Ten Films Invited to Canada
 

North America’s largest fantastic film festival has invited ten Korean films this year, demonstrating the enduring popularity of Korean genre cinema. Fantasia Film Festival, which takes place in Montreal, Canada, is due to unspool from July 18th to August 6th. Eight features and a pair of medium length works, which run the gamut of genres, have been selected for this year’s edition.

 

Among the features on show will be SONG Hae-sung’s family dramedy Boomerang Family, starring PARK Hae-il, KONG Hyo-jin and YOON Je-moon, which was recently picked up for UK distribution by Third Window Films. Joining it will be the period caper comedy The Grand Heist, from director KIM Joo-ho, a big hit last summer starring the popular CHA Tae-hyun. Another Third Window acquisition, the fresh and innovative romcom How to Use Guys with Secret Tips from LEE Won-suk, will also screen. It wouldn’t be a genre film festival without some horror so it is no surprise to see last year’s PiFan opening film, the omnibus Horror Stories, among the line-up. Propping up the art-house end of things will be JEON Kyu-hwan’s The Weight, which has won festival awards at the International Film Festival of India and the Tallin Black Nights Film Festival.

 

Meanwhile Showbox has three titles in the line-up, including: LIM Sang-yun’s hitman film A Company Man, starring So Ji-sub; JUNG Byung-gil’s dark thriller Confession of Murder with JUNG Jae-young and PARK Si-hoo; and JANG Cheol-soo’s current webcomic smash hit Secretly Greatly, starring KIM Soo-hyun, PARK Ki-woong and LEE Hyun-woo, which was recently featured as a gala presentation at the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF).

 

The medium length works on show this year will be YEUN Sang-ho’s The King of Pigs follow-up The Window, which chronicles his mandatory time in the military service, and JO Young-joon’s 3D sci-fi fantasy The Witch. Canadian viewers will be able to sample a broad selection of Korean cinema in a just a few days time when Fantasia kicks off with a screening of Japanese auteur MIIKE Takashi’s latest film Shield of Straw.