[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Incheon" July 15th-19th

Many people think of Incheon as being that place where the airport is. Actually, the area generally described as Incheon locally consists of the coastal area to the immediate southwest of Seoul. This area does incidentally contain the Incheon International Airport, but only because Incheon is considered the official administrating province of most of the South Korea's northwesterly islands. Aside from this general factoid, there's no particular reason for you to have heard of Incheon. I only went there at all because of the Women's Film Festival in Incheon (WFFI). Even the above picture is just ground art for the local cultural product development center.

...Ah, but the glitz of a local film festival! Pictured above is director Lee Young of "Troublers" speaking with some pleased spectators. These are the kinds of scenes you can only ever find at local film festivals, since they're the only ones small enough that directors can personally chat with fans without being totally overwhelmed. Here's another fun fact- "Troublers" screened with English subtitles, not because anyone expected foreigners to actually show up, but because at present Lee Young's print is only expected to circulate around the international festival circuit. That's a very common story at these small scale festivals.

WFFI had another interesting specialty as well- a small feminism library in the waiting area. In contrast to the movies, these books are only in Korean, although the same general idea of broadening horizons is the central operating goal.

The depth of films was what really surprised me overall. One big irony about film festivals that advertise a hundred or two hundred movies is that it is quite literally impossible for any one person to watch them all. WFFI compensates for its lack of breadth with greatness in depth. "Troublers" was great, there was the usual assortment of Korean short films, a weird French movie about the daughter of God, a fantastic Nigerian film about the cultural pressure to have boys carry on the family name, and more all well-centered around the subject of women's issues while having very distinct takes. Great stuff.

Anyway, back to Incheon. The Juan neighborhood where the festival took place was distinguished by a complete lack of convenient crosswalks. The reason? Apparently everyone is supposed to cross the street by passing through underground markets.

I can understand the appeal of underground markets, especially in summer, but the extent to which Incheon's civic planning is designed around their existence gets to be a bit ridiculous. I found myself wondering whether the population density is really high enough to warrant that kind of thing.

But really, what do I know. A few days ago the Juan Citizen's Commission opened yet another giant underground market, unfinished though it was while I was in town. Maybe they really do need them that badly.

This is a typical South Korean PC Room (PC방). Most people use them to play computer games away from prying eyes, especially those who can't afford proper computers in the first place. You may notice that they tend to look more crowded in films and dramas. This is not because the South Korea media is lying to you, but because people try to sit in the nether regions if they can so others won't see what they're doing.

The last landmark of interest I noted in Incheon was this display at the Bupyeong district in the northeast. Apparently one of the hanbok shops there provided the costumes for "Orange Marmalade". I'm surprised I don't see advertisements like this more often, considering drama hanboks have to come from somewhere. Those of you familiar only with the webtoon may be wondering why a modern high school vampire band romance drama needed hanboks in the first place. One year later, I'm still wondering that question myself.

Article by William Schwartz

 

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