London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Escape from Mogadishu – UK Theatrical Release

Escape from Mogadishu is a nail-biting political thriller based on a true story starring Kim Yoon-seok (The Chaser) and Huh Joon-ho (Netflix’s Kingdom). Rival diplomats from North Korea and South Korea become trapped as civil war rages in Mogadishu, Somalia. With no aid from either government, their only shot at survival requires uniting with bitter … [Read More]

A look back at some of the films of 2017

A review of some of the films that screened in London during the 2017 – another busy year. For me the undoubted highlight of the London film year was the Bae Chang-ho retrospective at the London Korean Film Festival: a chance to see a couple of his movies – including the classic Whale Hunting (1984) – … [Read More]

Film review: The Battleship Island

Synopsis Some nasty Japanese are being beastly to the Korean forced labourers in an offshore Japanese coal mine as the Second World War comes to a close. And one or two Koreans aren’t exactly being that patriotic either. In the middle of it all is a weak, venal Korean who is among the labourers with … [Read More]

Battleship Island gets a UK release

Last summer it was Kim Seong-hun’s Tunnel that got a UK release even while the movie was still topping the Korean box office. This year the summer blockbuster Battleship Island, released in Korea on 27 July, gets some London screenings just two weeks later, from 11 August. The film raked in $27 million in box … [Read More]

A look back at the films and music of 2015

In the second of two articles (the first looked at the world of books) we look at some of the releases of 2015 that caught our eye. Film Two Kickstarter-funded films to which LKL contributed came to fruition: Twinsters, the story of twin sisters adopted in different continents who discover each other through Facebook; and … [Read More]