December events 2018

by Philip Gowman 1 December 2018
Thumbnail image for December events 2018

Finally, it’s calming down a bit, after a truly hectic couple of months, but there’s still plenty going on. Film and TV There’s another chance to catch Lee Chang-dong’s Burning prior to its theatrical release next year: 10 December at Regent Street Cinema The SOAS North Korea Society is hosting a screening of The Jangmadang […]

Read the full article →

BFI, KOFA and KCCUK announce archive exchange

by Events Editor 27 November 2018
Thumbnail image for BFI, KOFA and KCCUK announce archive exchange

Something to look forward to in February 2019: BFI, KOFA and KCCUK announce archive exchange to mark the centenary of the birth of Korean cinema More than ten of Korea’s oldest surviving films to screen to UK audiences for the first time in February 2019 at BFI Southbank and the KCCUK BFI restorations to show […]

Read the full article →

The LKL 2018 Korea trip – an introduction

by Philip Gowman 26 November 2018
Thumbnail image for The LKL 2018 Korea trip – an introduction

Overview My annual visit to Korea this year for once really didn’t have an agenda. Originally planned as a late October / early November trip to see some Autumn leaves and catch the tail end of the Gwangju Biennale, everything changed when I heard that Ahn Sook-sun was coming to London at that precise time […]

Read the full article →

Festival film review: This Charming Girl

by Robert Cottingham 23 November 2018
Thumbnail image for Festival film review: This Charming Girl

Lee Yoon-ki (이윤기) This Charming Girl (여자, 정혜, 2004, 99 mins). Review by Robert Cottingham. You know how people talk about reality TV, even though there is nothing ‘real’ about it? Well, if you wanted to see actual reality, the sheer day-to-day mundane-ness of the average person’s life, then this film is the closest you […]

Read the full article →

Book review: Blaine Harden – King of Spies

by Philip Gowman 12 November 2018
Thumbnail image for Book review: Blaine Harden – King of Spies

Blaine Harden: King of Spies – The dark reign of America’s spymaster in Korea Mantle, 2018, 272 pp The character of the maverick cop, or even maverick spy, delivering outstanding results through unorthodox means and despite a disregard for hierarchy, is a familiar one in crime and spy fiction. Blaine Harden, who worked with Shin […]

Read the full article →

Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018

by Philip Gowman 3 November 2018
Thumbnail image for Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018

In case like me you couldn’t get tickets to the Screen Talk with Lee Chang-dong as part of the BFI London Film Festival, here’s the recording on the BFI YouTube channel. The interview took place on 20 October 2018, the day of an anti-Brexit demonstration in London – which is mentioned more than once in […]

Read the full article →

November events 2018

by Philip Gowman 1 November 2018
Thumbnail image for November events 2018

Probably the event of the year is the appearance of Ahn Sook-sun in London to perform Heungboga. Not to be missed. It’s also the busiest time of the year for Korean film, and if you haven’t seen enough of BTS yet you might be able to see them in a cinema near you. In fact […]

Read the full article →

The Top 5 Gothic KPOP Music Videos

by Colette Balmain 31 October 2018
Thumbnail image for The Top 5 Gothic KPOP Music Videos

Dr Colette Balmain applies her specialism in Gothic Cinema to the world of KPOP – perfect for the Halloween season… ‘Gothic forces its readers, viewers, and listeners to identify the ghosts that haunt them…’ (Isabella van Elferan, 2012, Gothic Music, p. 15). 1. SHINee “Married to the Music” (2015) “Married to the Music” doesn’t sound […]

Read the full article →

The BTS Love Yourself o2 concert – a fresh perspective

by Gargi Sengupta 30 October 2018
Thumbnail image for The BTS Love Yourself o2 concert – a fresh perspective

LKL’s young contributor Gargi Sengupta, who reported from the Sheffield Korea Day earlier this year, provides her second report – from the biggest KPOP event in London ever! On the 10th of October I went with my father to watch the BTS concert at the London o2. Since I have been a HUGE fan of […]

Read the full article →

4482 2019: OPEN CALL for artists

by Philip Gowman 29 October 2018
Thumbnail image for 4482 2019: OPEN CALL for artists

Please find below the Call for Artists for Sasapari 4482 2019: 4482 2019: OPEN CALL for artists Exhibition: The Other side of the Moon 4482 is a multi-functional platform which exists to promote, integrate and celebrate new Korean Contemporary Art within the United Kingdom. The name was derived when it first began in 2007, the […]

Read the full article →

SsingSsing at Pizza Express Soho and South Bank – a second-hand review

by Philip Gowman 27 October 2018
Thumbnail image for SsingSsing at Pizza Express Soho and South Bank – a second-hand review

The SsingSsing gigs that opened the 2018 K-music Festival were the ones that I was probably saddest to miss of all the events this year. Sometimes other commitments get in the way (in this instance, a long-delayed summer holiday) so this is the first of the second-hand K-music reviews of this season (there will be […]

Read the full article →

Exhibition visit: Nick Bonner’s Made in North Korea

by Philip Gowman 26 October 2018
Thumbnail image for Exhibition visit: Nick Bonner’s Made in North Korea

When one thinks of North Korean graphic art, images of strident anti-American propaganda posters spring to mind. Fortunately, and in the current climate of reduced tension on the peninsula, the posters that greeted you in the first room of Nick Bonner’s exhibition at the House of Illustration focused less on stirring up national hatred against […]

Read the full article →

Affective becomings and musical transformations: BTS take London

by Colette Balmain 23 October 2018
Thumbnail image for Affective becomings and musical transformations: BTS take London

Dr Colette Balmain, or maybe a ghost writer, reports from the biggest KPOP event in the UK this year: Taking the Plunge This is the first concert review that I have written although I have been to many concerts, some of which I have good memories of and others which I wish I could press […]

Read the full article →

A visit to Foyles during Korean Culture Month

by Philip Gowman 22 October 2018
Thumbnail image for A visit to Foyles during Korean Culture Month

Foyles’s Korean Culture Month runs from 13 October into the middle of November in partnership with the KCC. As part of the promotion, Korean books are displayed prominently by the ground floor information desk and on Level 4, where all their foreign language books are. You are able to sign up for a free exploratory […]

Read the full article →

Mini review round-up: the 2018 LKFF Teaser screenings

by Philip Gowman 21 October 2018
Thumbnail image for Mini review round-up: the 2018 LKFF Teaser screenings

Sometimes I just don’t have the time to marshal any thoughts about a movie after seeing it. Daily life takes over any before I know it I’ve watched another movie and the memory of the previous one is dimming fast. But as I’ve been on holiday for a few days away from the daily grind, […]

Read the full article →

Brief review: Comrade Kim goes Flying

by Philip Gowman 20 October 2018
Thumbnail image for Brief review: Comrade Kim goes Flying

The London East Asia Film Festival gives us the second chance this year to see Comrade Kim Goes Flying in the company of two of its directors, Nicholas Bonner and Anja Daelemans. The screening in March was in fact the UK premiere, which came almost six years after its international premiere in Toronto in early September […]

Read the full article →

The film festivals approach – as does the annual battle for our diaries

by Philip Gowman 17 October 2018
Thumbnail image for The film festivals approach – as does the annual battle for our diaries

Last year I had a little rant about the hectic and competing schedules of the two overlapping film festivals of interest to the Korean film audience. The London Korean Film Festival has had a long history of packing so many films into their programme that it’s impossible to go to everything you want to see. […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →