Entertainment

Lee Yun Chan ends 20-year break with Busan competition premiere

Jonah VillalbaPublished 2m ago2 min readBased on 10 sources
Lee Yun Chan ends 20-year break with Busan competition premiere
Photo by Omar David Sandoval Sida / CC BY-SA 4.0

Taiwanese director Lee Yun Chan is back making features after two decades away, with To Be Ordinary having its world premiere in competition at the Busan International Film Festival, according to Variety.

It is the only film from Taiwan in Busan's Competition strand this year. Competition is the festival's main awards section. The premiere puts a small, local story on a large regional stage.

The Mandarin title translates literally as a useful person. The film runs 112 minutes and is listed by the festival as a 2026 production for family audiences and as a coming-of-age story, per BIFF. It was shot in 42 days. That is fast for a feature.

Lee made her feature debut with 2005's The Shoe Fairy. Since then she has worked in series television, including directing the Disney+ series Women in Taipei. For cast members Weber Yang, Chang Shih Ying and Junior Hsieh, Busan is a first. None of the three has attended the festival before.

Busan launched Competition only last year, in 2025. The 2026 edition brings 14 films from Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Indonesia. The festival runs from October 6 to October 15, 2026. Actor Isabelle Huppert is expected to attend, and the line-up includes four first-time feature directors, according to Variety.

There is business behind the premiere. Taiwan sales company Mandarin Vision, a firm that sells films to distributors around the world, has taken worldwide rights to To Be Ordinary, as reported by Deadline. It will offer the film to buyers at the Asian Contents & Film Market in Busan, held October 10 to 13. That market is where festivals turn into deals.

What makes this stand out is the gap. Twenty years is a long time out of the director's chair. A short shoot, a competition slot and a quick run of festivals suggest Lee wanted to move fast.

The next stops are already set. After Busan, the film is due to screen at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Golden Horse Film Festival. It will then open in cinemas in Taiwan on Nov. 13.

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