London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

100 years of Manhwa at the KCC

Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) UK celebrate the centenary of Korean comics ‘Manhwa’ with a host of interrelated special exhibitions, events and film screenings, 21 May – 24 June 2009. Special Exhibitions Manhwa: A Language of Unlimited Imaginations Manhwa celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. This popular art form holds … [Read More]

Korean film at the Terracotta film festival

The new kid on the block when it comes to Asian film is Terracotta. They launched themselves last November by securing the rights to Im Pil-sung’s horror film Hansel and Gretel (which screens at the KCC later this month – 28 May), and they’re making a splash at the Prince Charles this month with the … [Read More]

Two rare Korean Buddhist films at the Barbican

International Buddhist Film Festival World Cinema with a Buddhist Edge Thu 7–Sun 17 May 2009 The world’s leading resource for Buddhist cinema, the US based IBFF comes to the UK, and the Barbican, for the first time. Part of The Many Faces of Buddhism series, the lineup of programmes here at IBFF 2009 LONDON includes … [Read More]

Tale of Two Sisters / Forever the Moment

Two screenings coming up this week. First, as a warm-up for the Terracotta Far East Film Festival to be held in May, Kim Ji-woon’s stylish ghost story Tale of Two Sisters (장화, 홍련) will be screening at the Prince Charles Cinema on Tuesday 21 April at 8:30. Further details on the film itself can be … [Read More]

King and the Clown screens at the KCC

The KCC’s next screening is King and the Clown, on 9 April, Maundy Thursday. As always, preregistration is required. Synopsis below. The story of the film focuses on a pair of clowns who perform comic plays, songs, and acrobatic tricks for aristocrats and commoners during the Joseon Dynasty. Jangsaeng, played by Kam Woo-seong (Spider Forest), … [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]

Seven Days screens at the KCC

Everyone’s favourite castaway Kim Yun-jin (above) stars in Seven Days directed by Won Shin-yeon, next week’s screening at the KCC (12 March) Jiyeon (Kim Yun-jin) is a hard working, hot shot lawyer and single mother of a seven-year-old girl. During a school sports day, her daughter disappears. Jiyeon receives an anonymous phone call: the caller … [Read More]

Good Bad Weird on general release

We saw it at the festivals last year, now it’s on mainstream release. Astoundingly, the normally hostile Wendy Ide in The Times gives it 4 out of 5, while Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gives it a more measured 3 out of 5. LKL probably would split the difference, as does Tom Huddleston in Time … [Read More]

February is classic film month at the KCC

The Korean Cultural Centre has now been screening Korean films on a bi-weekly basis for a year now since the centre has opened. And to celebrate their year anniversary, they are delighted to present to you the Korean classic film series, which begins on Thursday 5 February with the screening of Han Myeong-mo’s classic Hyperbola … [Read More]

Hansel and Gretel opens in London

Hansel and Gretel screens at the ICA from 16 January, and moves to the Prince Charles on 30 January, before getting a selected nationwide release. It made an appearance at the BFI London Film Festival 2008, so if you missed it then, now’s your chance to see it. Following a car crash on a country … [Read More]

Mini review: Christmas in August

Christmas in August is the classic Korean Wave melodrama starring two of the biggest stars of the day. Or maybe, coming as it did in 1998, you could say it’s just pre-Korean Wave. Han Suk-gyu plays the photographic shop owner who has an incurable disease – that stock plot item in Korean weepies; Shim Eun-ha … [Read More]

K-film double bill at the British Museum

A Korean film double bill Saturday 6 December, 13.00 BP Lecture Theatre £5, concessions £3 Marathon Director: Chung Yoon-chul Starring: Cho Seung-woo South Korea, 2004, 117 minutes The publicity says: “A touching tale of a mother who encourages her autistic son to pursue his passion for running.” LKL says: “A cut above your average feel-good … [Read More]

Barking Dogs screens at the KCC

The Korean Cultural Centre completes its retrospective of Bong Joon-ho’s works this month with his first feature, the entertaining Barking Dogs Never Bite (플란다스의 개) (2000), starring Lee Seong-jae and Bae Doo-na. As with Bong’s subsequent films, there’s plenty of humour amid the drama, and this one is well worth checking out, particularly for the … [Read More]

Bong Joon-ho month at the KCC

This month gives you an opportunity to see two of the best films to have come out of Korea – or anywhere – this century. Both star Song Kang-ho, both are by director Bong Joon-ho, who debuted in 2000 with the amazing Barking Dogs Never Bite. On 9 October, there’s the film which provided koreanfilm.org.uk … [Read More]

Chihwaseon screens at the KCC

The next screening at the KCC, on Thursday 25 September, is Chihwaseon (2002), Im Kwon-taek’s bio-pic of one of Korea’s most famous painters, Jang Seung-eop, also known as Owon. The film features two of Korea’s most well-known actors, Choi Min-sik as Owon and Ahn Sung-ki as his patron Kim Byung-moon. Synopsis: During the 1850s, KIM … [Read More]