Cinema Now
The purpose of the Cinema Now strand is to offer a synchronic cross section of contemporary, popular Korean cinema and take the temperature of the moment.
Time to Be Strong
힘을 낼 시간
Sat 08 Nov, 4:30pm
ICA
“Finding our way is difficult,“ says Su-min (Choi Sung-eun) in voice-over, as she emerges from Jeju Island’s airport with Tae-hee (Hyun Woo-seok) and Sa-rang (Ha Seo-yoon). They certainly look lost, out of place, even shell-shocked – like ex-cons or extra-terrestrials – and soon, Sa-rang will leave her baggage on the airport bus. At 26 they are trying to have the excursion that they...
Read more...
The Land of Morning Calm
아침바다 갈매기는
Sat 08 Nov, 6:30pm
ICA
In a neglected coastal village, bullying, cantankerous Vietnam vet Yeong-guk (Yoon Joo-sang) drowns his sorrows every night, and goes out early each morning in a fishing boat that, like him, has seen better days. With his straight talk and bellowing voice, he is perhaps the worst man to keep a secret, but he has one. Park Ri-woong’s drama is a bleak portrait of an ageing, dying community, of th...
Read more...
Silver Apricot
은빛살구
Sun 09 Nov, 1:30pm
ICA
When she is not doing graphic design for her Seoul day job, 32-year-old Kim Jung-seo (Na Ae-jin) writes a vampire-based webtoon – and blood is on her mind. For she is returning to her seaside hometown of Donghae City to secure money owed by her estranged father the caddish restaurateur Yeong-joo (Ahn Seok-hwan), so that she can place a downpayment on a new Seoul condo and start putting do...
Read more...
The Informant
정보원
Sun 09 Nov, 3:00pm
BFI Southbank
Kim Seok’s action comedy knowingly — and relentlessly — subverts the established tropes of ‘cops and robbers’ movies, and keeps wrongfooting expectations, faking the viewer out in much the same way that its characters constantly dissemble. As deceit, disguise and double-dealing reign, this is a broad, bombastic entertainment, never predictable but always funny. Anton Bitel
Read more...
3670
3670
Wed 12 Nov, 8:30pm
BFI Southbank
Park Joon-ho’s feature debut finds the sweet-spot intersection between two marginalised communities. For its protagonist Cheol-jun (Cho You-hyun) is both a North Korean defector, and gay. As he navigates the codified conventions of his new world(s), he tries simultaneously to come out and to fit in. Take the challenge and the plunge, and with Cheol-jun reap the eventual rewards. Anton Bitel
Read more...
Commission
커미션
Thu 13 Nov, 6:10pm
BFI Southbank
Though structured as a serial killer thriller, Shin Jea-min’s film is a psychodrama about an intense rivalry between two sibling webtooners. Their conflict exposes all the tension, jealousy and ambition that often drive art, and dramatises the creative process itself in all its pain and plagiarism, its nerdiness and narcissism, its cutthroat competitiveness and dark fantasy. Anton Bitel Film co...
Read more...