Film & TV

The 2013 Terracotta Far East Film Festival line-up

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by Saharial on 15 May, 2013

in Event Notices | Film | Terracotta Festival

Three Korean films including the hit thriller The Berlin File are included in the line-up for this year’s Terracotta Festival. Saharial reviews the schedule. It’s that fantastic time of the year again when the Terracotta Film Festival hits London, and the line up announced last week is really exciting, especially when tied in with the [...]

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Years of Radical Change: Korean Screen Culture – a 2-day conference at SOAS, 31 May-1 June

by Philip Gowman 14 May 2013
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Those who attended the free one-day Korean film seminar in SOAS’s Vernon Square building May last year won’t need persuasion. This year, it has expanded to two days, and is in the main Russell Square building. Free, but advance registration is required. Years of Radical Change: Korean Screen Culture Date: Friday 31 May & Saturday [...]

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The Korean War in Colour screens at SOAS

by Philip Gowman 5 May 2013
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Something slightly different for SOAS’s evening Korean Studies seminar this time: a documentary film screening, with Q&A with the director, in this 60th anniversary year of the 1953 armistice. The Korean War in Colour Stewart Binns (Documentary Filmmaker) Date: 10 May 2013, 5:15 – 7:00 PM Venue: Russell Square, College Buildings, Room 4418 Film screening [...]

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I compromised the LSE and my tour guides…

by Philip Gowman 15 April 2013
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“I compromised the LSE and my tour guides, and all I could produce was a lousy tourist video,” would be a suitable slogan for the T-shirt of tonight’s BBC Panorama programme. OK, so they also interviewed BR Myers, John Everard and a defector or two, but really it was not worth all the hype and [...]

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Hahaha – the first Hong Sang-soo film I’ve enjoyed without trying

by Philip Gowman 9 April 2013
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OK, it was the second time I had seen it. The first time, I had slept through it. But that was because I had been entering into the spirit rather too much by indulging in a drinking session of Hongian proportions beforehand. The second time round, there was the anticipation of seeing the lead actress [...]

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Twinsters – what a compelling story

by Philip Gowman 4 April 2013
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On February 21, 2013, Samantha, an American actor living in Los Angeles, received a message via Facebook that would drastically change her life. It was from Anaïs, a French fashion design student living in London. Anaïs’ friends viewed a YouTube video featuring Samantha. They were immediately blown away by the identical appearance of Samantha & [...]

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Couleur de peau: Miel, aka Approved for Adoption, screens at Leeds Young Film Fest

by Philip Gowman 1 April 2013
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If it wasn’t for the fact that London has a date with Moon So-ri this Thursday, I’d be leaving work early, getting on a train to Leeds and sitting down to watch this film. I do hope it comes to London at some stage. It’s the animated autobiography of a Korean adoptee in Belgium. Korean [...]

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Captain Kang screens at CinemAsia

by Philip Gowman 1 April 2013
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Back in 2011, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam gave us the wonderful Planet of Snail. This month, another Amsterdam film festival, CinemAsia, will be screening a new Korean documentary – Captain Kang, which premiered at Busan 2012. Captain Kang (강선장) Director: Won Ho-yeon (원호연) South Korea, 2012, HDcam, 75′ Sunday 7 April, 13.20 This [...]

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Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha to screen at BAFTA, with Moon So-ri Q&A

by Philip Gowman 31 March 2013
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People who know me will be aware that my sincere appreciation of Hong Sang-soo’s work does not mean that I always stay awake during his movies. But having been to Tongyeong since the first time I went to the theatre when Hahaha was screening, I know I’ll be wide awake for the upcoming screening on [...]

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“This bad movie is more fun than anything else”

by Philip Gowman 30 March 2013
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“In a bad movie week, this bad movie is more fun than anything else” – the FT’s verdict on GI Joe: Retaliation. The first one was such fun and such nonsense that really you’ve got to go and see this one too.

