Lee Byeong-il’s The Wedding Day marked a breakthrough for Korean cinema. It was not only a domestic success, earning critical acclaim for its comedy and strong moral tone, but also won the award for Best Comedy at the Fourth Asian Film Festival, signalling the beginning of Korean cinema’s emergence on the international stage. Master Maeng … [Read More]
Event tag: KCC film screenings
Film Screening: Piagol (피아골)
A band of ‘red’ partisans run up a mountain gorge under fire. We the spectators enter with them into Piagol – Pia Valley – at full speed, deep into the Jiri mountains. Their numbers will soon be reduced to a handful: captain Agari (‘big mouth’), his second-in-command Cheol-su, a few male adults, two women and … [Read More]
Film Screening: The Money (돈)
The KCCUK is pleased to present the programme “50/50: Celebrating 50 Years of Korean Film Preservation,” co-organised with the Korean Film Archive, marking its 50th anniversary in 2024. This special series showcases four restored films from the 1950s. Each work has been digitally restored, and all of the selected titles hold an important place in … [Read More]
The Last Princess (덕혜옹주) screens at the KCC
The Last Princess is based on the true life story of Yi Deok-hye (Son Ye-jin), the last princess of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty and daughter of Emperor Gojong (Baek Yoon-sik). At 13 years of age, Deok-hye is sent to Japan to study but soon finds herself being used as a political pawn, her pleas to be … [Read More]
KCC screening: A Resistance
Though set almost entirely within the confines of the notorious Seodaemun Prison, this mostly monochrome feature from writer/director Joe Min-ho (A Million, 2009) uses the incarceration of real-life freedom fighter Yu Gwan-sun (Ko A-sung) to crystallise the ordeals of Korea’s occupation by the Japanese. Arrested, along with 47,000 others, for participating in a non-violent national … [Read More]
Short film screenings: Chorus, + Q&A
A programme of six short films inspired by the legacy of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. This presentation starts with Cha’s Vidéoème before leading into a selection of contemporary artists’ films, placing them in dialogue while celebrating a diversity of voices. Though the architecture of the programme is conceptually framed as a palindrome in three dialectic … [Read More]
Screening: Love Death Dog + Baek-gu (UK Premieres)
Love Death Dog | 러브 데스 도그 Directed by Gwon Dong-hyun and Kwon Sea-jung 19 min | 2023 | Korea | colour and b&w Korean with Eng Subs | Print source: Gwon Dong-hyun, Kwon Sea-jung Gwon Dong-hyun and Kwon Sea-jung have been collaborating on a long-term research project titled Love Death Dog City since 2020, … [Read More]
Activism and Post-Activism: Korean Documentary Cinema: 1981-2022, A lecture by Prof. Kim Jihoon
This lecture presents an overview of Activism and Post-Activism: Korean Documentary Cinema: 1981-2022 (Oxford University Press, 2024), the first-ever English-language monograph on Korean non-fiction film and video practices in the non-governmental and non-corporate sectors from their foundational period (early 1980s) to the present. Making tripartite connections between the socio-political history of Korea (from the 1980s … [Read More]
Screening: The Flower in Hell (지옥화)
Join the KCCUK for a screening of “The Flower in Hell,” an early masterpiece by director Shin Sang-ok that vividly portrays the societal dynamics of post-war Korea. Set in a weary Seoul, the film follows a gripping love triangle involving Yeong-sik, leader of a munitions-stealing syndicate, Dong-sik, his searching brother, and Sonya, Yeong-sik’s unapologetic lover … [Read More]
KCC film night: My Mother, the Mermaid (인어공주)
Na-young (Jeon Do-yeon) works at a post office and is sick and tired of being around her shamefully unyielding mother and her pushover father who’s excessively nice. The only thing that she can look forward to is her trip abroad in a few days. But one day, her father leaves home without any notice. Her … [Read More]
KCC screening: A Sister’s Garden (자매의 화원)
The Nam family leads a life of upper-middle class luxury. But this wealth lies on unstable foundations, and when the father dies suddenly, Jung-hee (Choi Eun-hee), as the new head of the family, finds herself with steep debts and no source of income. At last, she must decide on something that riskier than before. “A … [Read More]
Korean Film Night: A Tour Guide (믿을 수 있는 사람)
Han-young, a North Korean defector, gets a license to guide Chinese tourists thanks to the language skills she acquired as a refugee in China. She works diligently but faces many challenges, from coworker rivalry to assimilation, all while desperately searching for her missing brother. The irony of Han-Young’s position is emblematic of marginalized peoples’ struggles … [Read More]
Korean Film Night: Next Door (옆집사람)
After a blackout, Chan-woo wakes up beside a dead body in his next-door neighbour’s room. Having no clue of what’s happened, he is forced to make a quick escape, hiding from the spying eyes of his neighbours. In a tour-de-force performance, Oh Dong-min (Chan-woo) plays a young man (and impromptu rapper) who is studying for … [Read More]
KCCUK documentary season: Labour(s) of Love
Following on from 2022’s theme Living Memories, which focused on preserving memories and the truth through documentary, we continue to investigate the documentary form with our new season Labour(s) of Love, curated by MA film students from Birkbeck, University of London. By examining the lives of workers whose labour shapes the fabric of the world … [Read More]
Korean Film Nights: Seoul on Screen
The Spring 2023 season of screenings at the KCC is a collaboration with the Korean Film Archive that brings a series of films, from the 1950s to this century, that feature South Korea’s capital as a setting. The full programme note setting the context for the season as a whole can be found on the … [Read More]
Soup and Ideology: Yang Yonghi’s exploration of the Jeju 4:3 incident through her own family history
It must be a nightmare living with Yang Yonghi: you are constantly being filmed. Yang’s work focuses on her family history, and she has been collecting footage of her daily life since the mid ’90s. When the individual scenes are filmed – conversations, family meals, seemingly unremarkable incidents – the filming must seem without purpose. … [Read More]