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S. Korea’s largest genre film fest kicks off in Bucheon

July 16, 2015
Shown is the poster of the 19th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. (Yonhap)

Shown is the poster of the 19th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. (Yonhap)

BUCHEON, South Korea, July 16 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s largest genre film fest raised its curtain for an 11-day run on Thursday with Lee Min-ho and other celebrities walking the red carpet at the opening ceremony.

Korean stars Lee, Moon Chae-won, Jung Woo, Kim Go-eun and Oh Dal-soo as well as Simon Yam Tat-Wah, a veteran Hong Kong-based actor, were some of the stars who graced the red carpet before making their way into the gala opening of the 19th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in the city located just west of Seoul.

This year’s festival features 235 films from 45 countries, with “Moonwalkers,” a British action comedy directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, opening the festival.

Set in July 1969, “Moonwalkers” follows a CIA agent who is sent to London to find Stanley Kubrick and ask him to shoot a fake moon landing in case the real one fails. Although he is not able to meet Kubrick, he crosses paths with the loser manager of a hippie rock band and embarks on an ill-fated mission to come up with the film together.

In order to enhance its identity as a “fantastic film festival,” the festival organizers focus on horror, sci-fi, thriller, suspense and action films that tell stories that rarely happen in the real world.

Also drawing attention is the event’s inclusion of several local commercial films such as “Coin Locker Girl,” a crime drama starring Kim Hye-soo and Kim Go-eun, and “Mad Sad Bad,” an omnibus film co-directed by Ryu Seung-wan, Kim Tae-yong and Han Ji-seung that opened the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2014.

The Bucheon festival is scheduled to close on July 26 with “The Chosen: Forbidden Cave,” a Korean horror flick directed by Kim Hui that follows an exorcist who faces a powerful being during the exorcism of a woman.