The 2018 London Korean Film Festival Announced Full Line-Up

Today in the heart of London saw the official launch of the 13th edition of the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) announcing its full programme of films and events. Running from 1- 14 November in London before taking highlights around the country with its annual UK Tour, the festival will feature an in-depth special focus entitled A Slice of Everyday Life, along with an exciting mix of UK and International premieres, guests and events across a diverse set of strands; Cinema Now, Women’s Voices,Indie Firepower, Contemporary Classics, Artists Video, Animation and Shorts.

Highlighting the festival’s dual commitment to championing the work of emerging directors and showcasing the talents of women filmmakers, this year’s Opening and Closing Galas tick both boxes with an intriguing pair of female-led narratives. Opening the festival on 1st November, the UK Premiere of Jeon Go-woon’s Microhabitat (2018, UK Premiere) follows a young woman (Lee Som, Scarlett Innocence) on a journey across the city and back into the lives of her former bandmates after being forced from her apartment. Having already picked up awards at Busan and Fantasia film festivals, this offbeat tour through the troubled lives of Korea’s struggling thirty-somethings raises a number of topical issues relatable to London’s own inhabitants. The festival will close in London on 14th November with The Return (2018) in which director Malene Choi, a Danish-Korean adoptee, blurs the line between fact and fiction to tell the story of a young woman returning to Korea in an effort to track down her birth parents. Lead actress Karoline (Karoline Sofie Lee), herself an adoptee, is captured in genuine interactions adding an emotional heft to this affecting story.

This year’s Special Focus: A Slice of Everyday Life aims to escape the overly dramatic to uncover the profundity found in the day-to-day. The Kind of film described as ‘Kitchen Sink’ dramas, films that Ken Loach, Mike Leigh made famous ( in Asian Cinema Kore’eda Hirokazu and Yasujiro Ozu).

Revered auteur filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, a film twenty years apart from his most recent film, Hotel by the River, which also features on the programme. The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) finds two holidaying ex-lovers reconnecting after years apart, as Hong starts to explore the complexities of male/female relationships that he would so successfully tackle throughout his career. Also from that year, the much-loved Christmas in August (1998) follows the growing connection between a terminally ill man and a regular customer at his photo studio. Other films include This Charming Girl (2004) , Grain in Ear (2005), Kim So Yong’s Treeless Mountain (2008), and Park Jungbum’s The Journals of Musan (2010). Also Bleak Night (2010), Park Jungbum’s second feature Alive (2014), The Bacchus Lady (2015).

Other Festival highlights include Lee Kanghyun’s award-winning debut Possible Faces (2017, UK Premiere), parental bonds are the focus in Mothers (2017, UK Premiere). Powerful drama The Land of Seonghye (2018, European Premiere) provides a deeply affecting portrait of one woman’s struggle for survival in our money orientated society. For darker thrills, Choo Chang-min’s crime thriller Seven Years of Night (2018, European Premiere) reminiscent of Park Chan-wook’s best work, in The Witness (2017, European Premiere). Oldboy actor Choi Min-Sik seeks to use his money and influence to clear his daughter of the murder in courtroom drama in Heart Blackened (2016, UK Premiere).

Women’s Voices in cinema will be dedicated to the work of women filmmakers with a series of films, ba roundtable discussions, events featuring directors, actresses, and leading voices in contemporary feminist film criticism. This year is no different as they present selected highlights from Seoul’s International Women’s Film Festival: Kim Bo-ram’s For Vagina’s Sake (2017, UK Premiere), Hit the Night (2017, UK Premiere), documentary Grown Up (2017, International Premiere), A Blind Alley (2017), Playground (2017), and Testimony (2018) some of the strand’s highlights.

For full information on the lineup head over to the London Korean Film Festival Website.

For tickets for the films please head to the various venues websites. This year’s venues include Picturehouse Central, Regent Street Cinema, ICA, Phoenix Cinema, Close-up, LUX, Rio Cinema, Birkbeck’s Institute of Moving Image, Kingston University, National Film & Television School, British Museum and KCCUK.

The Touring venues around the UK include Glasgow Film Theatre, Edinburgh Film House, Manchester HOME, Sheffield Showroom, Nottingham Broadway Cinema, Belfast Queen’s Film Theatre until 25 November 2018.