Korean Film in Focus: A Conversation with Director Bong Joon-ho |
Long before he swept the Oscars with Parasite, Director Bong Joon Ho visited The Korea Society to talk about his career and films in February 2010. Listen to the highlights from his conversation with Michael Atkinson.
Through November and December, 2009, The Korea Society is screening episodes from Korean Ghost Stories, KBS’ popular and long-running television series. Known in Korea as Hometown of Legend, the series has thrilled Korean audiences with tales of the supernatural since it began airing in 1977. Often drawn from ancient folklore, these tales of tortured ghosts and supernatural curses have a uniquely Korean feel, and as such, provide a look into how Korean culture views issues of justice, revenge, and the role of women in a Confucian society. As part of our screening program, Yuni Cho, senior program officer for film, prepared questions for Lee Min-hong, who directed several episodes of Korean Ghost Stories, including The Reincarnated Princess, which will be screened at The Korea Society on Thursday, December 17th. Director Lee discusses the popularity of the series, as well as what sets it apart from other Asian horror films and TV. This podcast is also available as a video on http://www.youtube.com/user/TheKoreaSociety.
Shown for the first time in the United States, the collection features a rare collection of locks, latches and key charms, from the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910), beautifully designed metal and wood objects executed in myriad shapes.
This exhibition features a rare collection of locks, latches and key charms, from the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910). The items reveal the richly symbolic and exquisitely decorative dimensions of traditional Korean aesthetic and craft traditions. On loan from the Lock Museum in Seoul and shown for the first time in the United States, the collection includes beautifully designed metal and wood objects executed in myriad shapes: dragons, turtles, butterflies, fish, bats and swallows. Although these objects served functional purposes in everyday life, such as securing gates and protecting the contents of chests and other kinds of furniture, the beauty of their design underscores the primarily symbolic nature of the protection they afforded. Traditionally, Koreans believed that locks and latches fashioned in the shape of talismanic animals could invoke the power of these animals both to ensure the protection of their property and to bestow the blessings of wealth, health, fecundity and happiness. As an accompaniment to the locks and latches, key charms evolved from functional key holders into exquisitely decorated personal accessories passed from mothers to daughters as a symbol of the transfer of responsibility for ensuring the good management of household affairs.
On loan from the Lock Museum in Seoul, and shown for the first time in the US. The exhibition was organized by The Korea Society and is co-presented with Flushing Town Hall.
On September 30, 2009, Minji Kim, traditional percussionist, dancer, and a Republic of Korea 2009 Korean Traditional Artist-in-Residence, performed an evening of folk music on the changgo, an hourglass drum at the heart of traditional Korean music. The night’s program began with an introduction by Dr. Ju-Yong Ha, composer and ethnomusicologist, who also provided commentary before each of the three musical selections: a kayagum sanjo, a duet for haegum and changgo, and a solo percussion piece for changgo. Minji Kim was accompanied by Gee Sook Baek on the kayagum and Lee Kyung Kang on the haegum.
Handed down from generation to generation, the movements of Korea’s classical dance tradition reflect the essential rhythms of life in Korea. The exuberant yŏtt’aryŏngch’um (Taffy Peddler Dance) walks audiences through the bustling marketplaces of Korea, while meditative, deeply symbolic performances such as the hwahyŏnmu (Lotus Dance) and sŭngmu (Monk’s Dance) explore the country’s deep Buddhist roots. From the gentle, gliding grace of the opening chaech’ŏnmu (Chosŏn Court Dance) to the thunderous drumming of the closing p’unggo, the dancers and musicians of the Chae Hyang Soon Dance Company are animated by the strength and energy of the Korean tradition.
Tour Specifications:
Period: September 16-30, 2010
Fee: Available upon request
Contents: 12 performances by 12 performers
Category: Folk Music and Dance / Religious
Time: 90 minutes
For more information, to receive a press kit with DVD or to schedule a performance at your institution, please contact Heewon Kim at The Korea Society at (212) 759-7525, ext. 355 or at heewon.ny@koreasociety.org.
Read more to view a video clip of the performance.
South Korean star director Park Chan-wook (JSA, Old Boy), has thrilled both critics and audiences in his native country for a decade. His “vengeance” trilogy brought international recognition, including a Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize (2008) and a Jury Prize (2009), and established Park as a virtuoso filmmaker with a thoroughly original artistic vision. On July 24, 2009, The Korea Society recorded a special interview with the director in which he spoke about his influences, his meteoric ascension into the pantheon of internationally celebrated directors, and his latest film, Thirst.
