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Mongrels

Mongrels

Director – Jerome Yoo – 2024 – Canada – Cert. 15 tbc– 106m

*****

On the Canadian Prairie, a Korean father helps cull wild dogs, his teenage son grapples with identity, and his young sister misses her absent mum – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runsin cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

Aside from an opening in which a man in his underwear in the woods speaks in Korean of his dreams – taken from towards the end of the first of the film’s sections – this film is split into three headed sections, one for each member of its central family by descending age – father, teenage son, young girl. These Koreans have emigrated to Canada, and now live on the Canadian Prairie. It’s the early 1990s, or thereabouts.

The three sections are: i – god, ii – cowboy, iii – blonde.

In i – god, the father Sonny (Kim Jae-Hyun) holds a ceremony for his two children Hajoon (Jeon Ho-Young) and Hana (Jin Sein) in which all three bow to show gratitude for their protection. Sonny is a key figure in Scott (Morgan Derera) the local farmer’s attempted cull of wild dogs in the nearby woods, the shootist most likely to bag a dog then put it out of its misery with his knife.… Read the rest

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My Daughter is a Zombie
(Jombittal,
좀비딸)

My Daughter is a Zombie (Jombittal, 좀비딸)

Director – Pil Gam-sung – 2025 – South Korea – Cert. 15 tbc – 114m

*****

When his teenage daughter becomes a zombie, her father must use his skills as an animal trainer to help her lead a normal life – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runs in cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

Like fathers everywhere, Lee Jung-hwan (Cho Jung-seok from Exit, Lee Sang-geun, 2019) struggles to connect with his 15-year-old daughter Lee Soo-ah (Choi Yu-ri from Alienoid, Choi Dong-hoon, 2022). A failed, professional K-pop dancer who achieved modest success as an animal trainer – for instance, successfully getting his zoo workplace’s Bengal Tiger to dance – he has passed on his love of dancing to his daughter, although her generation’s idea of dancing is very different from his. Nevertheless, it’s in the family’s genes.

One day, they observe bizarre behaviour outside their window from a neighbouring couple, which could be easily explained if life were like a zombie movie. The woman having bitten her husband’s neck, she advances towards their sitting room window and, recognising life (food) when dad moves into her sight in the course of rescuing the cat, relentlessly hammers her head against the glass ’til it breaks. … Read the rest

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Be My Baby
(Mia,
미아,
lit. Missing Child)

Be My Baby (Mia, 미아, lit. Missing Child)

Director – Yoo Jong-seok – 2025 – South Korea– Cert. 15 tbc – 98m

**

A number of women, trapped in a web of deceit, futilely lie, cheat and scam their way towards hoped-for escape routes that don’t exist – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runsin cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

An encounter between female hospital worker Seo-rim (Kang Hae-rim) and homeless person Soo-mi (Bae Gang-hee) takes place outside early on in this bleak thriller built around women on the margins of Korean society. One character is involved in an insurance scam which will pay out a vast sum of money if it comes off, but you’re never quite sure whether she is in fact the named policy holder or someone else entirely.

We are taken into a complex web of deceit in which most if not all the women interacting with one another are not in fact the people indicated by the names under which we initially encounter them. People are introduced by their name, yet before you know it the same name appears on someone else’s credit card, or a letter addressed to another person.… Read the rest

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The Accordion Door
(아코디언 도어)

The Accordion Door (아코디언 도어)

Director – Son Kyeong-su – 2025 – South Korea – Cert. 12a tbc – 115m

*****

A boy loses his memories at age nine, wins prizes as a writer, and falls for the new girl at school who plays football – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runs in cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

A high school drama of sorts, this starts and ends with the national youth essay competition on the subject of ‘waves’. The lad at the back of the class writes, “I was destined to be unremarkable anyway.” On his paper, he adds, am I a cloud? As a child in a flashback, Lee Ji-soo can barely master the simplest of concepts. His mother (Ok Ji-young) pays attention to him while his dad (Park Jong-hwan from Concrete Utopia, Eom Tae-hwa, 2023) is on his mobile phone.

