Childhood is often described as a time of discovery, when young people are encouraged to develop their interests and gradually understand what they might want from life, although the reality can be considerably less forgiving for children who grow up believing that their achievements determine how others see them. In his feature directorial debut, The…
Category: Korean Cinema
21st London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Mi-jo, Director of “The Journey to Gyeong-ju” – Exclusive Interview
South Korean filmmaker Kim Mi-jo has never been particularly interested in making life easier for her characters, especially when their experiences raise uncomfortable questions about injustice, family relationships and the ways people respond to suffering. Her first feature, Gull (2020), followed an older woman who, after being sexually assaulted, finds herself fighting not only for…
21st London Korean Film Festival: “The Journey to Gyeong-ju” Review
For those who have lost someone to a violent crime, the passage of time does not necessarily bring the consolation that others so readily expect, especially when the person responsible has completed their sentence and returned to ordinary life, while the bereaved are left to contend with consequences that no legal judgement can undo. In…
21st London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation With Yoon Ga-eun (Director) and Jang Hye-jin (Actress) of “The World of Love”
From Guest (2011) and Sprout (2013) to The World of Us and The House of Us, Yoon Ga-eun’s films have consistently returned to childhood as a space of emotional intensity rather than innocence. With The World of Love, her third feature, she continues this exploration, but in a more unsettling form. Explaining the origins of…
21st London Korean Film Festival: “The World of Love” Review
Yoon Ga-eun has spent much of her career exploring the lives of children and teenagers, paying attention to the feelings, insecurities and difficult experiences that adults often fail to recognise or take seriously. From her early short films Guest (2011) and Sprout (2013) to her acclaimed features The World of Us and The House of…
“Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub” (2026) Revew
Betrayal is difficult enough to forgive, but when it comes from someone who has known you since childhood, the damage goes far beyond lost trust, especially when years of friendship have concealed a growing resentment neither person wanted to acknowledge. In Choi Kook-hee’s Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, two childhood friends who once dreamed of…
21st London Korean Film Festival 2026: Korean Cinema in the Spotlight
The London Korean Film Festival returns this November for its 21st edition, bringing together established directors, emerging filmmakers and some of Korean cinema’s most recognisable actors for two weeks of screenings, premieres and conversations. For more than two decades, the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) has introduced British audiences to the remarkable variety of stories…
70th BFI London Film Festival: In Conversation with Mokya Shin, Director of “Easter”
A photograph of a young woman posing in a swimsuit with her friends at Dadaepo beach in the 1980s might not seem important, but for South Korean filmmaker Mokya Shin, it changed the direction of Easter, his first feature documentary. The woman in the photograph was Saekja, now 68, who had spent much of her…
70th BFI London Film Festival: “Easter” Review
Sometimes, a photograph is all that remains of someone’s life, especially when their story was never considered important enough to be written down or remembered by others. Early in Mokya Shin’s Easter, Saekja sits with an old photo album, looking back at a younger version of herself and the women who once occupied that world…
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF26): In Conversation with Kim Eo-jin of “The World Before”
For a young actor still at the beginning of his career, Kim Eo-jin already seems to understand what great acting is all about. After appearing in the 2021 web drama The Sweet Blood and later taking a leading role in Fragile in 2024, the model makes his feature-film debut in Yoon Dan-bi’s The World Before….
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF26): In Conversation with Sim Su-bin of “The World Before”
Sim Su-bin is still at the beginning of her acting career. So far, she has appeared in supporting roles in Korean dramas, alongside her film work, but Yoon Dan-bi’s The World Before gives her the space to show much more of what she can do. As seventeen-year-old Jin, a girl who has never left the…
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF26): In Conversation with Yoon Dan-bi, Director of “The World Before”
There is nothing overstated about Yoon Dan-bi’s films; her stories take shape through families sharing a home, young people spending time together, conversations that seem ordinary and feelings that are not always easy to explain. Her feature debut, Moving On (2019), follows teenage Okju and her younger brother as they move with their father into…
Trapped Inside the Hive Mind: “Colony” Review
Yeon Sang-ho, the director of Train to Busan (2016) and Peninsula (2020), once again ventures into the zombie film genre he is well-versed in. In Colony, the zombie outbreak takes place in an enclosed high-rise in Seoul. The visceral horror of the film is enhanced by its choreography, sound design, as well as its claustrophobic…
28th Far East Film Festival: In Conversation with Chung Ji-young, Director of “My Name”
Centered on the painful and long-silenced history of the Jeju April 3rd Incident, My Name becomes a way of looking back at what has been forgotten. In our interview with director Chung Ji-young, he talks about the emotional responsibility of dealing with a history that was suppressed for decades, and how he chose to approach…
