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In only its third year, the 2012 Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) has released its line-up, which contains a variety of contemporary classics as well as some of the Korea’s biggest blockbusters from the last two years. KOFFIA will hold screenings in three different cities across Australia from late August to early September.

 

Panorama, the fest’s largest section and centerpiece, will screen seven features. Headlining is 2011’s undisputed box office champ <War of the Arrows> along with surprise hit <Sunny> and 2012’s Cannes selections -- HONG Sangsoo’s <In Another Country> and IM Sang-soo’s <The Taste of Money>. Rounding out the section is Korea’s 2012 Oscar submission, <The Front Line>, the senior love story <Late Blossom> and another film from the increasingly prolific HONG Sangsoo, <The Day He Arrives>.

 

Highlighting two genres KOFFIA sees as important in contemporary Korean cinema, sections entitled K-Comedy and K-Mystery will each screen three films. K-Comedy will catch one of 2012’s biggest hits thus far, <All About My Wife>, and also jump back in time for the popular 2011 film <DETECTIVE K: Secret of Virtuous Widow> and <Sunny> director KANG Hyoung-chul’s smashing debut, <Speedy Scandal>. K-Mystery unsurprisingly takes a darker turn with <The Yellow Sea>, starring HA Jung-woo, critical darling <Bleak Night> and the shocking tale of school abuse that was based on a true story, <Silenced>.

 

KOFFIA’s Modern Classics this year will include two films from 2003, PARK Chan-wook’s <Oldboy> and KIM Ki-duk’s <Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and... Spring>, along with HUR Jin-ho’s quintessential melodrama, 1998’s <Christmas in August>. The fest’s Documentary section will also feature dk dk KIM Ki-duk, screening his Cannes-winning <Arirang>. Completing the section is the musical-social chronicle of singer Baek-ja ,<The Reason Why I Step>, and the Italian-produced <Through Korean Cinema>, which is based on in-depth interviews with five contemporary Korean directors.

 

New to 2012 is the Animation section, which will feature two wildly different films -- the family-friendly Myung Films hit <Leafie: A Hen into the Wild> and YEUN Sang-ho’s dark and ultra-violent <The King of Pigs>.

 

Finally, KOFFIA will offer two short film sections. The first, the International Short Film Showcase, features 13 recent shorts including festival fare such as KIM Seok-young’s <Anesthesia>, YOON Ki-nam’s <The Metamorphosis> and 2011 Cannes invitee <Ghost>. The second section, the KOFFIA Short Film Competition, is the fest’s sole competition and will screen a variety of Australian shorts that relate to Korea in some fashion -- whether by virtue of their filmmakers, actors, language or topic -- and award cash prizes to the top films, actors and actresses.

 

KOFFIA 2012 will be running in Sydney from August 22-28, Melbourne from September 8-12 and Brisbane from September 27-30. Check http://koffia.com.au/ for more details.