Tag: Lee Man-hee

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London Korean
Film Festival
(LKFF)
2025

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.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Break Up The Chain
(Soesaseul-euld
Kkeunh-eola,
쇠사슬을 끊어라)

Director – Lee Man Hee – 1971 – South Korea – Cert. tbc – 98m

***1/2

Three Koreans each with dubious motiveshunt for a small statue of Buddha containing the names of anti-Japanese resistance fighters – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

Much like the statue containing the microfilm sought by the characters of North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959), a small statue of Buddha holds the names of anti-Japanese resistance fighters and is similarly desired by Break Up The Chain’s protagonists. Not that this Lee Man Hee late career offering is in quite the same league as Hitch’s espionage romp, even if its dialogue does from time to time refer to drama and performance in much the same way, particularly in the opening ten minutes.

Otherwise, though, it’s a very different animal: essentially, three male protagonists chasing a MacGuffin. Cheol Su (Namkoong Won from Cheongnyeo, Lee Man Hee, 1975; Insect Woman, Kim Ki-young, 1972), is an outlaw, Tae Ho (Huh Jang-gang from Eunuch, Shin Sang-ok, 1968), a gangster and Dal Gun (Jang Dong-hwi from The Marines Who Never Returned, Lee Man Hee, 1963), a spy for the Japanese.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

A Day Off
(Hyuil,
휴일)

Director – Lee Man-hee – 1968 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 110m

*****

A man passes the boredom of Sunday in Seoul by spending time in the park with his lover, robbing an old schoolmate then going out drinking and womanising in bars – available from time to time to watch for free at the Korean Film Archive’s YouTube channel (link at bottom of page)

Shot in stark black and white, this opens with a voice-over which immediately makes you think you’re watching a film noir. However, A Day Off is something else entirely – there are no cops or gangsters in sight, the narrative concerning instead a couple of doomed lovers and the opening voice-over bemoaning the hero’s meeting with his lover Ji-Yeon every Sunday. That said, it’s all about poor people struggling to survive on Seoul’s mean streets and the main character is constantly cheating his fellow citizens or stealing money from them, so its subject matter is not entirely noir unrelated.

Heo-uk (Shin Seong-il, a huge star who also has a bit part in the earlier Bloodline a.k.a. Kinship, Kim Soo-yong, 1963) asks a consults a bird fortune-teller as to what the day will bring: her trained bird picks out a card warning him to Stay Away From Women.… Read the rest