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LLGFF Festival Film Review: Leesong Hee-il’s White Night trilogy – seek it out if you can

by Philip Gowman 30 March 2013
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It was not so long ago that writing an article on queer cinema in Korea was a real struggle, for want of source material. Adam Hartzell does an excellent job in his 2002 Film Journal article Queer Pal for the Straight Gal, referencing films such as Wanee and Junah, Bungee Jump, Memento Mori and others. [...]

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The President’s Barber – an awkward film that’s difficult to categorise

by Philip Gowman 28 March 2013
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Lim Chan-sang’s The President’s Barber (효자동 이발사, 2004) was the first KCC screening of 2013, in which we will be seeing films featuring four actors each of who will be coming to London for a Q&A. The first three months feature Moon So-ri, who will be in London for a screening of Hahaha on 4 [...]

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DramaFever hosts fan choice awards for K-Drama

by Philip Gowman 23 March 2013
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UK netizens possibly won’t make much use of DramaFever as their episodes of K-Drama series are limited to IP addresses in the Americas. But K-drama fans wherever you are may want to participate in their fan choice awards for K-drama, which are open for voting until the end of March. This is the first year [...]

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Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis screens at the KCC

by Philip Gowman 12 March 2013
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Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis figures in most people’s list of top ten Korean films of all time, or at least of the first decade of this century: a compelling storyline which is both moving and shocking, with stand-out performances from Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri. It will be screening this Thursday at the KCC as part [...]

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Camp 14 – Total Control Zone at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival

by Philip Gowman 10 March 2013
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One of the most prominent publications last year on the subject of North Korea was Escape from Camp 14 – the story of an escapee from one of North Korea’s death camps. While such a story is rare in itself, what makes Shin Dong-hyuk’s tale more remarkable is that he was actually born in one [...]

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Stoker: not one of Park’s best, but definitely worth a look

by Philip Gowman 28 February 2013
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Kim Ji-woon’s Hollywood debut, The Last Stand, created virtually no buzz and vanished from London screens within a couple of weeks of opening. Stoker, having created some positive vibes at Sundance, played to a packed house at a preview screening at the BFI on 27 February before it has its main UK opening on 1 [...]

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Lee Song Hee-il trilogy to screen at the BFI

by Philip Gowman 27 February 2013
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Last year at the London Korean Film Festival we were scheduled to see White Night by Lee Song Hee-il (이송희일), but at the last minute the film was pulled so that it could have its European debut at the Berlin Festival in 2013. But now in compensation we are to see the film, together with [...]

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Park Chan-wook picks his cultural highlights in the Observer

by Philip Gowman 24 February 2013
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Park Chan-wook is featured in “On My Radar” in today’s Observer, to mark the release of Stoker. He’s generous enough to plug Kim Ji-woon’s The Last Stand and Ryu Seung-wan’s The Berlin File, and says he has read all of the “dark, scary and erotic” novels of Sarah Waters that have been translated into Korean. [...]

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RIP Park Chul-soo

by Philip Gowman 20 February 2013
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So sad that Park Chul-soo, director of 301, 302 and Green Chair, has died aged 64. His most recent film, B.E.D, premiered at the Busan festival last year. Park, born 20 November 1948, was run over by a drunk driver in the early hours of 19 February as he was walking home from the set [...]

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Jeonju Film Fest to focus on Kim Young-ha

by Philip Gowman 27 January 2013
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This is the kind of news I like. This year the program of the Jeonju International Film Festival will include “short films based on Korean writers’ short stories, thereby creating opportunities for good Korean literature to be introduced overseas. The focus this year will be KIM Young-ha. KIM Young-ha’s novel, I have a right to [...]

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Looking back at 2012: Hallyu and entertainment news

by Philip Gowman 24 January 2013
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In the second of four round-ups of links to news which caught our eye in 2012, we focus on hallyu-related stories from around the world, some of the local entertainment industry stories plus a quick look at the film industry. UK. The Guardian put together an entertaining photoshop when London Mayor Boris Johnson claimed he [...]

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