THE KOREA SOCIETY

is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding, and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. Learn more about us here.

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Monday, March 25, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
  The Korea Society is delighted to present Colloquy: Translating Korean Poetry, featuring ...
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
  In her intimate and touching debut, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, journalist ...
 
January 25 - April 18, 2024 | Working in the precise and fine medium of mother of pearl - "jagae" ...
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
Detail from Six-Panel Folding Screen of Plum Blossom Studio by Lee Hancheol. 19 c. Korea. ©National ...
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
Author photo: Nina Subin “It is a privilege to read Crystal Hana Kim’s fiction, which both ...
Thursday, April 11, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
National Museum of Korea; Cultural Heritage Administration |  In this lecture, Professor ...
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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | 5:00 PM 
"Weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird."— Kirkus Reviews In the first short-story collection of ...
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Sunday, April 21, 2024 | 5:00 PM 
IMAGE CREDIT: Docu+ Zero Waste is a timely documentary film that explores the current ...
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Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | 5:00 PM 
Author Photo: Studio Gaga A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and ...
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Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | 6:00 PM 
© Hae Ran from Channel Yes |  With the ever-growing need to understand ourselves and humanity ...
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May 2 - July 31, 2024 | How can a Korean artist—however one identifies as such—shape their own ...
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | 6:30 PM 
Like the foundational role of butter in French cooking or olive oil in Italian cuisine, jangs stand ...
Monday, March 4, 2024 | 12:00 PM 
"A thrillingly and ingeniously conceived allegory about where we are, and where we’re headed.” ...
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 | 5:00 PM 
  The charming slice-of-life novel Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by debut novelist ...

Producing a Film across Seoul and New York: Making West 32nd


Hollywood makes lots of legal thrillers, but none of them speak so directly to the Korean American experience as the newly released West 32nd. While in New York for the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Flim Festival, co-writer and director Michael Kang and stars Grace Park and Jun Sung Kim came to The Korea Society for a freewheeling panel discussion on how the film was made and what this unique, Korean American statement means to its creators.

West 32nd is more than a Grisham-esque story of murder and deception among gangsters in New York’s Koreatown, said Kang. It’s a drama about one’s connection to, and separation from, one’s culture. The lead character, John Kim (John Cho), is a pro-bono lawyer assigned to defend a Korean American teenager framed for a gangland murder. With the help of the boy’s sister, Lila Lee (Grace Park), Kim delves deep into Koreatown’s underworld where he’s manipulated by gangster Mike Juhn (Jun Sung Kim). Though Kim is the model of second-generation immigrant success, he can’t speak Korean and as the mystery deepens, despite the fact he’s Korean, he’s increasingly out of his element.

With a predominately Korean American cast, West 32nd’s themes of identity seeped into the production process. The film’s characters alternate between Korean and English dialog, and Kang said that he wanted both languages to sound authentic. Many sections of dialog required extensive re-writing and finding bilingual actors was a major challenge. Once Park and Kim signed onto the project, language was still a problem. Both actors said they had to rehearse their Korean to appear perfectly fluent. 

Whatever the travails, they were glad to have done West 32nd. Though both have played many roles in Hollywood and Korea, this was the first project that allowed them to give portray Korean American characters in a multi-dimensional way.

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 2, 2007 | 6:30 PM


The Korea Society
950 Third Ave., 8th floor
New York, NY 10022

 

 Join Michael Kang, the Korean American filmmaker and Humanitas Award- winning director, along with actors Grace Park and Jun Kim as they discuss their new film, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Moderated by William Phuan, program associate at Asian Cinevision, the conversation will include personal, behind-the-scenes production stories, career advice for Asian American film talent and information on the prospects for marketing Asian American films internationally.


WEST 32ND

Directed by Michael Kang 
Starring John Cho, Jun Sung Kim, Grace Park and Jane Kim

West 32nd stars John Cho (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) as an ambitious young lawyer who takes on a pro bono case to exonerate a 14 year-old boy from a first-degree murder charge. The case takes him into a seamy underworld he never knew existed, right in the heart of midtown Manhattan. West 32nd also stars Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) and marks Korean actor Jun Kim’s first American film role. Based on co-writer Edmund Lee's coverage of Korean organized crime in New York for The Village Voice, West 32nd is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Kang's debut film The Motel.

Presented by Tribeca Film Festival, Asian Cinevision and The Korea Society.

 

 


 Sponsored by AZN, ACV, AsianAve.com, yKan