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 … [Read More]
Month: February 2013
Memories of the Gaze – Rhee Jae Yong at Gallery EM at Art 13
Details of Gallery EM’s artist at Art 13: Rhee Jae-yong: Memories of the Gaze Rhee’s series Memories of the Gaze reflects the artist’s long-term interest in capturing a medium or a moment capable of triggering once-lost memories. The idea of involuntary memory – of reminiscence triggered by a certain catalyst – comes from Marcel Proust’s … [Read More]
Lee Song Hee-il trilogy to screen at the BFI
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 … [Read More]
Saharial’s Entertainment Weekly: SHINee and B.A.P battle it out
Welcome to anther week in K-pop – a little delayed thanks to a full working weekend (doncha just love them??). So without further ado… SHINee: Dream Girl – The Misconceptions of You has been released and is being promoted on the usual music shows: http://youtu.be/vhxjEXDAy6s dance version: http://youtu.be/EzNaAY2yn6g. Their album rose to the top of … [Read More]
Chung Hye-seung’s monograph on Kim Ki-duk is a must-read, and readable, study of Korea’s maverick director
Chung Hye-seung: Kim Ki-duk (Contemporary Film Directors series) University of Illinois Press, 2012, 161pp When is the right time to publish a monograph on a living film director? With the KOFIC collection of books, the schedule appears more driven by wanting to get a complete set of directors covered as soon as possible. For a … [Read More]
Park Chan-wook picks his cultural highlights in the Observer
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. … [Read More]
Choi Eudon featured in London Fashion Week
It’s nice to see Choi Eudon featured in London Fashion Week’s Daily newspaper (16 February issue), with his Doctor Zhivago inspired Autumn / Winter 2013 collection. Choi’s star has been rising since he showed some of his designs at the KCC’s Crossfields show in 2009, with Lady Gaga reported to be among his fans. There’s … [Read More]
Neighbors (이웃사람, 2012) review: guilt, communal apathy and genre confusion in a serial killer drama
While Korean cinema is well known for its deft ability to merge genres, in ‘Neighbors’ their mixing with a multitude of individual character stories results in a film that, though interesting and well-acted, feels rather cluttered and even schizophrenic on more than one occasion. [Read More]
Bae Chan-hyo: Punishment Project — at Purdy Hicks
This is an exhibition I’m looking forward to, after having had a mini preview at the London Art Fair in January. Until now, Bae Chan-hyo’s meticulously staged self portraits have featured him in the clothing of an aristocratic Western female. In his latest work, he dresses up as some well-known male historical characters. Chan-hyo Bae: … [Read More]
Kim Young-ha says: Be an artist, right now!
Kim Young-ha’s TED talk on Be an Artist, Right Now!, recorded in July 2010, but only recently uploaded to YouTube. Among other things, Kim speculates on what would have happened if Kafka had shown the first sentence of his Metamorphosis to his father: Had he shown his father, “My boy has finally lost it,” he … [Read More]
RIP Park Chul-soo
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 … [Read More]
A Company Man (회사원, 2012) review: of hierarchies and hitmen
Superbly choreographed, perfectly realised action/fight sequences ultimately cannot hide A Company Man’s narrative predictability and though director Lim Sang-yoon should indeed for credited for attempting a critique of company hierarchy, work ethics and expected loyalty, this dissection feels somewhat underwhelming. [Read More]
What the British Say… and what they mean
This has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while, but deservedly: a very accurate dissection of the differences between what the British say, what they actually mean and what the non-native-English-speaker, or indeed anyone not British, might understand. Although the table suggests it relates to the British, it’s probably most accurate of … [Read More]
A day to shake off the last few weeks… a visit to Soon Yul Kang’s Spiritual Journey
Today was a day to unwind, to shake off the last few weeks of chaos and work….and be me. To spend time with myself and just be. Stop doing and just be. And so it was that I decided to visit the galleries, first the Tate Modern, then Tate Britain and then finally the British … [Read More]
Happy 150th Birthday, James Scarth Gale
James Scarth Gale – missionary, translator, and one of the founders of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch – was born 150 years ago on 19 February 1863. His birthday has been marked by an upgraded Wikipedia page, a special page with photos on Brother Anthony’s site, and a memorial service at Yeondong Church (which … [Read More]
QPR launches new Twitter account for their Korean fans
Queens Park Rangers has just launched a Korean-language Twitter account targeted at Korean fans, now that it has two high-profile Korean players. Park Ji-sung and Yun Suk-Young gave fans a welcome message on the club’s YouTube channel: The Twitter feed launched on Saturday, and 48 hours later it already has 1,700 followers. “The new @OfficialQPR_KR … [Read More]