So even though a film like Byun Sung-hyun’s period piece Kingmaker (2021) might be looking back to the turbulent Sixties and Seventies when Korea was still under the oppressive thumb of military dictatorship, it is also looking forward to a kind of figure – the political spin doctor – who is still prevalent in today’s politics. And while the vehicle for Kwon Soo-kyung’s Stellar: A Magical Ride (2021) might be a barely roadworthy Hyundai Stellar from the late Eighties, it transports its repo man hero (and us with him) on a present-day journey which will reconcile him both to his late estranged dad, and to his own future fatherhood.

The past also collides with the present in Kim Min-geun’s Director’s Intention (2021), as a location scout retreads her old romantic haunts in Busan with a film director who has long since left her – but is perhaps back to rekindle old love. Or in Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul (2022), where a Francophone young woman, made part of the Korean diaspora as a baby, returns to Seoul several times to find herself and to reconnect with her lost roots, her fractured identity, and her birth parents. Or in a different way in Cheon Myeong-kwan’s chess-like low-key crime thriller Hot Blooded (2021), which opens near its end, and then spends much of its remaining duration catching up with that critical moment of a low-rent gangster’s fate, as he makes a move that will forever change his course in life.

My favourite of this year’s films, The Anchor (2022, Jeong Ji-yeon), also plays games with time, shuffling different periods and personae into a single, intensely twisty psychodrama about mothers and daughters, mesmerism and madness. Its lead character Jung Se-ra (Chun Woo-hee), a TV news anchor, is driven in her career by her domineering mother Lee So-jeong (Lee Hye-yeong) – herself a one-time news anchor – and briefly crosses paths with yet another young mother Yoon Mi-so (Park Se-hyeon) whose traumatised, triggering fate resonates with Se-ra’s own in enigmatic, irrational ways. This tightly plotted, disorienting thriller is a chronicle of women under pressure in a man’s world, and promises a long future for its exceedingly talented writer/director Jeong Ji-yeon. For if her last work, the short film Blooming in Spring, came out as long ago as 2008, it is never too late to bloom again.

Anton Bitel

The post LKFF 2022: Cinema Now – Programmer’s Note appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

So, over the last few decades, the haunted high-school hallways of the Whispering Corridors series (1998-2009, 2021-), the ghostly psychodrama of Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), the Carpenter-esque war-is-hell manœuvres of Kong Su-chang’s R-Point (2004), the Zola-adapting vampirism of Park Chan-wook’s Thirst (2009), the barrelling locomotive undead of Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016), the ambiguous smalltown devilry of Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing (2016), and the found-footage freakery of Jung Bum-shik’s Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) have all left their imprint on the international consciousness, while coming with a decidedly local flavour of fear.

Both in celebration of this “Horror Wave”, and also just because it has been a very good year for genre cinema in Korea, the London Korean Film Festival is putting on a special strand devoted to contemporary Korean horror. This includes Kang Dong-hun’s twisted haunted house/family saga Contorted (2021), in which a new rental home becomes an arena for a dysfunctional clan’s toxic dissolution. Then there is Sim Deok-geon’s Guimoon: The Lightless Door (2021), set in a single space (a cursed community centre) over multiple, intersecting timelines, as different characters drawn to the abandoned building in different years keep crossing paths in their desperate attempts to escape a doom that may already have happened.

Meanwhile Park Kang’s Seire (2021) is an adult film about a newborn ritual, as a father ignores his wife and mother-in-law’s superstitions surrounding postpartum care and exposes himself to ill-omened encounters (a funeral, an encounter with the identical twin of his late ex-girlfriend) and then finds his home life unravelling. And last but not least is Park Sye-young’s messy mattress horror The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (2021), in which the intensity and impermanence of human relations are shown from the peculiar perspective of a mutating, spine-eating fungus, with unexpectedly moving results. Given its relatively brief duration (60 minutes), this will be accompanied by Park’s (non-horror) short film about Korean barter culture and real values, Cashbag.

Another obvious inclusion might have been Jeong Ji-yeon’s mesmerically disorienting feature debut The Anchor (2022) about several women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but that can instead be seen in this year’s Cinema Now strand. 

Anton Bitel

The post After Dark: K-Horror – Programmer’s Note appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

Gyeong-ah’s Daughter is a thoughtful consideration of digital sex crime, as well as the complex relationship between mother and daughter.

The post Gyeong-ah’s Daughter appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

Merging different spatiotemporal realities over a single, recurring night, and featuring a grudge-holding ghost whose dissociative identity disorder confounds the usual rules of possession and exorcism, this is a disorienting, increasingly frantic affair, as these disparate characters all race to survive their respective nights. Full of oppressively nightmarish atmosphere and irrational incident, this is a wild, bewildering ghost train, transgressing a door that should never be opened.

