Korean Film Festival in Australia 2018

Overview

A good film festival gives attendees a little of everything, and that's certainly the case at the returning Korean Film Festival in Australia. For its ninth year, the touring event jumps from the drama of opening night's A Taxi Driver, to the comedy of Midnight Runners, to the scares of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. The first was this year's Korean submission to the Oscar's foreign-language category, the second serves up Korean's take on the buddy cop storyline, and the third haunts and thrills in the found-footage mould.

They're just some of the titles on the lineup for 2018's festival, which comes to ACMI from September 6 to 13. Other highlights include Little Forest, the kind-hearted tale of a woman leaving city life behind to head back to her small home town; The Vanished, a psychological thriller that has been compared to Alfred Hitchcock's work; and Believer, a slick crime flick about a determined detective on the case of a drug cartel that's also a remake of acclaimed Chinese-Hong Kong effort Drug War.

In total, 16 films will screen across KOFFIA's eight-day Melbourne run, with the fest coming to an end with closing night's Microhabitat. It's about an ageing housekeeper who just wants to make enough money for her cigarettes, whiskey and boyfriend, and it's the acclaimed first effort from female filmmaker Jeon Go-woon.