Forgot password

 

Korean cinema has been enjoying a very strong year at home as it recently flew past the 100 million admissions mark in record time, but its profile is also on the rise overseas. Films such as RYOO Seung-wan’s The Berlin File and JANG Cheol-soo’s Secretly Greatly are racking up column inches as they screen at international film festivals and screen theatrically around the world. BONG Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer is making a particularly large stand on the global scene as it recently became the most successful Korean film of all time in France, eclipsing the mark set by IM Kwon-taek’s Chihwaseon (2002) in just 12 days.

 

Coverage from the world’s media outlets, selection to major festivals and positive word of mouth have played a large part in improving the Korean film industry’s profile but a few big events specializing in Korea’s cinematic output have also played a huge role as they’ve gone from strength to strength over the last few years.

 

During the end of October and the beginning of November this year, Europe became the site of a pair of Korean film celebrations that both celebrated their eighth editions. The Paris Korean Film Festival (FFCP) and London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) returned to the delight of film fans, once again increasing the awareness towards Korean films on the continent.

 

Running from October 29th to November 5th, the 8th Paris Korean Film Festival showcased some 23 features and 22 shorts while London’s festival screened 21 features and 15 shorts during its November 7-15 run. LEE Joon-ik’s melodrama Hope, starring SEOL Kyung-gu and UHM Ji-won, and HUH Jung’s debut thriller Hide and Seek served as the opening films for each event, while HONG Sangsoo’s latest film Our Sunhi, which earned him the Silver Leopard for best director at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival and SONG Hae-seung’s Boomerang Family, featuring an ensemble consisting of PARK Hae-il, KONG Hyo-jin, YOON Je-moon and YOON Yeo-young, closed each of the events.

 

In Paris, the bulk of the program was featured in the Paysage (Panorama) section, including Eungyo, All About My Wife, Jiseul, Fatal, The Russian Novel, Ari Ari The Korean Cinema and many more. In addition, a trio of documentaries (My Father’s E-mails, The Girl from the South and Dream House by the Border) formed a sidebar focusing on the separation of the Korean peninsula. A spotlight featured the works of up-and-coming filmmaker SHIN Su-won, including Passerby #3 (2010) and Pluto, as well as her shorts Shave (2003) and The Circle Line, the latter of which won the Cannes+ Award at the Cannes Film Festival last year. The Line, fresh from this year’s Cannes, was one of the 22 shorts that screened and the final program was a retrospective of the 1970s Korean filmmaker HA Kil-jong, including his classics Pollen (1972) and The March of Fools (1975).

 

Meanwhile, in London, programs this year will included a KANG Woo-suk retrospective, featuring the producer/director’s Public Enemy(2002) among others, some classic screenings marking the 60-year anniversary of the Korean War armistice, and a selection of short films curated by director KIM Jee-woon. Numerous other recent Korean films were featured, include genre fare such as The Flu, Secretly Greatly and Montage, the dramas South Bound and Mai Ratima, the animation Pororo: The Racing Adventure and the comedy How to Use Guys with Secret Tips. After wrapping up in London, the festival went on tour with select films to Oxford, Bradford and St. Andrews from November 16th to 22nd.

 

Korean cinema has had a busy year in the UK with a heightened presence at festivals and on local distributor lineups. A ‘Korean Focus’ was featured in the program of this summer’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, which featured Korean films as well as a number of guests from the Korean film world. Speaking of guests, the Korean Cultural Center UK (KCCUK), which organizes the LKFF, has been staging regular film screening as part of its ‘Year of 4 Actors’ program, which spotlighted the works of four major Korean performers, all of whom visited the UK capital to take part in special events. Finally, after not picking any Korean films for three years, UK distributor Third Window recently announced the acquisitions of a quintet of new Korean films.

 

The rising international exposure for Korean films these days, not to mention the increasing diversity on offer, seem to attest to the success of events such as the Paris and London Korean Film Festivals as platforms for the promotion of the Korean film industry overseas. With more experience each year and by converting new film viewers to Korean cinema, we can only expect better things from Europe’s Korean film festivals in future.

