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]
Venue: BFI Southbank
Next Sohee (다음 소희) – preview & theatrical release
Highschooler Sohee is required to complete an internship before she can graduate. She is placed in a local call centre with a stressful metric-driven environment so toxic it drives one of her colleagues to suicide. July Jung’s compelling drama exposes the harrowing impacts of capitalism, particularly on the young and disadvantaged. Content warning: Contains scenes … [Read More]
Korean films at BFI Flare 2024
Last year BFI Flare had a Korean focus, giving us four feature films and a short. It’s only natural that this year’s offering won’t quite match up to last year’s feast, but still we have one feature and a short: Heavy Snow (폭설) Dir: Yun Su-ik (2023, 77 mins) Cast: Han So-hee, Han Hae-in Monday … [Read More]
Jung Jae-il in Conversation
Award-winning composer Jung Jae-il is has created some of South Korea’s most popular scores. He has worked on titles such as Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Broker, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game series and collaborated with Bong Joon Ho on Okja and Parasite. At this event, he will talk about the growing appeal of Korea’s cultural output overseas and … [Read More]
Korean movies at BFI Flare
BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQIA+ film festival, this year has four Korean feature films plus one short. There is also a first-come, first-served discussion with some of the Korean film makers. Ticket links – and links to full details with movie synopsis on the BFI website – are below. Discussion: Spotlight on South Korea Saturday 18 … [Read More]
A Distant Place screens at BFI Flare
Jin-Woo lives a deliberately quiet life in rural Korea, working as a shepherd and looking after his young niece Seol. Though Seol is approaching school age, Jin-Woo keeps their contact with the outside world to a minimum, save for the family that employs him. But everything changes when his college boyfriend Hyeon-min and estranged sister … [Read More]
Snowpiercer screening w/ Bong Joon-ho + Tilda Swinton Q+A
Tickets go on sale today (for BFI members) for a rare screening of Snowpiercer. Non-members can buy from tomorrow. Snowpiercer Dir Bong Joon-ho (2013, 126min) With Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Song Kang Ho, Ed Harris, John Hurt + Q&A with director Bong Joon-ho and Tilda Swinton Sunday 1 March 2020, 7:20pm NFT Screen 1 | … [Read More]
Brief review: Crossroads of Youth
Crossroads of Youth, Korea’s earliest surviving feature-length movie, was a great way to start the season of films from Korea’s colonial period. It is a season that could not have taken place 15 years ago, because these films have only recently come to light in the film archives of Beijing, Moscow and Tokyo. Crossroads of … [Read More]
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning – Theatrical release
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2018) gets a UK theatrical release, from Thunderbird Releasing, in the run-up to the Oscars, for which it is shortlisted in the best foreign film category. In London it has a run at the BFI, among other venues, from 1 February. The evening screening on 5 February is followed by a Critics … [Read More]
Early Korean Cinema season at the BFI and KCC
Tickets for the Early Korean Cinema season at the BFI, which was announced as last year’s London korean Film festival came to an end, go on sale on 15 January. The organisers particularly direct our attention to two screenings: THU 7 FEB, 18:00 – OPENING SCREENING WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE + INTRO: Crossroads of Youth 청춘의 … [Read More]
BFI, KOFA and KCCUK announce archive exchange
Something to look forward to in February 2019: BFI, KOFA and KCCUK announce archive exchange to mark the centenary of the birth of Korean cinema More than ten of Korea’s oldest surviving films to screen to UK audiences for the first time in February 2019 at BFI Southbank and the KCCUK BFI restorations to show … [Read More]
Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018
In case like me you couldn’t get tickets to the Screen Talk with Lee Chang-dong as part of the BFI London Film Festival, here’s the recording on the BFI YouTube channel. The interview took place on 20 October 2018, the day of an anti-Brexit demonstration in London – which is mentioned more than once in … [Read More]
Lee Hyun-ju’s Our Love Story screens at BFI Flare
Coming up this week at BFI Flare, London’s LGBT film festival. It is expected that the director will make an appearance at one of the screenings. Our Love Story (연애담) Director Lee Hyun-ju (2016) Producer Kim Bo-ra With Lee Sang-hee, Ryu Sun-young South Korea 99min Friday 17 March 2017 14:00 NFT3 Buy tickets Saturday 18 March … [Read More]
Park Chan-wook talks about Handmaiden, octopuses and more
I’ve now lost count of the number of times that Park Chan-wook has come to London. But it’s always nice to see him, especially when there’s his latest film to enjoy as part of a retrospective of his work at the London East Asia Film Festival. We got to see the amazing Handmaiden at the BFI … [Read More]
Lee Song Hee-il trilogy to screen at the BFI
Last year at the London Korean Film Festival we were scheduled to see White Night by Lee Song Hee-il (이송희일), but at the last minute the film was pulled so that it could have its European debut at the Berlin Festival in 2013. But now in compensation we are to see the film, together with … [Read More]
Hong Sang Soo retrospective at BFI South Bank
A couple of years ago, when participating in the Blogathon on the subject of A Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, I commented that the UK had never seen a Hong Sang Soo retrospective, while the US has had three of them. The BFI, with the assistance of the Korean Cultural Centre, is now putting … [Read More]