Introduction to Tae Kwon Do. Korea’s most popular sport and one of only two official Olympic medal martial arts, taekwondo transcends all boundaries of language, culture, and geography. Listen as taekwondo masters enthusiastically recount their experiences with this beautiful art and explain how it has reached all corners of the globe.
An introduction to Seollal, Korean New Yearks, with Professor Jane Hong, Professor Tae Yang Kwak, and Professor Michael J. Pettid.
Create a lucky pouch (bok jumeoni), during this 4 week, 8 hour workshop with artists Wonju Seo and Karen Ahn. Using two traditional art forms, bojagi (patchwork) and maedeup (knotting), participants will make their own unique and lucky silk pouch. These bags were originally made as a substitute for pockets, since hanbok, Korean traditional clothes, have no pockets.
This workshop meets for a total of 8 hours over four sessions:
Mondays, April 6, 13, 20, and 27 | 6 – 8 PM
Advance ticket purchase required for this event. Space is limited.
If you have any questions, please contact Claudia Y. Pak or (212) 759-7525, ext. 321.
Members | $160
Non-members | $190
Lucky Pouches is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
A series for the natural Bourne lovers and the head-spinning action followers, Action Korea explores the savant, signature blend of the delightfully silly and the deadpan serious that recent Korean cinema has brought to the silver screen.
From the North Korean spy tribulations of Commitment (2013; dir. Park Hong-Soo) to the heroic feats of an ancient noble marksman in War of the Arrows (2011 dir. Kim Han-Min), the peninsula has a surfeit of heroic tales.
In co-presentation with MoMI, The Korea Society presents a showcase of these startlingly resonant spectacles, fired by primeval fantasy and hurtling from one dramatic mode to the next, whirling with the force of weightlessness and propelled by the promise of escape.
Friday, April 3 – Sunday, April 5, 2015
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Avenue at 37th Street, Astoria
The Museum of the Moving Image
Directions:
From Midtown, 10 min. taxi from The Korea Society or N/Q Train outbound to 36th Avenue
| Friday, April 3 | 7:00 KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT | |
| Saturday, April 4 | 4:00 WAR OF THE ARROWS | 7:00 CONFESSION OF MURDER |
| Sunday, April 5 | 4:00 THE MAN FROM NOWHERE | 7:00 COMMITMENT |
KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT (137 min) 2014
군도: 민란의 시대
Friday, April 3 | 7:00 PM
Dir. Yoon Jong-bin. 2014, 137 mins. With Ha Jung-woo, Kang Dong-won, Lee Kyoung-young, Lee Sung-min, Ma Dongseok, Cho Jin-woong, Yoon Ji-hye. Half kimchi epic, half spaghetti western, Kundo is a wild ride in the twilight days of the Joseon Dynasty: it’s 1859 in the Korean kingdom, when a gang of colorful bandits, or “Kundo”, decides to stand up against the tyranny of the wealthy and fight for the poor and the oppressed. The sky’s the limit for the seemingly invincible band of honorable thieves whose mission of righteous retribution takes a dramatic turn when they accept butcher Dolmuchi into their ranks. For the meat cleaver wielder, it’s not only about justice, it’s personal, and he won’t stop until he takes the life of the psychopathic nobleman who killed his loved ones.
WAR OF THE ARROWS (121 min) 2011
최종병기 활
Saturday, April 4 | 4:00 PM
In Korean with English subtitles
Dir. Kim Han-Min. 2011, 121 mins. With Park Hae-Il, Moon Chae-Won, Ryoo Seung-Ryong. The highest-grossing Korean movie of 2011, this is an epic chase film that gives audiences a taste of just how rad a Green Arrow movie would be. Park Hae-Il (The Host) and his sister are sent into hiding after their father is accused of being a traitor and murdered. 13 years later, Park has become something of an archery prodigy, while his sister (played by TV star Moon Chae-Won) is in love with the son of their host family. Park is furious at her choice, but he can’t stop the wedding. Even worse, their wedding comes on the exact same day that China’s Qing Army invades Korea. Living in a border town, the Qing military stops off at the wedding first, where they are totally uncool guests: trashing everything, taking Moon and her husband-to-be hostage, and then continuing into Korea, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Park barely escapes with his life, but now he has a mission: with only his bow, he’ll follow the Qing army and rescue his sister. Along the way, the Qing warriors start to realize that all their men are being killed by one lone archer, and so a task force of Manchu archers, wielding heavier, more powerful bows, are assembled to take out Park. The Qing conquest of Korea in 1592 is one of the most crushing defeats in world history – it took just two months before Korea’s king surrendered and gave his son to the Chinese as a hostage. War of The Arrows tells the story, but rather than writing it on an epic scale, it focuses on just a few people fighting to survive: a bride, her groom, and her brother.
