I tweeted last Saturday (thanks to Anna at Indieful ROK) that Korean acid jazz / jazz-pop band Winterplay were coming to perform at the KCC as part of their trip to London for the Thames Festival. The news was broken by 10Asia, and now the details have been confirmed by the KCC. Winterplay’s agency is … [Read More]
Category: Festivals (page 46)
All Eyes on Korea at the Thames Festival 2010
Returning to the Festival for a fourth year, the Korean Cultural Centre UK present All Eyes on Korea, a celebration of Korean culture in Jubilee Gardens. Leading talents from a wide range of Korean arts and cultural groups have been selected and include extreme dance comedy from Break Out – an energetic extravaganza, returning to … [Read More]
The Korean Festival 1 – British Summer 1
The Kingston Korean Festival (14 August this year), timed to take place as close as possible to Korea’s Independence Day on 15 August, is always at the mercy of the British summer weather. We all knew that rain was likely at some point during the day, and when there were a few spots during the … [Read More]
Kingston Korean Festival 2010
The annual Korean Festival at the Fairfield Recreation Ground, Kingston, is upon us: 14 August. [Map] The event usually kicks off with a parade of British Veterans from the Korean War at 11am. Lots of food stalls, bouncy castles for the kiddies, traditional performances, taekwondo demonstrations and more. Here’s the details, in Korean, from the … [Read More]
Korean performers at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Gone are the days when the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website had a search engine where you could simply type “Korea” and it would return all the events with Korean performers. So here’s a listing developed with hard graft and elbow grease. The Dream of Sancho Performers: Creative VaQi Date: 8th-14th August 2010 Time: 21:50 (1hr) … [Read More]
Oh Tae-seok’s Romeo and Juliet returns
Romeo and Juliet is coming to Kingston as part of the 4th New Malden Arts Festival. Presented by Mokwha Theatre Company, the most famous theatre company in South Korea, the performance is only UK date in 2010 of this mesmerising production which sold out at the Barbican in 2006. This highly stylised Romeo and Juliet … [Read More]
My Love DMZ comes to Kingston
“Love” and “DMZ” do not often appear together in the same sentence. But this is the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and there’s a special production as part of the New Malden Arts Festival on 20th July. And in a special deal, LKL readers will get free admission to the performance … [Read More]
“Antique” to screen at Terracotta Film Fest
Now in its second year, the Terracotta Far East Film Festival is 6-9 May 2010. The there’s loads of great films to see, and the Korean interest is provided by Antique on Saturday 8 May 2010 at 13:15 at the Prince Charles Cinema. LKL’s Saharial called it “a delicious slice of feel-good cinema“: Screening: Saturday … [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]
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]
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]
Remembering Murder: from “Memories of Murder” to “Mother”
Colette Balmain examines Bong Joon-ho’s Mother as a thematic evolution of Memories of Murder, shifting from a procedural to an intimate, arguably incestuous, study of devotion. By portraying the mother’s desperate quest for her son’s innocence against a corrupt, commodity-driven community, the film serves as a searing allegory for modern South Korea and its buried historical traumas. [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]
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]
Atta Kim’s melting moments
The Dorsoduro, Venice’s south-western quarter, has a completely different atmosphere from the hustle and bustle of the tourist areas around St Mark’s across the Grand Canal. It’s busy around the Peggy Guggenheim museum, but further west, beyond the Campo Santa Margherita, the crowds thin out. Here, alongside a narrow waterway on the Fondamenta del Soccorso … [Read More]