Here’s what I know about:
- Han Style comes to London 3 – 8 November, with a hanbok exhibition at the Royal College of Arts and an afternoon of Korean culture at the Victoria & Albert museum on 4 November.
- Asian Art in London has a number of antique Korean arts and crafts for sale, of which the highlight is possibly the hanbok and textiles at Linda Wrigglesworth.
- For something a bit more contemporary, To the furthest verge continues at I-MYU until 10 November. A new exhibition, Arcadia, commences on 23 November.
- For those who wish to study contemporary Asian Art, there’s an intensive one-week course at SOAS 5-9 November.
- The Korean Discussion Group meets at Chatham House on 15 November with a talk by Charles Scanlon, distinguished former BBC Seoul Correspondent.
- SOAS’s Centre for Korean Studies commences its series of free evening seminars.
- Sunwook Kim comes to London to give two performances – a solo recital on the 4th and Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody with the LPO on the 9th.
- The London Korean Film Festival hits the Barbican, 2-8 November, followed by Warwick 9-11 November and Oxford 12-14 November.
- Kayagum player Choi Jin plays at SOAS on 19 November.
- Mime Artist Ko Jae-kyung performs as part of the New Malden Festival 22-24 November.
- The Korean Language Meetup assembles on 24 November.
Do Koreans in London play Handball or want to play?
Thames Handball in Kingston upon Thames need players of all standards- men and women or children.
see website http://www.thameshandball.com
Also NEW
The South Korean movie, “The Best Moment of Our Lives,†will be released in South Korean theaters soon and a promotional preview is now available for viewing online.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1437437MYtc95T7
The movie revolves around the 2004 South Korean Olympic Team which lost to Denmark in the Gold medal final in Athens. The match was notable for going through 2 overtimes before being settled in a penalty shoot-out. The preview mixes scenes from the Gold medal match with training and preparation for the Olympics. The movie according to online user groups, the film will show the sacrifices that married veteran players in their 30’s made as well as conflicts they had with their new coach and the European methods he introduced.
Here is a synopsis:
Once a professional Korean handball player, Mi-sook is now working in a retail store after her team disbanded. Hae-kyung, now playing as a coach for a handball team in Japan, returns to Korea to become the replacement coach for Korea’s national team. In order to improve the team she asks her former teammates, including Mi-sook, to join the team and regain their past glory.
Hae-kyung has them training hard, but the younger player’s don’t adapt well to her old school style. Dissention becomes so strong that players become involved in physical confrontations. Because of this, Hae-Kyung is asked to step down as the coach and a new coach Seung-pil takes her place. With encouragement from Misook, Hae-Kyung now swallows her pride and rejoins the team as a player.
Seung-pil used to be a famous handball player but now is adapting to the role of a coach. He implements a more scientific program and european style training program that faces more resistance from the players. The team’s ability to compete in the Olympics becomes more distant with each passing day.
This movie is based on the true story of the South Korean handball team that played in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. The team was once thought of as one of the elite teams in the world, but are now considered to be one of the worst. Nobody, including the Koreans, expected the team to reach the gold medal game. The team’s resiliency was displayed throughout the entire tournament and especially during their epic gold medal match. After regulation and two overtime periods against Denmark, the game was still a tie. The gold medal now was staked on one final “shout out†(sudden death) match. This game was considered one of the best of the 2004 Olympics.
Movie: The Best Moment of Our Lives (Women’s Team Handball) / Woori Saengae Chwegoui Soongan
Release Date: Late 2007/Early 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Soonrye Yim
Starring: So-ri Moon, Jung-Eun Kim, Tae-woong Eom