TLDR: Advance online purchasing is a bitch for many reasons, mostly that tickets sell out too quickly. However, you can easily get tickets the day of without having to camp out at the ticket booth. For opening ceremonies you have to book before hand.
Koreans are a different breed of early bird when it comes to online purchases. The Busan Film Festival allots 80% of movie tickets maybe a week before( check www.biff.co.kr for the date and time) the first day or screenings. They do so through the Korean site Daum.net. I went on the site the day after tickets went on sale and I had no luck for several reasons.
The pitfalls of buying your BIFF Tickets online:
-
Minimal English on Daum: This can be worked around with a browser that translates or a Korean friend. You’ll need to either register as a native user or a foreign user and have your ARC or Passport number. But…
-
Daum’s BIFF page blows: The online ticket system is very interactive and even lets you pick your specific seats. To actually get through the whole process you need to a) use only Internet Explorer b) and have flash. That might be simple for some of you, but I was having no luck using Internet Explorer. I must not have had flash, and got stuck on the page to pick my seat. Assume all the worst things that could happen when accessing a somewhat advanced online ticketing system through Internet Explorer.
-
All online tickets sell out between two to 24 hours after they go on sale: You can be apart of the madness, but ticketing starts in the mid morning of a weekday. If you’re set on a particular film or attending the opening or closing screenings, then you probably want to be online when the site officially opens. As I said, the ticketing site boggles my mind. It’s super frustrating. Plus the site lists all movie screenings whether they are full or not, so you might be doing a lot of back and forth on your computer just finding screenings that aren’t full.
Better alternative: Buy tickets that day.
No reservations, no worries. After school I went straight to the bus station, bought a ticket, found myself in Busan and went on the hunt for a room at a nearby love motel. 30,000 won a night.
I was fortunate enough to be super punctual and get all the tickets I wanted on the day of. My biggest piece of advice that I wasn’t seeing on other blogs is this: Day of tickets do not sell out like online tickets. Koreans must have this thing on lock. They do the online madness to get their first choice films and the best seats. That’s probably why the day of ticket booth is lined half way with foreigners, and the rest Korean college kids.
I called the information desk the night before to get inside advice on when to arrive to the ticket booth. I asked if 7am would be early enough to get tickets(the booth started operating at 8am) . She said if I wasn’t interested in popular films then I should be able to swing it, but she hesitated. I took the first subway from my stop and arrived at the ticket booth at 6:30. Yes there is a long line that would give you the impression you will be stuck with the shittest movies there are. But, there are a ton of movies, only a few of which got enough press to warrant arriving so damn early to a potentially 10 am to 6am the next day event.
How I would do it better next time.
–Pick up tickets the day of. Be on time, but don’t camp out: Get as much sleep as you can because you will need it if you’re doing the midnight films( out of three, one was amazing, one was okay/eh, one was terrible). If that’s getting a motel the night before or making early bus ride, do what makes sense. The ticket booth opens at 8. I got there at 6:30. I recommend you get there at 8:30. It would suck to get to the film festival so late that you can’t see any movies. That will not happen. Another advantage of not getting your tickets so early is that the seats will be better. Reserved tickets pick their seats, but day of tickets are seated according to when you bought it. All of my tickets were in the first row because I was so damn early. Those were not great seats.
– Review the list of movies before hand. While you are in line, the staff will give you a card for a) the four approximate time slots to see a film b) space for the name your first and second choice. You will go through the program or the BIFF site and fill out the card( each movie screening has a three digit number). I assumed that every movie would be enjoyable because I’m an indie kind of girl, right, and these are all artsy film with a purpose. Plus, I was so worried about tickets selling out because this was my first time and I didn’t know anything. Very few films actually impressed me. The one I did enjoy was the one my friend read up on and suggested. If you are on time you will get your first choice probably. Choose wisely.
– Take naps, drink coffee, do whatever will keep you awake. Spaland, the most epic jimjibang is a three minute walk away.. Biff is pretty exciting if you do it hard. Prepare for this.
Where exactly is the ticket booth and the theaters?
This is where you can buy tickets^^
Busan, Centum City subway stop, exit 6. I wasn’t seeing any signs towards the main ticket booth(and there is only one to get tickets the day of, don’t think you’ve avoided a line by spotting one of the many ticket pick-up booths). Go straight out of exit 6 until you hit the street( very soon). Walk across the street and then go left immediately. Take it all the way until you meet the small intersection. Go right a short distance. Then you will see a small building on your right and the cinema center on your left(it’s not actually marked from this angle). Go to the cinema center, it is on the side that will be facing you( not the one directly across from the other building). There should be tall movie posters in the grass outside of where you need to be. And inside, the line. It goes pretty quickly.
Most theaters I went to were in the Cinema Center(opposite side of the ticket booth) and Lotte cinema, which is closer to the subway stop.
Parallel Likes 