{"id":63448,"date":"2026-06-24T20:24:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63448"},"modified":"2026-06-24T20:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:24:58","slug":"whats-showing-at-south-koreas-bifan-2026-as-it-celebrates-30-years-of-asian-genre-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63448","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s showing at South Korea\u2019s BiFan 2026 as it celebrates 30 years of Asian genre cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Marking its 30th anniversary, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea promises a typically raucous 11-day event from July 2 to 12. Staged in the bustling satellite city west of Seoul, Asia\u2019s largest celebration of genre cinema has assembled a formidable selection of the latest horror, action, science fiction and fantasy films from around the globe.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">This year, proceedings kick off with the local premiere of Hong Kong film legend <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Yuen Woo-ping<\/span>\u2019s blockbuster wuxia epic <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Blades of the Guardians<\/em><\/span>. Other prominent international titles include Curry Barker\u2019s low-budget horror sensation <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Obsession<\/em>, Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s Cannes favourite <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma<\/em> and Adrian Chiarella\u2019s Australian shocker <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Leviticus<\/em>.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Among the other selected Asian highlights are Kiyoshi Kurosawa\u2019s stately <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">chanbara<\/em> (samurai cinema) thriller <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Samurai and the Prisoner<\/em><\/span>, <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Joko Anwar<\/span>\u2019s bloody prison horror <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Ghost in the Cell<\/em> and Giddens Ko Ching-teng\u2019s high school martial arts drama <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Kung Fu<\/em>, alongside a robust line-up of debuting Korean features.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In recent years, BiFan has taken a sharp turn towards platforming AI filmmaking, with sections devoted to short-form and feature-length content created with the increasingly ubiquitous technology. More reassuring, however, is the fact that the festival still has an impressive line-up of retrospective screenings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Shin Ha-kyun (left) and Baek Yoon-shik in a still from Save the Green Planet! (2003). The film is part of the \u201cAsian Genre Films 99\u201d programme at this year\u2019s BiFan. Photo: CJ Entertainment\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/23\/af04a046-eefb-4bc6-817f-7a394b67cd97_357c1ba4.jpg\" title=\"Shin Ha-kyun (left) and Baek Yoon-shik in a still from Save the Green Planet! (2003). The film is part of the \u201cAsian Genre Films 99\u201d programme at this year\u2019s BiFan. Photo: CJ Entertainment\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Shin Ha-kyun (left) and Baek Yoon-shik in a still from Save the Green Planet! (2003). The film is part of the \u201cAsian Genre Films 99\u201d programme at this year\u2019s BiFan. Photo: CJ Entertainment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">A golden age of genre cinema<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, BiFan has collaborated with the Korean Film Archive to curate a selection of Asian genre classics from the past three decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/k-drama\/k-movies\/article\/3358009\/whats-showing-south-koreas-bifan-2026-it-celebrates-30-years-asian-genre-cinema?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marking its 30th anniversary, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea promises a typically raucous 11-day event from July 2 to 12&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2027,25369,1554,6912,11269,5657,1816,5246,2551,59],"class_list":["post-63448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-asian","tag-bifan","tag-celebrates","tag-cinema","tag-genre","tag-koreas","tag-showing","tag-south","tag-whats","tag-years","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}