Bucheon 2017: BiFan 21 to Kick Off with Trip into ROOM NO. 7

The nights are getting warmer in Korea, which means that the next Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is just around the corner. BiFan held a press conference today in Central Seoul for its 21st edition, which will take place over July 13-23.

Kicking off this year's show will be the world premiere of new Korean thriller Room No. 7. Featuring Shin Ha-kyun of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Save the Green Planet along with EXO boy band member Doh Kyung-soo (aka D.O.), the DVD rental room murder mystery is the big-budget debut of 10 Minutes director LEE Yong-seung. Closing the fest will be period samurai sci-fi pic Gintama from Hentai Kamen director Yuichi Fukuda.

Some Screen Anarchy favorites will take part in this year's Bucheon Choice competition, including Mattie Do's Laotian horror Dearest Sister and The Endless from Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. Also in competition will be The End, the latest film from Korean indie filmmkaer Jeon Kyu-hwan.

Among the other Korean films to play will be Bong Joon-ho's Okja, which will have a special screening, and Jung Byung-gil's The Villainess, which will vie in the Korean Fantastic competition with eight other titles.

The World Fantastic sections, which comprise the bulk of the program, will include festival favorites such as Raw, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Prevenge, Dog Eat Dog, Jailbreak and 78/52.

This year's special programs will feature retrospectives on Korean star Jeon Do-yeon, Spanish genre maestro Alex de la Iglesia and the late Korean filmmaker Hong Ki-seon, as well as a section entitled 'Terrible Women: Monsters and Villainess' and a reprise of 'Best of Asia', which was intorduced last year and brings together the biggest box office hits from across Asia from the previous year.

Also returning will be BIG, the BiFan Industry Gathering, which launched last year. The program includes the IT Project Market and Fantastic Film School from the Network of Asian Fantastic Film (NAFF), and sections on 'New Media', 'Made in Korea' and 'Korea Now'. 

All in, 289 films from 58 countries, of which 63 are world premieres, will be screened in Bucheon during Asia's top celebration of Genre cinema next month. As always, Screen Anarchy will be out in force to cover all the madness as it happens.