Hong Kong director and Asian industry trendsetter Peter Chan, in what was arguably the biggest "trade" news announced over the 10 days in Busan.

Chan used the BIFF to announce the launch of a new studio he's named Changin' Pictures — his response to a growing global demand for streaming content from and for the region. The lineup includes projects featuring the likes of superstars Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi, while the productions showcased at the BIFF represented South Korea, Thailand and Japan, as well as the regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chan aims to have 20 TV series completed within four years, eventually tapping into talent (and markets) across the entire region.

Chan was an early instigator of what have come to be known as pan-Asian productions, beginning in the early 2000s. Therefore it might pay for the region's industry as a whole to take heed of where he hopes all this will take him.

This month, Chan told Variety he wanted "to create innovative drama series for pan-Asian netizens, with an eye to cross-cultural global assimilation".

We might just see other players in Hong Kong quickly follow suit.