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The London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff) celebrates its sixth edition in 2021 with a commitment to diverse, culturally impactful cinema entertainment. After a year of shut cinema doors, Leaff is returning home to London’s big screens with an expanded catalogue to help stimulate the renaissance of cinema and promote cultural empathy.

With cinematic offerings from eight regions – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – this year’s programme is an ode to the quiet and independent voices from East Asia. Two international premieres, five European premieres and 18 UK premieres will take place at our state-art-of-the-art venues, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, The Cinema at Selfridges, as well as the newly opened Odeon Luxe West End and The Chiswick Cinema. The festival is divided into five strands: Official Selection, Competition, Hong Kong Focus, Documentary, and Retrospective.

Opening Gala

The festival opens with a memorial to the late Benny Chan...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Cinemateca Brasileira. (WikiCommons)A devastating fire hit the Cinemateca Brasileira on July 29 and has left significant damage to the longest-running cinema institution in Brazil. In response, the workers of Cinemateca Brasileira have shared a statement regarding the continual mistreatment of facilities and staff by the government: "Without workers archives can not be preserved!" After facing unexpected budget cuts, microcinema No Evil Eye Cinema has announced a fundraising call for action and is seeking grants, foundational support, and other funding opportunities to sustain their programming and educational programs. On the Score podcast last week, composer Carter Burwell stated that "[Ethan Coen] just didn’t want to make movies anymore," in response to a question about Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. This may mean the Coens are done working as a directing duo,...

Over 100 films, stories of women, of precarious work, portraits of contemporary Korean society, between bourgeoisie and working classes; this is the 19th edition of the Florence Korea Film Fest, the most important Italian festival dedicated to the best of cinematography of contemporary South Korea, from 21 to 28 May in Florence, live (pending the provisions regarding the health emergency) at the La Compagnia cinema and online on the Più Compagnia and Mymovies.it platforms. The event, conceived and directed by Riccardo Gelli of the Taegukgi – Toscana Korea Association, is organized with the support of the Tuscany System Foundation, the Tuscany Region, the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Municipality of Florence, Kofic – Korean Film Council.

As every year, the Programme features a rich lineup of over 100 films, including short films and documentaries. Spotlights are on the homage to Kim Ki-Duk, one of the most important filmmakers in world cinema – who recently passed away, at...

About This Film

Featuring the Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung in one of the protagonist roles and one of the most important Korean filmmakers of all time in the face of Kim Ki-young, “The Insect Woman” is a truly masterful film, which even manages to move towards an exploitation path, apart from the melodramatic/family drama one. A title that works on a number of levels, both contextually and cinematically and one of those rare case when a movie can be both a masterpiece and cult.

Synopsis

After a rather intense introduction featuring a psychologically disturbed man checking himself in a mental hospital, we are introduced to Myeong-ja (Youn Yuh-jung), a schoolgirl whose life is in shambles after her father’s death. Her mother, unable to make ends meet for the family, forces her to get work in a hostess bar, in order to help pay for her brother’s tuition to college.

It is always great to watch veterans receiving international acclaim, and the Oscar, cemented a great year for the 73-year old actress, who received recognition for her great performance in “Minari” from a plethora of the most prestigious awards around the world. This success was the best way to celebrate a career that spans for more than 5 decades and includes a number of great performances. Ten of them are included in this list, as our own way to congratulate this great actress.

1. Myeong-ja in Woman of Fire

Youn Yuh-jung plays Myeong-ja, a country bumpkin that has been the victim of a rape attack, in a series of events that ended up with her killing one of her attackers, and her subsequent self-exile from the area. Through a job broker, she is hired by Jeong-sook, who runs a poultry farm and is also in charge of her household, which includes her composer husband,...

Following its successful retrospective dedicated to Taiwanese documentary cinema in 2017, Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival decided to focus on South Korea this time, securing “99.9% of the original program” after the event was forced to move online due to the pandemic.

“Our colleagues in South Korea told us that this is the most comprehensive retrospective of these films and the first one that’s really trying to show its development,” programmer of experimental documentaries Andrea Slováková tells Variety. “We talk a lot about South Korean cinema, but not about its documentaries.”

“Transparent Landscape: South Korea” includes 22 short and feature-length films, from the works of artist Nam June Paik to “Over Me” by Chang-jae Lim, Yun-tae Kim’s “Wet Dream” and 1924’s “Livestock Industry of Korea,” clocking in at just seven minutes. But while the country’s fictional output has been getting international recognition thanks to the likes of Kim Ki-duk,...

