Korean Film Festival 2016 at SM Cinemas

The annual Korean Film Festival unreels to showcase five blockbuster and criticallyacclaimed films at selected SM Cinemas from Sept. 8 to Oct. 16. With Strong Hearts as this year’s theme, the festival will feature films with characters of strong personalities and those who pursue their goals and desires with courage and determination.

A joint partnership between the Korean Embassy’s Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines and SM Cinema, the film festival will begin its run at SM City Clark in Pampanga from Sept. 8 to 11. It will be followed by screenings at SM Lanang Premier in Davao, Sept. 15 to 18; SM City Iloilo, Sept. 22 to 25; SM City Cebu, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1; and SM City Dasmariñas in Cavite, Oct. 6 to 9. The film festival’s culminating event will be on Oct. 8 to 11 at SM Megamall.

Other partners include the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), Film Cultural Exchange Program, the Korea Tourism Organization-Manila (KTO) and the Korea Copyright Commission.

The featured films give us a glimpse of Korean history and culture. Ode to My Father is a South Korean drama that depicts modern Korean history from the ’50s to the present day. This is seen through the life of an ordinary man, as he experienced events such as the Hungnam evacuation of 1950 during the Korean War, the government’s decision to dispatch nurses and miners to Germany in the 1960s and the Vietnam War.

Other films highlight different aspects of Korean everyday life. On the lighter side, there isT he

Beauty Inside, a story about a furniture designer who wakes up in a different body every day, regardless of age, gender and nationality, and how he could reunite with his special someone.

How to Use Guys with Secret Tips, a part-romcom, part-satire of the Korean film industry, follows an overworked woman’s attempt to improve her relationship with men.

There are also crime and action films such as Confession of Murder, which is about a man who confesses murders he committed by publishing a book and a detective who is searching for the author of the book; and The

Suspect, which is about a North Korean agent who tries to uncover the volatile secrets hidden inside the eyeglasses of a dead man after he’s betrayed and has escaped.

For details, call the Korean Cultural Center at 555-1711 or e-mail