Toronto invites five Korean films

The 35th Toronto International Film Festival has invited five Korean films this year, and anticipation is high. Poetry, The Housemaid, I Saw the Devil, Oki’s Movie, and Late Autumn (Manchu) will be all be launching their North American premieres in Toronto.

Director Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid was invited as the gala film, and will capitalize on all the mixed reviews from Cannes, which has generated an interesting buzz for the film. Or perhaps it’s just the nudity. Either way, this is the one people will be talking about. The Housemaid is a dramatic thriller of an affair gone wrong, starring Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, and Seo Woo.

Poetry, which won the prize for Best Screenplay at Cannes, will be featured in the Master Section. Directed by Lee Chang-dong and starring Yoon Jung-hee, Poetry is a film about a woman who fights Alzheimer’s by learning to write her own poems.

Both The Housemaid and Poetry are looking at Toronto as forays into the Oscars, and expectations are high for both productions to represent Korea in the foreign film category if things go their way.

I Saw the Devil, starring Lee Byung-heon and Choi Min-shik, was invited as a Special Presentation film. Directed by The Good, The Bad, The Weird‘s Kim Ji-woon, it’s a dark thriller about a secret service agent who goes after his wife’s killer.

Late Autumn and Oki’s Movie were both invited in the Contemporary World Cinema category, which showcases newer directors who are leading the pack in their respective countries.

Late Autumn stars Hyun Bin and Tang Wei in a story about a man on the run and a woman on a leave from prison, and their brief love affair. The remake, directed by Kim Tae-yong, is being hailed as a global project, a successful multi-national co-production.

Oki’s Movie, directed by Hong Sang-soo and starring Lee Seon-kyun and Jung Yumi, is about film student and her quirky relationship with a classmate. This one looks adorable. And y’all know how I feel about Lee Seon-kyun. Swoon.

The 35th Toronto International Film Festival will run from September 9-19.

Via Star News

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