The Housemaid directed by Kim Ki-young Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival The 68th edition of the San Sebastian Festival has announced it will dedicate a retrospective to the South Korean cinema of the Fifties and Sixties.

The season, Flowers In hell: The Golden Age Of Korean Cinema will feature more than 20 titles and is likely to prove popular after Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won the Best Picture Oscar this year.

Highlights include The Housemaid (1960) by Kim Ki-young, widely accepted as one of the masterpieces in the history of South Korean cinema along wiht chronicles of life in post-war South Korea such as Flower in Hell (1958) and the winner of the Jury Prize at the Berlin Festival, The Coachman (1961), which became the first South Korean film to land an award at an international film festival.

Other genres represented include film noir Black Hair (1964), horror vlick The Devil's Stairway (1964) and...

One of the most intense Best Picture races in recent memory has come to an end in history-making fashion: “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho’s critically acclaimed thriller that earned the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or last May and earned unanimous critical acclaim, has won the Oscar for Best Picture over tough competition from Sam Mendes’ World War I drama “1917.” The Best Picture win for “Parasite” is the first time a foreign-language drama has won top honors from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which makes Bong’s film a game-changer for the Oscars’ future. “Parasite” made history earlier at the Oscars after it became the first South Korean movie to win the Best International Feature Film category. “Parasite” is now by default the first South Korean film to win Best Picture.

Nearly every Oscar pundit was split between “Parasite” and “1917” for Best Picture. The...

After a typhoon wiped out Wednesday evening events in Busan and brought back memories of last year’s drenching, organizers of the Busan International Film Festival must be mighty pleased to have got proceedings under way Thursday largely as planned.

Indeed, by the time the opening ceremony got under way around sunset on Thursday the problem was heat and humidity. A slight evening breeze was most welcome as local and international celebrities wafted along the red carpet in the city’s landmark Busan Cinema Center.

The ceremony kicked off with a choir of children that provoked delighted cooing from the audience.

While Korean and Japanese politicians at national level have engaged in one of the most bitter diplomatic rows in years, the Busan festival, no stranger to political intrigues, has deliberately kept its doors open. Not only is the opening film “The Horse Thieves” a Japanese-Kazakh co-production, the festival’s...

The London Korean Film Festival (Lkff) has launched its full programme of films and events for the upcoming 14th edition, taking place from 1st-14th November in London before embarking on the annual tour 18th-24th November.

The London Korean Film Festival (Lkff) has launched its full programme of films and events for the upcoming 14th edition, taking place from 1st-14th November in London before embarking on the annual tour 18th-24th November.

The Special Focus, and much of this year’s festival programme, will highlight the historic milestone of 100-years of Korean cinema along with an exciting mix of UK and International premieres, guests and events across a diverse set of strands; Cinema Now, Women’S Voices, Documentary, Hidden Figures: Ha Gil-jong, Artist Video, Animation And Mise-en-SCÈNE Shorts.

Opening Gala – 1st November

The Seashore Village (1965) by Kim Soo-yong.

Newly restored, and presented in the UK for the very first time,...

Festival to screen ten films from the past 100 years of Korean cinema and a special focus on Deepa Mehta, Yasmin Ahmad and Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) is set to hold special focus programmes on the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema, as well as leading Asian women filmmakers, at its 24th edition, October 3-12.

“One of the crucial roles of the Busan International Film Festival is to archive, select and introduce compelling traditional Korean films that encapsulate Korean history, traditions and customs,” said programmer Jung Han-seok, speaking about the festival’s showcase of 10 representative films from the past 100 years of Korean cinema.

After making history at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival by becoming the first South Korean director to win the Palme d’Or, “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho encouraged cinephiles around the world to seek out more works of South Korean cinema. Thanks to the Korean Film Archive’s official YouTube page, Bong’s wish could not be easier for American moviegoers to fulfill. The Kfa is streaming over 200 feature films for free right now on YouTube, many of which have been uploaded to the platform in restored versions.

The Guardian was the first to shine a spotlight on the massive list of Korean films now streaming for free. Major Korean filmmakers such as the New Korean Cinema icon Im Kwon-taek are represented with multiple films available for viewing. The archive goes back to films released in the 1960s, such as Hyun-mok Yoo’s postwar drama “Aimless Bullet,” and also spotlights early work...

Sci-fi will be center stage at South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Asia’s largest genre film event. The ten-day film festival will run from Jun. 27 through Jul. 7.

Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” inspired the festival’s official artwork this year. The film will also play in special program ‘Robots: Future Beyond the Human Race’ along with Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and Fred M. Wilcox’s “Forbidden Planet.”

The festival opens, a few weeks earlier than its traditional mid-July slot, with the Asian premiere of Edgar Nito’s “The Gasoline Thieves.” Korean period mystery drama “The 12th Suspect” by Ko Myoung-sung will close the festival, which packs in 288 films from 49 countries.

“BiFan has decided to gear itself for the coming 100 years of Korean cinema, instead of looking back on the past 100 years. We will take the head in nurturing the next NaWoon-gyu, Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyun-mok,...

Bong Joon-ho’s first stop after winning the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival was a press conference in which the moderator informed the press in attendance that Bong’s victory was a historic first for a South Korean director. Bong said the prize was extra special in 2019 as this year marks the 100 year anniversary of cinema in Korea. The director said he was “surprised” and “so very pleased” to win the Palme, and he hoped that a historic victory would encourage moviegoers around the world to invest time in South Korean cinema as a whole.

“In 2006 I went to see a retrospective on Kim Ki-young. I went to the French cinema library to see that and was surprised to see French spectators really liked his films and that made a big impression on me,” Bong said. “I got the Palme today in Cannes but I’m not...

Bong Joon-ho’s bizarre black comedy about a rich Korean family and a poor one in a modern-day Downton Abbey situation gets its tendrils in you

Bong Joon-ho has returned to Cannes with a luxuriously watchable and satirical suspense drama. It runs as purringly smooth as the Mercedes driven by the lead character, played by Korean star Song Kang-ho. Parasite is a bizarre black comedy about social status, aspiration, materialism and the patriarchal family unit, and people who accept the idea of having (or leasing) a servant class.

Parasite is about a wealthy Korean family in a modern-day Downton Abbey upstairs-downstairs situation, one far more unstable than the patrician caste realises. The film could perhaps be a bit more lean and mean, and deliver its jeopardy and payoff with more despatch. But it is an enjoyable, elegant, scabrous movie about a mix of servitude and trickery that is an interesting theme in Korean cinema.

South Korean cinema is a striking example of non-Western contemporary cinematic success. Thanks to the increasing numbers of moviegoers and domestic films produced, South Korea has become one of the world’s major film markets. In 2001, the South Korean film industry became the first in recent history to reclaim its domestic market from Hollywood and continues to maintain around a 50 percent market share today. High-quality South Korean films are increasingly entering global film markets and connecting with international audiences in commercial cinemas and art theatres, and at major international film festivals. Despite this growing recognition of the films themselves, Korean cinema’s rich heritage has not heretofore received significant scholarly attention in English-language publications.

This groundbreaking collection of thirty-five essays by a wide range of academic specialists situates current scholarship on Korean cinema within the ongoing theoretical debates in contemporary global film studies. Chapters explore key films of Korean cinema,...

Now in its 11th year, Korean Film Nights open for 2019 with ‘Home Truths’ – a season exploring how Korean domestic spaces on screen reflect cultural and societal change.

Their six-part programme traces the often-fraught relationship that exists between interior and exterior life across 50 years of Korean history. This chosen focus, though conceptually abstract, is a motif visible throughout Korean cinema that not only offers insight into a number of Korean social conventions, but has also provided many filmmakers with creative opportunities to undermine them.

Each of these six titles welcome us across the threshold into private spaces. Behind these closed doors, we witness how characters interact outside of the gaze and earshot of public scrutiny, and once sustaining customary social pretenses is no longer such a necessity. This exclusive access invites audiences to reconsider a number of historic Korean traditions on a much more human level: how do gender roles function in domestic space?...

Jeonju International Film Festival (May 2-11) is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.

This year’s Jeonju International Film Festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, will open with Claudio Giovannesi’s Italian film Piranhas in its Asian premiere.

The winner of this year’s Berlinale Silver Bear for best screenplay is about a group of wild teens working in the criminal underworld of Naples.

With a slogan of “Cinema, Liberated and Expressed”, the 20th Jiff will screen a total of 262 films with 68 world premieres, five international premieres and 69 Asian. The festival’s awards ceremony will be held...

The 43rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), in association with the Korean Film Council (Kofic), will present the “Centenary of Korean Cinema” programme, which will include screenings of 10 all-time classics and critically acclaimed new films for South Korea. It will also host masterclasses, introductions and post-screening talks as past of the programme.

