The Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) returns into cinemas in 2022 with a fabulous line-up of excellent new Korean films, spanning across a range of exciting genres.

The Festival program features 13 of the finest films from Korea’s internationally recognised film industry.

Opening this year’s Korean Film Festival in Australia is the high octane, adrenaline pumping SPECIAL DELIVERY.

Reminiscent of Transporter, Park Dae-min’s crime action film sees a secret delivery clerk dragged into a crime caper that that develops into a gargantuan gallop in a long pursuit from Seoul to Busan. Think Train to Busan but in a car and the zombies are living, breathing coldhearted killers.

SPECIAL DELIVERY starts with full metal to the pedal action with vehicular stunts that used to be saved up for a film’s climax rather than its opening. The cunning stunt team work overtime in precision driving, careening chassis and burning rubber. Watch out for the masterclass in parallel parking!

Graceful gear shifts, breathtaking braking, and reverse parking procedures to die for, SPECIAL DELIVERY introduces a wily wheel woman, Eun-ha, sassily played by Parasite star, Park So-dam.

Her driving makes Bullit look like Steve McQueen on learner plates and why she’s considered the best in her field, a courier of special, urgent cargo, no questions asked.

Her latest gig involves a crooked police officer and his son, and the gang that needs the kid to extract vital information. Eun-ha lives for motion but eschews emotion, but close proximity to the kid starts to whittle away the wheel woman’s determination to remain detached.

Among the metal mayhem and the chrome crunching carnage, there’s hand to hand biffo and a satisfying build of character development with hand to heart pathos.

Continuing the crime spree part of the festival is THE POLICEMAN’S LINEAGE. Reminiscent of Infernal Affairs, which was remade by Scorsese as The Departed, The Policeman’s Lineage follows Min-jae (CHOI Woo-shik), whose family has been in the police force for generations, and has been ordered to investigate fellow cop, Kang-yoon (CHO Jin-woong).

Min-jae has been recruited because he ratted on a partner for using brutal tactics on a suspect, making him a pariah to some but perfect as an anti corruption investigator. Min-jae is of the belief that, “if the police do something illegal even if it has occurred during the process of investigation, he is also a criminal.”

Kang-yoon has come under suspicion because of his striking results and sartorial splendour, neither of which police pay or procedure could honestly sustain. Min-jae infiltrates Kang-yoon’s squad, and is adopted unabashedly by the head man who has the belief of, “the chase of crime should be justified even if it’s illegal.”

THE POLICEMAN’S LINEAGE is a highly entertaining crime drama none the less intriguing for the ethical dilemma faced by both principal characters. Experience and instinct clash with by-the-book bureaucracy, salted by office politics envy and personal historic ties. A cracker.

If you liked Argo, the you will relish ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU.

Escape from Mogadishu is set in the late 1980s at the height of the Cold War, with a diplomatic skirmish taking place in Somalia’s capital which ultimately leaves both the South and North Korean diplomats in their respective embassies, trapped.

The only way out and a chance for survival is co-operation between the two opposing diplomatic missions. Suspicions must be overcome, a truce of trust must be established before a life and death escape can be negotiated.

Writer director Ryoo Seung-wan begins his film with a comedic tone which ghosts the film throughout, ratcheting up occasionally to the absurd, which pays off with the nail biting finale where DIY bullet proofed vehicles run a gauntlet of relentless pursuit and fire power. Wow!

Skewed romantic comedies dont come much better than PERHAPS LOVE. Akin to the best of Woody Allen, PERHAPS LOVE is a comedy pretzel, crisp, salty with plenty of satisfying sophisticated bite.

Kim Hyeon is the author of a best selling author who is suffering writer’s block. Instead of angling a new book which he has been paid a princely advance, he has been fishing, casting lines without having written a line.

His pal publisher, Kim Hee-won is not happy and is demanding pages.

His ex-wife, Mi-ae is not happy because their son, Seong-kyeong is proving troublesome and suicidal since his girlfriend left him after falling pregnant to another boy.

A ruse concerning the fake funeral of an old teacher finally brings him home to a confrontation with his grudge bearing brother to whom he innocently precipitates another axe to grind when the boyfriend professes his love for him.

This set of kindling ignites into a bonfire of vanities as his ex wife and publisher continue a secret affair, a sudden reconciliation with his ex wife is discovered by their son, his current wife arrives from overseas, and he and his brother’s ex lover embark on a working relationship fraught with unrequited love.

Seriously funny, PERHAPS LOVE is sophisticated comedy with sparkling dialogue, a tincture of pathos and a splash of slapstick. What fun!

The Festival boasts fantasy and mystery too, and on the strength of the four aforementioned films, the quality bar will be high.

Tickets to the Korean Film Festival in Australia are on sale now at www.koffia.com.au

2022 KOFFIA screening dates and locations:

• Sydney: August 18 – 23 | Event Cinema George St

• Melbourne: September 1 – 5 | ACMI, Fed Square

• Canberra: September 1 – 3 | Palace Electric Cinema

• Brisbane: September 8 – 11 | Elizabeth Picture Theatre

Stay up to date with KOFFIA:

Website:www.koffia.com.au
Facebook:www.facebook.com/koreanfilmfestival
Instagram:www.instagram.com/koreanfilmfestival
Twitter:www.twitter.com/koffiafilmfest