Just before the next London Korean Film Festival commences this Autumn, the festival’s screening series continues onward with its third title this year for its European Premiere of Park Hee-Kon‘s Fall 2018 epic, Fengshui.
From The Face Reader (2013) and The Throne (2015), to last year’s LKFF-favourite The Princess and the Matchmaker (2018), bringing famous historical figures to life on the big screen has proved a recurring success at the Korean box office. This ever-popular historical drama genre returns to the UK with Director Park Hee-kon’s action-packed Fengshui.
Park Jae-sang (Cho Seung-woo, Inside Men) is a Fengshui Master hiding from a tragic past by using his talents to read the land around him and offering advice to those who need it – from desperate mothers unable to convince their sons to study, to market sellers struggling to boost sales, and even newly-weds wanting to spice up their love lives. After being approached one day by Heung-seon (Ji Sung, Confession), a member of a fallen royal clan with a plan to drive out the aristocrats who have corrupted the royal order – the same people who murdered his own family many years ago – Park can no longer ignore his past. Teaming up with the outcast royal to take down the power-hungry Kim family, Park has a chance to use his Fengshui powers for good and avenge his family, just as long as he can see through the treachery that surrounds him…
Set against the backdrop of Korea’s majestic landscapes, Fengshui’s Korean title, Myeongdang refers to the ‘ideal site’, reflecting the belief that the land’s qi has the power to change one’s fate. Though our Fengshui Master endeavours to use his qi-reading for good, Director Park Hee-kon’s blockbuster shows us what can happen when powerful knowledge falls into the wrong hands.
The film accrued mixed reviews and became a viable box office hit by its theatrical release last October. Tickets are available to purchase for the event which will be held at Regent Street Cinema on Monday, July 22.
