Ji-min Lee: Marilyn and Me Translated by Chi-young Kim HarperCollins / 4th Estate 2019, 176pp Originally published as 나와마릴린, 2009 “Where did all the beautiful and hopeful young women go?” That was the thought that occurred to author Ji-Min Lee, looking back at the grim post-war years, and looking at a couple of photographs from […]
Review: JM Lee – The Boy who Escaped Paradise
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise J.M. Lee, translated by Chi Young Kim Pegasus, 2016, 288pp Originally published as 천국의 소년, Seoul, 2013. A fifty-year-old North Korean is found shot to death in a flat in Queens, New York; beside him is a wounded man, the presumed killer. On the floor around the bodies are mysterious […]
Bong Joon-ho makes Oscars history
We almost feared that he had jinxed himself with that comment about the Academy Awards being “very local”. The comment, made in an interview with Vulture in October 2019, was made in the context that it’s “not a big deal” that a Korean movie had yet to be nominated for an Oscar (the nominations for […]
Concert notes: Park Jiha at LSO St Lukes
What a difference a venue makes. Uncomfortable seats, noisy air conditioning and poor sight lines meant that Park Jiha’s gig at the Rich Mix in the 2019 K-music festival was less enjoyable than it could have been. At LSO St Luke’s at the end of January everything seemed right. Yes, there was the faint hiss […]
Brief book review: The Plotters
Kim Un-su: The Plotters Translated by Sora Kim-Russell Fourth Estate, 2019, 304 pp Originally published as 설계자들, Seoul 2010 I always find when embarking on a new book it pays to have neutral expectations. That way you won’t be disappointed. But sometimes it’s hard to filter out your own personal prejudices and the word of […]
Some non-fiction titles we can’t wait to read in 2020 [updated]
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Outside of the wide range of upcoming literature and fiction titles, there’s plenty of non-fiction to look forward to as well. I’ve already highlighted three titles on Korean film which look worth exploring, and here’s the remainder of my 2020 reading longlist (which includes some titles from very late in 2019), split between (1) Books […]
February events 2020
We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for the two Korean movies with seven Oscar nominations between them. Be sure to buy your March copy of Sight & Sound (available from 3 Feb) guest-edited by man of the moment Bong Joon-ho. Music Unsuk Chin’s SPIRA – A Concerto for Orchestra – will be broadcast on Radio […]
Book review: When Adam Opens His Eyes
Jang Jung-il: When Adam Opens His Eyes Translated by Hwang Sun-ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges Dalkey Archive 2013, 126 pp Originally published as 아담이 눈뜰 때, Kimyeongsa, Seoul, 1990 Deleuze, Lacan, Bataille… if you’re reading a text that references any of those thinkers, you’re probably reading a rather turgid book on postcolonial or film studies, […]
Recently published books on Korean film
Having done my list of upcoming fiction titles, I’ve been working on a similar list of upcoming non-fiction. But in compiling the non-fiction list I’ve identified several titles that slipped under the radar towards the end of last year. Three of them relate to film. No doubt, following all the buzz about Parasite, there will […]
Two days total immersion in BTS at Kingston: a report from the Global Interdisciplinary Conference Project
When I told someone at the (virtually empty) office on the first Friday of the new decade that I would be spending the weekend at a two-day conference on BTS, he at first looked blank. I had to explain to him that they’re a K-pop boy band, at which he grinned and urged me to […]
A round-up of three early January exhibitions
LKL visits three solo shows in the first two weeks of 2020: Suh Shinuk, Song Gin-young and Kang Jungsuck. Hopefully we’ll get to Tate Modern to see the big Nam June Paik exhibition before it closes. Suh Shinuk’s Man(u)fractured has been extended for a week, to 18 January. It’s well worth a trip to North […]
Global CONNECT, BTS art project launched at Serpentine
London’s Serpentine Gallery was chosen as the venue for today’s launch of a new international art project in collaboration with BTS. The band attended the event via a live stream. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, the art project titled “CONNECT, BTS” is a series of exhibitions in five cities on four continents that is […]
Moon Jae-in’s 2020 New Year speech
Here is the text of President Moon Jae-in’s 2020 New Year Message, sourced from the Blue House website. Fellow Koreans, The New Year, the Year of the White Rat, has dawned. We rang out the significant past year that marked the centennial of the March First Independence Movement and the founding of the Provisional Republic […]
Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]
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I’m hoping that, as in previous years, by posting my own list of upcoming literature and fiction titles – pulled together by some targeted searching on Amazon and a trawl through Barbara J Zitwer’s website – I might persuade others to supplement it from their own specialist knowledge. Whatever happens, books inevitably fall through the […]
Kim Jong Un’s 2020 New Year message
Notes of a speech given by Chairman Kim Jong Un at the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea serves as this year’s New Year address. Text sourced from dprktoday.com Report on 5th Plenary Meeting of 7th C.C., WPK Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) — The 5th Plenary Meeting of the […]
January events 2020
Thankfully, a reasonably quiet start to the New Year – and new decade. The KCC hasn’t yet announced its first season of film nights for the year – but in the past couple of years, if I recall right, those haven’t started until February anyway. But don’t miss their showcase of the Lady Hyegyong Uigwe. […]
A review of the Korean cultural year 2019
A review of some of the highlights and trends in the Korean cultural year, primarily in London but also with half an eye to anything we might have seen elsewhere in the UK. The review is a personal one, inevitably skewed towards the events we managed to get to. Introduction This time last year I […]