Anton Bitel

The post Guimoon: The Lightless Door appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

Beloved within Korea as a young actor, Kang became well known on the international stage with her breakout role in Im Kwon-taek’s The Surrogate Woman in 1987. Kang won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 44th Venice International Film Festival for her role, making her the first Korean actor to receive an award at a major international film festival.

Kang was the co-director of BIFF from 2015-2017.

Considered a national treasure, Kang passed away on 7th May 2022 of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 55.

5 key films from Kang’s illustrious career will screen in the LKFF 2022 programme. 

The 17th London Korean Film Festival 2022 will take place from 3 November – 17 November.

The post Celebrating Kang Soo-yeon appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

Our volunteer programme is a good way to gain experience in a variety of areas, from event production to technical, while also gaining insight into the film festival sector and Korean culture. Depending on the shift, volunteers’ responsibilities might include providing good customer service to our audiences, guests and delegates. We will also have various runner or production crew tasks, while volunteers available before the Opening Night (Nov 3) will have the opportunity to shadow members of the Marketing, Events and Programming departments, taking on general office administration tasks, and helping prepare the 2022 edition of the festival.

Specific working hours and duties will differ for each programme/event and will be discussed and agreed with the LKFF staff following the selection and recruitment process.

NOTE: You will be expected to commit to a minimum of 5 shifts during the festival time (3 -17 November).

All LKFF volunteers working over 4 hours on any given day will receive subsistence and travel cover.

– Eligibility: Over 18s

– Festival Location: Central London.

– Application Process:

Please submit your application (CV) via online form. Your CV should outline why you are interested in the role, as well as the skills and experience. The closing date for applications is 30 September 2022.

Once applications have been processed, selected candidates will be invited to attend an interview on either 5 or 6 October 2022.

– Deadline: Friday 30th September 2022, 2pm

If you have any questions, please get in touch via info@kccuk.org.uk .

The post Job Opportunity: London Korean Film Festival Volunteers appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.

ANNOUNCES 2022 DATES

OPENING FILM – ALIENOID

SPECIAL FOCUS DEDICATED TO KOREAN FILM LEGEND KANG SOO-YEON

UNVEILS NEW FESTIVAL ART

Full LKFF2022 programme details will be announced on 4 October including screenings, introductions, Q&As and more.

For any press requests please contact festival publicist Sanam Hasan: shasanpr@gmail.com 

The world’s longest running film festival dedicated to Korean cinema, the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) returns with its 17th edition. LKFF will run from 3 November – 17 November 2022 in cinema venues across London. Tickets go on sale 4 October.

With the biggest programme dedicated to Korean cinema outside of the country itself, the festival is proud to return with an exciting programme of 35+ films across strands including Cinema Now, Special Focus, After Dark: K-Horror, Indie Talents, Women’s Voices, Documentary, Shorts and Artist Video.

Korean Sci-fi film, Choi Dong-hoon’s Alienoid opens the festival on 3rd November at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA) with the director in attendance. A box office hit in Korea starring leading talent including Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Woo-bin and Kim Tae-ri, the LKFF Opening is the film’s UK premiere.

The programme includes a Special Focus strand dedicated to internationally celebrated, acclaimed actress Kang Soo-yeon. Beloved within Korea as a young actor, Kang became well known on the international stage with her breakout role in Im Kwon-taek’s The Surrogate Woman in 1987. Kang won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 44th Venice International Film Festival for her role, making her the first Korean actor to receive an award at a major international film festival. Considered a national treasure, Kang passed away on 7th May 2022 of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 55.

Founder and former chairman of the Busan International Film Festival, Kim Dong-ho and Director of the Korean Film Archive, Kim Hong-joon will be participating in the Forum event dedicated to Kang and the Korea’s cinema landscape of her era. Kang was the co-director of BIFF from 2015-2017.

LKFF is proud to reveal this year’s LKFF artwork designed by Korean duo Hong Eunjoo and Kim Hyungjae.

Eunji Lee, Film Curator London Korean Film Festival:

“We are proud to be back exclusively in cinemas for this landmark 17th edition. The LKFF is celebrating this milestone with a unique programme of UK and European premieres of culturally important titles from Sci-fi spectacle as well as more low-key cinematic beauty. For the first time in two years, our festival will see a larger number of guests in attendance. This year we are pleased to welcome many prominent filmmakers and scholars from Korea, joining us for live introductions and Q&As. You can feel the joy of discovery with all the Korean films across the nine strands and accompanying special events.”

Screenings at last year’s festival were very well received by audiences, closely selling out at 8 cinema venues. This year’s festival returns to 10 cinemas within London and two regional venues: Cine Lumiere, Garden Cinema, Lux, Rio Cinema, V&A Museum, ICA, Genesis Cinema, Picturehouse Central, Regent Street Cinema and HOME Manchester and Glasgow Film Theatre.

The post LKFF 2022 Dates, Opening Night Film and Special Focus announced appeared first on London Korean Film Festival.