Rintaro Returns to Korea for Busan’s Japanese Animation Special

The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has unveiled a 13-film Japanese Animation Special program, marking the first Korea visit in 17 years for animation master Rintaro alongside four next-generation directors.

Billed as a Special Program in Focus, the lineup puts a spotlight on Japan’s animation history across a full century, mixing formative classics with buzzed-about new releases and one European work that shaped generations of Japanese animators. Most of the lineup has rarely played Korean theaters, and several titles will have their Korean premieres at the festival.

Rintaro will travel to Busan alongside directors Kadowaki Kohei, Katanosaka Ryo, Natsume Shingo and Shinomiya Yoshitoshi, who represent the medium’s newer generation. It is Rintaro’s first trip to Korea in 17 years.

The lineup’s classics section opens with Yabushita Taiji’s “The White Snake Enchantress” (1958), an adaptation of a Chinese folk tale about a young man who falls for a serpent capable of taking human form. It was the first Japanese animated feature made in full color, and it left a lasting impression on a teenage Miyazaki Hayao, who wrote in “Starting Point 1979-1996” that watching it left him in tears until dawn. The film stands as a landmark work from Toei Animation.

Yamamoto Eiichi’s “Belladonna of Sadness” (1973) was produced by Mushi Production as an experimental work aimed at adult viewers. Adapted from Jules Michelet’s “La Sorcière,” the story centers on Jeanne, a woman who strikes a bargain with the Devil and emerges transformed into a witch. The film was invited to screen at the 1973 Berlin Film Festival, shortly after its debut, and it later became a global cult title following a 2016 4K restoration. Actor Nakadai Tatsuya provides the Devil’s voice, while the camera drifts across static watercolor paintings under Fukai Kuni’s art direction.

“Phoenix 2772 (Space Firebird)” (1980) draws on Tezuka Osamu’s “Phoenix” manga saga, with Tezuka serving as writer and director on the project. Its 12-minute opening, which traces the protagonist’s growth using only music and imagery and no spoken dialogue, stands as one of the film’s most discussed passages.

Oshii Mamoru’s “Angel’s Egg” (1985), made with illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, unfolds with almost no dialogue, relying instead on biblical symbolism and imagery. The film laid the groundwork for a visual approach Oshii carried forward into “Ghost in the Shell” (1995).

“Memories” (1995), overseen by Otomo Katsuhiro of “Akira” (1988), comes back to Busan three decades after it screened at the festival’s first edition. The program will show a 2025 remaster marking the film’s 30th anniversary, presenting all three episodes of the omnibus.

“Metropolis” (2001) draws its story from a 1949 manga by Tezuka Osamu. Rintaro, whose credits include “Galaxy Express 999” (1979), directed the film, and Otomo Katsuhiro wrote the screenplay. Production took five years, with a budget among the largest in Japanese animation history at that point.

Yuasa Masaaki made his feature directorial debut with “Mind Game” (2004), adapting a manga of the same name by Robin Nishi. Yuasa, known for his work on “Crayon Shin-chan” and “Chibi Maruko-chan,” saw the film take the Animation Division’s Grand Prize at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, plus the Mainichi Film Awards’ 2004 Ofuji Noburo Award for Animation.

“Kakurenbo” (2004) is where Morita Shuhei made his directorial debut. He later picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film for “Possessions” (2013) and went on to direct “Tokyo Ghoul” (2014). The 24-minute short built a cult following for pairing 3D CG with cel-style rendering, an unusual combination for its era.

Four new titles round out the lineup, with all four directors attending BIFF. “Ghost – End of Night” comes from director Natsume Shingo, who also made “One-Punch Man” (2015), with production handled by Madhouse Inc. The film heads to BIFF ahead of a planned 2027 theatrical bow in Japan.

“Shiranui” is a 36-minute theatrical short produced by CoMix Wave Films, the company known for many of Shinkai Makoto’s biggest titles. The studio found first-time filmmaker Katanosaka Ryo and backed him in making an original work for cinemas. He personally hand-drew close to two-thirds of the picture’s 325 rough cuts.

Kadowaki Kohei directs “We Are Aliens,” a rotoscoped feature with a distinctly realistic look. The film played in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar during this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and it also screened in Competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Director Shinomiya Yoshitoshi’s “A New Dawn” holds the distinction of being the first Japanese animated feature directed by a first-time feature filmmaker to compete at the Berlin International Film Festival. After its Berlinale premiere, the film went on to win the Jury Award, given in Annecy’s Contrechamp section. The 76-minute feature is built around a distinctive green palette inspired by ‘Paris Green,’ a pigment once outlawed for its toxicity. Shinomiya, who earlier worked on Shinkai Makoto’s “Your Name.” (2016) and created the poster art for “The Garden of Words” (2013), handled the story, screenplay and direction on “A New Dawn,” in addition to its character design and art direction.

The program closes with Paul Grimault’s “The King and the Mockingbird” (1952, 1980). Grimault finished an initial cut in 1952, which took a prize at the Venice Film Festival, but he later pulled the film from circulation, scrapped that version and spent decades reworking it into a new cut. Miyazaki Hayao paid tribute to it in his directorial debut, “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro” (1979), and Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata Isao once said he might never have gotten into animation had he not seen it. The film also numbers Bong Joon-ho among its admirers.

BIFF festival director Jung Hanseok said, “Animation has recently become one of the most dynamic forms in global cinema, bridging East and West. That is why, for this year’s major Special Programs in Focus, we wanted to take a closer look at the world of Japanese animation, long one of the great traditions and powerhouses of the medium.”

Jung said organizers set a handful of firm criteria for the lineup: the films needed, whenever feasible, to be original works made for theatrical release, and to represent either bold precedents from their era or a forward-looking vision for the medium, with preference given to titles that have seldom, if at all, played Korean cinemas. He added that the program deliberately left out Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao, choosing instead works that had shaped both directors’ own filmmaking.

“Some films can only be fully experienced in a theater. I hope audiences in Busan will not miss this rare opportunity to experience these works on the big screen. I am also deeply honored to welcome Rintaro, a living legend of Japanese animation, and four directors representing its next generation to BIFF,” Jung added.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, with venues centered on the Busan Cinema Center. The 21st Asian Contents & Film Market takes place alongside it, from Oct. 10-13.