The Korean Film Festival in Singapore has eight screenings left in its 20th edition, with a 4K remaster of Train to Busan and an outdoor showing of Take Care of My Cat at *SCAPE on Saturday 17 October. The final weekend of the festival schedule runs from Friday 16 October to Sunday 18 October, mostly at GV Suntec City.
Tickets are S$3 a screening for the public and S$2 for Singapore Film Society members, who buy with a discount code. Sales are online only, through Eventive, with a platform fee on top and payment by credit or debit card. Every screening is free seating once the hall opens, and there is no waitlist queue.
Train to Busan returns in 4K for its 10th anniversary
Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 zombie thriller screens at 7.10pm on Saturday 17 October at GV Suntec City. The 10th anniversary 4K remaster runs 118 minutes and is rated NC16 for violence.
Gong Yoo plays Seok-woo, a divorced hedge-fund manager who boards the KTX bullet train from Seoul to Busan with his young daughter, Su-an, to visit her mother. A zombie outbreak spreads through the carriages on the way. Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok co-star.
An outdoor screening at *SCAPE
Twenty minutes after Train to Busan starts, *SCAPE hosts the festival’s only outdoor screening. The film is Take Care of My Cat, Jeong Jae-eun’s 2001 debut feature, rated PG and 112 minutes long.
Bae Doona, Lee Yo-won and Ok Ji-young star with twins Lee Eun-sil and Lee Eun-ju as a circle of friends from Incheon whose paths split as they turn 20. A stray cat named Teetee passes from one friend to the next. The screening starts at 7.30pm, and the nearest MRT stations are Somerset and Orchard.
The rest of the weekend at GV Suntec City
Friday 16 October has one film: 3670 at 7pm. Park Joonho’s first feature follows Cheol-jun, a North Korean refugee who steps into Seoul’s gay community to make friends and find love. The film runs 124 minutes and is rated R21.
Saturday opens with two recent releases before the double bill in the evening. Big Deal, at 1.20pm, stars Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Je-hoon in a drama loosely based on the sale of soju maker Jinro during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Number One, at 3.55pm, stars Choi Woo-shik as Ha-min, who sees a number drop each time he eats his mother’s cooking and learns that zero means she will die.
Sunday 18 October has three screenings. Mad Dance Office, at 1.40pm, follows a district office worker played by Yeom Hye-ran who ends up in a flamenco studio after she is passed over for promotion and her daughter goes missing. Lobby, at 4.20pm, is directed by and stars Ha Jung-woo as a tech company boss who plans his first golf outing to win a national EV charger contract.
Twenty years of Korean cinema in Singapore
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the Singapore Film Society organise the festival, with the Korean Film Council as programme partner. This year’s edition opened on 8 October at Oldham Theatre with The Journey to Gyeong-Ju, an invitation-only screening, and has 15 screenings in all.
The first weekend, from 9 to 11 October, covered The Square, Mad Dance Office, People & Meat, Hana Korea, Big Deal and The Price of Goodbye. GV Suntec City is on Level 3 of Suntec City Mall, next to Tower 4 and served by Promenade MRT station.
The festival closes with The Mutation, Shin Su-won’s M18 drama about a young man born Black to Korean parents, at 6.55pm on 18 October.