The teenage Ji-soo (Moon Woo-jin) wipes his eyes and repeats, from the exercise he failed, “rain, river, ocean, clouds.” A cloud hovers near him, sprouts a tendril, and pokes him in the eye against a gentle guitar lament that turns into a thundering rock lament.

In the present, at the back of the class, Ji-soo adds on his paper, the day I went missing.… Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

Bedford Park
(베드포드 파크)

Bedford Park (베드포드 파크)

Director – Stephanie Ahn – 2026 – US – Cert. 18 tbc – 121m

****1/2

Two second generation Korean-Americans, adrift from the culture of their ancestral homeland, find solace in one another – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runsin cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

It emerges only in the final minutes of this tale set in New Jersey tale that its two central, Korean-American protagonists, thrown together by chance, both grew up in the same area of Brooklyn, the eponymous Bedford Park. Between them, they occupy two very different worlds, yet the deep connection they experience suggests something in common.

When her mother (Won Mi-kyung) asks the 36-year-old what she saw in “that man”, the younger woman replies with disarming candour, he gave me room to breathe.

We first meet Audrey Park (Moon Choi from Deliver Us From Evil, Hong Won-chan, 2020; Okja, Bong Joon Ho, 2017) indulging in a one night bondage stand with a character we never see again.

She works as a physio, getting into a row with her boss over cuts to services vital to her patients, and being suspended for three weeks after bluntly swearing at him.… Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

The Gorals
(산양들)

The Gorals (산양들)

Director – Yoo Jae-wook – 2025 – South Korea – Cert. – 107m

****

Four problem high school girls bunk off their special college application class to start a zoo in the woods with the school zoo’s animals – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runs in cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th

In danger of failing to secure themselves college places, four high school girl students are put in to a special class to help them get in somewhere. In-hye (indie director “Grace” Park Hye-jin) is busy delivering vaccinations to the ducks, rabbits and chickens in the school zoo. She likes the solitude of the job, but on this occasion, Seo-hee (Lee Seung-yeon) is watching from outside the enclosure, having been sent to find her along with two other girls, Lee Jung-ae (Park Hyo-eun) in class 2 and Kim Soo-min (Choi Soo-in from The House of Us, 2019; The World of Us, 2016, both Yoon Ge-eun) in class 1, by teacher Miss Kim Ah-tae (Kim See-eun from The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook, 2016).

Teacher Kim wants the four of them to work on their interview skills so they can apply for a college – any college – and get in.… Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

Wild Horse Nine

Wild Horse Nine

Director – Martin McDonagh – 2026 – US – Cert. 15 – 118m

*****

Two Santiago-based CIA operatives travel to to Easter Island prior to the 1973 coup in Chile; one of them is dying – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, November 4th

In 1973, Shortly before the CIA’s destabilisation of Chile, two of its operatives travel from Santiago to Easter Island. The terminally ill Chris (John Malkovich) wants to see the Big Heads (the island’s famous indigenous statues) before he dies, and his colleague Lee (Sam Rockwell) – possibly his only friend – has agreed to accompany him.

Their Santiago-based boss MJ (Steve Buscemi) is concerned; Chris has a habit of shooting his mouth off and saying things he shouldn’t, as evidenced in the airport when Chris starts to chat with two attractive female Chilean students Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) and Alicia (Ailín Salas) and he states, after bringing up the subject of “destabilising your country”, that “we ARE the CIA, actually,” leading to furious denials of the fact by Lee. Both girls are horrified.

