By Saharial It is becoming increasingly obvious to me, even as a distant overseas observer of the Korean entertainment industry, that something is going seriously wrong. This morning seemed to sum up far too many of the ills for, when I woke up, the news had broken that there had been yet another suicide, making … [Read More]
Category: Light reading (page 12)
Post-olympics celebrity and trivia round-up
It’s been so long since I did a round-up of celebrity news, and nowadays my knowledge of what’s hot in the celebrity world is derived from looking at my site’s statistics where I can identify the google search terms which have landing people on my blog. (1) So here is a collection of random stories … [Read More]
Advance fee frauds – the Korean connection
We have all received garbage emails from dodgy people in dodgy countries giving us a sob story explaining how they’ve managed to end up with several million dollars and need help getting it out of the country. They started in Nigeria but have now spread to other countries as well. Two recent ones have come … [Read More]
Mock funerals make Koreans focus on how to live
Hyung-Jin Kim of Associated Press has done a nice piece on a new idea from Korea Life Consulting Co: fake funerals. It has been run in the Taipei Times (South Koreans give their deaths a trial run: ‘Well-dying’ – having a mock funeral after a set of seminars – is touted as a tool to … [Read More]
LKL Celeb of the Month #3: Lee Dong Wook
Reviewing my website statistics one month I was surprised and delighted to find that there was so much interest in one of the artists I had written about. But then, when I saw that many googlers were not interested so much in his artwork as in seeing pictures of him naked, I realised that there … [Read More]
The Old Justice – the only Korean-owned pub in Central London?
In a corner of Bermondsey, right by the river, is one of many traditional East End boozers. Outside: picnic benches, barrels to put your pint glasses on, hanging baskets of flowers, and a view towards Tower Bridge (right). Inside, it’s cosy. High on the wall, a TV showing the footie (left). Oak paneled walls. In … [Read More]
North-South Korea b-boy battle
Someone’s been having a bit of fun creating a spoof b-boy battle at Panmunjom. Enjoy. You have to wait 60 seconds for the real action to start. HT to Tom Coyner. [Read More]
LKL celeb of the month #2: BoA
I had been planning on giving Lee Dong-wook the honour of being LKL’s second celeb of the month. But Chinese netizens had other ideas. A massive spike in interest in BoA during the month resulted in certain posts about her getting ten times as many visits as any other page on this blog. So, BoA … [Read More]
The Seoul Magazine photo challenge
One of my minor complaints with Seoul Magazine is their slapdash approach to visual material. Particularly in their events listings they splatter pictures around the page with no description of what the image depicts and what article or event it relates to. We bloggers have a partial excuse for not putting captions under pictures, because … [Read More]
LKL Celeb of the Month #1: Lee Da Hae
The first in a series – we select the celeb who’s come to our attention this month, often driven by the number of times readers have searched for the name. Lee Da Hae (이다해), real name Byun Da-hae (변다해), born April 19, 1984. Best known for her role in My Girl (right), a TV Drama … [Read More]
Park Jin, man of many faces
From the Korea Times, illustrating an article entitled “Seven Candidates Score Dramatic, Sweet Victories”: Will the real Park Jin step forward? HT to Aidan Foster-Carter. Update: in case you were wondering which one was really Park Jin, the KT has now corrected the captions: [Read More]
Kickin’ it in Gumcheon
A fun video recently posted to YouTube. As Michael Aronson says in the comment section, “Great lyrics that approach it from a foreigner’s POV without being ignorant.” Available from Amazon and iTunes. [Read More]
Easter celebrity round-up
It’s been a while since I rounded up some of the celebrity news as an excuse for posting some pictures, so here’s some recent items: First – Brits with Korean connections: Korea Beat has a translation of an interview with David Beckham, recently in Korea with LA Galaxy Kate Moss gets an advertising contract with … [Read More]
Rain 8 – Colbert 4: an unscientific survey of hallyu in Asia
Devoted followers of Korean popular culture will remember the Rain v Colbert battle in Time magazine last year. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5c7fj_stephen-colbert-vs-rain-dance-off_fun The much smaller population of devoted LKL readers will remember that I did a straw poll of my US co-workers last year: how many out of an unrepresentative sample of US bank regulatory specialists had heard … [Read More]
Welcome down the local any day
A still to go with this current TV commercial: The rather unrefined drinking mannerism brings to mind the classic Boddingtons commercial from the 1990s: and while we’re on the subject, the one featuring Melanie Sykes: Of course, it’s the spokesmodel rather than the product that would be welcome in the local boozer. The general consensus … [Read More]
The redemptive power of Lee Young-ae
As we all know, Jewel in the Palace is a hit in many countries. It’s watched all around the world. Including in Indian jails. A convict in India has sent a letter of gratitude to a top Korean network for airing the historical drama “Jewel in the Palace,” or “Daejanggeum” in Korean. Narendra Kumar Sharma, … [Read More]