Special Guest Lee Chang-dong will be in attendance to hold a masterclass after the screening of his restored classic “Peppermint Candy”. Oh Jung-mi, Lee’s co-writer on his latest film “Burning” will also be present in the post-screening discussion of “Burning”.

Also included in the Programme will be films by festival darlings Hong Sang-soo and Bong Joon-ho, with Hong’s “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well” and “Hotel by the River” both screening. Bong’s breakout film “Memories of Murder” will also screen in its newly restored version.

Three legendary directors Shin Sang-ok, Kim Ki-young and Im Kwon-taek,...

It is not a secret that Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas is a result of love for Asian countries, Asian culture, Asian films, and of romantic love. “This festival that was created by a couple – my wife and I celebrates its silver wedding anniversary, its 25 years of marriage. So the theme of couples is imperative.” explained Jean-Marc Thérouanne, founder and managing director of the festival to the Afp (Agence France Press).

Since its first edition in 1995, Viff of Asian Cinemas has welcomed more than half a million audience members, with 32.000 coming to the festival screenings in 2018 and “Women Speak” as its thematic setting.

“We have started in a phone booth, with 12 films and 1500 visitors. Now, we have become a festival with international recognition. In October 2018, we have had the honour to receive the Korean Cinema Awards, an accolade previously presented to the figures of the cinema industry such...

Entering its 14th year as one of the country’s leading genre festivals, Fantastic Fest announced its first round of titles, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. The Austin-based festival will host the world premieres of World War II horror-thriller “Overlord,” produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, as well as “The Raid” director Gareth Evans’ gothic horror “Apostle,” starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen. Another alum from “The Raid,” Iko Uwais, leads “The Night Comes for Us,” a thrilling bone-cruncher from “V/H/S/2” scribe Timo Tjahjanto.

After a highly successful premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” will play the festival ahead of its theatrical release later this year. Fantastic Fest will also shine a light on two rarely-screened South Korean films; “Ban Geum-ryeon,” from one of Park Chan-Wook’s directing idols Kim Ki-Young, and Park Nou-Sik’s “Quit Your Life.”

“To be able...

From behind enemy lines on the night before D-Day to a foreboding island in 1905 and a serial killer's journey through the streets of New York City, the 14th annual Fantastic Fest will once again transport moviegoers to a wide range of locations and characters via their eclectic film lineup, with their first wave of programming including the world premieres of Bad Robot's Overlord and Gareth Evans' Apostle, and the 4K restoration of William Lustig's Maniac:

Austin, TX — Tuesday, July 31, 2018 — Entering its 14th year of celebrating offbeat and brilliant cinema, this installment sees Fantastic Fest bring the very best in mind-melting mayhem and madness from all corners of the globe, which also includes a cinematic trip back in time to South Korea, highlighting a period of filmmaking that was mad, bad and dangerous to know!

Fantastic Fest is thrilled to present the World Premiere of the bone-chilling World War II horror-thriller Overlord,...

Overlord and Apostle will be among world premieres at the Austin, Texas event.

World premieres of J J Abrams-produced horror mystery Overlord and Welsh writer-director Gareth Evens thriller Apostle will feature in the line-up of this year’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

The fourteenth edition of Fantastic Fest, which claims to be the largest genre festival in the Us, will run September 20-27 at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

Also set for the event are the world premieres of Timo Tjahjanto’s thriller The Night Comes For Us, from Indonesia, and Swedish feature The Unthinkable.

Getting their North American...

From Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid in 1961 all the way to Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden last year, Korean cinema has delighted in torrid tales of disruptive house servants. Whether as a way to contrast social classes or explore illicit sexuality, it has remained a compelling source for bold filmmakers. Ko Young-nam's erotic psychodrama Suddenly in Dark Night (1981), though less complex than the aforementioned, is another fine example of the sub-genre. Seon-hee is the stay-at-home wife of a biology professor who specializes in rare butterflies. One day he returns to their large country home with Mi-ok, the orphaned child of a shaman, who becomes their live-in housemaid. At first, Seon-hee is thrilled for the extra help, but soon Mi-ok's mysterious doll begins to put her...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Doh Kyung-soo (left) and Shin Ha-kyun in Room No. 7 (Source: hancinema.net)

Bucheon International Fantstic Film Festival (Bifan), Asia’s largest genre fest, has just released the lineup for its 21st edition, running from July 13 to 23. And, boy, is it mouth-watering!

