20 Must-see films from the 27th Jeonju International Film Festival (Part 2)

By Asian Film Festival on April 29, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

We continue with our list of feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Jeonju International Film Festival, which will take place from April 29 until May 8, 2026, in Jeonju, South Korea.

To see the first part of this article please go HERE

Masayume byYOSHIGAI Nao – Japan | 2026 – 110 minutes | Korean Premiere
Section: World Cinema

After losing her mental and physical balance at 34, Yoshigai Nao begins Zen training. As she reexamines the acts of eating, sleeping, and breathing, she confronts the body as a “skin bag of fluid,” seeking healing through the rhythm of breath and being.

Trailer:

Michiyuki – Voices of Time by NAKAO Hiromichi – Japan | 2025 – 79 minutes | Asian Premiere
Section: International Competition

Komai moves into an old house in Nara and listens to the stories of the former owner, Umemoto. He talks about the histories of time, the town, and the house. While renovating the house on his own, Komai’s mind meanders as if on a journey.

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Mothertongue by ZHANG Lu – China | 2025 – 123 minutes | Korean Premiere
Section: Masters

After ten years in Beijing, Fang Chunshu once again missed her dream. Returning to Chengdu, she found herself drifting away from her mother and hometown. The arrival of the outsider, Wang Dongdong, gave her a chance to rediscover her hometown and embrace a new beginning.

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Sandra, The Primate Citizen by HA Sinae – Korea, Argentina | 2026 – 84 minutes | World Premiere
Section: Korean Competition

Sandra, an orangutan who spent two decades in Buenos Aires Zoo, becomes the world’s first non-human person recognized by an Argentine court. What seems a historic victory soon sparks a deeper question: where and how should she live as an intelligent being, as law and science seek to understand her mind?

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SOAR by KIM Dasom – Korea | 2025 – 90 minutes | World Premiere
Section: Korean Cinema

In order to escape violence from her father, Hyun Jae attracts Hae In, who has been searching for her missing daughter for over 10 years, into her grand scheme. After getting saved by Hae In from the grasp of her father, Hyun Jae hopes Hae In to be her mother and decides to leave her actual family behind.

Trailer:

The Fin by PARK Syeyoung – Korea, Germany, Qatar | 2025 – 84 minutes
Section: Korean Cinema

In a post-war and ecologically devastated Korea, mutated outcasts called Omegas are exploited as cheap labor. Sujin, a young government worker, begins to doubt the state’s ideology as she pursues Mia, an Omega in hiding.

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The Seoul Guardians by KIM Jongwoo, Kim Shinwan, CHO Chulyoung – Korea | 2026 – 71 minutes | Asian Premiere
Section: Korean Cinema

On December 3, 2024, in Seoul, the President of South Korea Yoon Sukyeol declares the martial law. Troops move toward the National Assembly to seize control. Meanwhile, citizens rush to the National Assembly to block the troops, while lawmakers break through police’s barricades at the main gate, climb over the walls to attend the session that lifts the martial law.

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The Summer That Slipped Away by LEE Seonyeon – Korea | 2025 – 87 minutes | World Premiere
Section: Korean Competition

In the heat of summer, a family drifts through the rural towns of Chungnam, working temporary promotion jobs for mobile phone stores. Their van is both their ride and the only place they call home. One day, a box of phones goes missing. Two months of work suddenly hang in the balance.

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The Yearbook: Waiting for the Teacher by KIM Jongkwan – Korea | 2025 – 102 minutes | World Premiere
Section: Korean Cinema

On May 27, 1980—the last day of the Gwangju Uprising—students at Sinheung High School in Jeonju defied martial law. Their teacher disciplined them to protect them, but this act of love left forty years of misunderstanding. Now in his nineties, the teacher reunites with his former students to finally offer each other the reconciliation they had long set aside.

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Water Deer by YU Soyoung – Korea | 2026 – 88 minutes | World Premiere
Section: Korean Cinema

My mother is Gong-soon. I was ashamed of her name and spent years looking away. In my thirties, I return home with a camera and begin following her at work.

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