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OH Dong-jin, a renowned film critic and former director of the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival, visited the London Korean Film Festival (November 6th to 15th), which celebrated its eighth anniversary this year. Deeply impressed by the positive reception of local audiences towards films from a small country in the Far East, OH sent KOBIZ a vivid report on the Korean film craze in London.

Quite honestly, nobody expected to see such a phenomenon. When the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF)  launched in 2006 in a small corner of the Barbican Center in London, hardly anybody anticipated such a big growth and success. Once launched, a film festival has to either move onwards or stop. There is no such thing as retreating. And once it ends, no festival of the same name can be launched again at the same location. That is why you need to be very careful and cautious when launching a film festival. Among the great achievements of this festival over the last eight years is that it has steadily introduced Korean films to local audiences every year. Hosting a film festival is no easy job even when you are running it at home. Holding it in a foreign country and making it increasingly more successful every year is worthy of receiving praise.

 

The London Korean Film Festival this year was an unprecedented success. Approximately 5,000 patrons visited the film festival over the ten days from November 6th to the 15th. It is worth noting that about 80% of them were Londoners. The screening list included 42 films, which is about the same size as last year. However, in terms of quality, it was much more balanced and advanced this year. Between the opening film Hide and Seek and the closing film Boomerang Family, the festival program featured a variety ranging from several box office hits like Miracle in Cell No. 7, The Flu and Montage, to critics’ choices like On the Road. 

 

It is also worth noting that this edition hosted a special collection on KANG Woo-suk, which is the first time this has happened outside Korea. According to JEON Hye-jeong, the film festival director, “we have worked very hard to introduce both art films and popular commercial films.” She added, “to promote and establish the Korean film market in London and beyond, it is important to introduce more and more Korean popular films, as well as art films, and in that aspect, holding KANG’s collection is a very meaningful event.” KANG’s collection featured six films including Public Enemy (2002) and Fist of Legend, and tickets were sold out for every screening.

 

In addition, the ‘Korean Classics: The Korean War’ section screened significant classic pieces like The Red Scarf (1964), and Marines Are Gone (1963), while director ‘KIM Jee-woon: The Shorts’ was also passionately received by festival visitors.

 

The London Korean Film Festival is now not only a major Korean film festival held outside of Korea but also gaining presence in the domestic Korean film milieu. More and more cineastes are invited to this festival as the years go by. This year, SON Hyun-ju of Hide and Seek, YOUN Yuh-jung and YOON Je-Moon from Boomerang Family, and SEOL Kyung-gu from KANG Woo-suk’s special collection attended the festival and were warmly received by local viewers, many of them asking for autographs. As for directors, KANG Woo-suk, KIM Sung-su of The Flu, HUH Jung of Hide and Seek, SONG Hae-sung of Boomerang Family, and E J-yong of Behind the Camera were invited and led Q&A sessions on the stage.

 
LKFF is a practical example that shows the importance of a sort of ‘base camp strategy’ for the Korean film industry to launch into the global market. So far, Korean cinema has held on to a rather simple strategy of focusing on major international film festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice and sending works to these events. While it is a good way to introduce some of the finest Korean films, it doesn’t suffice to present Korean cinema as a whole, especially mainstream films. To serve this need, a basecamp strategy would be a good idea and we can see a good example of this in the London Korean Film Festival. Now the question is how to create the second and third London phenomenon. Base camp strategies aim at expanding the territory. With London as a stable base, now is the time to discuss the ways in which Korean film festivals may prosper beyond London, hopefully in many more cities in Europe and worldwide.

 

By OH Dong-jin, film critic and