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There’s a certain performance to family gatherings, a kind of unspoken agreement to keep things pleasant. Director Hur Jin-ho’s A Normal Family understands this social contract intimately, and its opening movements are dedicated to showing us the polished surface just before it shatters.

The film, whose title drips with irony, introduces us to two brothers living starkly different lives. Jae-wan is a high-powered, wealthy lawyer, the kind of man who smooths over ugly problems for his even wealthier clients. His younger brother, Jae-gyu, is a pediatrician, a man whose life is built around a rigid code of ethics. The film wastes no time in placing them on opposing sides of a crisis.

A shocking act of road rage leaves one man dead and his daughter fighting for her life in Jae-gyu’s hospital, while the perpetrator turns to Jae-wan for legal protection. This initial setup is perfectly calibrated,...

During the original J-horror boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, South Korea had its own spurt of ghostly genre fare at the time with the “Whispering Corridors” films leading the charge. When the first film arrived in 1998, it was concurrent with the Japanese wave being produced at the time and carried along nicely as a fine counterbalance as it eventually ended up spawning several non-related follow-ups that centered around ghostly happenings at an all-girls school. After a few years of inactivity, now first-time director Lee Mi-young resurrects the franchise with enjoyable results in this latest entry.

Arriving at Gwangju High School for girls, students Ha-yeon (Kim Hyun-soo), Ye-ji (Lee Ji-won), So-yeon (Choi Ri), Mi-seok (Seo Hye-won), and Jae-yun (Park Se-hyun) meet up with Noh Eun-hee (Kim Seo-hyeong) the new vice principal to the school. It doesn’t take long for the girls to discover that she has connections...

The 24th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival will be kicking off the festival on July 9th with Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming. A total of 194 films from 42 countries have been invited to be screened at theaters and online/mobile platforms. Bifan unveiled the overall program for the festival’s 24th edition on the 18th.

The opening film, Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming (directed by Lee Myung), carries on the lineage of the Whispering Corridors series which broke new ground in the world of Korean high school horror films. The film tells the story of a character named Eun-hee, who is reminded of her shocking past after being appointed as the vice-principal of her alma mater. Eun-hee is played by veteran actor Kim Seo-hyung, who brings her authenticity and extraordinary presence to the screen. Newcomers Kim Hyeon-soo and Choi Ri, who star as high-school students in the film, also deliver standout performances.

Festival will go ahead with physical screenings (July 9-16) but without international guests.

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) has announced it will open this year’s edition with Korean high school horror franchise film, Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Asia’s largest genre film fest will be screening 212 films from 48 countries in a hybrid on-and-offline event (July 9-16). A total of 72 films will be making their world premieres at Bifan.

With South Korea requiring a mandatory two-week quarantine for arrivals from overseas, the festival is proceeding without any overseas guests and,...