LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th
The London Korean Film Festival, now celebrating its 20th year, kicks off tonight with its Opening Gala, a World Premiere of Frosted Window (Kim Jong-Kwan, 2025), followed by a Q&A with director Kim and actor Yeon Woo-jin.
It bows out in two weeks time with its Closing Gala, Harbin (Woo Min-ho, 2024), starring Hyun Bin, with cinematography by Hong Kyeong-pyo who shot Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019).
In between these two events comes a Special Screening of Hi-Five, a superhero comedy by Kang Hyoung-chul (Swing Kids, 2018; Sunny, 2011).
Also, this year the Festival launches its first-ever LKFF Audience Award, giving festival-goers the chance to vote for their favourite film and help shape this 20th anniversary edition. Of the four films made available to press in advance, my vote would go to the enigmatically titled 3670 (Park Joon-ho, 2025), a compelling drama about a gay man who has defected from North to South Korea. The film, which picked up four awards at the 26th Jeonju International Film Festival, transcends Korean, gay and religious demographics to speak to a much wider audience, and in this writer’s opinion deserves a proper UK release.
Other sections this year include two signature strands Women’s Voices, Cinema Now. The latter includes the drama Silver Apricot (Jang Man-min, 2024 ) in which a Seoul woman in need of funds to buy a condo returns to her childhood coastal town to get the alimony payments her estranged father never stumped up.
This year’s special strand Dramas of Resistance: The 80th Anniversary of Liberation features two Manchurian Westerns, Break Up The Chain (Lee Man Hee, 1971) and The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Jee-woon, 2008) as well as historical sports comedy YMCA Baseball Team (Kim Hyun-seok, 2002) – links with further information can be found below.
LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th.It takes place this year across three London venues: BFI Southbank, the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and South Kensington’s Cine Lumiere.
FURTHER PROGRAMME INFORMATION:
Facebook: @theLKFF
Twitter: @koreanfilmfest
Instagram: @london_korean_film_festival
Homepage: https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/
Trailer – Frosted Window, opening night film:
Trailer – 3670: