No fixed identity: Davy Chou's *incredible* RETURN TO SEOUL (2022), starring the mesmerising Park Ji-min, is in UK cinemas from today via #Mubi. Here is my note from when I unhesitantly programmed it for last year's #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/films/return-to-seoul

"Kim Min-geun’s post-romantic metacinematic making-of movie follows a location scout and her ex-boyfriend director down memory lane": transcript of my intro to this evening's screening of DIRECTOR'S INTENTION for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://projectedfigures.com/2022/11/14/directors-intention-2021/

"plays out its genre tropes to dizzying perfection, while also addressing the inequalities and traumas which women both face and hand down in Korean society": mesmerising psychological thriller THE ANCHOR will screen 6.30pm tomorrow (15 Nov), followed immediately by a Q&A with writer/director Jeong Ji-yeon, all at #PicturehouseCentral for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-the-anchor-qa

"...Kim Min-geun’s sophisticated second-chance romance foregrounds the contribution of a location scout’s work to a film. Agreeably self-reflexive and unusually understated in its melodrama, this locates nostalgia, situation and memory at the centre of cinema, and inevitably comes with a strong sense of place."
I'll be introducing DIRECTOR'S INTENTION 6pm tomorrow (14 Nov) at #PicturehouseCentral for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival
#Metacinema #LocationScout #KoreanCinema
https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-directors-intention

"Byun Sung-hyun’s spin-focused political intrigue pits high ideals against cynical pragmatism under the Park dictatorship": transcript of my introduction to this evening's screening of KINGMAKER (2022) for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://projectedfigures.com/2022/11/12/kingmaker-2021/

How to pursue high ideals in an era of vicious autocracy?: I'll be introducing Byun Sung-hyun's intriguing 'spin' on Machiavellian politicking under Park Chung-hee's dictatorship KINGMAKER, 6pm today at #PicturehouseCentral for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-kingmaker/

"a saga of aspiration and ambition, backroom deals and betrayal": Byun Sung-hyun's political intrigue KINGMAKER finds a spin doctor avant la lettre during the Park dictatorship.
I'll be introducing this screening 6pm tomorrow (12 Nov) at Picturehouse Central for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-kingmaker/

"a wild, bewildering ghost train": Sim Deok-geun's disorienting haunted building movie GUIMOON: THE LIGHTLESS DOOR confounds time and dissociates its ghostly identity. Tonight 11.30pm at Rio Cinema for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival #Khorror https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-guimoon-the-lightless-door/

"Fatherhood is frightening in Park Kang’s sinuous, slippery feature, where a newborn’s arrival engenders superstition, paranoia & guilt": superlative, maybe supernatural post-partum psychodrama SEIRE (2021), screens 9pm today at Picturehouse Central as part of the After Dark: K-horror strand for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival. Highly recommended!
My review:
https://projectedfigures.com/2022/11/11/seire-2021/

"Park Sye-young’s melancholic monster movie shows the human condition from a mold colony’s yearning perspective": transcript of my intro to last night's screening at the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival of the strikingly singular genre experiment THE FIFTH THORACIC VERTEBRA (2021) https://projectedfigures.com/2022/11/11/the-fifth-thoracic-vertebra-2021-cashbag/

"A melancholic, monstrous romantic horror with a very unusual take on time": Park Sye-young's bedbound fungal freakshow THE FIFTH THORACIC VERTEBRA is a mattress-y mystery that eventually locates genuine sublimity in its gonzo premise. You have seen nothing like this.
I'll introduce it 8.50pm tomorrow (10 Nov) at the #GenesisCinema for the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival
Plus Park's short(ish) film CASHBAG.
#horror #k-horror https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-the-fifth-thoracic-vertebra-cashbag/

Haunted house, haunted family: Kang Dong-hun's CONTORTED is "deft in recombining its borrowed tropes to wrong-foot even the most genre savvy."
I'll be ntroducing this first title in the #LondonKoreanFilmFestival's #AfterDark strand 6.30pm tomorrow (10 Nov) at the #GenesisCinema
#horror #k-horror
https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/events/lkff-2022-contorted/