The third of the KCC’s Korean Literature on Screen events. The film is based on two Kim Young-ha’s novellas: The Photo Shop Murder (available in translation from Jimoondang) and Meditation on Mirror, which to my knowledge (and the author’s knowledge as of two years ago when I last spoke to him on the subject) has … [Read More]
Tag: Books on Screen (page 3)
Selected publications
- Kim Aeran: My Brilliant Life tr Kim Chi-young, Forge 2021
- Jeong You-jeong: Seven Years of Darkness tr Kim Chi-young, Little Brown 2020
- Cho Nam-joo: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 tr Jamie Chang, Scribner 2020
- Kim Young-ha: Diary of a Murderer, and other stories tr Krys Lee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2019
- Han Kang: The Vegetarian tr Deborah Smith, Portobello Books 2015
- Cheon Myeong-kwan: Modern Family tr Park Kyoung-lee, White Pine Press 2015
- Yi Cheong-jun: Seopyeonje, the Southerners’ Songs tr Ok Young Kim Chang, Peter Owen 2011
- Choe Yun: There a Petal Silently Falls: 3 stories tr Bruce Fulton, Ju-chan Fulton, Columbia University Press 2008
- Cho Son-jak: The Preview and Other Stories tr David R Carter, Kim Chan-young, Jain Publishing 2003
- Kajiyama Toshiyuki: The Clan Records tr Yoshiko Dykstra, University of Hawai'i Press 1995
- Kim Seong-dong: Mandala tr Ahn Jung-hyo, Dongsuh Munhaksa 1990
- Richard E Kim: The Martyred, Penguin 1964
LBF event 11 Mar: Books on Screen — Portrait of the Days of Youth
The second of the KCC’s Korean Literature on Screen events. The Yi Mun-yol story on which it is based is not yet available in translation. As usual, pre-registration is required via the KCC website. Portrait of the Days of Youth 젊은날의 초상, Kwak Ji-kyoon, 1990 11 March 7pm, KCCUK Running time 148 minutes A university … [Read More]
LBF event 4 Mar: Books on Screen — The Road to Sampo
The first of the KCC’s Korean Literature on Screen events. The Hwang Sok-yong short story on which it is based is pretty hard to find in translation. It’s part of a collection published by Heinemann Asia in the 1980s, logged on Brother Anthony’s site here, and available on Amazon for the princely sum of £112.14. … [Read More]
Book Review: Hwang Sunmi — The Hen who Dreamed she could Fly
Hwang Sun-mi: The Hen who dreamed she could fly Translated by Kim Chi-young; illustrations by Nomoco Oneworld Publications, 2014, 124pp First published as 마당을 나온 암탉, 2000 A brief fable that can delight children and adults alike, the story touches on themes of motherly love, discrimination, otherness, and belonging, while also touching on and accepting … [Read More]
Book Review: Gong Ji-young — Our Happy Time
Gong Ji-young: Our Happy Time Translated by Sora Kim-Russell Short Books, 2014, 269pp. Originally published as 우리들의 행복한 시간, 2005 Our Happy Time is not the obvious title for a novel in which a three-times attempted suicide goes reluctantly to visit a convicted murderer awaiting execution on death row. But strangely, as the relationship between … [Read More]
The Korean Novels on Screen Programme at the KCC
The KCC, in conjunction with the British Council, has announced its programme of films inspired by Korean literature. Two and a half of the films have their original stories available in English translation. The ones available in English are The Road to Sampo and Leafie. The half-film is The Scarlet Letter, which is based both … [Read More]
Waterstones stocks up on Hwang Sunmi
Seen at the Waterstones in Canary Wharf today: a pile of Hwang Sunmi’s The Hen who Dreamed She Could Fly. Nice to see that they’re including it in the buy one, get one half price promotion. My neighbourhood bookstore at home rang me today to tell me my own copy had arrived, so I’ll be … [Read More]
You’ve seen the film, now read the book
The Korean Film Council recently publicised on its website the new “Book to Film” initiative aimed at bringing together the film and the publishing industries. Of course, the practice adapting a book for the big screen is almost as old as the movie industry itself, and some of South Korea’s most successful movies have been … [Read More]
Im Kwon-Taek’s Village in the Mist — affairs on an Anonymous Island
Han Su-ok, a young schoolteacher, arrives in an isolated mountain village to take up her first job in an elementary school. As she gets off the bus, the village initially seems deserted, like a ghost town, hemmed in by the high forbidding walls of the surrounding mountains like a prison. You wonder what sort of … [Read More]
Book review: Yi Mun-yol — Our Twisted Hero
Yi Mun-yol: Our Twisted Hero Originally published 1987 Translated by Kevin O’Rourke Available on Kindle (Minumsa, 2012) or hard copy (Hyperion Books, 2001) Moving to the provinces from a school in Seoul in which the social hierarchy was one he had lived with all his life, our twelve-year-old hero Han Pyongt’ae is faced with a … [Read More]
Book review: Richard E Kim — The Martyred
Richard E. Kim: The Martyred First published by George Braziller, 1964 Published in Penguin Classics 2011, with introduction by Heinz Insu Fenzl and Preface by Susan Choi. 199 pp Fourteen North Korean priests are rounded up by the communists just before North Korea invades the South in June 1950. Twelve of the priests are shot, … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Leafie, a Hen into the Wild
At last year’s LKFF the surprise success was the animation Green Days – which for me was the first Korean animation really to stand comparison with Japan’s Studio Ghibli. This year the story may well be the same, with another animation from a director making his first full-length feature. In a country where animation screenings … [Read More]
Book Review: Hwang Sok-yong – The Old Garden
Hwang Sok-yong: The Old Garden / The Ancient Garden Originally published in 2000 English translation by Jay Oh, Seven Stories Press 2009 / Picador 2010. “More has been expected of Hwang Sok-yong than almost any other Korean writer of the past quarter century,” says Bruce Fulton1. Having read The Guest (2002), and having watched and … [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]
Films from the 70s: Lee Man-hee’s Road to Sampo at the KCC
The 65th Korean Film Night at the KCC is on Thursday, 10th March 2011 at 7:00pm – a classic film from the 70s. Title: A Road To Sampo (1975) Director: Lee Man-hee Genre: Drama Certification: 15 (South Korea) Running Time: 101mins Date & Time: THURS 10th Mar 2011,7:00pm Venue: Multi-Purpose Hall, KCCUK Admission Free, Booking … [Read More]
Petal divides the audience
Mixed reactions to Jang Sun-woo's Petal at the KCC last night, as part of the Jang Sun-woo month. Two people walked out, but some of us were crying. # [Read More]