The BFI Southbank programme for late October and November 2024 begins with Echoes in Time: Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, a major new season running from 28 October to 31 December. Programmed by Young Jin Eric Choi and Goran Topalovic, Echoes in Time will focus on two groundbreaking periods in the … [Read More]
Director: Ryu Seung-wan (류승완)
The Sight and Sound top 100: what’s buried in the detail?
Back in December 2022, Sight and Sound released its updated list of The Greatest Films of All Time. This list, which was first presented in 1952, is prepared every ten years. For the first time, in this most recent iteration a Korean film made it into the top 100. There are no prizes for guessing … [Read More]
Escape from Mogadishu – UK Theatrical Release
Escape from Mogadishu is a nail-biting political thriller based on a true story starring Kim Yoon-seok (The Chaser) and Huh Joon-ho (Netflix’s Kingdom). Rival diplomats from North Korea and South Korea become trapped as civil war rages in Mogadishu, Somalia. With no aid from either government, their only shot at survival requires uniting with bitter … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2021: the detailed schedule
Here’s the detailed schedule for the 2021 London Korean Film Festival. Lots to look forward to here. You can find the official press release here. Time Title Strand RSC = Regent Street Cinema | ICA = Institute of Contemporary Arts | PHC = Picturehouse Central | CIA = Cinema in the Arches | ESG = … [Read More]
A look back at some of the films of 2017
A review of some of the films that screened in London during the 2017 – another busy year. For me the undoubted highlight of the London film year was the Bae Chang-ho retrospective at the London Korean Film Festival: a chance to see a couple of his movies – including the classic Whale Hunting (1984) – … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2017: full programme details
Details of the programme for the 2017 London Korean Film Festival were announced earlier this evening at the fun-packed and blood-spattered final teaser screening (Jung Byung-gil’s The Villainess). The detailed schedule is right at the bottom of this page, and the below press release gives us plenty to mull over in terms of the individual … [Read More]
Film review: The Battleship Island
Synopsis Some nasty Japanese are being beastly to the Korean forced labourers in an offshore Japanese coal mine as the Second World War comes to a close. And one or two Koreans aren’t exactly being that patriotic either. In the middle of it all is a weak, venal Korean who is among the labourers with … [Read More]
Battleship Island gets a UK release
Last summer it was Kim Seong-hun’s Tunnel that got a UK release even while the movie was still topping the Korean box office. This year the summer blockbuster Battleship Island, released in Korea on 27 July, gets some London screenings just two weeks later, from 11 August. The film raked in $27 million in box … [Read More]
A look back at the films and music of 2015
In the second of two articles (the first looked at the world of books) we look at some of the releases of 2015 that caught our eye. Film Two Kickstarter-funded films to which LKL contributed came to fruition: Twinsters, the story of twin sisters adopted in different continents who discover each other through Facebook; and … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran
It was the first screening in the the trial “0th” iteration of the London East Asia Film Festival, but this really didn’t feel like a new film festival – more a continuation of past ones. We were opening in a venue that felt familiar, a lot of the faces front of house and on stage … [Read More]
Event news: Ryoo Seung-wan talking East Asian cinema with Chris Fujiwara
As part of the London East Asian Film Festival, director Ryoo Seung-wan will be discussing Asian cinema with Chris Fujiwara. Director Ryoo is over for the screening (with Q+A) of his hit film Veteran which opens the festival on 23 October. And remember that there’s another Korean film screening at the festival: Hong Won-chan’s Office, … [Read More]
Ryu Seung-wan is October’s featured director at the KCC
This month’s director at the KCCUK is Ryu Seung-wan – nicely timed to coincide with the screenings of his latest movie Veteran at the London East Asian Film Festival and the London Korean Film Festival. Die Bad is particularly recommended as a debut feature. As usual, registration is required via the KCC website. Die Bad … [Read More]
The Berlin File – so slick it’s really rather dull
A plot which involves a dodgy international arms deal, a secret multibillion dollar bank account belonging to the extended family of Kim Jong-il and a power struggle in the wake of Kim Jong-un’s succession. A list of characters which includes operatives from the CIA, Mossad, and both North and South Korean security agencies, plus would-be … [Read More]
Jeon Ji-hyun finally comes clean on her upcoming marriage
Enewsworld explains why Jeon Ji-hyun denied wedding rumours for so long: she needed to get some modelling contracts signed first. The wedding is on 13 April, brought forward from 2 June, after which she starts shooting Ryu Seung-wan’s new film Berlin http://bit.ly/ygigUg. [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival round-up and Ryu Seung-wan’s The Unjust
The 2011 London Korean Film Festival gave the London audience a chance to assess, and in my case reassess, the work of Ryu Seung-wan. Ryu has had several of his films released in the UK on DVD, but he is not as well-known to the viewing public as the likes of Park Chan-wook and Bong … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: why Dachimawa Lee is thoroughly groovy, and why I’m becoming a fan of Ryu Seung-wan
I have to confess that when I heard that Ryu Seung-wan was to be the featured director on the London Korean Film Festival 2011, my reaction was lukewarm. Of the films I had already seen, the silliness of Arahan did not endear the film to me, while seeing Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Hye-hyoung severely thrashed … [Read More]