Movie Q&As

Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018

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by Philip Gowman on 3 November, 2018

in BFI London Film Festival | VoDs

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 […]

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Bae Chang-ho retrospective: the highlight of LKFF 2017

by Philip Gowman 20 December 2017
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For me, the highlight of this year’s London Korean Film Festival was the brief retrospective of some of Bae Chang-ho’s early output. I’ve had a soft spot for Director Bae’s work for over 15 years now: My Heart was one of the first Korean movies I saw, back in the London Korean Film Festival in 2001. […]

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Festival report: Park Hong-min Q+A after the screening of “A Fish”

by Robert Cottingham 12 November 2016
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Park Hong-Min was in London yesterday for a 3-D showing of his first film A Fish (2011). He gave a short Q-and-A after the screening. Transcribed by Robert Cottingham. Tony Rayns: I’ll get things going. I take it this film is not based on your own experience? Park Hong-min: Yes, it’s definitely not based on […]

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Park Chan-wook talks about Handmaiden, octopuses and more

by Philip Gowman 24 October 2016
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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 […]

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Festival Film Review: Ode to My Father

by Philip Gowman 10 November 2015
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The time is the present. Yoon Deok-su, a grandfather living in Busan but born in South Hamgyong province in North Korea, looks back at his life of hardship which has coincided exactly with the life of the Republic of Korea. Surrounded by his grandchildren, he has managed to raise his family from nothing to relative prosperity, […]

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Festival Film Review: Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran

by Philip Gowman 24 October 2015
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It really didn’t feel like a new film festival. We were opening in a venue that felt familiar, a lot of the faces front of house and on stage were known to the audience, there were plenty of photographers and TV cameras as well as a red carpet outside, and the bar upstairs was full […]

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Kwak Kyung-taek quizzed at the first LKFF on Typhoon, filming in Russia and more

by Saharial 29 June 2015
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Kwak Kyung-taek is July’s featured director at the KCC. This gives us the opportunity to resurrect from the archives Saharial’s transcription of a Q&A with the director following the UK premiere of his movie Typhoon, at the first of the KCCUK’s London Korean Film Festivals back in September 2006. Q: What drew you to the […]

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2015 Travel Diary day 11: a visit to Studio MWP

by Philip Gowman 8 June 2015
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Daehakro, Seoul, Monday 8 June. This year’s trip to Korea had been full of pleasant surprises: people I had not expected to meet, things I had not been expecting to see. But the most pleasant surprise of all had been an invitation to visit Studio Meditation with a Pencil, creators of my favourite Korean animated […]

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LKFF 2014: the conversations

by Philip Gowman 23 November 2014
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The London Korean Film Festival is not just about getting acquainted with the latest in Korean movies. It is also an opportunity to meet some of the people behind those movies – actors, directors and producers. Opportunities for engaging with these film professionals vary: for an ever-growing group of aficionados there is the offer of round-table […]

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Festival Film Review: Hwajang / Revivre

by Philip Gowman 17 November 2014
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Well, I was right. Ahn Sung-ki confessed in the Q+A which followed the screening of Hwajang that one of his most difficult tasks in portraying Oh Sang-moo, a senior executive in a cosmetics company, was to project certain aspects of being old – of being blocked inside because of the swollen prostate, of being more […]

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I can’t believe he asked her that

by Philip Gowman 6 April 2013
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The context was this. It was the Q&A after the 4 April screening at BAFTA of Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha, attended by the lead actress Moon So-ri, the first featured actor of the KCC’s Year of the Four Actors. Tony Rayns was talking to Moon So-ri about how she got her first screen role. Moon started […]

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Mysterious Creature: Jang Jin at the London Korean Film Festival

by Nyomi Anderson 22 November 2010
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Director Jang Jin is sometimes referred to as “The Future of Korean Cinema” but also as a “Mysterious Creature”. Nyomi Anderson tells us more. This year’s London Korean Film Festival featured a retrospective of the films of writer-director Jang Jin. Jang began his career in theatre before making his first film was The Happenings, which […]

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An Afternoon and Evening with Hong Sang-soo at the National Film Theatre.

by Colette Balmain 11 October 2010
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Colette Balmain, editor of the upcoming Directory of World Cinema: Korea, encounters Hong Sang-soo at the screening of Hahaha on Friday 3rd September 2010, which opened the month-long retrospective of his work at the South Bank. Before the screening of HaHaHa, which was followed by a Q&A with Tony Rayns, at the NFT, I had […]

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Mother reveals Bong’s perversity

by Philip Gowman 24 November 2009
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LKL reports from the screening of Mother at the Bong Joon-ho retrospective at the British Film Institute on 14 November, with Q&A chaired by Tony Rayns. In a world obsessed with celebrity, youth and beauty, only a director of the stature of Bong Joon-ho could have got away with it. The big name star, Won […]

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Breathless: can there be any escape from the cycle of violence?

by Philip Gowman 17 November 2009
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Breathless (똥파리) is Yang Ik-june’s debut feature, in which he is also lead actor, and the film has deservedly won numerous awards. As the film opens, a man is beating up his girlfriend in the street. To the rescue comes Sang-hoon, played by Yang, who subdues the offender only to turn to the woman and […]

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Park Chan-wook: uncut (almost)

by Saharial 11 October 2009
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Saharial provides a warts and all direct transcript of the Park Chan-wook Q&A at the Curzon Soho preview of Thirst. At least, up until the point when an officious usherette told her to switch her recorder off… The Q&A was only a half hour long, a real shame, and the staff at the Curzon were […]

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Cute kisses and extreme marriages – different perspectives on Park Chan-wook

by Philip Gowman 8 October 2009
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After Monday’s focus on Thirst, Tuesday’s Mr Vengeance screening, together with a generous hour of Q&A with Director Park, offered the opportunity to focus on his earlier work. In fact, the first question at the Q&A asked about Park’s very first films (pre JSA). Did Park have any tips or lessons learned for a rookie […]

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