Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

Soon Ho has a dream, which other people should not know about. He moves to an abandoned house, located in a small country village. Soon Ho happens to meet 12-year-old girl Dong Ja.

A storm is coming; the winds are getting strong. The real source of the ominous winds lies with Jina, who finds the strange word 'LingLing' written in her father’s notebook. She suspects he is cheating on her mother, who appears to be bored with life and fills the house with potted plants as if to show for her apathy. The film too is riddled with images of humid air and foul-smelling water, impure and overflowing. The sway of her father’s fishing pole and the flutters in Jina’s skirt seem perilous and unstable. When her anxiety and doubts finally come to a head, the family squarely face the rough downpour brought on by the storm. The director’s talent in boldly translating the characters desires and sensibilities into a narrative with powerful imagery is quite impressive.

Eddie and Jason, two Korean-American brothers get in over their heads when they are called to Korea to make a short film on prostitution and sex-trafficking. Things get complicated when they meet Crystal and Esther, two prostitutes who reveal just how deep the problem goes and set off on a dangerous mission to capture the truth. With the use of hidden cameras and access to pimps, johns, and sex-workers, the filmmakers explore and unravel the complexity of the sex trade in Seoul. They learn that this problem is rooted in issues far deeper than exploited girls and lustful men. Instead, it's a consequence of a culture and government that condones and turns a blind eye to the biggest human injustice of our time.

A part-time drama lecturer feels it’s his lucky day when he unexpectedly gets offered an acting gig on the same day that he learns of a faculty post.

In the winter following her college entrance exams, 19-year-old Yurim wanders the streets with her best friend Seonmi, who ran away from her broken home.

Architect A is an architect who builds a house in a very special way. He builds a house that resembles the way that person has lived by collecting materials from the client's life. However, he gives up on architecture after an unexpected accident. One day, an elderly woman comes to his house and shows out a fish-shaped wind chime, which A and his wife sculpted a long time ago, requesting A to build her own house. Architect A hesitates because of his trauma after the unexpected accident, but the fish-shaped wind chime brought back the beautiful memories with his wife and that made him accept the request. In the process of building a house, flashing back an elderly woman's life, Architect A faces his painful memories, but he finally completes the request and finishes building his own house as well, which has not been completed for a long time due to his trauma.

After failing three times to enter a university, Ha-rim decides to reflect on his personal history and rediscover his roots as a way of finding maturity.

Kang Eun-bin, a youth climate activist who faced legal battles for protesting coal exports to Vietnam, leads a new fight against South Korea's final coal power project. In spring 2024, Kang and fellow Youth Climate Emergency Action members journey to Samcheok, Gangwon Province. With one plant already operational and another nearing completion, they race against time to halt the country's last coal-fired power plant construction. Joining forces with local activist 'Kim Gong-ryong' and his friends, these determined young advocates embark on a crucial mission. As the September 2024 deadline looms, can this coalition of passionate youth succeed in stopping the coal-fired plant and changing the course of South Korea's energy future?

Jeong-won, along with the couple Jae-hyun and Jeong-an, has planned a summer vacation together. However, the day before the trip, Jae-hyun and Jeong-an had a fight, creating an uncomfortable atmosphere between them. As tension mounts, Jeong-won finds himself increasingly uneasy and distressed, both from the strained relationship of the couple and the sweltering summer heat.

The life of Lee Seung-man, a freedom fighter who struggled to liberate Korea from Japanese rule.

"As Time Passes, Love and Sorrow Will ..." - A woman give birth to a illegitimate child, she leaves her husband and disappear completely. The husband hire a nanny to foster the child. The nanny and the child become very close.

A girl draws a circle on the ground. Passers-by step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people.

A has-been rap star and his old fan accidentally ride the Ferris Wheel together in an amusement park.

The film shows demonstrations against building the second airport in Jeju Island the performances of environmentalists very closely and in detail, by which it develops a desperate love story.

There is a family. Grandmother settled down in Sadang-dong and looked after her son and three grandchildren. After the Sadang-dong house was demolished, the family was lucky enough to find a rental apartment in Sanggye-dong. A Nice Place (2009), the previous work by the director, was a documentary about the life of this family for 10 years. 'Daldongne 33 Up is a record of what happens in the next 10 years.

An author, her reputation threatened by public humiliation, finds herself a prisoner, struggling to escape from a futuristic cult. Meanwhile, representatives of mankind debate with a time traveller to save the future of humanity.

The ocean is the beginning and end of all life. Yet now, this vast cradle of life is collapsing. SEAGNAL follows the final signals from the ocean, leading us on a journey to confront the truths we’ve long ignored. From marine debris and ghost fishing caused by abandoned fishing gear to overfishing that pushes marine species to the brink of extinction, and coastal villages sinking due to rising sea levels... Our oceans are dying due to humanity’s unchecked greed, ignorance, and indifference. SEAGNAL follows seven individuals who have sensed the ocean’s warning, asking not just to heed the alarm but to reconsider how we coexist with the sea. The ocean’s final signal, SEAGNAL. Are you ready to listen?

Released as a promotional film series along the group’s album of the same name, the film features CIX members exploring dark themes, including bullying, violence, societal abandonment, and death.

KIM Soonak is a survivor of sex slavery by the Japanese military. The war may have ended, but her life was still at a war. She lived in the prostitute quarters to survive, did sex business in the US military camp town, and peddled goods from the US military. She raised two kids on her own as she worked as a maid. We’ll listen to her story in her absence. The film reconstructs the life story of the deceased KIM Soonak with interviews with activists, archive videos, animation, and read-aloud testimony.

