London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Korean Film Night: A Tour Guide (믿을 수 있는 사람)

Han-young, a North Korean defector, gets a license to guide Chinese tourists thanks to the language skills she acquired as a refugee in China. She works diligently but faces many challenges, from coworker rivalry to assimilation, all while desperately searching for her missing brother. The irony of Han-Young’s position is emblematic of marginalized peoples’ struggles … [Read More]

Korean Film Night: Next Door (옆집사람)

After a blackout, Chan-woo wakes up beside a dead body in his next-door neighbour’s room. Having no clue of what’s happened, he is forced to make a quick escape, hiding from the spying eyes of his neighbours. In a tour-de-force performance, Oh Dong-min (Chan-woo) plays a young man (and impromptu rapper) who is studying for … [Read More]

KCCUK documentary season: Labour(s) of Love

Following on from 2022’s theme Living Memories, which focused on preserving memories and the truth through documentary, we continue to investigate the documentary form with our new season Labour(s) of Love, curated by MA film students from Birkbeck, University of London. By examining the lives of workers whose labour shapes the fabric of the world … [Read More]

Korean Film Nights: Seoul on Screen

The Spring 2023 season of screenings at the KCC is a collaboration with the Korean Film Archive that brings a series of films, from the 1950s to this century, that feature South Korea’s capital as a setting. The full programme note setting the context for the season as a whole can be found on the … [Read More]

Soup and Ideology: Yang Yonghi’s exploration of the Jeju 4:3 incident through her own family history

It must be a nightmare living with Yang Yonghi: you are constantly being filmed. Yang’s work focuses on her family history, and she has been collecting footage of her daily life since the mid ’90s. When the individual scenes are filmed – conversations, family meals, seemingly unremarkable incidents – the filming must seem without purpose. … [Read More]

Documentary screening: With or Without You

With or Without You follows the lives of Magg-i and Chun-hee, both widows of the same man. After their husband has passed, the two elderly women continue to share the same house and a tender relationship blessed by moments of wit and humour. The debut documentary of Park Hyuck-jee, shot intermittently over several years, depicts the … [Read More]

Documentary screening: Soup and Ideology

After suffering an aneurysm, Yang Yonghi’s mother starts revealing tragic memories of her fleeing Korea during the Jeju incident in 1948. The Japanese-born filmmaker begins to piece together her present and her mother’s past, whom she visits in Osaka every month with her Japanese fiancé. They bond through cooking and tradition, despite their ideological differences … [Read More]

Documentary screening: Daniel Kim’s Halmoni

Jo Ok Sim, the Halmoni of the title, reflects on her life as she tends the flowers in her nursery farm at the southernmost tip of Argentina, Ushuaia. Arriving here in 1974 with her schoolteacher husband, he noticed that nobody grew lettuce, and persuaded the government to give him some land so he could try. … [Read More]

Korean Film Nights “Summer Nights” season

In collaboration with the students from the Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA at the National Film and Television School, the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) is delighted to present the new summer season of Korean Film Nights 2022. All screenings will take place at the KCCUK, free of charge, with seats booking via www.koreanfilm.co.uk … [Read More]

Modern Korea Documentary: The Age of Beasts

The Age of Beasts, a compilation documentary by Jeong Jae-eun, is part of the series Modern Korea 2 produced by Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). The programme traces the long struggle for women’s rights, from challenges to the misogynistic legislative system in the late 1980s to first-ever court case against sexual harassment and the enactment of … [Read More]

Modern Korean history documentary double bill at the KCC

Korean Film Nights presents four episodes of the television documentary series Modern Korea 2, produced by the KBS television channel. Each episode uses footage selected from the vast KBS archives to create compilation narratives that look back at the social, political, and cultural themes that have marked Korea’s history over the decades. The footage and … [Read More]

Screening: Lee Man-hee’s The Road to Sampo

Korean Film Nights presents director Lee Man-hee’s final film ‘The Road to Sampo’ (1975). This film was digitally restored in 4K in 2021. The original film used for the restoration was the 35mm original negative film and the 17.5mm sound negative film both of which were collected in 1982. This event will be moderated by … [Read More]

Screening: Kim Ki-young’s Angel, Become an Evil Woman

The KCC’s Korean Film Nights for 2022 kick off at the Genesis Cinema on 28 February with the first of a mini season of posthumous works. An Experience To Die For: Angel, Become an Evil Woman (죽어도 좋은 경험: 천사여 악녀가 되라) Dir: Kim Ki-Young (1990, 100 mins) Cast: Youn Yuh-Jung, Hyun Gil-soo, Lee Tammi, … [Read More]