If your Netflix K-drama binges have you itching for the big screen experience, mark your calendars: the Korean Film Festival in Singapore (KFF) is back for its 20th edition, and this year it’s kind of a big deal. Presented by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the Singapore Film Society, this year’s edition brings 14 public screenings, and honestly, the price point alone makes it worth clearing your schedule.
This year’s theme, “Stories Unseen” (보이지 않았던 이야기들), is all about spotlighting the people who don’t usually get the spotlight: think elderly folks, North Korean defectors, the LGBTQ+ community, and multicultural families. Festival programmer Deepagcharan Chandran puts it nicely: cinema’s job is to make the unseen visible, and this lineup takes that seriously.
What’s screening
Here’s the full rundown, genres included, so you know exactly what kind of night you’re signing up for:
Opening Film (By Invitation Only)
8 Oct (Thu) – The Journey to Gyeong-ju (Dark comedy / Drama): A grieving mother and her three daughters set off on a road trip to Gyeongju after the man responsible for the youngest daughter’s death is released from prison. Their revenge mission takes increasingly unexpected turns, as grief, anger, and family tensions collide.
Recent Releases
10 Oct (Thu), 18 Oct (Sun) – Mad Dance Office (Comedy / Drama): After losing a long-awaited promotion (and pretty much her sense of direction in life), a weary civil servant stumbles into flamenco classes and finds a rhythm she didn’t know she needed. A feel-good one about starting over.
11 Oct (Thu), 17 Oct (Sat) – Big Deal (Corporate drama): Set against the chaos of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, this film follows a fiercely loyal CFO of a soju company trying to save his beloved soju company from a ruthless corporate takeover. Think high-stakes boardroom battles with a very Korean sense of loyalty and betrayal.
11 Oct (Thu) – The Price of Goodbye (Dark comedy / Family drama): When a dying father doesn’t die as expected, his daughter and estranged brother decide to stage a fake funeral to collect condolence money. What starts as a desperate scheme quickly spirals into a messy family affair involving debt, money, and some very questionable decisions.
17 Oct (Sat) – Number One (Fantasy drama): A man starts seeing a mysterious countdown appear every time he eats his mother’s cooking. He believes reaching zero means she’ll die. It’s a quiet, emotional gut-punch about confronting the possibility of losing someone you love; bring tissues.
18 Oct (Sun) – Lobby (Comedy): A struggling tech startup CEO gets desperate and organises a chaotic golf session, hoping to schmooze his way into a lucrative 4-trillion-won government contract. Expect corporate cringe, bad golf swings, and worse decisions.
Festival Favourites
9 Oct (Fri) – The Square (Animation / Drama): Winner of the Contrechamp Jury Award at Annecy 2025 and the Feature Animation Grand Prize at Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2026. In Pyongyang, a Swedish diplomat secretly falls in love with a local traffic officer. When she suddenly disappears after a suspicious visitor arrives at their meeting place, he begins searching for her, drawing him deeper into a world of surveillance and uncertainty.
10 Oct (Thu) – Hana Korea (Drama): Winner of the Flash Forward Audience Award at Busan 2025, this moving drama follows a young North Korean defector trying to build a new life in the South: themes of displacement and resilience run throughout.
10 Oct (Thu) – People & Meat (Tragicomedy / drama): Three broke and lonely elderly friends discover a questionable solution to their hunger: dine at restaurants and run before the bill arrives. Their increasingly audacious meat-eating adventures bring some joy back into their lives, while quietly exposing the loneliness and financial struggles of aging in contemporary Seoul.
16 Oct (Thu) – 3670 (LGBTQ+ Drama): A multi-award winner at Jeonju International Film Festival 2025 and Audience Award recipient in Vancouver, this tender drama follows a gay North Korean defector navigating love and belonging in Seoul. One of the more emotionally resonant picks in the lineup.
18 Oct (Sun) – The Mutation (Drama / Road movie): A Korean Black man struggling with isolation forms an unexpected bond with a queer woman haunted by memories of her past lover. Their journey together becomes a moving exploration of loneliness, displacement, and finding connection in unexpected places.
The Classics
17 Oct (Sat) – Train to Busan (Horror / Thriller), 2016: THE zombie-on-a-train movie that put Korean horror film on the global map, now freshly restored and looking sharper than ever. A father-daughter survival story wrapped in relentless, edge-of-seat tension. Peak Friday-night pick for the film’s 10th Anniversary with 4K Restoration.
17 Oct (Sat) – Take Care of My Cat (Coming-of-age drama), 2001: Five childhood best friends navigate the messy, uncertain years right after graduation, as friendship, dreams, and identities start to shift in directions they didn’t expect. A quietly beloved Korean indie film classic, best watched under the stars. This will be a special outdoor screening at @SCAPE.
When and where
The festival runs from 8 to 18 October 2026, at Golden Village Suntec City and *SCAPE (only for “Take Care of My Cat”).
Tickets are $3 per screening for the public, and $2 for Singapore Film Society members using a discount code. Do note tickets will be released in batches, with sales starting at noon on 24 September 2026.
Check the KFF website for the full schedule and booking details, and follow the Singapore Film Society’s socials for batch release updates.
