London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Royal British Legion commemorates the Forgotten War

Seventy years to the day after the signing of the armistice, the Royal British Legion marked the anniversary of the so-called Forgotten War with dignity and style in Horseguards Parade, the venue for many ceremonials such as the Trooping of the Colour. In the presence of HRH the Duke of Gloucester, numerous veterans and their … [Read More]

Festival film review: Hommage

In her first feature, Passerby #3 (2010), Shin Su-won looked at the life of a woman who left her job to try to become a film director. In her latest, she returns to a similar movie-making theme. Hommage is about a middle-aged movie director, Ji-wan, whose films have never been much of a success. She … [Read More]

Gallery: Hanji – Paper Compositions

The KCC’s summer exhibition was co-sponsored by the Hanji Development Institute, which is affiliated with the Hanji Theme Park in Wonju, Gangwon-do. Wonju was noted for its mulberry trees, and hence its hanji, in the Sillok from King Sejong’s reign and thus competes with other areas of Korea such as Mungyeong and Jeonju for the … [Read More]

Gallery visit: Jukhee Kwon in Expanding Horizons

October Gallery has represented Korean artist Jukhee Kwon for almost ten years now, and it was natural that when planning an exhibition in memory of their trustee Pamela Kember they should include work by the Korean artist as she exhibited in Asia House when Kember was director of Arts and Learning there. Somehow, during the … [Read More]

Festival Film Review: Heaven – To the Land of Happiness

In recent years the LKFF programmers have been getting into a groove of scheduling indie, minority interest movies for the closing film of the festival. This year, they turned things upside down by programming the festival’s most appealing film (for me, at least,) to end the fortnight. Yes, the opening movie, Mogadishu, is the top … [Read More]

The Sound of Nature: Dal:um live at Southbank Centre

“Korean traditional instruments contain the sound of nature.” This is the opening line of Ha Suyean’s answer to my question regarding what Dal:um would like their international audience to know about ancient Korean instruments gayageum and geomungo. “For someone coming to these two ancient instruments for the first time, what will they discover?”, I had … [Read More]

Gallery: Chuseok celebrations at the British Museum

The early Autumn brought two simultaneous Chuseok celebrations in the London area on 18 September: the harvest fest in New Malden, organised by KBCE, and a special event at the British Museum. Over the past months we’ve been starved of live music, and it was great to be able to hear the Shilla Ensemble perform … [Read More]

Gallery: New Malden’s Chuseok Harvest Fest

The fickle Autumn weather smiled on New Malden’s Chuseok festivities last weekend. With pent-up demand resulting from lockdown and the lack of the usual independence day celebrations in mid-August, and the sunny weather beckoning people out onto the streets, the celebrations were almost too successful. LKL was there in time for the opening speeches and … [Read More]

Exhibition visit: Swimming Backwards, at Sid Motion Gallery

Artist Sunyoung Hwang had her works on display at Sid Motion gallery, London, between 21 June and 16 July 2021 as part of the group show ‘Swimming Backwards’ with fellow artists Emily Stollery and Henry Ward. The exhibition title itself has been inspired by Hwang’s homonymous painting, also displayed at the exhibition. The London-based artist … [Read More]