October events 2016

It’s a great month for music and film. And not a bad one for zombies.

Film

• The BFI London Film Festival has three must-see films: Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing, E J-yong’s Bacchus Lady and Park Chan-wook’s Handmaiden, plus a short: Keep Going by Geon Kim.
• The London Korean Film Festival has the final teaser screening before its official opening on 3 November: the zombies-on-the-KTX thriller Train to Busan (6 October)
• The London East Asia Film Festival has a strong Korean showing, including a Park Chan-wook retrospective, Kim Ji-woon’s Age of Shadows as the opener and Cho Jung-rae’s Spirit’s Homecoming, among many others. Park Chan-wook and others will be making an appearance, and there’s also a screening in Sheffield.
• The KCC’s series of screenings focusing on Korean humour comes to a close with Kim Hyeon-seok’s Cyrano Agency on 13 Oct and Jeong Gyeong-ho’s Fasten Your Seatbelts on 27 Oct.
• If you haven’t yet seen The Lovers and the Despot, the new documentary on Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee (review to come soon), there’s a chance to see it in a double bill with Shin’s My Mother and her Guest, 12-13 October.
• The Deptford Cinema is screening E J-yong’s wonderful mockumentary Actresses on 21 October in collaboration with the KCCUK’s Korean humour programme.

Music and performance

• Flatmates v Zombies 2, a wacky British-Korean k-pop musical, has a performance at Tristan Bates Theatre on 3 October.
• The K-Music Festival is in its second month, with the following performances:
  • Jambinai on 3 October
  • Kyungso Park & Andy Shepherd on 11 October
  • National Gugak Centre on 12 October
  • Danpyunsun & the Sailors and Asian Chairshot on 21 October
  • Modern Table on 24 & 25 October
• The Rogeri String Trio perform in a house concert at the KCC on 4 October.
• Hae Joo Hahn (harp) performs with Sang Eil Shin (piano) at St James’s Piccadilly on Thursday evening, 13 Oct

Literature and discussion

• Tilted Axis Press launch their first Korean title, Hwang Jungeun’s One Hundred Shadows, at the London Review Bookshop on 20 October
• KCC’s book club this month focuses on Cho Congnae’s How in Heaven’s Name (LKL review here)
• SOAS’s Autumn season of seminars has started in earnest, with a session every Friday this month.

Food and Festivities

• Hangul Day celebrations are on 10 October.
• Chef Joo Won is doing one of his Korean tasting menus at Galvin at Windows throughout October. We loved his menu last summer.
• The Embassy has a number of online events in the run up to the Hottest K-Food in London event on 1 Nov. Apply to attend by 20 October.
• Watch out for The Hairy Bikers broadcasting their Korean Chicken special, recorded at K-Place earlier this summer. Best guess is that it will screen on 11 October on BBC2

Exhibitions

• The Korean Artist Crew’s exhibition, Garnish, finishes at NuDawn on 3 October
• Oh Man-chul’s solo show at Han Collection finishes on 7 October
• Koo Jeong-a’s Artist of the Year exhibition, Riptide, opens at the KCC on on 7 October
• Kim Jin-kwan’s solo show is at 5th Base Gallery, 7 – 12 October.