
Is there any better way to spend your Saturday evening than to go see Paddington? The extraordinary bear, created in 1971 by Michael Bond, has become one of the most prominent figures in British pop culture; it is not only a toy and a print motif, but also the central character of many films. Paddington […]

In 1592, the Korean Peninsula suffered a surprise attack by Japanese forces, led by Imperial Regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who intended to conquer the Joseon-ruled Korean Peninsula as a gateway to the Ming-dynasty-ruled Chinese territory; the initial invasion started the so-called Imjin War which lasted until 1598, for seven years, and just like any other war, […]

The 12th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Dae-hwan, Director of ‘The First Lap’
Kim Dae-hwan is an up-and-coming South Korean film director; while still in college, he directed two short films, Picnic (2010) and Interview (2011); he introduced his debut feature, End of Winter, to the audience in 2014, while studying post-grad at Dankook University’s Graduate School of Cinematic Content. Two years later, Jeonju Cinema Projects helped fund his […]

The London leg of the 12th London Korean Film festival came to a close this year with The First Lap, the second feature of an up-and-coming South Korean indie filmmaker Kim Dae-hwan, who is being continuously compared to his fellow SK indie filmmaker and film festival favourite Hong Sang-soo – and yet, it is The […]

What motivates acts of betrayal and revenge, two of cinema’s favourite subjects that have been characterised in popular culture in various ways? There is no direct answer to that, but it seems like the attempts to illustrate them as destructive powers had worked out sufficiently thus far. The theme of revenge became somewhat of a speciality […]

Gangster themes have been featured in South Korean cinema since the 1970’s, but they only became popular in the early 1990’s. Various productions ‘promoted’ the image of an ‘honourable’ mobster; however, in the past decade or so, films took on a more vicious approach to the subject matter; they became more brutal, with homicides and […]

The 12th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Kang Yoon-sung, Director of ‘The Outlaws’
Kang Yoon-sung was once an actor with a single credit under his name. He himself stated “I knew I had no talent in acting” – and one could say thank god for that, since because of it, Korean cinema gained a talented writer and film director, whose debut feature conquered both domestic and overseas markets. […]

Lee Wan-min is a young South Korean filmmaker. She directed several shorts, including Chima (2006), Mensrea (2008), Sang (2009) and Mock or Die (2010), and in 2016, she presented her first feature, Jamsil (2016), which she both wrote and directed, at the 21st Busan International Film Festival; this year, the film was screened in the Women’s […]

Lee Wan-min is a young South Korean film director; after directing several shorts, including Chima (2006), Mensrea (2008), Sang (2009) and Mock or Die (2010), she presented her first feature, Jamsil (2016), for the first time to the audience at the 21st Busan International Film Festival last year; the film was also screened in the Women’s Voices strand […]