Thirst is a stylish vampire thriller with a dramatic bite, and continues Park’s exploration of the dark side of the human soul. A devout priest (Song Kang-ho, The Host) on a mission to Africa volunteers as a test subject in a vaccine trial-gone-awry. Now a vampire, he returns to Korea to endure the torments of temptation, embodied by a childhood friend’s wife (Kim Ok-bin).
The Korea Society’s 19th annual Van Fleet Memorial Golf Tournament, held on Monday, October 26, turned out to be one of the most successful in the event’s nearly two-decade run. Seventy-eight golfers came out to the Alpine Country Club in Demarest, New Jersey, to support The Korea Society. Spectacularly crisp, clear fall weather made for an excellent game of golf. In a remarkable turn of play, two golfers—Soon Yong Hong and John Kwon—each scored holes-in-one, a first in tournament history. John Rodenburg won the Van Fleet Award for overall low individual gross, while the foursome of Yeon Hak Jeong, Seung-Dal Baek, Soon Yong Hong, and Jin Young Yang logged the low-net team score.
After an invigorating 18 holes, the players returned to the clubhouse to bid on silent-auction prizes provided by The Korea Society’s generous sponsors and also to get acquainted over dinner. Following dinner, the day’s exceptional players were recognized with awards:
Monday, October 26, 2009
10:00 am-6:30 pm
Alpine Country Club
80 Anderson Avenue
Demarest, NJ (Click for map)
Schedule of Events
| 10:00 am
11:30 am |
Registration/Brunch Open Driving Range Shotgun Tee Off Cocktails Dinner/Awards Ceremony |
2009 Tournament Co-chairs
(as of October 5, 2009)
Thomas C. Hubbard
Chairman
The Korea Society
Evans J.R. Revere
President/CEO
The Korea Society
Michael Ahn
President & CEO
LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc.
Anil Bhalla
Vice Chairman
Investment Banking- Asia Pacific
JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Chang Soo Choi
President & CEO
Samsung Electronics America, Inc.
Robert E. Fallon
Director
The Korea Society
Yeon Hak Jeong
President & CEO
KEB NY Financial Corp.
Young Heon Kim
General Manager
Asiana Airlines
Cheol Kew Park
President & CEO
SK USA, Inc.
Kee-hong Woo
Vice President, Eastern U.S.A.
Korean Air
Daniel J. Yun
Chief Executive Officer
Belstar Group
The arrival of the first Western missionaries in Korea in the late 19th century was a pivotal moment in the history of Christianity in Korea and the history of Korea as a whole. The missionaries established new religious identities and stoked early culture clashes. They also documented their mission and the society around them with early cameras. Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West Through Christianity—the largest ever show of Korean missionary photographs in the U.S.—features rare images taken by missionaries in Korea between 1890 and 1940.
Taken by both Protestant and Catholic missionaries, the photographs—on display along with unique supplementary objects such as an original photo album and New Year’s calendars—offer a singular perspective on life in Korea during times of profound change. They illustrate the forging of contemporary institutions and values in the crucible of encounters with American Christian missionaries by Koreans.
The impact of early Western contact on Koreans is evident in the telltale signs of new cultural norms and new religious identities, and clues that these new ways were conflicting with long-held traditions. Less directly evident, but equally important, the images also allow the viewer to surmise how Koreans in turn had a formative impact on the missionaries, which led to intertwined personal histories that became a foundation for subsequent relations between Korea and the United States.
Drawn from four private collections and six academic archives, the images have been digitally restored and printed in a manner that retains, as far as possible, the archival quality of the images.
On May 5, 2009, Don Baker, Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, spoke about the history of Christianity and religion in Korea with Fred Carriere, The Korea Society’s Executive Vice President. The interview is in support of ‘Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity,’ an exhibition previously on display at The Korea Society Gallery.
