Fairly smooth trip from Narita to Busan yesterday—except when I got to Korean immigration, which was packed. I’ve never waited that long before, and consequently, I wasn’t able to get to the Cinema Center before the badge desk closed to pick up my press credentials. They close at 3 pm, which seems pretty early for the first day of the festival, but I guess it’s because they need everyone to work the opening ceremony.

Which I attended. Naturally, the red carpet introductions went on way too long and the ceremony itself was pretty boring. Lee Byung-hun was the emcee, and he was affable and all, but the script was terrible, just filled with cliches about the glory of cinema. I can appreciate how far the festival has come in 30 years, but there was this whole subtext to the speeches that implied Busan was a lowly backwater in 1996, and maybe it was, but they should have mentioned that once and let it be.

The only reason I endured the ceremony was to watch the opening film, which stars Lee: Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice. This was the Korean premiere (the World Premiere was Venice, where it got raves), so it was a big deal. The movie opens wide in Korea next week, I think, and pre-sales have hit a record. It’s very good. And very strange. I was expecting a black comedy but not one as convoluted as this. In a sense, it’s about how a man can be driven insane by his reliance on routine. Lee’s character loses his job at a paper manufacturer and can’t countenance working for any other industry. As it happens, several other “pulp men” have also lost their jobs at other paper companies and are looking for work, so he endeavors to knock them off in wild and woolly ways. They all can’t imagine toiling for anything except paper, which is a great metaphor that Park plays up brilliantly. It’s also about the fragility of Korean masculinity, a common enough theme in Korean movies but the twist that Park and Lee give it here is unique. I’ll have to see it again.

It didn’t end until almost 11:30, so I had to rush back to the beach for the Opening Reception, which wasn’t as crowded as it usually is. There was way too much food. I hope they didn’t throw it all away.