At 121 minutes, you might think there’s some fat on these bones, but once the emotional core is forged, it becomes one massive chase sequence, studded with masterful set pieces that involve everything from man-eating tigers to a battle on the side of a cliff. If you were ever a kid who pretended to be Robin Hood, this one’s for you. Director and writer Kim Han-Min has made a blockbuster that does for archery what The Dark Knight did for bats.
CONFESSION OF MURDER (119 min) 2012
내가 살인범이다
Saturday, April 4 | 7:00 PM
In Korean with English subtitles
Dir. Jeong Byeong-Gil. 2012, 119 mins. With Jung Jae-Young, Park Si-Hoo. From the director of the hit documentary Action Boys (about the tough lives of stuntmen in the Korean movie biz), comes this thriller that’s got more twists than a snake with a broken back. Launching itself off the screen and coming at viewers like a runaway train in the first 50 seconds, this flick kicks off with lieutenant Choi (Jung Jae-Young, Castaway on the Moon) ending his investigation of a serial killer who’s murdered 10 women in a shower of broken glass, insane rootop leaps, and breathless sprints down dark alleys which climaxes with the masked killer slashing his face to shreds and getting away.
Years later, Choi’s a drunk, obsessed by the one who got away, and suddenly his world splits open when a handsome young man appears on the day the statute of limitations expires on the killings and declares that not only is he the murderer but you can read all about it in his tell-all book. Is the killer confessing? Is he a wannabe craving attention? Hard to tell. But it’s not just the impressive action set pieces that keep this movie hopping (although the centerpiece car chase should get a special award for insanity). With the addition of a vigilante group made up of the victim’s families, several bloodthirsty TV producers who want ratings, and a serial killer so slick he’s surrounded by fans wherever he goes, this movie changes pace every ten minutes. Even better, the killer is played by Park Si-Hoo, a TV star so famous that in the scenes of the killer’s fans going bananas the director simply let Park’s real-life fans on the set and filmed them.
Despite the life-or-death stakes, Confession of Murder still smells like real life: people have to borrow cars, they get giddy over celebrities, and live interviews with serial killers are interrupted by commercial breaks. Refusing to get bogged down in scenes of psychopathic sadism or needless suffering, Confession of Murder is this summer’s cinematic built-for-the-beach crime thriller that sends your pulse racing as you flip the pages faster and faster, caught up in the excitement what on earth could possibly happen next.
Description courtesy of Subway Cinema.
THE MAN FROM NOWHERE (119 min) 2010
아저씨
Sunday, April 5 | 4:00 PM
In Korean with English subtitles
Dir. Lee Jeong-Beom. 2010, 119 mins. With Won Bin, Kim Sae-ron, Kim Tae-hoon, Kim Hee-won. One part Batman, one part Bourne, Korean mega-star, Won Bin, revamped his image as a hard man of action with this movie about a spy coming out of retirement to take on a ring of organ harvesters. The number one movie at the Korean box office in 2010 (beating Inception and Iron Man 2), it took home 16 film awards! The cast includes Won Bin, Kim Sae-Ron, Kim Tae-hoon, Kim Tae-hoon and Lee Jong-Pil. Part of The Sea of Revenge Focus, The Man From Nowhere will screen in Korean with English subtitles.
Description courtesy of Subway Cinema.