 

 

JEON Hye-jung (Festival Director of the London Korean Film Festival) Interview
 

Yes we are very happy with this year’s festival, although we always feel that we could do better. The eighth installment of the London Korean Film Festival has been a tremendous success. We started with a visit by President PARK Geun-hye, which was delightful, and have continued through to the touring stage with many positives and highs. Our festival is different in the sense that our aim is to promote Korean culture through films and this influences the program we offer. For example we recently had a K-pop section of films to account for its widespread popularity.

 

This year we have seen many new faces to the festival and many repeat visitors, which is always good.  We have also seen more and more major news networks reporting on the festival, which has helped to attract larger audiences. With over 40 screenings, Q&A Talks, Master-Classes and Forums the festival has continued to provide an accessible platform for Korean films to flourish and we are very happy about that.

 

Our film festival provides a wonderful foundation for Korean cinema to grow in the UK. We have been blessed with tremendous support from the stars of Korean film and so each year more and more people discover Korean films through the festival. The festival also hopes that young film-makers in the UK can be inspired by Korean film as this interest can only help Korean film to develop in the future. We have also seen similar Korean Film Festivals develop and grow across the globe and it is a pleasure to have been able to provide a template for them to follow and build upon.

 

Yes, these local distributors are very important to Korean film in the UK and so each year we hold a ‘Distributors’ Night’ as part of the festival where we bring together industry professionals and executives from the UK and Korea and provide an arena for these networks to grow. We have also screened a wide selection of films purchased by Third Window this year, including the Closing Gala of Boomerang Family. We support the distributors by giving them advertising space in our brochure and hope that the positive benefits of being associated with the festival will ultimately encourage them to buy and distribute more Korean films in the UK and Europe.

YOO Dong-suk (The Artistic Director of Paris Korean film festival) Interview 

 

 

Frankly, for me it was the best edition ever. Above all, it was thanks to the very professional staff of our new venue (Publicis cinémas) and our experienced team members. This year we moved form Quartier Latin to Champs-Elysées. The new cinema was technically very well equipped and this year, the key positions of our festival team were occupied by those members who had at least 3 years of experience with the festival. So, the organizational fluidity (which was our weakness until 2012) was much better this year. At the same time, the conviviality, which has been our strong point, was preserved. The manager of the cinema told us that he had never seen such a lively event in his area. I would say that we reached 'maturity' this year (I consider the 1st to 4th edition as the 'childhood' phase, and the 5th to 7th as the 'adolescence' phase).

 

 

Festivals as recognized for their importance for the promotion of the cinema. But every festival has their own unique traits. For example, France is one of the world’s most cinema-loving countries. Distinct from other European countries, almost every film of the 'big name' Korean directors are shown on a regular basis in Paris. But here, those well-known directors and some special genres (violent thriller, especially) tend to represent the whole of Korean cinema. In this state of things, Korean cinema would be at risk for a kind of fossilization bereft of vitality and diversity. So, the festival is an institution serving as a constant re ofminder the indeterminate and internally conflicted aspect of this national cinema. It can, in this way, continually rebuild the image of Korean cinema when it is held. Updating Korean cinema’s image and refreshing its constantly changing aspect are the roles and the primary goals of the festival.

 

If I may add one more remark, I would like to say something about Korean film festival's attitude vis-à-vis the Hallyu (Korean Wave) phenomenon. If the goal of a Korean film festival is not to promote Korea’s national image, but to promote Korean cinema, that festival should try to get recognition not from Hallyu fans, but from the cinema audiences and professionals where it takes place. I don't deny the advantage of the Hallyu approach when it comes to animating an event, but those Hallyu fans constitute a really closed sub-culture despite they’re being very faithful. Korean cinema should avoid being dragged down and confined in this sub-culture ghetto. It should try to get recognition directly from the cinema milieu by dint of its cinematic quality.

 

By Pierce Conran