I’ll leave others to do the detailed review of Park Chan-wook’s Handmaiden (아가씨), which screened at the London Film Festival this week and which will return later in the month at the London East Asia Film Festival. Suffice it to say that it’s gorgeous-looking, both in terms of costume and interiors, great story-telling and totally … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 48)
Brief review: Train to Busan
What can you say about Train to Busan that hasn’t already been said? When everyone tells you it’s a fantastic thrill-ride you try to go into the screening with lowered expectations just in case everyone is delusional and you come away disappointed. No need to fear. It’s pretty much non-stop entertainment from start to finish, … [Read More]
Gig review: Youn Sun Nah + Ulf Wakenius @ Union Chapel
It’s been too long since Youn Sun Nah performed in London: five long years. Last time was a small, intimate venue – Pizza Express in Soho – and the time before was the Queen Elizabeth Hall – more generous in terms of space but one that made the performers work hard to create the atmosphere. … [Read More]
October events 2016
It’s a great month for music and film. And not a bad one for zombies. Film The BFI London Film Festival has three must-see films: Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing, E J-yong’s Bacchus Lady and Park Chan-wook’s Handmaiden, plus a short: Keep Going by Geon Kim. The London Korean Film Festival has the final teaser screening … [Read More]
Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams: the stories
As Kang Ik-joong said of his installation on the Thames: his motive in collecting drawings from the North Koreans displaced by the Korean War was actually to collect their stories. Here are some of those stories, as shared on the Totally Thames website. Park Yun Ok (age 95) http://totallythames.org/blog/floating-dreams-one-dream-many-stories “My name is Park Yun Ok. … [Read More]
A look at some of the Korean artists featured at Start Art Fair 2016
No matter how much preparation you put into visiting an art fair – planning which stalls to visit, estimating how much time you are likely to spend at each – you will almost always end up spending your time differently from the way you originally intended: some stalls will engage you in conversation, telling you … [Read More]
Biennale visit: Korea’s contemporary vision of Utopia
At the heart of Korea’s contribution to London’s first design biennale is a digital rendering of Ahn Gyeong’s famous realisation of a visionary dream described by his patron, Prince Anpyeong, a son of King Sejong the Great. On the left of the image, in place of the calligraphic colophon provided by Prince Anpyeong himself is … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Kang Ik-joong’s Moon Jars at Robilant + Voena
With Kang Ik-joong’s specially commissioned work floating prominently on the river outside Tate Modern, Robilant and Voena have chosen an opportune time to exhibit a collection of his moon jar paintings. Also on show is Things I Know (2010) an installation of 500 small moon jars arranged in a circle. He may have been pulling … [Read More]
Concert notes: Jeong Ga Ak Hoe at the British Museum
Although the official opening concert of K-Music 2016 is Nah Youn-sun with Ulf Wakenius on 20 September, the British Museum’s Chuseok celebrations in collaboration with the KCC have given us several performances by the contemporary gugak group Jeong Ga Ak Hoe. They presented a programme of traditional music in the Korean Gallery on the morning … [Read More]
British artist at sea with Hanjin Shipping
Winning a residency programme is often a milestone in a young artist’s career. When Royal College of Art MA sculpture student Rebecca Moss won a residency programme from Vancouver’s Access Gallery, that sounded like a huge opportunity. The residency, entitled 23 Days at Sea, involves sailing in a container ship from Vancouver to Shanghai – … [Read More]
Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams for Korean reunification
Kang Ik-joong’s installation entitled Floating Dreams is a symbol of hope for the unification of Korea. Moored on the Thames outside Tate Modern, the installation is an assembly of 500 drawings in the shape of a cube – four square sides and a flat upper surface each featuring a grid of 10 x 10 pictures … [Read More]
Film review: Tunnel – will it be a hit outside Korea?
Tunnel (dir: Kim Sung-hoon, whose Hard Day put him on the map) has been topping the Korean box office since it was released less than four weeks ago, and amazingly now has a one-week release in the UK, until 8 September. What has contributed to its popularity in Korea? And could it attain the same … [Read More]
September events 2016
September: Chuseok month, and a special focus on Kang Ik-joong. A couple of big conferences too, and the K-Music festival kicks off. Too much happening, and I probably missed some events as well. Festivals and family Totally Thames features Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams on the river outside Tate Modern, all month The British Museum’s Chuseok festivities run from … [Read More]
Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams installed on the Thames
For one reason or another, today at the office I had my eyes glued to my PC screen most of the day. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the view from my window, from where I can see the Thames around the Greenwich peninsula. Which meant that I managed to miss one of the … [Read More]
Book review: Hwang Sun-won — Lost Souls
Hwang Sun-won: Lost Souls Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Columbia University Press 2010, 354pp Having quite enjoyed two of Hwang Sun-won’s fuller-length stories – Trees on a Slope and Descendants of Cain – though without necessarily being enamoured of the characters of the stories they inhabited, I was looking forward to tackling Lost Souls, … [Read More]
Inspector O in NYT feature
There’s a nice feature on James Church and his Inspector O series in the NYT. Well worth a read, as are the books themselves. Here’s a good quote from the article: “If you want to understand North Korea then you need to read Inspector O,” said Michael Madden, who has spent years studying the North … [Read More]