It’s been a while since we last had a SOAS Friday evening seminar, but this should be worth the wait. One Left: A powerful tale of trauma and endurance that transformed a nation’s understanding of Korean comfort women Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (Translators) Friday 4 December 2020, 5 – 7pm Online. Register via Zoom … [Read More]
Year: 2020 (page 2)
Moving On (남매의 여름밤, 2019) review: family, abandonment, and the quiet weight of letting go
Set within a multigenerational household, gentle, nuanced and heartfelt, Yoon Dan-bi’s Moving On deftly uses the minutiae of everyday life to tell an easily relatable, poignant tale that will feel wholly personal to viewers, especially those who have watched elderly relatives becoming increasingly frail as they wearily move through their twilight years. [Read More]
Online exhibition: Hyojin Park – Spiritual Garden Awakening
After their high-impact display of Ceviga’s work in a huge room at the Saatchi Gallery, Skipwiths move online for their end-of year exhibition. Spiritual Garden Awakening 25 November 2020 – 10 January 2021 SKIPWITHS | 17 Clifford Street | London W1S 3RQ | skipwiths.com Viewable on Artsy Park likens her Spiritual Garden series to “a … [Read More]
The 2020 (online) Kimjang Festival
Did you think that the second lockdown would get in the way of the second Kimjang Festival? Think again. The organisers have been working hard to create an online programme of events looking at how people are making kimchi at home in the UK. There are also spotlights on some innovative restaurants and chefs in … [Read More]
Bori (나는보리, 2018) review: the girl who yearns to be deaf
Always quietly spoken but nonetheless screaming of candour throughout, Kim Jin-yu’s Bori deftly inverts common disability tropes seen in Korean cinema by centering on an able-bodied child’s perspective to underline their all-important message all the more in an original, sweetly engaging and ultimately uplifting way. [Read More]
Shin Seung-tae’s new Trot persona
When Lee Hee Moon announced the disbandment of his glam rock minyo outfit Ssing Ssing last year, I forewent gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, prophesying instead that an abundance of interesting projects must surely follow. And Lo, it did come to pass. Female vocalist Chu Da-hye started her band, Chudahye and The Chagis … [Read More]
Review: City of Ash and Red
City of Ash and Red is a novel for 2020, even though it was originally published in 2010. Inspired no doubt in part by the SARS outbreak of 2002-3, Pyun Hye-young imagines a world where a virus has the potential to shut down whole countries, in which visitors are tested for infection on arrival at … [Read More]
Ahn Eun-me talks about Dancing Grandmothers in Dance Umbrella
Star dancer and choreographer Ahn Eun-me gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the choreographic process as part of Dance Umbrella later this month. The festival is online-only, given the current Covid situation. Ahn’s free talk, which will focus on her Dancing Grandmothers project, will be at 1pm UK time on 25 November, at www.danceumbrella.co.uk [Read More]
A visit to Sollip
It is not ideal to open a new restaurant in the middle of a global pandemic, but that’s precisely what husband and wife team Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki did with their new venture. Sollip opened at the end of August, and brings together French techniques with Korean flavours. It has been getting some great … [Read More]
Gallery visit: Korean Eye 2020 – Creativity and Daydream
Korean Eye always brings together a mixture of the familiar and the not so familiar. In 2020, a show which started in St Petersburg and will end in Seoul, we were treated to works from UK-based Korean artists as well as from emerging and established artists based in Korea. This year, we’ve chosen to do … [Read More]
Gallery: START Art Fair 2020
A few installation views of the Korean artists and galleries displaying work at START Art Fair in the Saatchi Gallery at the end of October: A show-stopping display of Ceviga’s work by Skipwiths – who also introduced a work by Kim Hayoung; Intricate musical sculptures by Eunhyue Shin – constructed in part from broken musical … [Read More]
Review: Na Man’gap – the Diary of 1636
Na Man’gap’s Diary of 1636, as George Kallander explains in his informative introduction, is the longest known private account of the second Manchu invasion of Korea. Na (1592 – 1642) was a senior scholar-official who was with the King and court inside Namhansanseong – he was in charge of military rations – throughout the siege … [Read More]
Han Collection special exhibition: Buncheong
In the last couple of days before the November lock-down, Han Collection is mounting a special exhibition of buncheong old and new. Buncheong ceramics Han Collection | 33 Museum Street | Bloomsbury | London WC1A 1LH | www.hancollection.co.uk Monday 2 Nov, Tues 3 Nov, Wed 4 November 2020, 11am-6pm Buncheong is one of the three … [Read More]
November events 2020
As we head back into lock-down, there’s only a couple of days left in November to visit the exhibitions. And we commiserate with the KCCUK and LEAFF organisers, who have worked so hard to find venues for screenings and live music only to find that the pandemic has other ideas. Books and Talks Thank heavens … [Read More]
Unexpected Vanilla: Poetry Reading with Poet Lee Hyemi and translator Soje
November’s literature event celebrates a recent publication of poetry by Lee Hyemi from Tilted Axis, translated by Smoking Tiger Soje. Unexpected Vanilla Poetry Reading with Poet Lee Hyemi and translator Soje Wednesday 25th November 12noon-1:30pm (UK time) Zoom videoconference. Entrance Free – Booking Essential Apply to [email protected] with your name and contact details by 4th … [Read More]
Movie review: Peninsula. Four years after Train to Busan, the zombies rule the streets…
We’re four years on from the zombie pandemic that ravaged the Korea that we saw in Train to Busan (2016). The port city proved to be no refuge from the rampaging menace, and the zombies took over the country. Some lucky few of the non-infected escaped by sea, but no country wanted to receive the … [Read More]