There’s something inherently comforting about the road trip movie. Always following the same narrative formula, with little room to innovate due to its constraints, a film within this subgenre is always about a journey both literal and metaphorical – the lead character experiencing emotional growth, whilst ticking off all the expected beats you’d expect on…
Tag: London Korean Film Festival
17th London Korean Film Festival: “Alienoid” Review
Some films require patience to watch and some require energy. Writer-director Choi Dong-hoon’s Alienoid belongs to the latter camp for its hyperactivity. An ambitious mashup of multiple genres – sci-fi, fantasy, comedy, action, thriller, you name it – Choi’s sixth feature is, in a sense, a culmination of his filmography and much more. Alienoid does…
17th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Choi Dong-hoon, Director of “Alienoid”
In 2015, during the BFI London Film Festival, I had my first conversation with South Korean filmmaker Choi Dong-hoon as he promoted his espionage action film Assassination. Several years later, he finished the script for Alienoid, a sci-fi fantasy action film. Starring a top-notch assemble of actors, including Kim Tae-ri, Kim Woo-bin, Ryu Jun-yeol, Lee…
London Korean Film Festival Announces Its Full Programme
The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) is proud to be returning in 2020 for its milestone 15th edition. Taking place from 29 October – 12 November the festival will be going digital for the first time, with 30+ films available online to audiences across the UK, prerecorded interviews, live Q&As and other virtual events, along…
13th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Yang-hee and Yang Ik-june of ‘The Poet and the Boy’
The Poet and the Boy is a feature debut by Korean filmmaker Kim Yang-hee, starring Yang Ik-june, an actor and a filmmaker himself, who gained the public attention and won several awards with his semi-autobiographical feature debut, which he wrote, directed and played the leading role in – the 2009 indie hit Breathless. With her…
13th London Korean Film Festival: The Poet and the Boy Review
The Poet and the Boy (Si-e-nui a-rang) is the feature debut for Kim Yang-hee; it premiered at Jeonju International film festival in 2017, and made its way to London Korean Film Festival this fall. The film stars South Korean actor and filmmaker Yang Ik-june, who is best known for his debut film, which he both…
13th London Korean Film Festival: Microhabitat Review
Despite the complexity of portraying homelessness on screen, filmmakers keep rising to the challenge. The South Korean filmmaker Jeon Go-woon skillfully depicted the subject in her debut feature Microhabitat, in which she also questions different aspects of adult life. The film revolves around the character of Mi-so (Esom: Warriors of the Dawn, The Third Charm TV…
13th London Korean Film Festival: The Princess and the Matchmaker Review
A long wait for a premiere of a film never bodes well, even though it might be because the producers want to avoid the film clashing with the releases of other big productions, or because the progress has been slowed down by a prolonged post-production. The latter especially implies that the producer isn’t sure about…
The 12 London Korean Film Festival: Warriors of the Dawn Review
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 12th London Korean Film Festival: The First Lap Review
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…
The 12 London Korean Film Festival: The Merciless Review
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…
The 12th London Korean Film Festival: The Outlaws Review
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: Jamsil Review
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…
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