Six Korean productions and co-productions will invade Northern Japan next month after being invited to take part in this year’s edition of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.

LIM Jin-seung’s Puzzle and KWAK Jae-yong’s Spirit Catcher will be featured in the ‘Off Theater Competition’. Puzzle follows an ordinary man who gets embroiled in a bad situation that ends up with him being framed for murder. The thriller is LIM’s third film, following last year’s Outdoor Begins (2017), which debuted at Yubari last year before going on to screen at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan). The director of classic romantic fare such as My Sassy Girl (2001), KWAK returns with the fantasy romance Spirit Catcher, a Chinese production which will be having its world premiere in Japan.

Three Korean works will screen in the ‘Yubari Choice’ section. The coffee prohibition indie drama Coffee Noir: Black Brown (2017) is the third work from JANG Hyun-sang, who previously made 2016’s Kissing Cousin. It debuted in the Korean competition of BiFan last summer. The Cemetery of Sisters, the third feature by KIM Hun (Tropical Night, 2017), will also have its debut in Yubari. The lo-fi countryside cannibal comedy-horror is executive produced by prolific Korean filmmaker LEE Sang-woo. The Korea-Japan co-production Ghostmask (Scar), directed by SONE Takeshi with AKANE Yurika, follows a young Japanese woman who comes to Seoul in search of her sister.

Finally, the Sweden-South Korean co-production Under the Knife will screen in the ‘Forbidden Zone’. From American director Josh Hoffman, the film tells of a woman who travels to Seoul for plastic surgery, only to be implanted with a device that turns her into a killer.

This 2018 edition of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival takes place from March 15 to 19.