Created in South Korea, curated in London and carted up to Scotland for your viewing pleasure, the 14th edition of the LKFF hits the Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Glasgow Film Theatre later this month. With a programme of four handpicked highlights combining cult classics from yesteryear and brand-spankers hot off the press, this year’s celebration coincides with Korean cinema’s centenary and delivers a flavour of the country’s filmmaking prowess. Full Scottish selection below:
Yu Hyun-Mok / South Korea / 1961 / 112 mins
Long-suffering accountant Cheolho is forced to survive on a salary that doesn’t even allow him to visit the dentist to tackle a nagging toothache. Nonetheless, he must string out his spending to accommodate the rest of his ramshackle family, including a war veteran brother, a sister forced into prostitution, a senile mother, a pregnant wife and two young children. The aftermath of the Korean war has not been kind to many of its citizens, with Cheolho’s plight the country in microcosm.
@ Filmhouse on Mon 18 Nov, 8.20pm
Hong Sangsoo / South Korea / 2017 / 66 mins
Eavesdropping addict A-reum earwigs on the conversations of the itinerant customers of a tucked away café in downtown Seoul, documenting their exchanges in her so-called “not a diary”. The film itself is similarly desultory in its narrative, though all might not be as it seems… are these characters really flesh-and-blood fellow humans, or travellers from another realm? Do they even exist at all?
@ Filmhouse on Tue 19 Nov, 8.45pm
@ GFT on Sun 24 Nov, 5.30pm
Kim Sol, Jihyoung Lee / South Korea / 2019 / 81 mins
When Su-min and Jin-ho’s parents file for divorce, the two ankle-biters are given the impossible choice of picking which one to live with. Clinging to the hope of reconciliation, Su-min attempts to engineer a family trip where all old scores can be settled and all old dogs allowed to sleep soundly. The difficulties of adult life filtered through a prism of innocence that can’t possibly last.
@ GFT on Tue 19 Nov, 8.15pm
Lee Man-hee / South Korea / 1964 / 110 mins
Dr Hyeon has got it made. Young and attractive, he’s landed himself a good job at a private hospital, where a marriage to the boss’s daughter is in the offing. But after a sexual dalliance with one of the nurses leads to her pregnancy, Hyeon’s one-way ticket on the gravy train threatens to come careening off the rails – especially when he resorts to drastic measures to deal with the situation.
@ Filmhouse on Sat 23 Nov, 3.15pm