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It’s not a gardening festival
LEAFF stands for London East Asian Film Festival. It’s 11 days of movies from China, Japan, South Korea and all across the eastern bits of Asia (don’t come for Hindi cinema, basically). It’s not just screenings: filmmakers and stars will be in town for talks and Q&As at venues across London.
There are 60 movies to pick from
Check out Hing Fan Wong’s directorial debut ‘I’m Livin’ It’, Japanese con-artist docudrama ‘Erica 38’ and Thai thriller ‘The Pool’, which may make you give up swimming forever.
Korean cinema is having a birthday bash (and everyone’s invited)
It’s the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema and LEAFF is cracking open the soju to celebrate. There’ll be old favourites and new films screening, including hit family comedy ‘Inseparable Bros’ and coming-of-age drama ‘The House of Hummingbird’. Korean artists are also showcasing works at Tate Modern.
It runs over Halloween, so expect scares
‘The Ring’ isn’t screening (you can put down your security blanket), but there are still plenty of jumps on offer. Hideo Nakata’s new J-horror ‘The Woman Who Keeps a Murderer’ screens on October 31. Keep an eye out for ‘Under Your Bed’ and ‘The Culprit’ too.
Samurai fans are in luck
There are Sunday screenings of samurai classics at Deptford Cinema during the festival, including ‘Sword of Doom’ and ‘Harakiri’. Look out for a double bill of Takashi Miike’s preposterously violent ‘13 Assassins’ and Kenji Misumi’s ‘Lone Wolf and Cub’ after the fest.
It’s coming soon…
The fest kicks off with a gala screening of Korean disaster movie ‘Exit’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on October 24.
LEAFF runs Oct 24-Nov 3. Various venues. From £10. For tickets and more information visit www.leaff.org.uk.