TIFF announces its 2008 line-up. The Gala screening goes to a Korean Western:
Drawing inspiration from Sergio Leone’s 1966 classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Kim (The Foul King, TIFF 2000) returns to TIFF with the first-ever “kimchi western.” This is also South Korea’s biggest budget movie ever.
Looks a bit block-bustery, but still infused with the style of Korean cinema.
Been using a lot of traditional Korean reference images for this last stretch of Ojingogo. This warm-up sketch of a guy in a han-bok (traditional Korean garb), carrying kim-chee (traditional Korean cabbage), came out of it.
Here is an awesome thing: The Korea & Animation blog.
The site basically catalogues everything that is great about Korean cartoon culture. From Podori the police mascot (yes, he’s on all the police stations – and his ubiquity somehow makes you feel safe) to interviews with Korean animators. The site is authored by Robert Padilla whose enthusiasm for Korean life is wonderful.
I sent some Ojingogo books to my former student, Basil, in Korea.
Here’s his review:
“Your book was fantastic! You draw better than past.
You were good at draw, but you still need to learn korean.”
This is so funny, I had trouble breathing while I watched it. Sent to me by my Korean friend, Linda.
The only flaw is that their lips touch. In a real Korean drama, there would be absolutely no kissing. Only yearning, guilt, and regret.
I’m addicted to Dae Jang Geum. The epic (60h) Korean period soap about a young cook in the king’s kitchen who, through diligence, loyalty and hard work, strives to become the head of the palace kitchen. I watched it while I lived in Korea, but without sub-titles I was baffled. Now, thanks again to Linda, I have the DVDs with sub-titles, but really I’m only slightly less baffled.
Wonderful stuff.
Well, Korea may have been nudged out of the World Cup finals by Switzerland, but a recent article by Chris Taylor, senior editor of Business 2.0, opines that the Land of the Morning Calm is also on the leading edge of Internet trends.
Thanks to a smart, early investment in the nation’s broadband infrastructure, the Korean Internet is blazing trails in online business culture. Taylor thinks Cyworld, a feature-rich, social networking community similar to MySpace, may provide a model for Western online development:
Cyworld has penetration rates that would make Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., green with envy: An astonishing 90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s use the service. Celebrities and politicians set up their own minihompies [short for "mini-home pages"], and the way to get ahead in twentysomething Korean society is to found a popular Cyworld club, or chat room.
I’ve always felt my Korean friends’ Cyworld minihompies were a little saccharine, but then if you told me three years ago that MySpace would be the juggernaut it is today I would have laughed.
Every now and then you see something like this and it makes you miss the land of Kimchee and honey.
Just unpacking boxes and I came across this piece of paper. I found it on the sidewalk in my neighbourhood in Korea. Now, finding any message in English would have been strange enough, but this message… I was convinced higher powers were at work.
I tried to follow the instructions the best I could and – sure enough – I thereafter had a great time in Korea.
Thank you, Piece of Garbage Paper.