An exclusive in yesterday’s Telegraph reports that Holy Trinity Brompton, among other evangelical churches, is warning against a group called Parachristo which is said to have links to ‘a controversial South Korean group known as Shincheonji (SCJ) – or the “New Heaven and New Earth” church (NHNE) – whose founder Man-Hee Lee is referred to … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 46)
In praise of Sancho and Flat Three
When you tuck into your bowl of warming chueotang muddy loach soup, with its tangle of green vegetables, shoots and mysterious fishy bits suspended in a tangy reddish-green-brown broth, the condiment you reach for to give it that extra taste sensation is a liberal sprinkling of sancho powder. The pungent, fragrant taste rounds out a … [Read More]
December events 2016
After a hectic autumn, the start of winter is a bit quieter. But there are still some things to enjoy: Performance At King’s Place, the final Korea Sounds concert of the year is on 7 December. Exhibitions At the KCC, Son Hyemin’s and John Reardon’s show entitled Flat Flat Shiny Cat lasts until 22 December. At … [Read More]
The folding plug makes it on to the high street
Seen in Maplins Canary Wharf branch yestserday: The electrical and gadget retailer is stocking the folding plug designed by Choi Min-kyu. Fantastic news that the product has made it onto the high street. We first noticed the idea back in 2009, and saw the next iteration in 2013. Looking at the elegant USB chargers I … [Read More]
Liberation Day gets international premiere at IDFA
Morten Traavik, the man who brought us a North Korean accordion quintet covering a Norwegian synthpop track, now gives us a documentary about a Slovenian art-rock band performing versions of songs from The Sound of Music in North Korea. Read a review of the “documentary musical” Liberation Day in the Guardian. More info on Morten … [Read More]
Book review: Park Wan-suh — Lonesome You
Park Wan-suh: Lonesome You Translated by Elizabeth Haejin Yoon Dalkey Archive, 2015, 252pp Originally published as 너무도 쓸쓸한 당신, Seoul, 1998. I came to Lonesome You with fairly neutral expectations. I had read Who Ate All the Shinga, the story of Park’s childhood in the late 1940s and through the war years. It was an interesting … [Read More]
K-indie on BBC World Service
Bernie Cho of DFSB Kollective (@DFSB_Kollective) presented a 50-minute programme for BBC World Service Radio this weekend highlighting some of the freshest indie sounds from Korea. Bernie interviews all the musicians and we get a few videos as well on the BBC website. The playlist is as follows: Goonam: Jangdan, from their 2011 album Woojung … [Read More]
Book Review: The Story of Hong Gildong
Anon (attr Heo Kyun): The Story of Hong Gildong Translated with an introduction and notes by Minsoo Kang Penguin, 2016, 100pp Penguin has done us a favour by bringing us this new translation of a classic Korean tale, along with a useful introduction and notes. Hong Gildong is often described as the Korean Robin Hood … [Read More]
BBC Korea Service expected to start as early as 2017
It was confirmed today that Korean would be one of the 11 additional languages in which the BBC World Service will broadcast. An accompanying interview with a BBC official on this morning’s Today programme said that the Korean content is likely to be a half-hour daily news programme focused on regional current affairs, though world … [Read More]
BFI Festival Film Review: Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing
The Wailing is a punishing, relentlessly tense horror thriller that thrives on ambiguity and sensory overload. Na Hong-jin toys with belief, suspicion and endurance, delivering a prolonged roller-coaster of dread, brutal set pieces and exhausting climaxes that leave viewers shaken, uncertain and deeply unsettled. [Read More]
Gangnam Style remembered on Strictly
Thanks to would-be Labour finance minister Ed Balls for brightening up our dull Autumn on the BBC’s celebrity talent show Strictly Come Dancing. Consistently at the bottom of the scoreboard, he is saved by the popular vote. In the most recent episode he had the guts to do a Gangnam Style inspired Salsa, choreographed (with … [Read More]
Review: Bongsu Park’s Crossing Over – Ritual of Grief
Bongsu Park’s two-part work, Crossing Over – Ritual of Grief, is an ambitious piece lasting for almost two hours which saw its first performance spread over two weekends in two different locations during August. It blends contemporary electronic music with traditional Korean music, and contemporary dance with traditional Korean dance such as Salpuri. Appropriately enough … [Read More]
Two leaders and their shoes
A couple of photographs doing the rounds of social media this week: Sources: Park Geun-hye | Kim Jong-un [Read More]
An interview with Jung Yewon
There’s a good interview with Jung Yewon, translator of Hwang Jung-eun’s One Hundred Shadows, in The London Magazine. [T]he image of misty rain, “slender as spider’s silk,” is something that has stayed with me as I read, translated, and reread the book, with the ambience of a dream it spun. [Read More]
Gig Review: Kyungso Park and Andy Sheppard in the Albert Hall’s Elgar Room
Recent collaborations between British and Korean musicians have not always been successful. A planned experiment between jazz trumpeter Guy Barker and Samulnori founder Kim Duk-soo never happened because the latter went awol when Barker came to visit. Instead, having already been booked for the 2008 Dano Festival in Trafalgar Square, Barker appeared briefly on stage … [Read More]
Choigate, censorship and the arts
At any other time the presence of a demonstrator outside the KCC – and outside the opening screening of the London Korean Film Festival – protesting about artistic censorship that is said to have taken place during the current KCC director’s stint at the National Gugak Centre would have been prominent news. But choreographer Jung … [Read More]