It’s over for this year. From my own perspective, it’s been a great festival. I didn’t manage to get to all of the screenings, but I got to the ones I really wanted to. We had two top-notch films from Korea cinema’s golden age (The Housemaid and Obaltan / Aimless Bullet), a retrospective of one of Korea’s most important contemporary directors (Lee Chang-dong), a screen talk with one of Korea’s most popular directors (Kim Ji-woon), together with one of the hottest stars (Lee Byung-hun). We also had animation for all ages, and a good mix of other recent releases.
My own personal highlight of the festival was having my photo taken with Lee Byung-hun. But it was also quite cool to get snapped with Kim Ji-woon as well (left).
Turning to the movies themselves, the film I knew was going to be good was stunning (Housemaid); the film I thought was going to be fun was fun (The Good the Bad and the Weird), and the film I thought was going to be mildly interesting was an extremely emotional experience (May 18). So maybe for me the film of the festival was May 18.
What was your favourite film? Vote below.
(Poll now removed)
And if you have any other comments, favourable or otherwise, leave them below. How was the venue? What star would you like to see next year? Was it a good idea to have two films back to back every night? What director would you like a retrospective of next year?
Let it all out:
Venue was fine, though I wish they’d kept the films in the same screen every day. They used all three Barbican screens which made it very confusing.
Next year, let’s have a retrospective of the big films which set off the Korean Wave – Sassy Girl, Swiri and the like. And let’s have Jeon Ji-hyun in London ^^
It was a pretty well-balanced programme, with the recent ‘hits’ being the least appealing but I suppose that just reflects a bit of a drop-off in Korean mainstream cinema in 07/08. The venue was good, if a little labyrinthine, and ticket prices were reasonable.
For next year.. I think all the obvious directors who are well-known AND have artistic credibility have been ‘done’, with the possible exception of Im Sang-soo (The President’s Last Bang), who has a new film on the way(I think?).
It would be interesting to see some films from the 80s/90s (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Kwang-su) but it seems an unlikely prospect.
even though I had to commute from work and couldn’t come, it did seem like a lot of good films I regretfully had to miss 🙁 I really wnated to see May 18 and public enemy three (i am a big fan of the 1st two)
I would say that 2 films back to back does make it difficult for those of us who work 9am-6pm. I know maybe having to choose between two is always a tough thing, but its betetr to choose which one to miss yourself than have the decision made for you.
glad everyone had fun though!