By Jessica Gibbons and Simran Shoker
The ‘together culture’ is what sets apart Korean cinema from other film genres according to a visiting director, speaking at the launch of Sydney’s Korean Film Festival.
Lee Lu-da, a first time director premiering in Australia her film The Noisy Mansion, said: “Korean culture tends to delve a lot in the past. There’s a hard tension there in the Korean culture and in the movie as well
“I wanted to portray that in the movie and kind of embrace that and connect with the Korean culture.
“So Korean culture is not just an individual culture, it’s like a together culture.”
The Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) kicked off on Thursday with a line-up of 10 Australian premiere film screenings in Sydney, which will be followed by a touring program offering free screenings in six regional cities across the country.
Now in its 15th year, KOFFIA, which is organised by the Korean Culture Centre AU, has a five-day program in Sydney screening eight films, and this year expanded to take in more locations as part of its tour.
KOFFIA programmer Francis Lee said: “Each story reflects the vibrancy of Korean cinema today.
“We are especially proud to expand our touring program in 2025, giving more Australians the chance to connect with Korean culture through the power of film.”
There are a range of films on show, representing different facets of Korean life.
Opening the festival and screening across all regional locations, romantic drama Hear Me: Our Summer is a remake of the 2009 Taiwanese hit Hear Me, featuring up-and-coming screen talents Hong Kyung, Roh Yoon-seo, and Kim Minju – a former member of K-pop group IZ*ONE – in her feature film debut.
A scene from Shiri. Supplied.
Hidden Face, based on the 2011 Colombian film of the same name, pairs Song Seung-heon and Parasite’s Cho Yeo-jeong in a psychological mystery set in the world of classical music.
The programme is rounded out with the newly restored 4K Shiri (1999), a blockbuster that sparked the Korean Wave of cinema, as well as The Daechi Scandal, Dirty Money, Secret: Untold Melody, and The Noisy Mansion.
Lu-da and Gyeong Su-jin, the lead actor in The Noisy Mansion, spoke at the post-screening through an interpreter.
Sujin said she had wanted to become an actor since high school when she was inspired by the Korean actress Kang Soo Yeon.
Her film The Noisy Mansion is a laugh-out-loud mystery about a determined tenant who ropes in a cast of eccentric neighbours to investigate bizarre sounds echoing through her apartment block.
I want to make a film like Crocodile Dundee in the future.
“Before uni, (I) really loved writing scenarios and just writing in general,” said Lu-da, who worked in film production before winning a film pitch competition in her mid-3os.
She said The Noisy Mansion was inspired by working in an office store that had noise coming from a different floor that she went to investigate and eventually found was a banner flapping around.
“[I thought] if [only] I had a nosy person around me to actually solve this mystery in the first place,” she said.
The global success of Korean cinema in recent years has been attributed by some to an agile production process and embracing cultural roots, using uniquely Korean elements to tell universal stories.
Lu-da also mentioned she has another film coming up that takes its inspiration from the Aussie film classic Crocodile Dundee.
“I want to make a film like Crocodile Dundee in the future if possible,” she said.
As well as Hear Me: Our Summer and The Noisy Mansion, KOFFIA’s free touring program includes About Family, which pairs Kim Yun-seok and Lee Seung-gi in a comedy-drama about a self-made chef whose world is turned upside down when a group of children walk into his restaurant claiming to be his grandchildren.
While, Forbidden Fairytale has a playful and offbeat charm with rising star Park Ji-hyun and Choi Si-won of K-pop pioneer group Super Junior as an unlikely duo: a struggling children’s book author and her steamy new ghostwriting gig in the world of web erotica.
The four touring program films run from September 13 to October 12 and be screened in Benalla, Toowoomba, Parramatta, Alice Springs, Victor Harbour and Whitsunday.
For more information see the full programme HERE.
Main image screenshot from Hidden Face, supplied.
