The London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff) celebrates its sixth edition in 2021 with a commitment to diverse, culturally impactful cinema entertainment. After a year of shut cinema doors, Leaff is returning home to London’s big screens with an expanded catalogue to help stimulate the renaissance of cinema and promote cultural empathy.
With cinematic offerings from eight regions – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – this year’s programme is an ode to the quiet and independent voices from East Asia. Two international premieres, five European premieres and 18 UK premieres will take place at our state-art-of-the-art venues, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, The Cinema at Selfridges, as well as the newly opened Odeon Luxe West End and The Chiswick Cinema. The festival is divided into five strands: Official Selection, Competition, Hong Kong Focus, Documentary, and Retrospective.
Opening Gala
The festival opens with a memorial to the late Benny Chan...
With cinematic offerings from eight regions – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – this year’s programme is an ode to the quiet and independent voices from East Asia. Two international premieres, five European premieres and 18 UK premieres will take place at our state-art-of-the-art venues, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, The Cinema at Selfridges, as well as the newly opened Odeon Luxe West End and The Chiswick Cinema. The festival is divided into five strands: Official Selection, Competition, Hong Kong Focus, Documentary, and Retrospective.
Opening Gala
The festival opens with a memorial to the late Benny Chan...
- 9/25/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Director Cho Jung-rae has made a name for himself with period films like “Spirits’ Homecoming” and its sequel “Spirits’ Homecoming, Unfinished Story” as well as “Duresori: The Voice of the East”, a story set in the National High School of Traditional Arts revolving around singing. For his new work “The Singer”, he combines both the period setting of the Spirits’ Homecoming films and the singing angle from his debut.
Synopsis
The story that made the world laugh
The voice that made the world cry
Ten years of King Yeongjo’s reign, Hak-gyu, a talented sorikkun (pansori singer) searches for his wife, Gan-nan. One by one, the band of entertainers led by a singer is filled with excitement as the Eight Provinces of Joseon’s traveling theater begins. We meet the impoverished Joseon on the road! Hak-gyu’s song that made the people cry begins to be the sound that changes the world.
Synopsis
The story that made the world laugh
The voice that made the world cry
Ten years of King Yeongjo’s reign, Hak-gyu, a talented sorikkun (pansori singer) searches for his wife, Gan-nan. One by one, the band of entertainers led by a singer is filled with excitement as the Eight Provinces of Joseon’s traveling theater begins. We meet the impoverished Joseon on the road! Hak-gyu’s song that made the people cry begins to be the sound that changes the world.
- 7/4/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
The 52nd ceremony was held on December 27, 2016 at Sejong University’s Convention Center and hosted by Kim Byung-chan, Kong Seo-young, Lee Tae-im.
Lee Byung-hun, who won the “Best Male Actor”, decided to speak about the still-existing controversy surrounding the awards ceremony, during his acceptance speech:
“I’m happy to receive this award, but my heavy heart takes precedence. There’s been a lot of talk about and problems with the Grand Bell Awards, and I feel like these problems have still not been addressed,” he said. He called for action to be taken, and hopes that the industry will eventually come to an understanding.
The ceremony has been criticized for its fee-based voting system, poor accounting practices, and was supposedly boycotted last year for announcing -but later retracted- that only attendees could win awards. Similar to last year, many of the nominees and subsequent winners were not in attendance.
Kim Hye-su
Source: Soompi.
Lee Byung-hun, who won the “Best Male Actor”, decided to speak about the still-existing controversy surrounding the awards ceremony, during his acceptance speech:
“I’m happy to receive this award, but my heavy heart takes precedence. There’s been a lot of talk about and problems with the Grand Bell Awards, and I feel like these problems have still not been addressed,” he said. He called for action to be taken, and hopes that the industry will eventually come to an understanding.
The ceremony has been criticized for its fee-based voting system, poor accounting practices, and was supposedly boycotted last year for announcing -but later retracted- that only attendees could win awards. Similar to last year, many of the nominees and subsequent winners were not in attendance.
Kim Hye-su
Source: Soompi.
- 1/8/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Based on the true story of Kang Il-Chul, a comfort woman, the completion and screening of “Spirits’ Homecoming” was a triumph in itself, as you can read here.