Chris has an agenda beyond seeing the Big Heads – as he later confides to Lee, when you’ve seen one Big Head, you’ve seen them all.… Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

Godzilla Minus Zero
(Gojira – 0.0,
ゴジラ – 0.0)

Godzilla Minus Zero (Gojira – 0.0, ゴジラ – 0.0)

Director – Takashi Yamazaki – 2026 – Japan – Cert. 12a – 135m

IMAX version *****

Regular version *****

Japan, slowly recovering from World War Two, must again deal with the seemingly unstoppable menace of Godzilla when it rises again from the depths of the ocean – out in UK and Ireland IMAX cinemas on Tuesday, November 3rd then in regular cinemas on Friday, November 6th

*** Please note: Godzilla Minus One spoiler alert in opening paragraph. ***

“Is your war finally over?”, redeemed Kamikazi pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is asked by Noriko Oishi (Minami Hanabe), the woman who he has taken in to his home along with a baby only for her to be subsequently blasted away when pushing him into a building recess to save him from Godzilla during its attack on Ginza, at the end of Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023). Miraculously, she survived that incident, which scarcely seems possible. Although perhaps writer-director Yamazaki shrewdly included the conundrum to enable him to kick around some ideas as to why she might have survived beyond mere luck.

One such idea makes it into this new film, and a fascinating idea it is too, one of a number of script elements for which Toho have asked journalists to keep the specifics under wraps so as not to spoil the film for audiences – which seems reasonable enough given that critics had the privilege of seeing the film before any reviews had given anything away.… Read the rest

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Raise the Red Lantern
(大红灯笼高高挂)

Director – Zhang Yimou – 1991 – China – Cert. 12a – 125m

****

After her father dies, a 19-year-old girl without means accepts an offer of marriage from a wealthy suitor, becoming his fourth wife – back out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 6th

Northern China, the 1920s. The father of 19-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) dies, leaving her without the means to pay for college. She therefore accepts an offer of marriage to the wealthy Chen (Ma Jingwu). He’s fifty, and she’s his fourth wife. The first wife, Yuru (Jin Suyuan), has lost the master’s interest having aged. The second, Zhuoyun (Cao Cuifeng), is a constant schemer. The third, Meishan (He Saifei), is a former Opera star.

Each bride has her own house within the compound. Whichever house the master wishes to stay at at night is marked by the hanging of lit, red lanterns in the courtyard outside. The wife of the house where the red lantern is raised enjoys other privileges such as being allowed to choose her own menu at meal times. In this small world of these four women, intrigues develop as they attempt to win from their rivals the master’s favour by whatever means they can think of, fair or foul.… Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

Possible Love
(Ganeunghan Sarang,
가능한 사랑)

Possible Love (L to R) Jeon Do-yeon as Mi-ok, Sul Kyung-gu as Ho-seok, Cho Yeo-jeong as Ye-ji in Possible Love Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026

Possible Love (Ganeunghan Sarang, 가능한 사랑)

Director – Lee Chang Dong – 2026 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 164m

*****

A filmmaker working on a documentary about workers who’ve been laid off from their companies invites a worker’s wife and her husband to stay at her and her husband’s lavish coastal home – plays the London Film Festival (LFF) Sunday, 11th, Wednesday 14th, Sunday 18th October, then out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, October 23rd, plays in the London Korean Film Festival which runs in cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th, and is on Netflix from Friday, November 6th

South Korea’s Official Selection for International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards

The family of laid-off manual worker Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu from A Normal Family, Hur Jin-ho, 2023; Memoir of a Murderer, Won Shin-yeon, 2017; Peppermint Candy, Lee Chang Dong, 1999), his wife Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon from Beasts Clawing at Straws, Kim Yong-hoon, 2020; The Housemaid, Im Sang-soo, 2010) and their young son Cheol (Ha Lim) attend the funeral of one of Ho-seok’s fellow laid-off workmates. The reticent Ho-seok plans to stay in the car, but then goes in to the ceremony some time after the rest of his family and stays for the wake where, against what he’s promised his wife, he drinks, and as he starts to lose it, the pair get into an argument in public.… Read the rest