Is it ‘rule breaking’ for Korean society to encourage childbirth while leaving childcare to individuals? Is it ‘rule breaking’ for a family where the father works low-wage irregular jobs and serves as a stay-at-home dad to four children? To resist Korean society's rule breaking, this stay-at-home father of four decides to become the so-called "Rule Breaker."​

A powerful Minister Oh sends his political enemy Governor Jeong to exile and takes his son Jeong junior as a hostage. Oh's widowed daughter becomes in love for Jeong junior but he rejects her saying he is engaged with Bae Baeng-Yi who is a daughter of a noble family in Jeong Seung Gol village. Lady Oh is driven mad at jealousy of Bae Baeng-Yi. She disguises as a shaman and invites Bae Baeng-Yi to a mountain where she kills the girl. At her funeral as Bae Baeng-Yi's coffin doesn't move, a shaman holds an exorcism and asks Jeong junior to soothe for her spirit and fidelity. Finally funeral service is over without problem. By the way lady Oh, who is annoyed by Bae Baeng-Yi's resented spirit, falls from a cliff to death in a half-mad state. Those who exploited illicit and superstition die out.

Sometimes, the void becomes a passage to the invisible. The film is a journey in pursuit of that which saturates the forest yet eludes human perception. Flashes and darkness, punctuated by fleeting hues, conspire to capture presences that linger between the present and the yet-to-come. Surrendering to the film's orchestrated rhythm rewards viewers with unprecedented imagery. (Sung MOON)

This documentary is a director Kim Dong-won’s only autobiographical film that was produced as a request from the video festival. The film starts with the director’s son declaring that the film should start with a blank background with a title reading “We will now start Tekken Family” and then the director’s voice asking his son “ Have you ever seen a film start like that?” The whole family sits in front of a game machine playing Tekken and having a joyous time. This image of the family is very much different to the passive and disconnected image of a family portrayed in People in the Forest of Media.....

Flesh to digress, impulse to degress.

There are four people who want to become an actor. Their names are Hun, Eun, Jun, and Kyung. After watching the play [QUARTET]. They decide to participate in an acting workshop. They are trained by Mirae, the renowned actor of the [QUARTET]. Through the workshop sessions, Mirae is able to look into the inner lives of the four youths.

Choo Myeong-ho, an employee of a chemical factory in a small town in North Korea, falls in love with a female employee, leading to three months of pregnancy, and the two hide this fact. The two find an old woman who secretly pays for an abortion and underwent the operation, but the female employee dies. Shocked by this, Choo Myung-ho rapes and strangles a female warrior. Returning to the factory, Choo Myung-ho rescues a young Park who was beaten for falling asleep while working, and incites fellow Park. The riot fails, many parks are killed, and Choo Myung-ho, who has survived his life, escapes to South Korea in search of freedom, but is shot and fell into the sea to die. The North Koreans demand the UN return the bodies. The UN has announced that it will return Choo Myung-ho's body back to North Korea for humanitarian reasons.

Melon Risk, CEO of a major American corporation, declares on social media that he will bring a diamond from Neptune to Earth. The ridiculous rumor sends the global jewelry market into a tailspin, and on the other side of the world, South Korean diamond dealer Kuhyuk has a busy and difficult day.

This film is inspired by a moment of one autumn day in my childhood. The moment I experienced was impossible to be measured or represented. I became curious about this ‘Image of Time’. This film is the first step on the journey.

The experiences of five free-spirited individuals trying to break free from societal norms. Each narrative discusses creativity, mental health, labor activism and gender politics.

Yu Sang starts to learn to dance for the interview, but he can't hide his feelings from Jun Han.

Korean parents' extreme fervor for education is exposed as a child undergoes a tongue operation to enhance his ability in spoken English.

Time-Consciousness offers four mutually contradictory versions of a series of events. The constant factors are a middle-aged poet with a gammy leg, a prostitute who may or may not be dead, and the woman’s humble room (which may or may not be tidy), where the poet does his writing. Asking "What did happen at 9:20 that evening?," the film underlines the unreliability of memory and the impossibility of objectivity.

This film is based upon the form of an individual’s diary. Jangwook created new images using several chemical treatments on the film surface while using footage of his daily life. These serial works begun from trials that Lee had communicated, seeking to re-construct his own memories, where the ‘mind’s eye’ become connected with the ‘camera’s eye’ and with film itself. In doing so the film is a conversation with personal documentary and everyday practice at the darkroom.

Korean movie.

The Exchange Diary is a collaborative film project of two artists, Im Heung-soon and Momose Aya, since 2015. Having exchanged video clips recorded with the iPhone, the artists edited and recreated each other´s work in their own interpretation. The film explores private and social issues surrounding the artists with asynchronous images and sound, and blended time and space.

Young-ja initially mocks the shy, introverted Ki-hoon who is infatuated with her. She in turn, is fascinated with Dong-hyeok, a worldly small time criminal. After promising to change his ways, Dong-hyeok betrays Young-ja and sells her into prostitution. Only Ki-hoon cares enough about her to attempt a rescue.

Korean short film about a schoolboy, Hye Sung Won, who struggles with his feelings of inadequacy and tries to rationalize his guilt over a betrayal to his cherished and seemingly perfect friend, Jeong Hyuk Moon.

Haegang has been making indie films for 10 years and is preparing his first full-length film. Unfortunately, he is in trouble as his girlfriend and old colleagues turn their back on him. The conflict deepens when he meets new producer. He decides to take an action for a cut which he wishes to maintain.

Minsu and Insuk are a happily married couple until Minsu's chance encounter with a woman named Younghee changes everything.