The script moves on two axes: The first one takes place in 1943, during the Japanese Occupation of Korea. 14-year-old Jung-min lives a poor but happy life with her parents in the countryside. Her life changes radically for the worse, when she is picked by the Japanese army to act as a comfort woman for the soldiers, as the authorities picked this way to offer relief to the stressed soldiers of the front. As her life becomes a living hell, with the beating and raping being an everyday occurrence, she manages to make friend, Yeong-hee. Eventually, along with some other girls, she tries to escape.
The second axis takes place in 1991, where an older Jung-min works as a tailor. One of her clients...
The script moves on two axes: The first one takes place in 1943, during the Japanese Occupation of Korea. 14-year-old Jung-min lives a poor but happy life with her parents in the countryside. Her life changes radically for the worse, when she is picked by the Japanese army to act as a comfort woman for the soldiers, as the authorities picked this way to offer relief to the stressed soldiers of the front. As her life becomes a living hell, with the beating and raping being an everyday occurrence, she manages to make friend, Yeong-hee. Eventually, along with some other girls, she tries to escape.
The second axis takes place in 1991, where an older Jung-min works as a tailor. One of her clients...
- 9/19/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Cho Jung-rae’s Korean drama has sold to China and Taiwan.
M-Line Distribution has added deals on Korean comfort women drama Spirits’ Homecoming to China (Red Apollo) and Taiwan (Long Shong).
Directed by Cho Jung-rae, the film is based on the true story of young Korean girls taken to China and forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War.
Starring Kang Hana, Choi Lee, Son Suk and Hwang Hwa-sun, the film also takes place in 1991 in Korea, when a young spiritual medium - also trying to heal from scars of sexual violence - is asked to do a Homecoming ritual to call back the spirits of those killed in China.
Considered a sleeper hit locally, the film is set for a May 16 market screening in Cannes.
Waw Pictures released it in Korea Feb 24 and took in $23.2m at the box office, according to the Korean Film Council.
According to M-Line...
M-Line Distribution has added deals on Korean comfort women drama Spirits’ Homecoming to China (Red Apollo) and Taiwan (Long Shong).
Directed by Cho Jung-rae, the film is based on the true story of young Korean girls taken to China and forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War.
Starring Kang Hana, Choi Lee, Son Suk and Hwang Hwa-sun, the film also takes place in 1991 in Korea, when a young spiritual medium - also trying to heal from scars of sexual violence - is asked to do a Homecoming ritual to call back the spirits of those killed in China.
Considered a sleeper hit locally, the film is set for a May 16 market screening in Cannes.
Waw Pictures released it in Korea Feb 24 and took in $23.2m at the box office, according to the Korean Film Council.
According to M-Line...
- 5/14/2016
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Overview
This month more than 20 million people attended the Korean cinemas with sales reaching over $134 million dollars. Korean productions were watched by most of the public (62.54%) and sales pass the $83 million. As for Foreign films there were watched by the 37.46% of the public and sales reach $50 million. For the first time in the last three years the total number of admissions pass the 20 million mark. The release of A Violent Prosecutor by Lee Il-hyung attracted a lot of people and really made a difference.
Taking into account data from last year we can see that this February there was an increase of 29.24% in admissions. Korean Films admissions went up by 63.32% and Foreign Films went down only by 4.16%. Sales also show an increase of $17 million dollars.
Korean Movie Release
This month the most watched Korean Films were: A Violent Prosecutor (Showbox) by Lee Il-hyung with 9.4 million admissions; Spirits’ Homecoming (M-Line Distribution...
This month more than 20 million people attended the Korean cinemas with sales reaching over $134 million dollars. Korean productions were watched by most of the public (62.54%) and sales pass the $83 million. As for Foreign films there were watched by the 37.46% of the public and sales reach $50 million. For the first time in the last three years the total number of admissions pass the 20 million mark. The release of A Violent Prosecutor by Lee Il-hyung attracted a lot of people and really made a difference.
Taking into account data from last year we can see that this February there was an increase of 29.24% in admissions. Korean Films admissions went up by 63.32% and Foreign Films went down only by 4.16%. Sales also show an increase of $17 million dollars.
Korean Movie Release
This month the most watched Korean Films were: A Violent Prosecutor (Showbox) by Lee Il-hyung with 9.4 million admissions; Spirits’ Homecoming (M-Line Distribution...
- 3/4/2016
- by Sebastian Nadilo
- AsianMoviePulse
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