Seven years ago, thanks to the London Korean Links events listings, I went to see a young Korean violinist play a lunchtime recital at St Martin in The Fields. The violinist, Joo Yeon Sir, played a beautiful set of classical music accompanied by her pianist Irina Andrievsky. All perfectly lovely. Then came the fireworks – the … [Read More]
Category: Interviews and features
Yun Ko-eun on the humour to be found in nightmarish scenarios
The moderator was late, misdirected by a faulty map app. The interpreter’s pen ran out of ink, as did a replacement pen supplied by a member of the audience. A warning message popped up on screen warning those present that the KCC’s laptop battery was getting low. The PA system didn’t seem to be working. … [Read More]
Interview: Cho Jungrae (The Singer, 2020)
I watched Cho Jungrae’s 2020 movie The Singer earlier this year online, after being told by a friend of the director that it was available on Amazon Prime. It struck me as a fresh take on the pansori movie genre: instead of telling a pansori tale more or less straight like Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang, it … [Read More]
The Drawing Hand: In Conversation With Illustrator Jieun Kim
The Christmas that just passed has been undoubtedly a quite different one. Many of us didn’t have a chance to spend the day with their loved ones and the joyful atmosphere that characterises one of the most loved and anticipated time of the year was dimmed by the still ongoing health emergency due to COVID-19. … [Read More]
Layers of paint, paintings of feelings: the abstract works of Sunyoung Hwang
Brush stroke after brush stroke, an artist can create a wonderland for the heart to explore feelings, emotions and, perhaps, also memories. The depth of life, the human emotional world and the experiences we go through can’t often be easily conveyed to others or even explained to oneself. Some argue that art is healing to … [Read More]
Journey Man: an interview with ceramic artist Jaejun Lee
Determination, dedication, precision, humbleness, outstanding results. These are some of the words that come to mind when thinking about the artworks Jaejun Lee (b.1987) creates in his studio after hours and hours spent on the wheel and with his tools. Counting ten thousand followers on Instagram, artist Lee is a young and talented ceramic artist … [Read More]
Rendered Reality: an interview with Joonhong Min and Shinuk Suh
New contributor Federica Ionta meets the artists behind Rendered Reality, the exhibition currently in suspended animation at the KCCUK. Thinking of Korean art, one might recall, for instance, pottery of exquisite quality, such as the iconic moon jars, or beautiful ink paintings. However, not all Korean artists stick to traditional shapes, materials and techniques. Artists … [Read More]
Sharing Dreams: Bongsu Park talks about her upcoming DREAM RITUAL performance
Dreams. Freud made a whole career out of them. We are supposed to have them every night, but most of the time we can’t remember them. Cultures around the world have myths and legends in which dreams are laden with symbolic and predictive power. And in Korea, in a quaint folk custom, dreams are bought … [Read More]
The end of the journey: desire, recognition and redemption in BTS’s “IDOL”
Dr Colette Balmain examines the culmination of the BTS Love Yourself series: “IDOL” is the lead single from BTS’s final album in the “Love Yourself” series. The series comprises one extended storyworld music video, Love Yourself 起 Wonder; one mini album, Love Yourself 承 Her; one full length album, Love Yourself 轉 Tear; and one … [Read More]
Korea – The Antifragile Kingdom
Editor’s note: every now and then Matthew Jackson submits a cracking article from out of nowhere. Here’s one such article which, if I may paraphrase, wonders whether maybe han is healthy. I hope it’s not too long before the next one! The author and philosopher Nicholas Nassim Taleb (of ‘Black Swan’ fame) developed a concept … [Read More]
Kwak Kyung-taek quizzed at the first LKFF on Typhoon, filming in Russia and more
Kwak Kyung-taek is July’s featured director at the KCC. This gives us the opportunity to resurrect from the archives Saharial’s transcription of a Q&A with the director following the UK premiere of his movie Typhoon, at the first of the KCCUK’s London Korean Film Festivals back in September 2006. Q: What drew you to the … [Read More]
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 … [Read More]
An interview with Sora Kim-Russell, translator of Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari
Those of you who came along to the London Book Fair last year and were tantalised by seeing a translation of a passage from Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari – at the time unpublished in English, and with no indication even that any more of the book had been translated – will be delighted by this … [Read More]
LKFF 2014: the conversations
The London Korean Film Festival is not just about getting acquainted with the latest in Korean movies. It is also an opportunity to meet some of the people behind those movies – actors, directors and producers. Opportunities for engaging with these film professionals vary: for an ever-growing group of aficionados there is the offer of round-table … [Read More]
Cho Young-wuk on waltzes, playgrounds and working with Park Chan-wook
So much has changed over the past few years. Nearly 10 years ago Asia House organised the London premiere screening of Lady Vengeance including a Q&A with the director, Park Chan-wook. It was hard not to squirm in embarrassment at the shallowness of some of the questions from the audience, and the moderator could have … [Read More]
Im Kwon-taek: In search of perfection
As the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon approach, LKL is finally spurred to write up some archive notes of interviews and Q&A’s with the director of their Opening Ceremony… “Why are you torturing me?” was Im Kwon-taek’s heartfelt cry when attending a screening of one of his films from the 1960s at a 70-film retrospective … [Read More]