What a preposterous scenario for a drama. A chaebol heiress goes paragliding, gets swept away by a freak tornado and lands north of the DMZ, where she is discovered by a North Korean soldier and ends up getting emotionally entangled. I loved it. Of course, the scenario is a lot more complicated than that. How … [Read More]
People: Hyun Bin
8 Netflix K-Dramas for people who don’t like zombies
With the extra time spent at home, the lockdown is the perfect time for many of us to catch up on television dramas. Besides being a great way to pass the time without leaving the home, dramas can provide us all with a little escapism, giving a much-needed break from the often overwhelming news cycle. … [Read More]
Come Rain Come Shine: beautifully restrained or just a little bit wet?
There is a narrow dividing line between a movie which paints a delicate, nuanced portrait of characters who have subtle and restrained emotions, and a movie in which you want to just punch everyone in the face for being so wet. Come Rain, Come Shine is a movie which is on that dividing line, perhaps … [Read More]
The London Korean Links Awards 2011
The sixth of LKL’s annual unscientific and very personal recognition of the best things of last year. And in the field of film, books and CDs what is encouraging is that there is so much to choose from. There were also plenty of good Korean cultural events in London, Edinburgh and elsewhere, but there was … [Read More]
A look back at 2011 – part 2
In the second of our articles we look at stories relating to Sports, Tourism, and national branding and marketing. And K-pop and celebrities are never far away when talking of Brand Korea. Sports and Tourism Jeju was provisionally listed as one of the worlds New 7 Wonders, after a multi-month international marketing campaign. Celebrities ranging … [Read More]
Hallyu Elvis and the draft-dodger
"Hallyu Elvis and the draft-dodger" – The Economist contrasts Hyun Bin with MC Mong (+ comment from Grand Narrative) http://econ.st/jtoGIX # [Read More]
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 from … [Read More]