London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

A Park Soo-keun comes up for sale

“80% of Korean art buyers are pure speculators”, says Juhl Joohyun Lee, director of Arario Gallery. And with Lee Kun-hee having stepped down from the chairmanship of Samsung and allegations flying that an illegal slush fund was used to buy works for his wife’s Leeum museum, Samsung has stopped buying art. So says the FT … [Read More]

Korea Yearbook 2009 Call for Papers

The editors of the Korea Yearbook – Politics, Economy, Society, published since 2007 by Brill (Leiden and Boston), are now calling for papers for the 2009 edition of the yearbook. The Korea Yearbook consists, on the one hand, of four concise overviews of domestic and external affairs of the two Koreas and, on the other … [Read More]

Anglo-Korean Society annual House of Commons dinner

A reminder of the Anglo-Korean Society annual House of Commons dinner on Thursday 6 November. This ever-popular event will commence with a guided tour of the chambers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, followed by a reception on the Terrace Pavilion and dinner at the Churchill Dining Room. The guest speaker … [Read More]

The Sarira Casket

Matthew Jackson describes one of the Buddhist treasures in the Seoul National Museum. Of the few people I have asked who have visited the Seoul National Museum, no one has mentioned the Gameunsa Sarira Casket as the high point of their tour. When I visited the museum myself, even though I was specifically looking out … [Read More]

KAFFNY in call for film-makers

KAFFNY 2009 – The Korean-American Film Festival New York – is scheduled for February 2009. KAFFNY is a one-day New York event screening works by emerging Korean filmmakers and performers. It is the event that brought you Benson Lee’s “Planet B-Boy,” Juwan Chung’s “Baby,” and short works by Dennis Lee and Randall Park. Co-sponsored by … [Read More]

Chuseok in Chessington

The King’s Centre was opened last year by Cliff Richard. It’s a multi-purpose venue in Chessington designed for the local community, with facilities for business meetings, conferences and sporting activities. The main users of the space are the Chessington evangelical church. But last Saturday evening there was a multicultural audience of Korean and Korean-British families, … [Read More]

Catch Na Hong-jin’s Chaser while you can!

Saharial advises you to go see The Chaser on the big screen while you can. I was delighted when I discovered, at long last, a Korean film showing again in a city centre cinema, something that seems very rare these days. The basic story that I knew before I went in, was that it concerned … [Read More]

Chihwaseon screens at the KCC

The next screening at the KCC, on Thursday 25 September, is Chihwaseon (2002), Im Kwon-taek’s bio-pic of one of Korea’s most famous painters, Jang Seung-eop, also known as Owon. The film features two of Korea’s most well-known actors, Choi Min-sik as Owon and Ahn Sung-ki as his patron Kim Byung-moon. Synopsis: During the 1850s, KIM … [Read More]

KCC talk: Images of Korean Women

A reminder of the upcoming lecture at the KCC, Wednesday 24 September. Lecture Title: The Image of Korean Women based on the Tale of Chunhyang Date / Time: 24th September 2008, 18:30-19:30 Lecturer: Prof LIM Jeong Taeg (Director, Institute of Media Arts, Yonsei Univ.) A Tale of Chunhyang: 13th Century, young Mongryong, Namwan Province’s governor’s … [Read More]

Boston Globe’s Big Picture: North Korea

The Boston Globe website has a section called the Big Picture which has some great images. Last week they posted 32 photos of North Korea. Many of them are from news agencies, taking snaps across the border from China with long lenses, but the core of the collection is from Eric Lafforgue, who has recently … [Read More]

Beautiful Fake at I-MYU

I-MYU’s first show of the Autumn is Beautiful Fake – a solo exhibition by Zinoo Park, who studied design at the Royal College of Art. From the press release: I-MYU Projects is pleased to present works by Korean artist Zinoo Park. Crossing the borders between fine art and design, Zinoo Park constructs playful, subversive and … [Read More]

Can BoA eat up the U.S. of A.?

Despite the hallyu’s success in Asia, today’s Korean pop stars have yet to make it big in the States. Yes, we’ve seen a Korean or two in a Hollywood film or on Comedy Central, but concerts have been fairly localised, and the high-profile tour by Rain never got off the ground. And we’ve yet to … [Read More]

Welcome to LKL 4.2

Welcome to LKL 4.2. Regular readers will have noticed the design change I made over the weekend, which I’ve been playing with on my test site for a while. In the past I’ve consciously kept the LKL front page as boring-looking as possible: when I launch the front page at work I don’t want to … [Read More]

The Chaser gets theatrical release

For those who missed “The Chaser” at Frightfest, don’t forget that it’s showing from tomorrow (Friday 19 September) at the Cineworlds in the Trocadero and Canary Wharf, and at the Shepherd’s Bush Vue. Viewing times are on the Evening Standard website here. Jonathan Ross gave it a rave review on Film 2008 earlier this week … [Read More]