News

"Do you make a habit of being pissed off all the time?" Film Movement has revealed an official US trailer for an indie thriller from Korea called Aloners, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Hong Seong-eun. This premiered in 2021 and opened in Korea that year, while also playing at the Toronto, Zurich, San Sebastian, and Hamburg Film Festivals. It's finally getting a release on VOD in this US this summer - after waiting a few years. Jina is the top employee at a call center, despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset. When training a friendly new hire, her icy armor is threatened forcing her to confront why she isolates herself. The film is riffing on the Korean 'honjok' – a phenomenon of young people who live alone and skirt social interaction – to examine the personal traumas of loss and alienation. This stars Gong Seung-yeon,...

There is no denying that the infamous saying of modern technology being able to bring us together while also dividing us at the same time rings truer than ever in times of a worldwide pandemic. While the term “social distancing” has become increasingly popular in the present, the idea itself is nothing new as our technological gadgets, from cell phones to tablets and computers, have paved the way for an era of the disconnected. Even jobs today, with a few exceptions, make contact with people less necessary, especially since the majority of customers rather call or send an e-mail rather than attempting to solve an issue face-to-face. In her feature debut, director Hong Sung-eun explores this aspect of modern life, how technology forces us into a state of isolation and how we might welcome this development. At the same time, the story also deals with the apparitions and ghosts that...

Youn Yuh-jung, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress in “Minari” earlier this year, will be the subject of a special focus this year at the London Korean Film Festival. The festival will be held as an in-person event Nov. 4-19, 2021.

Youn was this week named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

The festival’s special focus on her will include the European premiere of a digitally restoration of Youn’s first role in 1970’s “Woman of Fire,” by iconic filmmaker Kim Ki-young. Also presented in a new 4K restoration and being shown for the first time outside of Korea, is “Angel, Become an Evil Woman,” also directed by Kim, and originally released in 1990.

The festival includes two of Youn’s more recent collaborations with director Im Sang-soo, screening his “A Good Lawyer’s Wife” and “The Housemaid,” which played in competition in Cannes in...