Spotlight on Korea

Park Joon Ho’s fascinating, deeply poignant film tells the story of a gay North Korean defector adjusting to life in Seoul. The writer-director walks a fine line: his film is humane enough to avoid cynicism and honest enough to reject false uplift.

Kim Ilrhan’s doc explores the lives of two trans women. Alice is a lighting director who dreams of becoming a dancer; Edhi is a counsellor preparing for gender-affirming surgery. The film is notable for its honesty and its wealth of detail.

Insurance investigator Yoo-na is working a case of death by drowning; her company claims suicide, but the truth is unclear. Confronting an eccentric beneficiary with great powers of persuasion, Yoo-na finds herself in a fog of doubt and suspicion.

Adapting Donald E. Westlake’s novel of ruthless corporate head-hunting The Ax, virtuoso filmmaker Park Chan-wook whips up his trademark blend of high style, suspense, and satire, in keeping with his classics Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave.

This sleek, polished, jet-black comedy-thriller tells the story of Jae-in, an aspiring actress who gets in a sticky situation with her boyfriend, only to discover a soap company with a side service cleaning up bigger-than-average messes.

In this darkly compelling drama, an orphaned tennis player is forced to be as competitive at home as she is on the court. Chosen to be the live-in trainer of a wealthy girl, teenage Young-sun soon finds herself caught up in deceit and manipulation.

VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo returns with another winner: a symmetrically designed, deceptively casual delight. An extended, drunken encounter between a poet and his girlfriend’s family progresses toward revelation — with many amusing stops along the way.

Da-bin has a broke mother, a runaway brother, and a sister who’s going deaf, but gets by thanks to his best friend and caring girlfriend. Poignant and poetic, this is a film that explores the pain of adolescence and the stress of competing loyalties.

Two sisters face each other down over the course of this tense, mysterious psychological thriller. Hayoung is trainer of violent rescue dogs; Sora is fresh out of prison. Their reacquaintance will lead to a violent, cathartic climax.