Sunday, April 5 | 7:00 PM
Dir. Park Hong-Soo. 2013, 113 mins. With Choi Seung-Hyun (T.O.P.), Han Ye-Ri, Kim You-Jeong. Bending the hard-boiled North Korean spy genre into the confines of an affecting adolescent drama, director Park Hong-soo packs balls-to-the-wall action, political intrigue and poignant romance in one detonating bundle. After the failure of their father, North Korean teenager Myung-hoon (Choi Seung-hyun, aka T.O.P) and his young sister Hye-in (Han Ye-ri) are condemned to a labor camp. To save his sister’s life, Myung-hoon volunteers to become a spy and, posing as a defector, infiltrates the South as a high school boy. Despite his innocent good looks, the young man is actually a mean, highly-trained war machine, cleverly concealing his ability for combat behind his bashful demeanor.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.
After losing his parents and left hand to the Korean War, Park Dae Sung so loved art that by the age of ten he would rigorously and repeatedly copy ink-and-wash images and calligraphy from classic texts. This courageous young boy grew into an artist of visionary integrity, who, with deep gratitude to his artistic birthright, gracefully transcends imitation of his predecessors. Park Dae Sung achieves the traditional goal of the ink-and-wash painter—to reveal the fundamental core and character of a subject—through a skillful combination of classical modes of organization, calligraphic delineation, and influences from Korean, Asian, and Western masters.
The heartfelt reverence, thoughtful celebration, and exalted whimsy in Park Dae Sung’s paintings explore both his subjects and an artistic sensibility vast enough to encompass opposites such as gravity and buoyancy, scrupulous attention to detail and essential simplification, and sweet intimacy and awesome grandeur. Like the Chosŏn-era scholar-artists before him, Park has traveled extensively, including to the Diamond Mountains in the North, and along the Silk Road through China, the source of his calligraphic subjects. An heir to Korea’s “true-view” tradition, he lifts the real mountains, trees, houses, and vistas visited on his journeys into the artist’s land of benevolent, powerful beauty. His paintings of Kyŏngju capture the spirit of the capital of Korea’s Silla Dynasty and the heart of Korean Buddhism, without losing an ounce of the land’s earthy gravity.
This exhibition of Park Dae Sung’s work, presented in collaboration with the Dongwha Cultural Foundation, contains ink-and-wash paintings, calligraphy, and studies of pottery representative of this master of modern interpretation of traditional Korean ink painting.
January 22 -March 24, 2015
The Korea Society Gallery
Gallery Open Daily, M-F, 10 AM-5 PM
For more information, please contact Jahee Yu
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.
Robert D. Mowry, Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus, Harvard Art Museums, and Senior Consultant on Chinese and Korean Art, Christie’s, New York, discusses the history and development of Korean ink paintings.
This illustrated slide lecture presents an introductory overview of the development of Korean painting during the Koryŏ (918-1392) and Chosŏn (1392-1910) dynasties, covering all four major categories of work: Buddhist painting, literati painting (sometimes also called Sino-Korean painting), portrait painting, and folk painting. The Korean painting and ceramic traditions took inspiration from those of China, and Korean paintings and ceramics thus relate closely to those created in contemporaneous China. Even so, once they had fully mastered Chinese techniques, Korean artists typically transformed the subjects, formats, and styles adopted from China to meet their own aesthetic needs, thereby establishing distinctive Korean styles that reflect their Chinese origins but stand apart from them. That background will lay the foundation for understanding modern and contemporary Korean ink painting.
Korean royal hors d’oeuvres will be provided by master-chef Haelin Lee.
Thursday, March 19, 2015 | 6 PM
If you have any questions, please contact Jahee Yu or (212) 759-7525
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.
Author and journalist Blaine Harden discusses his new book, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot:The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom, with Kenneth Rowe (No Kum Sok), the former fighter pilot in the North Korean Air Force who defected to South Korea in his MiG-15 in 1953. The book interweaves Rowe’s story with that of Kim Il-Sung’s rise to power during the Korean War.
