A great ballad album. From the big ballad 휠릴리 (track 4) via the more intimate 너도 그런지.. and Sam Lee’s funk-inspired “You want me” (featuring Eric) to a more R&B 겁쟁이 (track 7), Lee Soo Young shows how it should be done. She has a good team of song-writers — showing that you don’t have … [Read More]
Month: October 2006
Donald Kirk & Choe Sang-hun (eds): Korea Witness
Korea Witness: 135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm (EunHaengNaMu, Seoul, 2006) A tribute to the many foreign correspondents who have worked in Seoul, this book celebrates 50 years of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club. The book starts with one of the first mentions of Korea in the … [Read More]
Chae-jin Lee: A Troubled Peace
Chae-jin Lee: A Troubled Peace — US Policy and the Two Koreas Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 2006 A very thorough review of the history of the relations between the US and (the two) Korea(s) over the past hundred or so years. To me, there’s rather too many trees and not enough wood, but I guess … [Read More]
My chance of media fame. Blown
At around 4:40pm on Monday afternoon I get a phone call on my mobile. It’s from the Chosun 24 hour TV channel. They had my card from the Typhoon screening a couple of weeks back, when they were interviewing anyone they could find. They wanted to do another interview. A ten minute one. But I … [Read More]
North Korea Detonates 40 Years Of GDP
Remains Of Country’s Economy Sent Deep Into Earth’s Core For a bit of light relief, visit the Onion. Here’s a representative extract. PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA — A press release issued by the state-run Korean Central News Agency Monday confirmed that the Oct. 9 underground nuclear test in North Korea’s Yanggang province successfully exploded the communist … [Read More]
Condom sales, motel bookings surge after DPRK nuclear test
The Chosun reports a surge in condom sales and in love motel bookings in the days and weeks following North Korea’s nuke test on October 9th. I hope the world’s not going to end quite yet. [Read More]
Circuit Diagram at Cell gallery
What do a 20 dollar bill, a spirit level, a geodesic dome, and a loudspeaker chanting Mongolian love songs in Korean have in common? That’s the question posed by the introduction to a multinational contemporary art show in the Cell gallery space in Cambridge Heath Road, Hackney. And answered. The loudspeaker chanting the Mongolian love … [Read More]
KEB: the raids continue
In a seemingly never-ending quest to blame someone for the profits that Lone Star made out of their KEB investment, the prosecutors recently knocked on the doors of Citibank’s Seoul office and impounded paperwork and PCs. The BBC reports (17 October): The investigation follows claims that KEB’s financial ill-health had been exaggerated so as to … [Read More]
The King and the Clown – replacement screenings
Just received from the LFF box office We are pleased to announce that we have arranged screenings for The King and the Clown film as follows: Sun 29 Oct 10.30 Odeon West End 1 Thu 2 Nov 18.00 Odeon West End 2 If you want to book for one of these screenings, please contact the … [Read More]
Daniel Gordon’s latest, and other NY Times DPRK coverage
The coverage at the NY Times in the past few days has been something else. A piece on Daniel Gordon’s third film on the DPRK, Crossing the Line (Image above, from VeryMuchSo Productions), which premiered at PIFF recently. I hope it comes to the UK soon. I’ve just emailed Nick Bonner to find out. Some … [Read More]
More commentary on DPRK nukes
The commentary from Kim Myong Chol published in the Asia Times Online on Oct 6 is puzzling. As the Asia Times explains, Kim Myong-chol is author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace. He has a PhD … [Read More]
New Malden’s role in Reading’s success
From the FT on 13 October Reading fly high on the wings of Seol By Jonathan Wilson As explanations for a good start to the season go, the fact that your ground is less than an hour’s drive from New Malden rarely features. There can be little doubt, though, that the main reason Reading approach … [Read More]
King and the Clown – the print is here
Jase over at koreanfilm.org.uk gives some of the background for the King and Clown’s non-appearance last week. The good news is, the print is in London. Keep monitoring the LFF or Jase’s website for updates as to a screening in the near future. [Read More]
Seoul’s hanoks
There was a feature in FT a couple of weeks ago on the Bukchon district of Seoul. It’s a place as far as you can get from Apgujeong in terms of style of living. It’s the sort of place where Kim Ki-duk might be caught filming traditional housing as seen in 3-Iron, and is inhabited … [Read More]
Think Korea 2006 – the Jae-Eun Park Ensemble
Details of an unusual event as part of Think Korea 2006: Jae-Eun Park Ensemble with City of London Sinfonia Date : 27 – 29 October 2006 Venue : SOAS & St Giles Cripplegate Programme October 27, 7:30 pm The Harmony within East & West City of London Sinfonia Dominic Wheeler, Conductor Transformation for Orchestra by … [Read More]
Winners and losers in Korean equities
KBS reported recently (in an article so confused in its arithmetic as to be downright misleading – and frankly makes you wonder whether they’ve got anywhere near reality) how foreigners made $90bn gains on Korean stocks last year. I’m sure there are rogue nationalistic elements around who might lament the fact that anyone apart from … [Read More]