Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Hwang Sun-won’s birth on 26 March, 1915. Google Korea celebrated with one of their doodles, illustrating Hwang’s most well-known story, The Shower (소나기, 1959). The story was adapted as a movie by Lee Jin-mo in 1978; and Studio Meditation with Pencil is currently working on an animated version, which … [Read More]
Title: The Shower (소나기)
Book review: Modern Korean Literature — An Anthology 1908-65
Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology 1908-1965 Edited by Chung Chong-wha Routledge / Kegan Paul International, 1995, 467pp If you are looking to sample Korean literature in translation, the chances are that you’ll find more short stories than full length novels. This collection, though not universally enjoyable, is extremely useful in giving an overview of the … [Read More]
1970s: the missing decade in Korean film?
Newcomers to Korean film can sometimes get the impression that Korean cinema started with Shiri. Indeed, one contributor to the recent Korean Film Blogathon claimed “Korea’s cinema was virtually non-existing until the new millennium”. Not a sentiment with which I strongly agree. While the last decade has certainly seen more than its fair share of … [Read More]