TIFF To Feature 5 Korean Films Including Oscar Bid ‘Concrete Utopia’

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which runs from Sept. 7 to 17, will screen five Korean films, including South Korea’s Academy Awards submission for Best International Feature Film, Concrete Utopia. The other films are A Normal Family, directed by Hur Jin-ho, Smugglers directed by Ryu Seung-wan, Sleep directed by Jason Yu, and Mimang, a debut feature by director Kim Taeyang.

The festival will also feature an In Conversation event with Concrete Utopia stars Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-joon on Sept. 11. A Perspectives industry conference, Celebrating the Cinema of the Korean Diaspora, also on Sept. 11, features director Anthony Shim (Riceboy Sleeps), director Albert Shin (Disappearance at Clifton Hill, In Her Place), director Andrew Ahn (Fire Island, Spa Night), and producer Christina Oh (Minari, Okja) discussing the range of stories produced by the diaspora.

Concrete Utopia is a story set in the aftermath of a disaster that levels Seoul, except it seems for one building. The building residents, desperate to hold on to their homes begin to think of non-residents as less than human. They need to keep them out, which means rules must be established and enforced. Based on Kim Sung-nyung’s Cheerful Outcast Part 2 webtoon, Concrete Utopia is a sobering parable about deciding who matters and who doesn’t. The film will screen on Sept. 9, 10, 11 and 15.

A Normal Family is Hur Jin-ho’s adaptation of the bestselling book The Dinner by Dutch writer Herman Koch, which has already been made into Dutch, American and Italian films. It’s the story of one well-to-do family whose privilege may not defend them from a troubling situation that involves their children. While dining at an expensive restaurant family secrets are revealed and the conversation takes an unexpected turn. The film stars Sul Kyung-gu, Jang Dong-gun, Yoon Jin-seo and Park Ji-yeon. It will screen on Sept. 14 and 15.

In the film Sleep an expectant mother, played by Jung Yu-mi, wakes up one night to the eerie sight of her husband, played by Lee Sun-kyun, sitting on their bed, muttering cryptically. His nighttime behavior further devolves into spells of sleepwalking and the couple’s once-idyllic relationship begins to deteriorate. Can she trust him not to hurt her or the baby? Sleep airs Sept. 7, 15 and 16.

Ryoo Seung-wan, who directed Escape From Mogadishu, The Berlin File, and Veteran, helms the aquatic crime-action epic Smugglers. In the film the haenyeo — women free divers — are enlisted to help smuggle goods. Old friends, played by Kim Hye-soo and Yum Jung-ah, are using their knowledge of the waters to make ends meet when the notorious smuggler and criminal, played by Zo In-sung arrives. Violence is inevitable. Smugglers will be shown from Sept. 12 through 15.

Mimang is Kim Taeyang’s feature debut. Shot over four years, the film follows a man and a woman—who meet by chance—as they stroll through Seoul’s changing streets. The photography romanticizes the city. Mimang airs on Sept. 10, 11, 13 and 14.

One of the world’s largest publicly attended film festivals, TIFF operates out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, located in downtown Toronto.