Historical drama to make North American debut, as 25th edition of fest opens with Yeon Sang-ho's 'Colony' "Hallan," starring Kim Hyang-gi (right) and Kim Min-chae (Whenever Studio) Ha Myung-mi's "Hallan," a mother-daughter survival tale set during one of the darkest chapters of modern Korean history, will screen at the 25th New York Asian Film Festival, local distributor Whenever Studio confirmed Tuesday.Director Ha and lead actor Kim Hyang-gi will both attend the festival for talks with the audience, the studio said. The invitation comes paired with an off-screen tie-in: in partnership with the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, the festival will host an exhibition in New York showcasing the history behind the film, the period of state violence that swept Jeju Island between 1947 and 1954 and left as many as 30,000 dead, known locally as the Jeju 4.3 Incident.Successive military regimes suppressed all discussion of the event for decades, and even bringing the subject publicly could result in imprisonment."Hallan" follows a young mother and her daughter as they flee across the island's mountains and coast to outrun government troops. Kim Hyang-gi, who started as a child actor and went on to roles in "Along With the Gods" and "Hansan," plays a mother on the run.The film opened in Korean theaters in November 2025 and drew some 30,000 admissions, before finding a second life through online sales and community screenings at schools and institutions. It has also traveled abroad, with a Japanese run that expanded to 45 screens and European dates in Finland and Italy.NYAFF unveiled the first wave of its lineup last week. This year's edition runs July 10-26 across five New York venues, and will open with Yeon Sang-ho's zombie thriller "Colony."Fresh off its Cannes Midnight premiere in May, the latest offering from the "Train to Busan" director has torn through the Korean box office, crossing 5 million ticket sales to become the year's second-biggest local hit.The festival's Korean selection also features "The King's Warden," which opened in Korean theaters in February and went on to become the highest-grossing Korean film ever; Park Joon-ho's "3670," the Baeksang-winning drama about a gay North Korean defector; and Chung Ji-young's "My Name," which, like "Hallan," takes up the Jeju 4.3 Incident.