Memories, intangible as they are, fade into the dark. As the ravages of time and progress march ever forward at such frenetic speeds, memory and identity risk such a whimpering fate. With the passing of generations, those memories chance survival in history books, in artifacts, in inaccessible stock footage and photographs, themselves doomed to be forgotten by the many. The crises at the heart of Kim Min-ju's ‘A Letter From Kyoto', riddled with secrets and dishonesty, speak from personal to national levels of identity, community, and a need for compassion for one another. A deep, meditative breath away from the breakneck velocity of globalisation, Kim's film is an empathetic snapshot of a family, and a country, in a state of flux.

A Letter from Kyoto is screening at London Korean Film Festival

After being confronted by various setbacks in Seoul, struggling writer Hye-young (Han Seon-hwa) returns to her Yeongdo hometown,...