Using government documents found in Chinese and Russian archives related to the role of Mao and Stalin in Kim’s rise to power, as well as Rowe’s never-before-released FBI, CIA, and US Air Force files, Harden has written a heart-pounding escape adventure that provides an entirely new way to understand the world’s longest-lasting totalitarian state.
The book will be available for sale and a reception, and book signing will follow.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | 6:30 PM
Students, Explorers and Above: Free
Members: $10
Nonmembers: $20
“I could not put this book down. The interwoven stories of Kim Il-Sung and MiG fighter pilot No Kum Sok are carefully researched and artfully told. Harden shows how each man played the system to achieve his lifelong goal—in Kim’s case, the creation of a personality cult and oppressive regime, and in No’s case, defection from it. Harden succeeds in offering a unique lens on North Korean history and politics that offers something for both the general and expert readership.”
—Dr. Victor Cha, Professor of Government and Director of Asian Studies, Georgetown University; former National Security Council director for Asian affairs, 2004-7
“Having exposed the full horror of the North Korean gulag by telling the story of Shin Dong-hyuk’s escape from Camp 14, Blaine Harden now uses contrasting portraits of the founding tyrant Kim Il Sung and the young MiG pilot who flew to freedom six decades ago to explain how the monstrous political system of North Korea came into existence in the first place. The result is a triumph of story-telling that brings history to life and explains why the North Korean regime is such a menace to its own people and to the world.”
—Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy
Joan Kee, Associate Professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan and a leading authority on contemporary Asian art, presents an overview of important artists and developments in postwar Korean art, including the rise of performance art and the significance of ink painting.
Kee points out that no clear-cut division exists between “modern” and “contemporary” in Korean art, and that this absence is not so much an omission as an intentional acknowledgment of the competing senses of time and history with which Korean artists engaged from roughly 1953—the provisional end of the Korean War—to 1988, the year of the Seoul Olympics, Korea’s proverbial “coming-out” party. The force of these engagements was especially palpable in the 1960s and 70s. This talk presents an overview of some of the most important artists and developments, including the emergence of Tansaekhwa, the loose constellation of abstract paintings which ranks among the most important artistic movements in post-1945 Asia, as well as the rise of performance art and the significance of ink painting. Such explorations continue to resonate today, as “contemporary art” worldwide becomes increasingly, and paradoxically, more expansive and less inclusive than ever before.
Thursday, March 12, 2015 | 6 PM
If you have any questions, please contact Jahee Yu or (212) 759-7525
Be inspired by the story of a young woman who overcame life’s challenges to launch a business and fulfill her dream of visiting NYC during Fashion Week! Su Kyung Kim, the 19-year-old founder and CEO of Korean online shopping mall Victoria Garconne, discusses overcoming personal and financial hardships, launching a fashion retail business at age 15, and growing it into a million-dollar company before turning 20.
Thursday, February 19, 2015 | 6:30 PM
Explorers and Above: Free
Students: $5
Members: $10
Nonmembers: $20
Korea’s Online Shopping Mall Phenom Su Kyung Kim was made possible by support from the following individuals and organizations:
Keen Communications (주)열심히커뮤니케이션즈(www.keencomms.com)
Planstalk 플랜스톡 (www.planstalk.com)
Contemporary Culture programs are generously sponsored by CJ
Author Jang Jin-sung, on his first visit to the U.S., discusses his new book, Dear Leader Poet, Spy, Escapee—A Look Inside North Korea, which describes his life in North Korea as a psychological warfare officer and one of Kim Jong-il’s revered “court poets,” as well as his dramatic escape to China and South Korea. Jang will also read selections from his poetry and share insights into North Korea shaped by his experiences as well as contacts with North Korean exiles and overseas officials. The evening’s discussion will be led by Dr. Su Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and current senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
The book will be available for sale, and reception and book signing will follow.
Explorers and Above: Free
Members and Students: $10
Nonmembers: $20
Jang Jin-Sung: Poet, Spy, Escapee
Monday, February 2, 2015 | 6:30 PM
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
