Korean Film Festival in Australia 2017

Overview

Recognised as one of the most exciting film industries in Asia, the Korean cinema scene has been knocking it out of the park for years now — without it, we wouldn't have Bong Joon-ho's Okja and Snowpiercer, or Park Chan-wook's Stoker and The Handmaiden, for example. And the fact that neither directors have made the bill at the 2017 Korean Film Festival in Australia shows just how much talent the country has to choose from. Basically, there's plenty of other filmmaking greats where they came from.

This year's KOFFIA, the festival's eighth, features straight-from-Cannes flicks, cinematic masters delivering their newest hits and many a movie in between. Boasting 24 films on its national lineup and bringing seven to Brisbane, the festival will kick off on September 8 with The World of Us, a thoughtful drama about bullying and friendship, before coming to a close on September 10 with crime-thriller The Queen of Crime.

Other highlights include animated zombie onslaught Seoul Station, the companion piece to last year's kinetic live-action effort Train to Busan, plus historical crime drama The Age of Shadows. Also on the program is a dose of suspense with murder-mystery The Tooth and the Nail, and some fast-paced action in The Merciless.