Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Blockbuster film 'Sinkhole' invited to Locarno Film Festival
Film “Sinkhole” will be screened at this year's Locarno Film Festival, scheduled to be held from Aug. 4 to 14. Courtesy of Showbox
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Disaster comedy film “Sinkhole” has been invited to this year's Locarno Film Festival, set to be held in Switzerland from Aug. 4 to 14.
The film's distributor, Showbox, announced Friday that the blockbuster flick will be presented at one of the festival's sections, Piazza Grande, which holds an open screening of selected films with about 8,000 viewers. The films screened at the section will be evaluated by a panel of American film critics for the Variety Piazza Grande Award.
This is the second time for a Korean film to be invited to the Piazza Grande section, since director Kim Seong-Hun's disaster thriller, “Tunnel,” starring Ha Jung-woo, in 2016. In 2019, “Parasite” star Song Kang-ho became the first Asian actor to receive the Excellence Award at the festival.
Founded in 1946, the Locarno Film Festival, which welcomes the 74th edition this year, is one of the longest-running film festivals in the world.
Directed by Kim Ji-hoon, who helmed another disaster film, “Tower” (2012), “Sinkhole” revolves around hardworking patriarch, Dong-won (Kim Sung-kyun), who finally fulfills his dream of owning a house after 10 years.
On the day he invites his coworkers, including Kim Seung-hyun (Lee Kwang-Soo), to his new house, the whole building falls into a sinkhole. Along with nosy, annoying next-door neighbor Jung Man-soo (Cha Seung-won), the group tries to find ways to survive from about 500 meters underground.
The film is set to hit theaters on Aug. 11.