The 13th London Korean Film Festival Announces Its Full Line-Up

If you’re in London and feeling the film festival mood, you’ll have about a month to yourself starting Thursday for the 2018 installment of the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF), now online with its full programme for the 13th edition. The festival will run through November 25, hosted this year by the Korean Cultural Centre UK along with the support of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, the Korean Film Council and Korean Film Archive.

The UK Premiere of Jeon Go-woon’s award-winning film, Microhabitat (2018, UK Premiere) will serve as the opening gala centered on a young woman journeying across the city and back into the lives of her former bandmates after being forced from her apartment. Danish-Korean director Malene Choi’s emotively-charged adoption drama, The Return (2018) starring Karoline Sofie Lee as a young woman returning to Korea in an effort to track down her birth parents, will be the official closer on November 14 before the festival takes to its UK tour for its remaining duration.

Next to highlighting emerging female film talent is Special Focus: A Slice of Everyday Life, host to a line-up of societally reflective titles dating back to 1998, as well as programmer, film critic and East Asian cinema specialist Anton Bitel, the Cinema Now strand guaranteeing a mix of solemn contemporary titles from the past year. This segment will especially touch upon several dark thrillers, including the following two European Premieres: Choo Chang-Min’s European Premiere of Park Chan-Wook-esque crime thriller Seven Years of Night (2018) about a cruel father who seeks vengeance after the accidental death of his daughter, and The Witness (2017), centered on a man desperate to protect his family by hindering a detective’s investigation into a spate of brutal killings.

Also included are Jung Ji-Woo’s courtroom drama, Heart Blackened (2016) and Hong Sangsoo’s wintry drama, Hotel By The River (2018), in addition to festival features and segments vastly covering its mixture of films highlighted in Women’s Voices, and in programmer, film critic and commentator Tony Rayns’ Indie Firepower presentation featuring the work of Park Kiyong, as well as Lee Myung-se and Dr. Mark Morris’ examination of the 1990s in Contemporary Classics, the festival’s kid-centric Animation strand, the Artist Video strand, and much more.

Author Jeong Yu-jeong whose 2011 novel inspired Choo Chang-Min’s Seven Years Of Night will be on hand guest-attending the festival. Hit up the official website for more information and follow the links therein to the usual social media networks on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Lee B. Golden III

filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com | Web

Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.