Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival 2002 by Russell Edwards
Part 5: Other films at PiFan 2002 Other retrospectives in the festival was a look at the pre-Lord Of The Rings work of Peter Jackson (With splatter comedy Braindead proving particularly popular with the locals) and the films of Werner Herzog. The latter retro had a major emphasis on Fitzcarraldo as Les Blank who made the companion doco Burden of Dreams was a festival guest. Other American films covered in the retrospective were a collection of films by the legendary Kuchar brothers of the New York underground of the 60s.
While it was high on my list anyway, the fact that festival guest Lee had bought the rights made the Hong Kong horror film The Eye compulsory viewing. Featuring one of the great credit sequences, this film had the audience shaking and quaking from start to finish. The night screening was enhanced by the rollerblading volunteers who swapped their blue t-shirts for ghoulsih make-up and shrouds and cowls with posters of The Eye on their backs while handing out flyers. This had to be the most anticipated film of the fest and met well with expectations. Made by the Pang Brothers of Thailand, this flick about a blind woman who suffers from supernatural side effects after a cornea transplant this is also lined up for a US remake courtesy of Korean American producer Roy Lee. The only competitor to this was the aura around the Korean horror flick on the closing night The Phone (which I unfortunately didn't see).	The Eye The Phone
Other flicks to turn up was the eerie (but not entirely successful) hit of last year's Toronto Film Festival, Donnie Darko, a look at Harry Sinclair's latest film Toy Love (what type of world is when I have to go to Korea to see a New Zealand film?) and the self-promotional Troma documentary All The Love You Cannes, which purported to be a independent guide to the busiest film festival on the planet, but mainly was a collection of funny anecdotes.

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© 2002 Russell Edwards

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