Synopsis

Caught between pursuing his passion and settling for a “real” job, struggling actor Jihoon takes up a gig patrolling the streets of Seoul at night. A serendipitous meeting with Eunyoung, a kindred spirit also facing a personal crisis, turns into a reflective, intimate stroll through the city’s twilight hours. Beautiful black-and-white photography creates a stunning portrait of the city by night that is also a poetic meditation on love and life.

Synopsis

After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new directions.

Synopsis

Prolific director Hong Sangsoo returns with a wistful meditation on the creative process and the need for constant reinvention. Junhee is a famous writer in search of inspiration. Walking in the park, she bumps into a film director, who had tried and failed to adapt one of her previous novels. This serendipitous meeting begets many more, and soon she has a breakthrough: it’s about time she made a film herself. Enlisting the help of a disillusioned actor (Kim Minhee), old friends and former colleagues, she embarks on the bold new venture. Featuring Hong’s trademark dry wit and a series of stellar, naturalistic performances, the film continues his preoccupation with chance encounters as it celebrates the spontaneity of artistic creation.

Synopsis

Following the grisly death of her husband, Seo-rae (Tang-Wei) fails to show the typical signs of grief, prompting crackerjack investigator Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) to consider her a suspect in the man’s murder. Over the course of a series of stakeouts and interrogations, Hae-joon is increasingly drawn to his magnetic, mysterious target. Is the ace detective falling in love, or into a trap? At once a masterfully-crafted police procedural and an incisive meditation on the nature of love and identity, Decision to Leave is a tour-de-force of neo-noir filmmaking. Hitchcockian to its core, the film’s gleefully twisting plot keeps audiences (and its characters) guessing as it spirals toward an epic conclusion. Winner of the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, veteran auteur Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) expertly weaves together each intriguing thread as he spins this haunting tapestry of murder, madness, and deceit.

Synopsis

Under the dark cover of a stormy night, young mother So-young hesitantly places an infant in a “baby box,” a safe and anonymous place to leave children whose parents are unable or unwilling to care for them. But adoption is big business, and so is baby trafficking.

Saddled with substantial debt, laundry shop owner Sang-hyun enlists the help of Dong-soo, who works in the baby box facility, to abduct the newborn. When a regretful So-young returns the next day to reclaim her child, she realizes what they are up to. Instead of going to the police, she joins the men, and the three set out, with baby in tow, to find the perfect (and well-paying) parents. Meanwhile, the police are onto their racket, as two female detectives tail close behind. Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows, The Shoplifters) returns to the Festival with this ever-perceptive, unassuming inquiry into the nature of a “found family”—an unusual odyssey that brims with heartbreak, empathy, and ultimately hope.