Tag: LKFF

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Movies Features Live Action

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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Movies Features Live Action

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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Movies Features Live Action

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

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

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Top Ten Movies
(and more,
excluding re-releases)
2025

Top Ten Movies (and more, excluding re-releases) 2025

Work in progress – subject to change. Because I am still watching movies released in 2025, so it’s always possible that a new title could usurp the number one in due course.

All numbered films received either a theatrical, online or home media release in the UK between 01/01/25 and 31/12/25.

This version excludes re-releases (Battleship Potemkin, The Piano Teacher or Hard Boiled, among others) would top everything here). In addition to re-releases, this version also excludes films seen in festivals which haven’t had any other UK release in 2025. For that even longer list, click here.

Finally, last year’s list is here.

Top Ten Movies (and more) 2025

Please click on titles to see reviews.

The numbering will mostly be added later when I’ve watched more of the outstanding 2024 titles, and they have stopped moving around. So, currently, positions in this list should be taken with a pinch of salt.

*****

1=. Flow (2024, Belgium, France, Latvia)

1=. The Glassworker (2024, Pakistan, Spain)

1=. One Battle After Another (2025, US)

1=. Riefenstahl (2024, Germany)

1=. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024, Iran, Germany, France)

6=. … Read the rest

Categories
Art Movies Animation Documentary Features Live Action Shorts Top Ten Music

Top Ten Movies
(and more)
2025

Top Ten Movies (and more) 2025

Work in progress – subject to change. Because I am still watching movies released in 2025, so it’s always possible that a new title could usurp the number one in due course.

All numbered films received either a theatrical, online or home media release in the UK between 01/01/25 and 31/12/25.

This version includes re-releases, but those aren’t numbered. It’s hard to imagine movies improving on Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, Haneke’s The Piano Teacher or Woo’s Hard Boiled.

In addition to re-releases, this version also includes films seen in festivals which haven’t had any wider UK release in 2025.

Finally, last year’s list is here.

Top Ten Movies (and more) 2025

Please click on titles to see reviews.

The numbering will mostly be added later when I’ve watched more of the outstanding 2024 titles, and they have stopped moving around. So, currently, positions in this list should be taken with a pinch of salt.

*****

Babe (1995, Australia – reissue)

Battleship Potemkin / Music by Pet Shop Boys (1925, USSR – reissue, new score)

Brief Encounter (1945, UK – reissue; also in Film Tottenham’s BFI / Love & Obsession programme)

A Clockwork Orange (1971, US, UK – in Film Tottenham’s Cinema for All / 100 Years of Community Cinema programme)

The Devil’s Backbone (2001, Mexico, Spain – reissue)

Dogtooth (2009, Greece – reissue)

1=. … Read the rest

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Movies Features Live Action

London Korean
Film Festival
(LKFF)
2025

The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) 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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Movies Features Live Action

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

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