Lee Sung-gang (이성강): Kai (카이, 2016, 96 mins) Review by Robert Cottingham Snow Queen Hattan casts a spell over the peaceful village where Kai lives, and covers everything in ice. The River Spirit who is the protector of the village gives the brave young Kai the only key to fighting off Hattan and asks him […]
Category: Animation
Event news: Talk & See with Hwang Sun-mi
A lovely book, and a charming film – though obviously the author prefers the original. Hwang Sun-mi will be on hand to discuss both this Sunday at a talk and screening. Talk & See with Hwang Sun-mi Sunday 16 August, 4pm £10 (Children free) Soho Hotel | 4 Richmond Mews | London W1D 3DH We […]
2015 Travel Diary day 11: a visit to Studio MWP
Daehakro, Seoul, Monday 8 June. This year’s trip to Korea had been full of pleasant surprises: people I had not expected to meet, things I had not been expecting to see. But the most pleasant surprise of all had been an invitation to visit Studio Meditation with a Pencil, creators of my favourite Korean animated […]
Google Korea remembers Hwang Sun-won
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Hwang Sun-won’s birth on 26 March, 1915. Google Korea celebrated with one of their doodles, illustrating Hwang’s most well-known story, The Shower (소나기, 1959). The story was adapted as a movie by Lee Jin-mo in 1978; and Studio Meditation with Pencil is currently working on an animated version, which […]
Festival Film Review: This Road Called Life
Following on from the success of their feature-length animation Green Days, Studio MWP worked with Korean TV broadcaster EBS to produce a trio of short films which adapt three familiar short stories which are studied by most Koreans in high school: Yi Hyo-seok’s Buckwheat Season, Kim Yu-jeong’s Spring, Spring, and A Lucky Day by Hyun […]
LKL’s latest must-see film of the LKFF 2014: The Road Called Life
It’s taking a while to go through the LKFF 2014 programme to prioritise those films which I simply *have* to go to see. So thanks to Frances Yoo from Studio Meditation with a Pencil for alerting me to the title that instantly has gone from “when I get round to it, I’ll look to see […]
LBF event 25 Mar: Books on Screen — Leafie, a Hen into the Wild
The fourth of the KCC’s Korean Literature on Screen events. The Hwang Sun-mi story on which it is based has been recently published in translation. Follow the links to LKL’s review of the novel and the film. As usual, pre-registration is required via the KCC website. Leafie, a Hen into the Wild 마당을 나온 암탉, […]
Expo visit: Korean design and cultural contents at KBEE
The Korea Brand and Entertainment Expo which coincided with President Park’s State Visit showcased contemporary Korean media art, K-pop, Korea’s premier garden designer and more. Also featured were key Korean designers: Kim Young-se (김영세) of Innodesign, whose designs reference the sleek black parallel lines of the trigrams in South Korea’s national flag, or the elegant […]
Couleur de peau: Miel, aka Approved for Adoption, screens at Leeds Young Film Fest
If it wasn’t for the fact that London has a date with Moon So-ri this Thursday, I’d be leaving work early, getting on a train to Leeds and sitting down to watch this film. I do hope it comes to London at some stage. It’s the animated autobiography of a Korean adoptee in Belgium. Korean […]
Event news: King of Pigs screens at the Genesis Cinema
For those who’ve already seen the two Im Kwon-taek films screening on Tuesday 23 October and want to get ahead on their LKFF viewing, Terracotta Touring Festival is showing King of Pigs at Stepney’s Genesis Cinema at 6:45 on 23 Oct. I’ll be there provided I can be sure I’m not going to be seeing […]
Buckwheat Season to get the Green Days treatment at Busan Film Fest
One of Korea’s most famous short stories, Lee Hyo-seok’s Buckwheat Season / When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom (메밀꽃 필 무렵, 1936) is to be brought to the cinema by the creators of Green Days (Korean title 소중한 날의 꿈, 2010). Green Days was LKL’s film of the year 2010 and was the stand-out film at the […]
Mosaic Films launch their new project: Nothing to Envy – the animation
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE PEOPLE OF NORTH KOREA? An event hosted by Mosaic Films to launch their new project Nothing to Envy Friday, 5 October 2012 from 18:30 to 21:30 (BST) London, United Kingdom We are developing an animated feature film about real lives in North Korea, to be written and directed […]
Look out for the adult-themed animation The Dearest
Korea is really putting its adult themed marks on animations. I’ll be watching out for THE DEAREST (2011) http://t.co/Zf8ES0Tp – says @KoreanFilmBiz
Thomas the Tank engine wins Korean hearts
Thomas the Tank engine is second only to Pororo the Penguin in the hearts of Korean kiddies, according to a survey: http://t.co/BGeJONhD. There’s even an exhibition in Seoul right now.
Festival Film Review: Leafie, a Hen into the Wild
At last year’s LKFF the surprise success was the animation Green Days – which for me was the first Korean animation really to stand comparison with Japan’s Studio Ghibli. This year the story may well be the same, with another animation from a director making his first full-length feature. In a country where animation screenings […]
Pororo and the Axis of Evil
Pororo and the Axis of Evil: the South Korean animation industry outsources work north of the border. And it might get Pororo banned in the US. WSJ and Chosun. #. The creators of Green Days told me no such outsourcing takes place now because of strained North-South relations.
A last look back at 2010
We’ve digested the albums, films, sporting events and books of the year, and reviewed some of the memorable stories of 2010 in our Quiz of the Year. Here are some of the other things we noted in 2010 which didn’t quite make it into any of those articles. 2010: a year of anniversaries It was […]