Agents of the Korean National Intelligence Service (KNIS), Park Pyung-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) are both independently hunting a North Korean spy within the agency. When the leaked top secret intel jeopardises national security, they are ordered to investigate each other and slowly start to uncover the shocking truth. HUNT is a … [Read More]
Category: Screenings
Leesong Hee-il’s Shallow gets world premiere at Raindance Film Fest
Mother disappeared. Son faces the truth that was hidden for thirty years. In 1983, a twisted love story among a woman, a revolutionary, and a fraktsiya unfolds. A film about memory, Swallow explores what happens when hurtful memories pass back out of the deep pit and present their corpse. When Hoyeon’s mother inexplicably disappears, he … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2022: the detailed schedule
Here’s your at-a-glance no-clicks-required version of the detailed schedule for this year’s London Korean Film Festival: Time Title Strand RSC = Regent Street Cinema | ICA = Institute of Contemporary Arts | PHC = Picturehouse Central | GC = Garden Cinema | CL = Ciné Lumière | Gen = Genesis Cinema | Rio = Rio … [Read More]
Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave – theatrical release
What happens when an object of suspicion becomes a case of obsession? Winner of Cannes Best Director in 2022, Park Chan-wook (OLDBOY, THE HANDMAIDEN) returns with a seductive romantic thriller that takes his renowned stylistic flair to dizzying new heights. When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives at a murder scene, he begins to suspect the … [Read More]
London East Asia Film Festival 2022 programme announced
The London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF), the capital’s most celebrated champion of East Asian cinema and culture, headed by Festival Director Hyejung Jeon, opens its 7th year on 19th October at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square with the UK premiere of HUNT, the latest spy action drama directed by the award-winning Actor Lee Jung-Jae. This … [Read More]
Korean interest at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival
Details of the five Korean movies and one Korean American movie in this year’s London Film Festival follow. For completeness, and not listed below, there’s a zainichi Korean character in Kôji Fukada’s movie Love Life. Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심) South Korea 2022, 138min Director-Producer: Park Chan-wook Screenwriters: Chung Seo-Kyung, Park Chan-wook Cast: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il … [Read More]
Free Chol Soo Lee: theatrical release
In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social justice movement. Nearly five decades later, Free Chol Soo Lee excavates this largely unknown yet essential … [Read More]
Strangers in a Strange Land: two modern classics at Prince Charles Cinema
In The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Jee-woon, 2008) and The Yellow Sea (Na Hong-jin, 2010), outlaws wage war against each other against the backdrop of an alien and unforgiving landscape of chaos. This mayhem is mirrored in the films’ productions, which are notorious to this day for their gruelling shooting conditions, schedule overruns, … [Read More]
Living Memories – the KCC’s summer season of documentaries
Continuing a summer tradition, the KCC’s film nights for late July and August focus on the documentay genre, in a season developed in collaboration with Birkbeck. Below is the official press release that tells you about the season. All of the films look well worth your time. We’ll be prioritising Im Heung-soon’s award-winning Factory Complex … [Read More]
Documentary screening: Factory Complex
Drawing parallels across several decades, Factory Complex engages with the struggles and suffering of women workers in various industries across Korea and beyond. Beginning with Korean textile workers in the 1960s before taking us inside the textile industry in Cambodia today, the film confronts audiences, drawing on archival footage and testimonies of those who were present in … [Read More]
Documentary screening: With or Without You
With or Without You follows the lives of Magg-i and Chun-hee, both widows of the same man. After their husband has passed, the two elderly women continue to share the same house and a tender relationship blessed by moments of wit and humour. The debut documentary of Park Hyuck-jee, shot intermittently over several years, depicts the … [Read More]
Documentary screening: Soup and Ideology
After suffering an aneurysm, Yang Yonghi’s mother starts revealing tragic memories of her fleeing Korea during the Jeju incident in 1948. The Japanese-born filmmaker begins to piece together her present and her mother’s past, whom she visits in Osaka every month with her Japanese fiancé. They bond through cooking and tradition, despite their ideological differences … [Read More]
Tiger is Coming: Kim Modeun
Kim Modeun presents a special screening of the film MODEUN TOUR: The Path of The Body, featuring six vignettes Stone, Water, Wind, Sea, Stratum and Alley. These six dance films focus on the space and nature of Jeju Island, the southernmost area of Korean Peninsula, through human bodies, their relationship to nature and the boundaries … [Read More]
Documentary screening: Jang Yunmi’s Under Construction
Jang Yunmi’s award-winning first feature reflects on the routine of construction worker Sudeok. From a captivating, careful look, as he manufactures reinforcement bars, the film gradually uncovers the physical, emotional and mental impact of his forty-year career in construction. Jang’s compositions, as she delicately interlaces their discussions with her footage, explore the boundaries between the … [Read More]
Shadow Flowers screens at Bertha Dochouse
Revealing a rarely discussed but strongly enforced law in South Korea, Shadow Flowers follows Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean woman, who finds herself trapped in South Korea, from where it is illegal to cross to the North. Desperate to return to her family and loved ones, Kim tried to smuggle herself out and even sought … [Read More]
Jason Verney’s Reparation screens at Kingston International Film Fest
Two semi-studious students living in ‘Korea-Town’ are interrupted & intrigued by the actions of a girl in a nearby building, witnessed via CCTV, whilst each trying to come to terms with important subjects in their university projects (one Korean related: the Sewol ferry tragedy, and one British: the Grenfell tower incident), as well as their … [Read More]