Bucheon Int'l Fantastic Film Festival to open later this month

The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival's official poster

South Korea's largest annual “genre” film festival will open later this month in Bucheon, just west of Seoul, featuring 288 movies from 49 countries.

The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) will run from June 27 to July 7 under the theme, "Love, Fantasy and Adventure," with special attention to science-fiction movies, according to the organizers, Saturday.

Its official poster is inspired by the 1982 sci-fi film "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott, which is set in a dystopian city in 2019.

Audiences can check out “Godzilla” and “Gamera,” and other monster movies in the "Robots: Future Beyond the Human Race" program, where classic robot flicks such as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" will be shown.

Moreover, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Korean film industry, the festival will screen 13 Korean genre movies on the topics of sci-fi, horror and monsters, titled "A Crazy Chronicle of Korean Genre Cinema." It features films from the 1949 musical "Blue Hill" to the 2003 mystery horror "A Tale of Two Sisters."

A scene from "The Blood of Wolves," an invitee for screening at the 22nd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2018. Korea Times file

Opening the festival will be the Asian premiere of Mexican director Edgar Nito's "The Gasoline Thieves" that narrates a realistic story about the fuel-stealing phenomenon in the Central American country.

The closing film is Korean director Ko Myoung-sung's mystery thriller "The 12th Suspect," featuring a murder investigation routine that touches on guilt, ideology and opportunism in the post Korean War era.

Eight films, including "Abyss: The Girl's Eye" by Chang Hyun-sang and "Lapse" by Chae Soo-eung, will vie for a prize in the Korean Fantastic section.

To the Bucheon Choice competition, aimed at highlighting new trends, Ant Timpson's "Come to Daddy," Talal Selhami's "Achoura" and 10 other movies were invited.

Actress Kim Hye-soo will decorate the festival's special silver-screen star section. Her 10 best movies such as "Tazza: The High Rollers" (2006), "The Thieves" (2012) and "Default" (2012) will be screened during the festival.

The opening ceremony for BiFan will be broadcast live on SBS. (Yonhap)