Bucheon fantastic film fest to kick off this month

SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's largest genre film festival will open its 21st edition on July 13 with a far larger number of homegrown films than previous years.

This year's Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) will screen 289 features and shorts from 58 countries around the world under the theme "Love, Fantasy and Adventure," organizers said during a recent news conference. The lineup included 63 world premieres and 29 international premieres. An international premiere is the first showing outside of the home country.

There is no big difference in the total number of films to be shown from last year's 302. But Korean titles increased greatly from last year's 65 to 109 this year.

The 11-day festival will open with the world premiere of South Korean director Lee Yong-seung's comedy-action thriller "Room No. 7." The film starring Shin Ha-gyun and Do Kyung-soo, better known as D.O. of K-pop boy group EXO, follows a self-employed worker and his young assistant's struggle to survive in the era of neoliberalism.

The closing film is "Gintama," adapted from a popular Japanese manga of the same title.

The festival will give retrospectives of films by late director Hong Ki-seon of "Where the Truth Lies" (2009) and of 17 films spanning Cannes-winning actress Jeon Do-yeon's 20-year career.

Hong's last movie "The Discloser" will premiere in this category. Starring Kim Sang-kyung and Kim Ok-vin, the film is about a soldier and a television reporter who delve into corruption in the military which is related to first-class secrets.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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