From the category archives:

Bong Joon-ho

Mark Russell over at Korea Pop Wars led the way with his fascinating list of films of the decade – in which the biggest shock was that there was no Park Chan-wook. GI Korea also has a list, which redresses the balance somewhat. So here is mine.
Over the years I’ve been reasonably diligent in giving [...]

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LKL Weekly Tweets, 2009-12-07

7 December 2009 Autumn K-film 2009
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FT: Samsung feels the heat from iPhone. http://bit.ly/702azK #
North Korean jeans on sale in Sweden. A snip at $215! The brand name? "NoKo". http://bit.ly/8fc6jI #
AWNtv: Trixter breaks down its vfx work from "Ninja Assassin." (HT – Saharial) http://bit.ly/7VXjAe #
Bong Joon-ho "Mother" Q&A with Tony Rayns: BFI have put an edited version of 14 November's event [...]

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Mother reveals Bong’s perversity

24 November 2009 Autumn K-film 2009
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LKL reports from the screening of Mother at the Bong Joon-ho retrospective at the British Film Institute on 14 November, with Q&A chaired by Tony Rayns.

In a world obsessed with celebrity, youth and beauty, only a director of the stature of Bong Joon-ho could have got away with it. The big name star, Won Bin, [...]

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Remembering Murder: from “Memories of Murder” to “Mother”

14 November 2009 Autumn K-film 2009
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Colette Balmain reviews Bong Joon-ho’s latest hit, and finds themes which echo his 2003 success

Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, the Korean Film Council’s submission to the 2010 Oscars – 82nd Annual Academy Awards – under the category “Best Foreign Language Film”, has much in common with his 2003 Memories of Murder: a film based upon the abortive [...]

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Korean Connections at the 53rd BFI London Film Festival

6 October 2009 Autumn K-film 2009
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Colin Bartlett has overcome the shortcomings of the London Film Festival website search engine by diligently reading the 100 page festival brochure for films with Korean connections. Here are the results of his labours.
First, the two main films we already know about:

Hong Sang-soo’s Like you know it all (18, 19 Oct) www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/433
Bong Joon-ho’s Mother (22, [...]

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LKL Weekly Tweets, 2009-09-14

14 September 2009 Anglo-Korean Society
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LKL is among the many winners in the Blog Korea, Visit Korea competition run by the KTO. Congrats to the other winners. Go visit Korea! #
Anglo-Korean Society members: last chance to reserve your places for you and your guests at the #Chuseok dinner next week. See you there #
Andrei Lankov on extra-marital hanky-panky in North [...]

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LKL Weekly Tweets, 2009-08-24

24 August 2009 Bong Joon-ho
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Congratulations to Yang Yong-eun on winning the US PGA golf championship http://bit.ly/2Jw6M #. “It’s not like you’re in an octagon where you’re fighting against Tiger and he’s going to bite you, or swing at you with his 9-iron,” Yang said through an interpreter. “The worst that I could do was just lose to Tiger. So [...]

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Barking Dogs at the KCC

25 November 2008 Bong Joon-ho
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Details of this week’s film screening at the cultural centre

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Bong Joon-ho month at the KCC

8 October 2008 Bong Joon-ho
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This month gives you an opportunity to see two of the best films to have come out of Korea – or anywhere – this century.
Both star Song Kang-ho, both are by director Bong Joon-ho, who debuted in 2000 with the amazing Barking Dogs Never Bite.
On 9 October, there’s the film which provided koreanfilm.org.uk with its [...]

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The London Korean Links Awards 2006

31 December 2006 2006 year-end posts
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In the year-end spirit of reviewing the highlights and lowlights of 2006, here are the winners of the first LKL Awards – a personal and unscientific selection. The awards are in the following categories:

Man of the Year
Woman of the Year
Best cultural promotion: Briton in Korea
Best cultural promotion: Korean in Britain
Best cultural promotion: Non-Korean in Britain
Best [...]

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Careful not to try earning a little cash on the side

10 October 2006 Bloggers and newspeople

The Marmot has picked up a little news item from the Korean press: a couple of foreigners were caught out earning a little but of cash by getting bit-parts in Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, and they now face deportation. One of them was only in Korea on a 90 day tourist visa.
Good news for the [...]

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Lee Myung-se’s The Duelist – and The Host – to get nationwide release

19 September 2006 Bong Joon-ho
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Is The Host anti-American (spoilers)?

30 August 2006 Bong Joon-ho
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The packed performance of The Host at Frightfest on Monday went down well. We were told by the organisers that we were watching the longest possible print. Whether that means there are cuts in other theatrical versions I don’t know.
One of the things about The Host is that it’s generated a lot of noise about [...]

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Countdown to the Host (2)

21 August 2006 Bong Joon-ho
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The London debut of the Host is one week away. And it’s still breaking box office records. It’s sold out at the Edinburgh Festival, where Bong Joon-ho will be making a personal appearance, while in Korea, after one week according to the Chosun,
the film brought in some 2.7 million viewers in just four days, setting [...]

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Countdown to London premiere of The Host

28 July 2006 Bong Joon-ho

Tickets for Frightfest go on sale on Tuesday 1 August at 11 am. Make sure you get in early. There’s a very slim possibility that Bong Joon-ho himself might be there, but don’t get your hopes up.
To whet your appetite, have a listen to the Metropolitician’s latest podcast: it’s a discussion with Darcy and Q [...]

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