15 Films you shouldn’t miss at the 23rd Seoul International Women’s Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on August 23, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

These are fifteen films that you shouldn’t miss at the 23rd Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, which will take place in cinemas and online from August 26th until September 1st, 2021 in Seoul, Korea.

About the festival:
The Seoul International Women’s Film Festival (SIWFF) is a unique and influential event presenting new values and the alternatives from a feminist perspective among Korean international film festivals. The festival contributes to the development of women’s positive values and plays an essential role establishing a network between Asian and the other countries. SIWFF provides the ways to promote and exhibit Korean women’s films abroad by discovering and supporting women in film industry. It also helps Korean film industry develop and have diversity. Forming future-oriented, alternative culture, SIWFF contributes to the development of the balanced Korea culture to improve Korean national image.

– Recommended Films –

**30 Years of Sisterhood: Women in the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan** by Yamagami Chieko, Seyama Noriko – Japan | 2004 – 57 minutes – **Section**: Polemics

The film is based on the stories of 12 women who lived the Women’s Liberation movement in Japan in the 1970s. The Women’s Liberation influenced countless individual lives, and those who met the Women’s Liberation realized the importance of living their own lives honestly with their own senses and thoughts, not influenced by some traditional values and norms. (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**A Girl at My Door** by Jung July – South Korea | 2014 – 119 minutes
**Section**: Swaggin’ Like Doona

Young-nam is a police officer demoted to a small beach town’s chief from police headquarters in Seoul. Now, as the chief of a local precinct, Young-nam tries to save a young girl named Do-hee from her abusive stepfather at the cost of her career — an act Do-hee makes the dangerous decision to reciprocate. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 28th, 2021 | Saturday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup Branch MX | 15:00 pm

Trailer:

**#AfterMeToo** by Lee Somyi, Soram, Park, Sohyun, Kangyu Garam – South Korea | 2021 – 84 minutes
**Section**: Discovery

How has our society changed since the #MeToo movement shook up the South Korean society? In the midst of the reality, where the power of backlash and solidarity among men is still the same and patriarchy and structural sexism still exist, can these questions be answered? The film explores the questions and possibilities that the #MeToo movement has left, through the daily lives and voices of today’s women. (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**As One** by Moon Hyun-sung – South Korea | 2012 – 127 minutes
**Section**: Swaggin’ Like Doona

In 1991, Hyun Jung-hwa, a table tennis star, hears about forming a unified Korean national table tennis team. Players from the two Koreas will compete as a single unit under the name of “Korea.” However, a war of nerves between Junghwa of South Korea and Bun-hui of North Korea is getting worse by the day. Although the competition is approaching, conflict, instead of harmony, continues to grow. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 28th, 2021 | Saturday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 6 | 10:20 am

Trailer:

**Coming to You** by Byun Gyuri – South Korea | 2021 – 93 minutes
**Section**: Discovery

Nabi (55), a veteran firefighter, prided herself for living a successful life until one day her child Hankyeol comes out to her by saying: “Mom, I want to get a mastectomy.” Meanwhile, Vivian (50), a flight attendant, sheds tears after reading her son Ye-Joon’s letter: “I’m gay.” Facing the reality that their children are struggling, what should the two mothers do? (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**Ito** by Yokohama Satoko – Japan | 2021 – 116 minutes
**Section**: New Currents

Ito, a high school student in far north Tsugaru, plays the Tsugaru shamisen as a hobby. She learned it from her late mother, a master player in her own right. While Ito can express herself through music, talking is a little harder due to shyness caused by her strong Tsugaru dialect. So she has a few friends, but has a strong inner spirit which leads her to take on a big challenge — working at a maid cafe. (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**Kim Min-young of the Report Card** by Lee Jae-eun, Lim Jisun – South Korea | 2021 – 94 minutes
**Section**: Discovery