Purchase the 184-page hardcover exhibition catalog.
 |
On May 7, 2009, Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, author of Eating Korean: From Barbecue to Kimchi, Recipes from my Home, visited The Korea Society to speak about about her latest cookbook, Quick & Easy Korean Cooking (Chronicle Books). Lee is also the author of several travel guides and her writing has been featured in Food and Wine, Eating Well, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Whole Life Times, the Asian Pacific American Journal, and Korean Culture magazine. |
The Korea Society and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) are proud to present seven films from one of the earliest, and most complex, periods of Korean cinema. Recently discovered in a Chinese warehouse and restored by The Korean Film Archive, the films date from the 1930s and ’40s, a period when Korea was dominated by the dictates of Japanese colonialists. These dramas are thus uncomfortably pro-Japanese. Yet simultaneously, their rich aesthetics and formal experimentation reach beyond imperial Japanese ideology to express timeless themes of longing, loss and duty.
The films will be shown in five programs from January 28 through February 1 at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at MoMa.
All films are in Korean with English subtitles.
Wednesday, January 28 – Sunday, February 1, 2009
Museum of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019
Tickets may be purchased from the MoMA box office.
Click here for more information.
(Museum full admission includes any film for that day.)
| Wednesday, Jan 28 | 6:00 Spring in the Korean Peninsula | 8:00 Straits of Chosun | |
| Thursday, Jan 29 | 8:00 Fishermen’s Fire and Volunteer | ||
| Friday, Jan 30 | 6:00 Angels on the Street | 8:00 Sweet Dreams and Military Train | |
| Saturday, Jan 31 | 1:00 Spring in the Korean Peninsula | 3:00 Straits of Chosun | 5:00 Angels on the Street |
| Sunday, Feb 1 | 1:00 Fishermen’s Fire and Volunteer | 3:30 Sweet Dreams and Military Train |
SPRING IN THE KOREAN PENINSULA (84 min) 1941
Wednesday, January 28 | 6 PM
Saturday, January 31 | 1 PM
Directed by Lee Byeong-Il. Starring Kim Il-Hae, Seo Wol-Young and Kim So-Young. A film adaptation of a traditional Korean tale, Spring in the Korean Peninsula is a backstage romance between a director and an actress that falls into crisis when the director is jailed.
STRAITS OF CHOSUN (75 min) 1943
Wednesday, January 18 | 8 PM
Saturday, January 31 | 3 PM
Directed by Park Ki-Chae. Starring Nam Seung-Min, Moon Yae-Bong and Kim Shin-Jae. Made at the height of World War II, when Japanese censorship was at its tightest, Straits of Chosun tells the bittersweet story of a husband and wife separated by war.
FISHERMAN’S FIRE (52 min) 1939
Thursday, January 29 | 8 PM
Sunday, February 1 | 1 PM
Directed by Ahn Chul-Yeong. Starring Park Hak, Nah Woong and Park Jung-Kyeong. Following a fisherman’s daughter as she moves from her seaside village to bustling Seoul and is quickly beset by shady characters, Fisherman’s’ Fire is about the things you lose when you lose your home.
VOLUNTEER (55 min) 1941
Thursday, January 29 | 8 PM
Sunday, February 1 | 1 PM
Directed by Ahn Seok-Young. Starring Choi Woon-Bong, Moon Yae-Bong and Lee Keum-Ryong. A simple Korean farmer’s son who aches to leave the countryside behind and fight for Imperial Japan finally gets his chance when colonial authorities enact a draft.
ANGELS ON THE STREET (73 min) 1941
Friday, January 30 | 6 PM
Saturday, January 31 | 5 PM
Directed by Choi In-Kyu. Starring Kim Il-Hae, Moon Yae-Bong and Kim Shin-Jae. Notably realistic for its era in depicting the gritty poverty of contemporary Seoul, Angels on the Street is the story of a man struggling to set up an orphanage for the city’s street kids.
SWEET DREAMS (46 min) 1936
Friday, January 30 | 8 PM
Sunday, February 1 | 3:30 PM
Directed by Yang Ju-Nam. Starring Cho Taek-Won, Moon Yae-Bong and Yoo Sun-Ok. Korean cinema’s first talkie, Sweet Dreams nearly left audiences speechless with its scandalous melodrama about a wife who abandons her family to live with another man.
MILITARY TRAIN (66 min) 1938
Friday, January 30 | 8 PM
Sunday, February 1 | 3:30 PM
Directed by Seo Kwang-Jae. Starring Wang Pyeong and Moon Yae-Bong. Won-jin passes information about a Japanese military train to resistance fighters, putting the life of his best friend, the engineer, in danger in this hybrid of a spy thriller and a pro-Japanese morality play.
