The recent exhibition at Asia House, Transreal, presented two very different Korean artists side by side. There was a convenient area of overlap – both artists have produced mountain landscapes in red and white. But while one artist well-represented on these pages – Sea-hyun Lee – pursues his red landscapes with an almost obsessive single-mindedness, … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 169)
Sven and the North Koreans
How weird is this? The curious case of Notts County, their former adviser, Sven-Goran Eriksson, and a North Korean bigwig | The Guardian http://bit.ly/4HeQGS # [Read More]
Mother reveals Bong’s perversity
This report captures director Bong Joon-ho’s insights on his subversive thriller, detailing his “perverse” casting of icons Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin against their established types. Bong discusses his meticulous control over “feminine” landscapes and storyboards, ultimately emphasizing how the primal maternal instinct can transform a mother into a monster in her desperate quest to protect. [Read More]
Looking at Korea through a glass sphere
British photographer (and English teacher in Korea) Simon Bond sees Korea through a glass sphere – a nice article in the Daily Telegraph http://bit.ly/3NW0oi # Simon Bond’s websites: on Flickr | 369photography.co.uk (where you can buy his work). [Read More]
The art of hanok living
It’s good to see westerners other other than David Kilburn pointing out that you don’t have to demolish a Hanok to make it inhabitable: http://bit.ly/4GWamM #. Peter Bartholomew and Tom Coyner in the Joongang Daily. There is a belief in Korea (and other Asian countries) that total demolition of an old traditional building and new … [Read More]
Bird flu boosts sales of lucky pants
Bird flu boosts sales of lucky pants, says the Chosun Ilbo http://bit.ly/2zCuwR #. “With the H1N1 flu alert raised to the highest level, more people are buying underwear for their parents to prevent them from catching a cold,” says a department store spokesperson quoted in the article. “Red underwear looks warm and is traditionally said … [Read More]
An unforgettable Tea Tour
I really wish I didn’t have a day job. This trip, in May 2010, has got to be one of the most appealing prospects for a holiday that I can think of, particularly if you tack on a few days in Seoul first to take in Korean’s intangible cultural asset #1, the ancestral rites at … [Read More]
Woojung Chun’s library of mysteries
LKL completes its coverage of Korean artists at the 2009 Venice Biennale. If you browse the shopping streets of Venice, among the numerous tourist outlets selling carnival masks, murano glass and designer clothes, you might find one or two shops selling well-crafted model book-cases: too big for your average dolls house, but nevertheless covetable. Something … [Read More]
Breathless: can there be any escape from the cycle of violence?
Breathless (똥파리) is Yang Ik-june’s debut feature, in which he is also lead actor, and the film has deservedly won numerous awards. As the film opens, a man is beating up his girlfriend in the street. To the rescue comes Sang-hoon, played by Yang, who subdues the offender only to turn to the woman and … [Read More]
Presenting Korean Culture 3: Communication is key
I have now, alas, given up asking the KCC to send me monthly details of their upcoming events. They have a monthly news-sheet available at their front desk, they know I like to be emailed a copy of it as soon as it is available in draft, but it never happens. They know my communication … [Read More]
Insadong Scandal – a fun caper movie
Insadong Scandal is like Thomas Crown Affair, only slicker and with more twists. Highly recommended # and a suprise highlight of the LKFF2009, with Uhm Jung-hwa on sparkling, even sizzling, form. [Read More]
“Asia! Asia!” – Stephen Epstein at SOAS
Stephen Epstein had a busy week last week giving lectures in Cambridge, Oxford and London. He is on a lecture tour of Europe, using the trip as an opportunity to test various chapters from his forthcoming book with a critical audience. Friday’s lecture at SOAS focused on the portrayal of some of Korea’s Asian neighbours … [Read More]
Aigoo! Yu Hyun-mok, master of Korean realism, is so depressing
When asked to look back at his career, Yu Hyun-mok, one of the four greatest directors from the golden age of Korean film, said that he was proud of two achievements: That he was always an innovator; That he never filmed a melodramatic love story. In the latter achievement lies the key to Yu, as … [Read More]
Bamboo and Blood: Inspector O is back on form
James Church: Bamboo and Blood St Martin’s Press, 2008 After Inspector O’s slightly disappointing second outing, James Church is back on form with the third novel in the series, Bamboo and Blood. In another fast-paced story, set against the backdrop of the North Korean 1997 famine and the US-DPRK talks in Geneva, Inspector O is … [Read More]
2009 Biennale footnotes
Three Korean-born artists had solo shows at the 2009 Venice Biennale: Haegue Yang in the national pavilion, and Woojung Chun and Atta Kim as collateral events. In LKL’s brief sojourn in Venice, it was not possible to get around all the Korean participants in various group shows, but for the record, they were: 1: Lim … [Read More]
Book review: The Reluctant Communist
Charles Robert Jenkins: The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea University of California Press, 2008 “Our choices are what makes us who we are. Nobody knows that better than me.” So ends the autobiography of Charles Robert Jenkins, the only American to spend most of his life in North Korea … [Read More]