20-year-old Jung-hee doesn’t go to college and works parttime. She goes to meet Min-young, her old high school roommate, for the first time in a while and wants to hang out with her as they did before. However, Min-young, a college student, is busy sending correction emails regarding her credits and feels uncomfortable by Jung-hee’s visit. (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**Out: Smashing Homophobia Project** by Lee Young – South Korea | 2007 – 114 minutes
**Section**: Feminist Collective: Women’s Filmmaking in Asia

Chun-jae, Cho-i and Koma have their own concerns. The three main characters set out on a journey of intense and passionate self-exploring to discover the “self” that they want. A documentary in the form of a self-diary about the growth of teenage lesbians. (SIWFF 2021)

**Padauk: Myanmar Spring** by Jeanne Hallacy, Rares Michael Ghilezan
Myanmar, Thailand, USA | 2021 – 56 minutes – **Section**: New Currents

Through Nant, a young, first-time protester, we meet three human rights activists whose lives have been turned upside down by the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar. As the protests continue, Nant comes to understand the truth of a brutal regime that has continued to wage war against its own people for decades. Nant’s political awakening regarding the plight of others in her ethnically diverse country gives hope for the future. (SIWFF 2021)

**Snowball** by Lee Woo-jung – South Korea | 2020 – 111 minutes
**Section**: Discovery

Gangi, Soyeong, and Aram are best friends who go to the same high school. One day, they decide to run away from home. However, life does not go easy on them, and cracks begin to form in their relationship. They eventually return home and go back to school only to face more challenges. Life got worse, the more we ran from it. (SIWFF 2021)

Trailer:

**Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance** by Park Chan-wook – South Korea | 2002 – 120 minutes
**Section**: Swaggin’ Like Doona

Ryu is a deaf-mute man working in a factory. His sister desperately needs a kidney transplant. To raise money, Ryu kidnappers Dong-jin’s daughter at his girlfriend Yeong-mi’s suggestion. However, Ryu’s sister kills herself when she learned of the news. What is worse, the girl accidentally dies. Dong-jin sets out to get merciless revenge on Yeong-mi and Ryu after the loss of his child. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 27th, 2021 | Friday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 6 | 19:20 pm

Trailer:

**Ten Months** by Namkoong Sun – South Korea | 2020 – 96 minutes
**Section**: The Landscape of Here in Now

Mirae, a twentysomething programmer, feels strangely hung over one day. To her horror, she finds out that she is pregnant. Denial, panic and mixed messages from friends, family and the law send Mirae into a frenzy of ambivalence. But time does not spare her to sort out her mind. Suddenly, Mirae is in the middle of a strange new world. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 27th, 2021 | Friday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 3 | 19:10 pm

Trailer:

**The Day I Died: Unclosed Case** by Park Jiwan – South Korea | 2020 – 117 minutes
**Section**: New Currents

Hyunsoo is a detective who is about to return to work after a long break. She heads to an island to close a missing girl’s case as suicide even though the girl was a key witness of a crime. As Hyunsoo tracks the girl, she feels compassionate to see the suffering the girl suffered all alone. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 28th, 2021 | Saturday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 6 | 16:30 pm

Trailer:

**The Train Passed** by Kam Jeongwon – South Korea | 2021 – 75 minutes
**Section**: The Landscape of Here in Now

Heesu, who works at a dyeing factory, has a boyfriend, Hakseon who works at the same factory. One day, she takes a long overdue trip to Gangwon Province. However, it is hard to know where her journey begins or where it ends. (SIWFF 2021)

Screening Dates:
August 29th, 2021 | Sunday | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 5 | 16:40 pm

Trailer:

**Women’s Testimonies – Pioneer Women in Labor Movements in Japan** by Haneda Sumiko
Japan | 1996 – 94 minutes – **Section**: Politics

In 1982, socialist researcher Ishido Kiyotomo held a round table. The participants were the pioneer women activists in the socialist labor movements from Taisho to Showa era. Asked by Ishido, film director Haneda Sumiko recorded the meeting. Years later, she did additional shootings and completed a documentary film. The female activists speak about their experiences of discrimination and enslavement. (SIWFF 2021)

For more information, please go to: https://www.siwff.or.kr/eng/