24th New York Asian Film Festival

July 11-27, 2025

Photo: Courtesy of Well Go USA

Special Screening

Swing Kids

스윙키즈

1951. Barbed wire rings Geoje POW camp, yet a snappy shoe-click slices the gloom. Ro Ki-soo (EXO’s D.O.), a fiery North-Korean captive, falls hard for tap after watching Sergeant Jackson, a Harlem-bred Broadway hoofer turned U.S. Army officer, shuffle across the mess hall. Ordered to mount a Christmas revue to placate generals and restless inmates, Jackson recruits an unlikely ragtag, mismatched troupe: Kang Byung-sam, a South-Korean prisoner frantic to find his missing wife; Xiao Pang, a Chinese conscript battling angina; and sharp-tongued translator Yang Pan-rae. Together the dancers stomp ideology into dust with syncopated heels, stolen jazz, and hope until artillery roars back. Director Kang Hyeong-cheol fuses exuberant rhythm with wartime heartbreak.

Director: Kang Hyeong-cheol
Cast: Doh Kyung-soo, Jared Grimes, Park Hye-su, Oh Jung-se
Languages: Korean with English subtitiles
2018; 133 min.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday July 12, 4:30pm
Korean Cultural Center New York

Free Screening