Saturday, October 06, 2007

Pusan Day 2.5

Moving very slowly today. Got a bit overzealous on the soju last night. Highlight of the evening was drunken bumper cars with roman candles.

The West 32nd entourage keeps growing. Yesterday Grace Park showed up as well as some Los Angeles friends. We keep growing and getting stronger and keeping the soju makers in business. We had a meeting of the entourages last night between the APAN actors including Jason Scott Lee and Daniel Dae Kim with Grace Park as our ambassador. The two party talks occurred over grilled clams at the potchang matcha.

Earlier in the night, a bunch of us tried to give an impromptu Q&A for our first screening last night but ended up in a huge argument with a very anal theater manager who refused to allow it. It took us an hour to get to the theater -- the dangers of moving entourage-style in a foreign country. We were late for the screening but it didn't matter anyway because the theater manager wasn't going to let us in. He was very adamant about making sure his films played without any disruption or unexpected visits from the people that actually made the film.

We did get to play a fun game of 007BANG!* on the ride over. And when we were turned away from our own screening, we were comforted by the best buddeh chigeh I've ever tasted.

Two years ago when I was here with The Motel, we went to all the screenings and got to talk to the audience. It was actually in the same theater in Nampodong, but since then they seemed to be interested in hiring very uptight management than letting audiences meet cast and crew from America. Oh, well.

I heard the screening went well regardless. My biggest fear was that Korean audiences wouldn't get some of the humor but according to my sources, they were into it. I think it was a good sign that an hour after the premiere, there were multiple new requests for interviews with media. One of which happened today. The reporter was very into the movie and had really great thought out questions which delved deep into themes that were brought up in the movie. It totally took me off guard in my hazy hangover state this morning. But I eventually woke up enough to say some coherent things... I hope.

There's only one official "guest visit" (Q&A session) put together by the festival which will happen Monday. John Cho will be here for that as well as Jeong Jun Ho. I am looking forward to it. The only sad part is that Grace Park has to go back to Vancouver to shoot Battlestar before it happens.

Highlight from today was walking down to the empty edge of the beach and throwing rocks into the ocean. Tonight, the plan is to go equally mellow. Maybe wine (from a very generous gift bag from home) on the beach then a little noh rae bang. Life is great.

I'll try to keep this up and post consistently... but I can't promise anything.

KOREA FUN FACTS:

*How to play 007BANG!  (pronounced Gong - Gong - Chil - Bang!)

Players sit in a circle.

*One player starts off by pointing at someone and saying "gong." *The second player then points to another person and says "gong."  *The third player then points to someone saying "chil." *The fourth player points to someone and says "BANG!" *The fifth person who has been pointed to must remain completely still, the two adjacent players to that person must raise their arms and scream.If any of the above moves are messed up, the player that messed up is punished.

Punishments can include a two-finger slap on the wrist. In expert level 007BANG!, the punished player must get on all fours in the center and all players beat the person on the back to the rhythm of the 20th Century Fox opening drum beats.

Variation: How to play on the subway.

Silent 007BANG!

Everyone must be completely silent. The "gong's," "chil" and "bang" are tracked in everyone's head. Any speaking, grunting, screaming, etc. is a foul and punishable by a slap on the knee from the two adjacent players.