With all the excitement about the launch of the adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko on Apple TV, and Apple’s Oscar win, something that might once have been big news – the appearance of a free-to-view Park Chan-wook short film on YouTube – has not really had much airtime. Back in 2011, brothers Park Chan-wook … [Read More]
Month: March 2022
A Festival of Korean Dance 2022
The Festival of Korean Dance is back. The programme is pretty much what we were going to see in the 2020 festival, which of course got cancelled. I’m glad we haven’t missed out, and I’m really looking forward to this. So, here’s the official press release. A Festival of Korean Dance returns to The Place … [Read More]
Online dance film screenings: Trace of Time & BreAking
Book for any shows within A Festival of Korean Dance 2022 and get access to two short dance films by acclaimed Korean choreographers; Bora Kim and Kyungeun Lee. Bora Kim | Trace of Time TUE 22 Mar – SAT 2 JUL / Online (19mins) Trace of Time is a beautiful meditation on the body, space … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Collective A / Jinyeob Cha – MIIN: Body to Body
In this visually arresting performance, Collective A’s critically acclaimed choreographer Jinyeob Cha examines perceptions of beauty and femininity beyond societal norms and traditions. Accompanied by a hypnotic soundscape created by two acclaimed musicians based in Seoul, Eun-yong Sim, from Korean Avant-rock band Jambinai, and haihm, an electronic musician, six female dancers flit between precise, discreet, … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Soo Hyun Hwang – Sense of Darkness | Yun Jung Lee – Tongue Gymnastics
Soo Hyun Hwang – Sense of Darkness With their eyes closed throughout the show, the performers in Sense of Darkness draw the audience into a world in which intricate movements and sounds are amplified. Each performer uses the sound created by themselves as signals to coordinate the locations of oneself, the other performers, audience members, … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Art Project Bora ‘MUAK’
Seven performers burst the confines of logic as they dismiss the notion that we watch dance and hear music exclusively. MUAK is a piece inspired by music with the same name by the composer Isang Yun. According to Isang Yun, in Western music, the tunes are made up by the composer. But in Asian music, the … [Read More]
Book review: June Hur – The Silence of Bones
My reading diary so far this year has been getting me rather bogged down. In part that’s because there seems to be so little time for reading nowadays, and partly because my choice of reading material has been overly serious and lengthy. First was The Scorpion, a 400-plus page novel from the rather dour genre … [Read More]
April Korean Literature Night: Shoko’s Smile
Shoko’s Smile A bestselling and award-winning debut collection from one of Korea’s most prominent young writers. In crisp, unembellished prose, Choi Eunyoung paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught friendship between an exchange student and her host sister follows … [Read More]
KCC April House Concert: Regency String Quartet
The Regency String Quartet Mabelle Young-Eun Park, violin Hermes Jungho Byun, violin Jamie Howe, viola Ellen Baumring-Gledhill, cello Programme Beethoven String Quartet No.4 in C minor, Op. 18 I. Allegro ma non tanto II. Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto III. Menuetto allegretto IV. Allegro Intermission Mendelssohn String Quartet No.6 in F minor, Op. 80 I. Allegro … [Read More]
Modern Korean history documentary double bill at the KCC
Korean Film Nights presents four episodes of the television documentary series Modern Korea 2, produced by the KBS television channel. Each episode uses footage selected from the vast KBS archives to create compilation narratives that look back at the social, political, and cultural themes that have marked Korea’s history over the decades. The footage and … [Read More]
Eric Nam: There & Back Again UK Tour
Global singer-songwriter Eric Nam returns to London for two performances with his all-English sophomore album, There And Back Again. One of the most popular and recognisable celebrities in Asia, Eric Nam is a multi-faceted Korean-American entertainer and TV personality. He also includes Glasgow and Manchester in the tour. [Read More]
Escape from Mogadishu – UK Theatrical Release
Escape from Mogadishu is a nail-biting political thriller based on a true story starring Kim Yoon-seok (The Chaser) and Huh Joon-ho (Netflix’s Kingdom). Rival diplomats from North Korea and South Korea become trapped as civil war rages in Mogadishu, Somalia. With no aid from either government, their only shot at survival requires uniting with bitter … [Read More]
KCC House Concert Spring Special
The KCCUK’s House Concert Spring Special is designed to provide you with an island of calm as we look forward to Easter and try to put Covid behind us. A string quartet will play Borodin, bringing you into Spring with calmness and warmth. Painter Sangjig Moon’s artworks will be projected on the screen while the … [Read More]
Gallery visit: Jukhee Kwon in Expanding Horizons
October Gallery has represented Korean artist Jukhee Kwon for almost ten years now, and it was natural that when planning an exhibition in memory of their trustee Pamela Kember they should include work by the Korean artist as she exhibited in Asia House when Kember was director of Arts and Learning there. Somehow, during the … [Read More]
Soon Yul Kang’s recent and upcoming exhibitions
Congratulations to London-based artist Soon Yul Kang, who has had a nice write-up for her Washington duo show from the Washington Post: Striking a canny balance between the simple and the complex, Kang’s artworks can be grasped in a second yet reward minutes of close inspection. Kang’s exhibition at the Washington KCC closes on 23 … [Read More]
Book review: Kim Won-il – The Scorpion
Kim Won-il looks at 80 years of Korean modern history, presenting us with the less glamorous side of the story in a novel that spans three generations of a Milyang-based family who are swept along in the political and economic tides of the colonial period and Korea’s subsequent reconstruction. [Read More]