Korean Eye 2012 opened this evening, with speeches from the great and the good including Lee Charm, head of the Korean Tourism Organisation. Entertainment was provided by Dulsori in the form of traditional music. This is going to be a great show. [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 107)
Oh dear
The first mess-up of the games: I really don’t blame the North Korean team for walking off. (Image source) Links: North Korea Threatens to Destroy Glasgow in a ‘Sea of Fire’, Dokdo Times, 26 July 2012 [Read More]
Planet of Snail: amusing, touching and life-affirming
Soon-ho: What are you doing? Young-chan: I’m talking to the tree Soon-ho: Is it fun? Young-chan: We’re on a date Soon-ho: Can I join in? Soon-ho interrupts her husband who has been tenderly running his fingers over the trunk of a pine tree, feeling the contours of every crevice in the bark. The conversation, at … [Read More]
From tomorrow evening, this plinth will no longer be empty
From tomorrow, this plinth in a square just off Oxford Street will no longer be empty. To find out why, read this article, or visit http://writteninsoap.com/ [Read More]
Video highlights of Lee Bul’s talk at the Hayward Gallery
For those who like me didn’t manage to get to Lee Bul’s talk “From Me, Belongs to You Only” at the South Bank recently, the KCCUK have posted a quick video giving highlights of the evening: [Read More]
Michael Karikis captures the other-wordly sound of the haenyo
Mikhail Karikis’s Sea Women project, installed in the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station for six weeks up to 7 July, comprised two separate but connected works. The less remarkable part was some video footage of the haenyo at work. In subject matter this was nothing that has not been seen before in other documentary films – … [Read More]
Gumok: a simple, powerful portrayal of the story of a young Comfort Woman
In general, my heart sinks when I have to go to a musical. I’ve rarely come across a piece of music theatre from the last 50 years where the quality of the music and lyrics has lived up to the ambition of the production as a whole. The two big Korean musicals that have shown … [Read More]
Japanese invaders colonise Dokdo
This month’s Korea.net magazine features Dokdo, but in cataloguing the island’s human and plant inhabitants, the magazine reveals five species with suspiciously Japanese-sounding names that have a firm foothold on the Korean islands. In the plant world, there’s Artemisia japonica var. macrocephala Pampan and Rumex japonicus Houttuyn (both ominously said to be “spreading quickly these … [Read More]
Which Korean TV programmes would YOU buy?
LKL’s editor poses as a TV suit at a 2012 trade fair where a wide range of Korean TV programmes from many genres are being touted to potential UK buyers. He takes a semi-humorous but critical look at which programmes might work for LKL’s hypothetical TV service. TLDR: some will work better than others… [Read More]
Rachmaninov, Flamenco and Han: LKL meets pianist HJ Lim
LKL is surprised four times in the space of a twenty minute interview with Korean pianist HJ Lim, and ends up an even bigger fan than before. Having enthusiastically listened to HJ Lim’s industry debut at Abbey Road Studios in May, and having purchased her boxed set of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, we’re really … [Read More]
A little memory of Korea for your walls – lovely woodblock prints at Mokspace
With their current exhibition, Underneath the Gam Tree, MokSpace continues its recent form of putting on exhibitions of work which is both affordable and desirable. Hyun Jeung’s woodblock prints will remind you perhaps of William Morris or Charles Voysey: gingko, peony, persimmon, jasmine and apple (reflecting her childhood origins in Daegu) in delicate interweaving patterns. … [Read More]
Park Chan-wook’s Night Fishing released on R3 DVD
One of the highlights of last year’s London Korean Film Fest last year, so I’m told, was Park Chan-wook’s iPhone-shot short movie Night Fishing. I just didn’t get a chance to see it. But thankfully it’s out on subtitled Region 3 DVD later this month at YesAsia. It’ll soon be in my shopping cart. (Update … [Read More]
John Everard launches “Only Beautiful Please”
Former UK ambassador to Pyongyang John Everard has just launched his book “Only Beautiful Please” at a talk to the Korea Society. He caused a stir by saying North Koreans don’t like the Chinese, which links in with something the defector Kim Joo-il said in a letter to the FT in September 2010: North Koreans … [Read More]
South Bank workshop disappoints
Not sure we’ll be getting a write-up of Haegue Yang’s day at the South Bank. I got this from someone who was going to write it up: “Haegue’s workshop yesterday was so disappointing… I made two simple origami figures and knitting without anything related to Haegue’s work really. I don’t have anything to write about … [Read More]
Dodgy savings bank loans provide unique buying opportunity
Fancy a Lamborghini? Contact the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, who are trying to offload assets from failed Korean savings banks. The cars were repossessed when their owners failed to pay up. Via Wall Street Journal http://on.wsj.com/L1CQiS [Read More]
Let’s hear the arguments against the Gangjeong Naval Base in Jeju-do
There was a festive gathering last Tuesday at the Old Justice pub at which supporters of the campaign against the Jeju Island naval base held a public meeting. The London-based group has already held two demonstrations against the base this year, one outside the Korean embassy and one outside the Samsung electronics shop in Tottenham … [Read More]