Kim Jong-il’s Comedy Club is a Danish documentary which follows the two-week visit to North Korea by a Danish comedy double-act who had received permission to perform in Pyongyang’s National Theatre. The documentary is fascinating on many levels. First, the two comedians are ethnic Korean adoptees, born in South Korea but brought up in Denmark, … [Read More]
Category: Documentaries (page 12)
Take Off screens at the KCC
News of next Thursday’s screening at the KCC The 37th Korean Film Night at The Korean Cultural Centre UK Film title: Take Off (Gukgadaepyo), 2009, 137mins Director: Kim Yong Hwa Cast: Ha Jung-Woo Venue: KCC, Multi-purpose Hall Time: Thursday, 11th Feb, 7:00pm In 1996 a small Korean town is undergoing a large-scale construction in preparation … [Read More]
Song Il-gon, Los Coreanos and the Dance of Time
Song Il-gon, always poetic, documents Los Coreanos – the Korean diaspora in Cuba – in his first feature documentary, Dance of Time. Let’s hope it makes it to subtitled DVD soon. http://bit.ly/85zV2A. 10:08 PM Dec 16th from bit.ly [Read More]
Films from the 30s at the KCC
Notice of this week’s screening at the KCC. Note that the start time is 6:00pm: Thursday 10th December 2009 The Past Unearthed: A collection of films from the 1930s On Thursday the 10th December at 6pm we hope you will join as at the Korean Cultural Centre where we will be screening a collection of … [Read More]
The Western Korean War PoWs who chose to stay in China
A fascinating documentary about twenty-four American and one British Korean War prisoners of war who chose to remain in China after the war: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 #. Part 1 is below [Read More]
AKS event: Exploring Korea’s Cultural Legacy
Notice of an event at the Korean Cultural Centre, put on by the Anglo Korean Society EXPLORING KOREA’S CULTURAL LEGACY FROM PAST TO PRESENT THURSDAY 16th JUNE 2009 6.15 pm for 6.30 pm KOREAN CULTURAL CENTRE UK Grand Buildings, 1 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5EJ We would like to invite you to a delightful evening … [Read More]
The divers of Jeju-do
LKL digests Barbara Hammer’s documentary “Diving Women of Jeju-do”, which screened in a recent film festival in London. Barbara Hammer’s brief documentary Diving Women of Jeju-do (2007) provides an intimate portrait of Cheju-do’s famous diving women, the haenyo. Barbara Hammer goes diving with the women, and took trouble to get to know their ways. She … [Read More]
Escaping North Korea – documentary on BBC
A 50-minute documentary currently available on BBC’s iPlayer service for the next few days. Details below, from the BBC website: This World: Escaping North Korea International investigative documentary series. The dramatic stories of North Koreans who are risking everything, including torture and execution, to escape the repression and hunger of their homeland and reach safety … [Read More]
The Gwanghwamun and its many rebirths
When General Yi Song-gye founded the Joseon dynasty and moved Korea’s capital to Seoul, he needed a palace of suitable magnificence. The Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) was carefully sited by the royal geomancers to benefit from the perfect Pung Su (풍수), and at its southernmost point, in direct alignment with the main throne room, the Gwanghwamun (광화문 … [Read More]
Upcoming Haenyo film screening
Notice of a screening of a documentary on Cheju Island’s famous haenyeo (해녀) in a double bill of groundbreaking documentaries by celebrated lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, as part of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: For hundreds of years women on the South Korean island of Jeju-do have sustained themselves by diving to … [Read More]
A North Korean Feelgood Lecture
By Peter Corbishley The first of the Spring Term SOAS Lectures heard Nicolas Bonner (right) talking to extracts from his and Daniel Gordon’s three films on North Korea: The Game of their Lives (2002), A State of Mind (2004), Crossing the Line / 푸른 눈의 평양시민 / A Blue-Eyed Pyongyang Citizen (2006). The often almost … [Read More]
Nick Bonner – Filming North Korea
The SOAS spring seminar series kicks off this Friday, 16 January, with a talk by Nick Bonner, founder of Koryo Tours and collaborator with Daniel Gordon on three fascinating documentaries on North Korea, showing a very different side from the picture we see from reading the newspapers. The seminar will take place at 5pm in … [Read More]
Saturday documentaries at the KCC: Koryo Buddhist Paintings
Every Saturday, from November till the end of December, the KCC will be screening a documentary on Koryo Buddhist Paintings. Acclaimed as “divine artistry” in Asia, the Koryo Buddhist Paintings are known for their “infinite labour”. In one painting, 15,000 miniscule faces of Buddhas were drawn in gold to make a single figure of Buddha. … [Read More]
Make this Saturday a Korean day
I’ve already told you about the films this Saturday. Take your pick between The Chaser at 4:40 in Leicester Square and Seven Days in Brunswick Square at 6:30. How about making a whole day of it? Turn up at the Korean Cultural Centre earlier in the day and browse the DVD / CD library and … [Read More]
Saturday documentaries at the KCC
This Saturday there will be a screening of a short film entitled “The History of Gold” at the Korean Cultural Centre at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. Each screening will last around 30 minutes. Silla people decorate their houses with silk interwoven with golden thread, and use golden plates and cutlery at meals (Arab historian, 10th … [Read More]
The documentary “Welcome to North Korea”
If you have an hour to spare, this documentary by Peter Tetteroo and Raymond Feddema is worth a look despite being a couple of years old. Thanks to Robert Koehler over at Seoul Magazine for the tip. The documentary can be seen at https://archive.org/details/WelcometoNorthKorea. Welcome to North Korea Rating: NR Running Time: 60 Minutes Directed … [Read More]