Let me chronologize my meeting with Cebuano filmmaker Kenneth Dagatan at the recently concluded 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in Bucheon City, South Korea.
I touched down at the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, another city in South Korea, a little bit earlier than 11:15 pm, the official time of my arrival as advised by my airline, Cebu Pacific.
After a series of air passenger’s requirements like health declaration, immigration, etc. I went out of the arrival gate of ICN to the sprawling lobby with groups of well-wishers and welcomers.
As I was expecting a BIFAN guest coordinator or a transport guide to pick me up as advised, I looked around the names printed on cardboards to arriving passengers.
In no time at all, a big tablet-like gadget flashed my name, BOY VILLASANTA, in white letters against a rose-colored screen as a young male BIFAN volunteer held it.
I immediately smiled, went near him as he beckoned behind a cordon belt.
I reintroduced myself and asked for his as we shook hands. His name is Kim Yongjun, a student of digital technology.
Lived in Antipolo
Yongjun volunteered that he’s familiar with the Philippines as he lived in Antipolo City with his missionary family back when he was in primary grade in a Korean school back in the days.
I asked him if he would be a filmmaker which he replied with shyness. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s hard,” he chuckled as he spoke in his Korean English twang.
Yongju just saw me off in the cab as he had another foreign guest to fetch up.
I was directed by my taxi driver to Polaris Hotel located right in the heart of Bucheon City, a good more than a half an hour drive.
Before calling it a night, I still wrote some entertainment stories and eventually retired to bed.
Morning After
The following morning, as early as seven I was at the hotel’s breakfast buffet table.
The place was teeming with multiracial delegates to the 2024 BIFAN — directors, producers, writers, distributors, press, marketers and other stakeholders munching on breakfast treats.
I was sipping my coffee when a guy in a faded if not light-yellow shirt walked past my table and talked to a brown Asian looking guy who was facing me. His side view was familiar with his thick black hair.
He was indeed Bradley Liew, a very young Malaysian producer who’s married to equally young Filipina filmmaker, Bianca Balbuena. The couple run Epicmedia Productions.
The first time I met Bradley and Bianca was during the 27th BIFAN when their produced genre film “In My Mother’s Skin” (which starred Beauty Gonzalez, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Felicity Kyle Napuli, Arnold Reyes, Angeli Bayani, and Ronnie Lazaro supported by an array of good actors however unknown yet) was shown at the 2023 BIFAN.
The creative team during the red carpet was headed by its director Kenneth Dagatan, an emerging young filmmaker from Cebu.
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