No matter how well you prepare yourself for an art fair, you are bound to be caught unawares as you follow your planned route from stall to stall. In our visit of course we focused on Skipwiths, Shine and Hanmi, but elsewhere we came across the established photographer Boomoon showing at Flowers Gallery, and emerging … [Read More]
Category: Festivals (page 26)
Korean galleries at London Art Fair 2016
Three Korea specialists will be showing at London Art Fair this year (20-24 January): Hanmi Gallery, showing Guem MinJeong Skipwiths, showing Chun Kwang-young, Lee Kang-so, Toh Yun-hee and Park Hyo-jin Shine Artists, with Lee Jeong-lok, Lee Jeong-woong, Hwang Seontae and Mari Kim Union Gallery will be exhibiting as in previous years, but this year they are focusing on their British artists. But a new name on us, … [Read More]
Art Fair news: Kyung Hwa Shon solo exhibition at London Art Fair 2016
Congratulations to Kyung Hwa Shon, who won the Wilson Williamson Gallery’s 2015 SOLO Award, and who will therefore be having a solo show in the Projects Space of the 2016 London Art Fair. Kyung Hwa Shon: The City of Fragments WW Contemporary Art presents Kyung Hwa Shon, winner of the 2015 SOLO Award, selected by … [Read More]
Art Fair news: Hanmi Gallery presents Guem MinJeong at LAF
Hanmi Gallery will be participating in the Project space of the London Art Fair, presenting Guem MinJeong’s work for the first time in London: Guem MinJeong Hanmi Gallery | Art Projects P8 | London Art Fair 2016 20 – 24 Jan 2016 | Business Design Centre | London N1 0QH Hanmi Gallery is pleased to … [Read More]
Caught on the plane: Twenty and Memories of the Sword (with Alice in Earnestland)
I always look forward to long-haul flights as an opportunity to catch up on all the movies I should have been watching over the past year. And having just returned from an ultra-long-haul holiday, I can heartily recommend Singapore Airlines in-flight entertainment. My only complaint is that there was too much to watch: if the … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Lee Kwang-guk focus
If I had seen no other films at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival, the evenings of films by Lee Kwang-guk would have made the whole festival worthwhile. The first evening featured his second film, the short Hard to Say (2013), along with his debut feature Romance Joe (2012), while the second evening followed up … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Chung Chang-wha focus
Each year the LKFF includes a few golden oldies among its line-up of the latest commercial and art house offerings. This year the festival gave us the opportunity to get to know three films by veteran director Chung Chang-wha, made before he was scouted by Shaw Brothers in 1969. The earliest film to be screened … [Read More]
Festival film review: Zhang Lu’s Love And…
Two years ago the revered Korean film critic Tony Rayns asked Moon Sori an awkward question. The question was followed by a sharp intake of breath from the audience who couldn’t believe what they had just heard, and by a few false starts at a response by Ms Moon before she answered fluently. At the final … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Socialphobia
Socialphobia, a debut film from Hong Seok-jae, was one of the fifteen sold-out screenings at this year’s LKFF. For an indie film, it had a strong reception at the Korean box office, aided in part by the actor Byun Yo-han who played in the hit TV drama Misaeng, but also because of its contemporary theme: … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Sleepless Night
There is something slightly hypnotising about seeing a movie which seems to aspire to do nothing more than lovingly record the daily lives of a couple who face the same everyday challenges and questions that most of us face. How and whether to stand up to the boss at work when he seeks to make … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Collapse
The second screening in this year’s documentary strand, this movie left you wondering what the director’s intentions were. Indeed, it made you wonder whether there was another guiding spirit which took over the film-making process, editing and shaping the unfinished work of the director. And then you looked at the credits, and discovered that there … [Read More]
Inside the Corinthia – home to the LKFF stars
As you settle into your seat before a screening at the London Korean Film Festival there’s a familiar set of brief films you watch before the main feature starts: first the official trailer, and then three short promotional videos for the sponsors. Of these, the one that probably sticks in the mind for all the … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: The Classified File
As goodwill ambassador for Sancheong County, I was delighted when Sancheong’s most famous Buddhist monk, the late Seong Cheol sunim, got name checked in The Classified File as the Seon Master of the Buddhist-trained fortune teller who unofficially assisted the police in the real-life 1978 kidnap case that was the subject of the movie. One … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Ode to My Father
The time is the present. Yoon Deok-su, a grandfather living in Busan but born in South Hamgyong province in North Korea, looks back at his life of hardship which has coincided exactly with the life of the Republic of Korea. Surrounded by his grandchildren, he has managed to raise his family from nothing to relative prosperity, … [Read More]
Classics revisited – an opportunity to get to know the films of Chung Chang-wha
One of the things we like about the London Korean Film Festival the range of different perspectives it offers us on the vibrant Korean film scene, from emerging directors to actor retrospectives via documentaries and more. One of the strands we appreciate most is the opportunity it gives us to see classic movies from the … [Read More]
Two masterclasses as part of LKFF 2015
Two late additions to the LKFF schedule, both on Saturday afternoon, 14 November. But you can’t do both. And you can’t do either if you want to watch the classic Chung Chang-wha screenings. Choices, choices … but I think I’ll choose a large dose of muhyeop and Q&A with Director Chung. Masterclass: In Conversation with … [Read More]