The festival will open with the world premiere of the Korean thriller comedy Room No. 7, award-winning director Lee Yong-seung’s second film after 2013’s 10 Minutes. The film stars Shin Ha-kyun as the boss of an ailing DVD store and K-pop star Doh Kyung-soo as an employee who finds a dead body in one of the rooms.

The closing ceremony of the festival, scheduled for the 21st of July, will feature Fukuda Yuichi’s Gintama, the live action samurai sci-fi pic based on the popular manga by Sorachi Hideaki.

Bifan plans to screen 289 films from 58 countries, with 109 films from just Korea. Its 63 world premieres will include that of Jeon Kyuhwan’s film The End.

Line-up includes films from Lee Yong-seung and Fukuda Yuichi.

Asia’s largest genre fest, the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) today announced it will open with the world premiere of Room No. 7, the sophomore feature from award-winning Korean director Lee Yong-seung (10 Minutes).

Running July 13-23, the fest will hold its awards ceremony July 21 with closing film Gintama, the live action film directed by Fukuda Yuichi based on the popular manga by Sorachi Hideaki.

This year, Bifan will screen 289 films from 58 countries with 63 world premieres with encore screenings July 22-23.

The Bucheon Choice: Features competition will screen 11 films including the world premiere of Jeon Kyuhwan’s Korean film The End and the Asian premiere of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson’s Us film The Endless.

Korean Fantastic: Features competition, which includes films like the recent Cannes Midnight Screenings title The Villainess, also has a socio-political slant with world premiering films such as Im Heung-soon’s North...

Earlier this year, it was announced that Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection — perhaps the two most trusted names in the distribution and exhibition of important classic and contemporary cinema — would be joining forces to create a streaming service dedicated to sharing their combined library with cinephiles around the world. For months, it sounded too good to be true. Today, it suddenly became as real as the screen in front of your face.

If the movies are truly as dead as they say, then FilmStruck is nothing short of heaven on Earth. It’s here, it’s alive, and hot damn has it come out of the gate swinging. Hundreds of essential titles are ready to go on launch day, and while hundreds more are imminently on the way, there’s already more than enough to satisfy whatever mood you’re in and scratch itches that you didn’t even know you had.

The Asian Cinema 100 list was released last year at the Biff (Busan International Film Festival), which marked its 20th anniversary with a poll of prominent Asian filmmakers and international critics of Asian film, who were all asked for their top ten of all time.

Japan accounted for 26 films on the list, followed by Iran (19) and Korea (15).

The 15 Korean films are listed below in rank order: Did your favorite make the cut?

1. The Housemaid (1960), joint #10

Directed by Kim Ki-Young, The 1960 version of the erotic thriller The Housemaid is widely considered to be one of the best Korean films of all time.

Featuring a powerful femme fatale character, it was remade in 2010 by Im Sang-Soo.

2. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003), joint #12

“The tranquil beauty of a Korean Buddhist monastery is no match for human cruelty in the stunning Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring.” — New York Magazine.

Directed by Kim Ki-Duk,...

Veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung, star of such classics as Kim Ki-young's Woman on Fire (1971) and The Insect Woman (1972), takes on perhaps her boldest role yet in The Bacchus Lady. Directed by E J-yong, appearing in the Berlinale program for the fifth time, this surprising 3D drama was made within the sanctuary of the Korean Academy of Film Arts (Kafa). Just one among the 50% of elderly Korean citizens living below the poverty line, So-young spends her days in a park in Central Seoul, approaching old men with a bottle of 'Bacchus', a popular health drink, and an invitation to some private time in a motel room. One day, when visiting a doctor to get checked for a venereal disease, she meets a young...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

South Korea’s 20th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced iconic Taiwanese actress and filmmaker Sylvia Chang will lead this year’s New Currents jury.

The Golden Bear-nominated 20 30 40, which Chang directed and acted in, screened in Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema section in 2004.

She has also helped discover and produce for new directing talents who previously included Ann Hui and Edward Yang.

Joining her on the jury: Indian director Anurag Kashyap, whose critically-acclaimed innovative works include Black Friday, Dev.D and Gangs of Wasseypur I & II; German actress Nastassja Kinski, whose films include Roman Polanski’s Tess and Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas; Korean director Kim Tae-yong, whose films include Memento Mori, Family Ties and Late Autumn; and Village Voice chief film critic Stephanie Zacharek.

The jury will award $30,000 each to two films in the competition for new Asian directors.

Biff will run Oct 1-10 with the Asian Film Market running Oct 3-6 this year.

Asian...