It will pass, someday: Gothic ethereality and introspection in RM’s Mono

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by Colette Balmain on 6 December, 2018

in Music features | Pop rock and indie | Recorded music reviews

RM’s second mixtape, Mono, dropped on 23 October 2018 almost two and a half years after the self-titled RM, which was released on 20 March 2015. Mono was accompanied by a music video for the final track “Forever Rain” with lyric videos released for “Seoul” and “Moonchild” on 23 and 24 October respectively. It followed J-Hope’s earlier […]

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Festival Film Review: The Return

by Bella Frey 4 December 2018
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I was as delighted as I was surprised when I saw that the London Korean Film Festival had selected The Return for its closing gala screening. The huge numbers of overseas adoptions from Korea is often a sidelined subject and understandably wouldn’t be a natural choice when showcasing Korean culture and arts. But the 2018 […]

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2018 travel diary 1 – Mallipo out of season

by Philip Gowman 3 December 2018
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9 – 10 November 2018. The first two nights of this year’s trip were spent on Mallipo beach, Taean-gun, because I liked the place so much when I visited last year. And I still like it. There’s not much more to say, other than it’s far preferable to Busan’s Haeundae beach. Next door to Mallipo […]

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December events 2018

by Philip Gowman 1 December 2018
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Finally, it’s calming down a bit, after a truly hectic couple of months, but there’s still plenty going on. Film and TV There’s another chance to catch Lee Chang-dong’s Burning prior to its theatrical release next year: 10 December at Regent Street Cinema The SOAS North Korea Society is hosting a screening of The Jangmadang […]

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The LKL 2018 Korea trip – an introduction

by Philip Gowman 26 November 2018
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Overview My annual visit to Korea this year for once really didn’t have an agenda. Originally planned as a late October / early November trip to see some Autumn leaves and catch the tail end of the Gwangju Biennale, everything changed when I heard that Ahn Sook-sun was coming to London at that precise time […]

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Festival film review: This Charming Girl

by Robert Cottingham 23 November 2018
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Lee Yoon-ki (이윤기) This Charming Girl (여자, 정혜, 2004, 99 mins). Review by Robert Cottingham. You know how people talk about reality TV, even though there is nothing ‘real’ about it? Well, if you wanted to see actual reality, the sheer day-to-day mundane-ness of the average person’s life, then this film is the closest you […]

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Book review: Blaine Harden – King of Spies

by Philip Gowman 12 November 2018
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Blaine Harden: King of Spies – The dark reign of America’s spymaster in Korea Mantle, 2018, 272 pp The character of the maverick cop, or even maverick spy, delivering outstanding results through unorthodox means and despite a disregard for hierarchy, is a familiar one in crime and spy fiction. Blaine Harden, who worked with Shin […]

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Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018

by Philip Gowman 3 November 2018
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In case like me you couldn’t get tickets to the Screen Talk with Lee Chang-dong as part of the BFI London Film Festival, here’s the recording on the BFI YouTube channel. The interview took place on 20 October 2018, the day of an anti-Brexit demonstration in London – which is mentioned more than once in […]

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November events 2018

by Philip Gowman 1 November 2018
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Probably the event of the year is the appearance of Ahn Sook-sun in London to perform Heungboga. Not to be missed. It’s also the busiest time of the year for Korean film, and if you haven’t seen enough of BTS yet you might be able to see them in a cinema near you. In fact […]

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The Top 5 Gothic KPOP Music Videos

by Colette Balmain 31 October 2018
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Dr Colette Balmain applies her specialism in Gothic Cinema to the world of KPOP – perfect for the Halloween season… ‘Gothic forces its readers, viewers, and listeners to identify the ghosts that haunt them…’ (Isabella van Elferan, 2012, Gothic Music, p. 15). 1. SHINee “Married to the Music” (2015) “Married to the Music” doesn’t sound […]

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The BTS Love Yourself o2 concert – a fresh perspective

by Gargi Sengupta 30 October 2018
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LKL’s young contributor Gargi Sengupta, who reported from the Sheffield Korea Day earlier this year, provides her second report – from the biggest KPOP event in London ever! On the 10th of October I went with my father to watch the BTS concert at the London o2. Since I have been a HUGE fan of […]

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4482 2019: OPEN CALL for artists

by Philip Gowman 29 October 2018
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Please find below the Call for Artists for Sasapari 4482 2019: 4482 2019: OPEN CALL for artists Exhibition: The Other side of the Moon 4482 is a multi-functional platform which exists to promote, integrate and celebrate new Korean Contemporary Art within the United Kingdom. The name was derived when it first began in 2007, the […]

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Affective becomings and musical transformations: BTS take London

by Colette Balmain 23 October 2018
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Dr Colette Balmain, or maybe a ghost writer, reports from the biggest KPOP event in the UK this year: Taking the Plunge This is the first concert review that I have written although I have been to many concerts, some of which I have good memories of and others which I wish I could press […]

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A visit to Foyles during Korean Culture Month

by Philip Gowman 22 October 2018
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Foyles’s Korean Culture Month runs from 13 October into the middle of November in partnership with the KCC. As part of the promotion, Korean books are displayed prominently by the ground floor information desk and on Level 4, where all their foreign language books are. You are able to sign up for a free exploratory […]

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Mini review round-up: the 2018 LKFF Teaser screenings

by Philip Gowman 21 October 2018
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Sometimes I just don’t have the time to marshal any thoughts about a movie after seeing it. Daily life takes over any before I know it I’ve watched another movie and the memory of the previous one is dimming fast. But as I’ve been on holiday for a few days away from the daily grind, […]

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Brief review: Comrade Kim goes Flying

by Philip Gowman 20 October 2018
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The London East Asia Film Festival gives us the second chance this year to see Comrade Kim Goes Flying in the company of two of its directors, Nicholas Bonner and Anja Daelemans. The screening in March was in fact the UK premiere, which came almost six years after its international premiere in Toronto in early September […]

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The film festivals approach – as does the annual battle for our diaries

by Philip Gowman 17 October 2018
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Last year I had a little rant about the hectic and competing schedules of the two overlapping film festivals of interest to the Korean film audience. The London Korean Film Festival has had a long history of packing so many films into their programme that it’s impossible to go to everything you want to see. […]

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