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GyoryuFilm Festival to screen Japanese indie films in Korea

Published: 19 Jan. 2026, 11:44 Updated: 19 Jan. 2026, 19:37

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

A scene from ″Masked Hearts,″ one of the films to be screened at the 1st GyoryuFilm Festival [GYORYUFILM FESTIVAL]

Korean and Japanese indie filmmakers are set to kick off a new film festival titled GyoryuFilm Festival, with the hopes of sharing ideas and themes during the two-day event from Feb. 21 to 22 at IndieSpace in Mapo District, western Seoul.

Six Japanese indie films will be works that have won invitations and awards at film festivals in Japan and abroad, but have not had the opportunity to be screened in Korea to date.

The list of films to be screened on Feb. 21, the first day of the festival, are “Masked Hearts” (2023) by director Yuya Ishii, a story about family and personal dreams, “Tokyo Uber Blues” (2021), by director Taku Aoyagi, following the story of a bike courier, and “Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots” (2020) by Ryohei Yoshino, a coming-of-age drama.

On the second day of the GyoryuFilm Festival, more recent works by renowned Japanese directors will be screened. “One Summer Story,” (2021), a family drama surrounding children by director Shuichi Okita, who made “The Chef of South Polar” (2009), will be shown.

“Route 29” (2024) by Yusuke Morii and starring Haruka Ayase, about socially isolated youth, is also set to be screened. The last film of the lineup is “Love in a Single Room” (2021) by Takatora Masuda, on young love.

Main poster for the 1st GyoryuFilm Festival [GYORYUFILM FESTIVAL]

With the slogan of “Weaving Stories,” the GyoryuFilm Festival aims to weave together contemporary Japanese films and disseminate them to Korea while showing the power of film as a medium that weaves stories through light, according to the festival’s organizers.

Each film screening will be followed by a special talk session with directors and actors of the independent works.

“The films selected for the festival are works that most keenly capture the contemporary moment at the boundary between commercial and art house cinema,” said Jeong Dae-hee, a programmer for the GyoryuFilm Festival. “Our festival aims to provide a forum for Korean and Japanese independent filmmakers to exchange ideas through film.”

More information can be found on the festival's Tumblebug crowdfunding website and on the IndieSpace homepage.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]