Floating aromas of a steamy simmering soup, the sharp sound of a knife quickly slicing spring onions, the hissing and sizzling of mushrooms on a scorching fire. In Haribo Kimchi, we find ourselves in a pojangmacha, a typical late-night snack bar that can be found scattered across the streets of South Korea. There we meet several … [Read More]
Year: 2024 (page 14)
Exhuma (파묘) – UK theatrical release
A shaman is offered a large amount of money to move a tomb. He moves with his companion, Ji Gwan. After suffering from serial paranormal events, a wealthy family living in LA summons a young rising shaman duo Hwa-rim (KIM Go-eun) and Bong-gil (LEE Do-hyun) to save the newborn of the family. Once they arrive, … [Read More]
Oh Myung-hee in The Future is Female, at the Garrison Chapel
Coinciding with International Women’s Day, The Future is Female exhibition by The Art Link aims to showcase exceptional female sculptors, both established and emerging, while addressing the long standing gender disparity in the art world. The exhibition will feature 18 female sculptors and 40 works of art, offering a diverse and thought-provoking exploration of contemporary female … [Read More]
An Evening of East Asian Music with the Celadon Club: Poetry and Tradition
A journey across the cultures of East Asia, contrasting music from Korea, Japan and China, seeped in tradition and poetic inspiration. The Celadon Club is Hyelim Kim, recipient of a 2023 Paul Hamlyn Award, daegeum (Korean flute) soloist, composer and researcher, alongside Akinori Fujimoto (taiko drum) and Kwong Thye Lee (xiao flute and guzheng zither). [Read More]
2024 Festival of Korean Dance programme details announced
Last year, the Festival of Korean Dance for the first time played to audiences in Salford, Coventry and Brighton. The year the festival extends its reach into Scotland, with its first performance in Glasgow. Salford, Newcastle and Bournemouth will also get to experience one of the productions. The full press release follows, with links at … [Read More]
K-Dance 2024: Cheok, by Ae-soon Ahn
Cheok is the traditional Asian standard of measurement, meaning ‘span of the hand.’ Resisting the uniform standardisation of society, this personal and individual measurement is the guiding principle of renowned Korean Choreographer Ae-soon Ahn’s visually enticing reflection of the nature of precision. Mysterious and virtuosic solos and groups connect and communicate in a rich and sensuous landscape of … [Read More]
K-Dance 2024: Burnt Offering, by 99 Art Company
A sublime evocation of life; a danced ritual for our times. Most dances from all over the world originated from ‘religious rites’. Burnt Offering, winner of the Best Production award at the 2nd Seoul Arts Awards at the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, invites us to consider what new rituals we need, what we might … [Read More]
K-Dance 2024: Kontemporary Korea – a double bill of K-Dance
Kontemporary Korea is a double bill of contrasting works, introducing one of Korea’s leading choreographers Cheol-in Jeong who creates virtuosic and emotive works as Melancholy Dance Company, and audience favourite Sung Im Her, offering her high energy and engaging personality to another edition of A Festival of Korean Dance. TomorrowIsNowTodayIsYesterday (TinTiY) Sung Im Her’sTiNTiY looks at the impact of (social) media on … [Read More]
IVE “Show What I Have” tour at the o2
Show What I Have World Tour is the first worldwide concert tour and second tour overall by South Korean girl group Ive, in support of their extended play I’ve Mine. The tour began on October 7, 2023, in Seoul, South Korea and is currently set to conclude on August 24, 2024, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The … [Read More]
Review: Hera Hyesang Park’s stunning London debut
When faced with the choice of attending a recital by an opera singer I usually politely decline, whatever the reputation of the singer. The prospect of what is usually a selection of operatic arias performed outside of their dramatic context holds little appeal for me, particularly if the recital is accompanied by a piano reduction … [Read More]
King’s College research seminar: a Deeper Understanding of the Korean Wave
This seminar intends to deepen our understanding of the globalisation of South Korea’s cultural content by exploring innovations in the country’s cultural industries, especially K-pop, and the transgenerational aspects of K-content. Hopefully, the seminar discussion will help us to make sense of the Korean Wave in a more nuanced way within the broader context of … [Read More]
March events 2024
Here are the main events for March. Despite the respectable length of the list, I can’t help feeling that since January, which felt crazily busy, we’ve been in a slight holding pattern: pre-pandemic we’d got used to a relatively frequent schedule of events at SOAS and the KCC, but things haven’t yet got back into … [Read More]
KCC screening: A Sister’s Garden (자매의 화원)
The Nam family leads a life of upper-middle class luxury. But this wealth lies on unstable foundations, and when the father dies suddenly, Jung-hee (Choi Eun-hee), as the new head of the family, finds herself with steep debts and no source of income. At last, she must decide on something that riskier than before. “A … [Read More]
Youngsun Yoon’s Kiss: a minimalist study in the difficulty of communicating
Over the years, Londoners have had a few, but not many, opportunities to see the work of a Korean playwright on stage. The count increases if you include musicals or performances in provincial theatres or at the Edinburgh fringe, where each year you can normally find at least one 50-minute Korean stage production, but if … [Read More]
Unsuk Chin and Donghoon Shin Barbican performances
Unsuk Chin has music featured in two of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Spring season concerts; and in the second of those concerts we will be treated to a UK premiere of Donghoon Shin’s Cello Concerto: Thursday 14 March, 7pm: Beethoven and Unsuk Chin Prepare for the unexpected in Beethoven’s most surprising symphony, and Unsuk Chin’s … [Read More]
Sun-mi Hong plays at the Vortex
Sun-Mi Hong makes two appearances at the Vortex this month, first as part of a quartet led by Ant Law and Alex Hitchcock – with whom she collaborated for the first time at K-Music 2022 – and then at the end of the month leading her own quintet: 2 March: Same Moon in the Same … [Read More]