ASEAN Culture House, run by the Korea Foundation, will host the 2021 ASEAN Cinema Week, screening 15 films from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, both in theaters and via online platforms from Friday to March 25. This is the second year that the ASEAN Culture House, located in Busan, is holding the cinema week. The event aims to present new perspectives on Southeast Asian culture through the films. The films selected this year reflect diverse cultures and traditions fr

Film March 9, 2021

It is no secret that Korea, a country well-known for its grilled meat like samgyeopsal, or pork belly, has not been particularly vegetarian-friendly. Celebrities revealing their love for meat is seen as natural, whereas stars who reveal their vegetarian diets are often treated as out of the ordinary in the media.   However, recent years have seen a growing number of Korean stars going vegetarian and actively talking about it. Claudia Kim, also known as Kim Soo-hyun, who appeared in 201

Food March 8, 2021

The 22nd edition of the JEONJU International Film Festival will be held from April 29 to May 8, under the slogan “Film Goes On.” Last year, the 21st edition of the international film fest, which was initially scheduled to commence April 30, was pushed back once and then was forced to be held behind closed doors in May due to the spread of COVID-19. The organizer at the time held a hybrid event, going both online and offline, for 114 days. This year’s festival will also be a h

Film March 6, 2021

The Korea Foundation on Thursday said the University of Sheffield in the UK had started an online class using “Learn! Korean with BTS” as its textbook on Feb. 10. This is the first Korean e-lecture series using BTS textbooks launched in the UK. In August last year, the Korea Foundation, K-pop powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment’s education business unit Big Hit Edu and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies joined forces to develop and provide Korean-language learning programs. Th

Culture March 6, 2021

Director Jero Yun, who directed the film “Beautiful Days” about a mysterious North Korean woman refugee in 2017, has returned with “Fighter,” about a female North Korean defector living in South Korea. “I came up with the story for ‘Fighter,’ along with ‘Beautiful Days,’ back in 2012 when I was part of Cannes Film Festival’s residence program,” Yun said during a press conference held Thursday at Lotte Cinema in Gwangjin-gu, Seou

Film March 5, 2021

Raya and the Last Dragon (US) Opened March 4 Animation Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, Donald Hall In the world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. As villainous monsters known as the Druun started attacking the land, magical dragons united their forces and sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Five hundred years later, the monsters have returned and it‘s now up to a warrior Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) to save Kumandra. Minari (US) Opened March 3 Drama Directed

Film March 5, 2021

Olympic Park K-Art hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, will be turned into a venue for online K-pop concerts, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Wednesday. The new studio is scheduled to launch in October. “Contactless online concerts are not an alternative for face-to-face performances. It is a new kind of cultural content. How to create global and differentiated content by combining offline performance and advanced technology is crucial for the development of the future content in

Culture March 3, 2021

A film about the first human clone “Seobok,” starring actors Gong Yoo and Park Bo-gum, will be released simultaneously on Korean streaming platform Tving and in theaters on April 15. The upcoming film was initially set to be released in theaters last December but the film’s distributor CJ Entertainment had to delay the release due to COVID-19. “Seobok” depicts the story of Ki-hun (Gong Yoo), an ex-intelligence agent, who receives a mission from the director of t

Film March 3, 2021

More and more top Korean movie stars are opting for TV dramas mainly due to the prolonged difficult situation the local film industry has been going through since COVID-19 broke out early last year. Not only movie stars that occasionally have been making the switch to TV shows, but also those who had been appearing only on the big screen for years are making the switch. In December last year, veteran actor Hwang Jung-min, star of multiple megahit films like “Ode to My Father” and

Film March 2, 2021

Kang Eun-kyung stepped down from her role as president of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday, after a three-year tenure. After the Seoul mayoral by-election, which will take place on April 7, a seven-member committee tasked with appointing a new head will be formed. The committee consists of two recommended by the Seoul city government, two by SPO’s board of directors and three by the Seoul Metropolitan Council. The new CEO of the orchestra is expected to be appointed before the

Performance Feb. 28, 2021

Chaos Walking (US) Opened Feb. 24 Action Directed by Doug Liman In a not-too-distant future, there is a planet called “New World” where only men live and all living creatures can hear each other‘s thoughts in a stream of images, words and sounds called Noise. One day, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) discovers Viola (Daisy Ridley), who crashed into the planet. The two start questioning the dystopian world and make plans to escape from it. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (UK) Re

Film Feb. 26, 2021

Culture Minister Hwang Hee on Thursday said it is important to inject money into developing cultural infrastructure here during a press conference. He raised putting money into renovating 266 local cultural and arts centers, which are currently only being used for small local events or holding training sessions for reserve forces, into a place that artists can actually perform as one of the example projects the ministry is reviewing. “Currently it is difficult to present any performanc

Culture Feb. 25, 2021

South Korean actor Han Ye-ri said she feels a bit nervous hearing Korean audiences’ response to her upcoming US film “Minari” as it does not have a clear plot sequence consisting of a beginning, a middle and an end. “This movie did not take the easy way of making a provocative story,” Han told reporters during a joint media interview on Tuesday, conducted via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, “Minari” calmly presents a universal and relatable

Film Feb. 24, 2021

How to make kimchi: First, soak vegetables -- usually cabbage -- in a salty brine. Then make a spicy paste with different ingredients such as chili powder, garlic, ginger, sugar, and fish sauce. Finally, rinse, drain the cabbage and add the spicy paste. Making kimchi at home is, for the most part, a laborious process, but that hasn’t stopped more and more foreigners from making their own jars of the spicy fermented cabbage dish at home rather than buying them at supermarkets. Many of t

Food Feb. 24, 2021

Film director Jero Yun’s “Fighter”, which has been invited to compete at the 71st Berlin Film Festival, will be released in local theaters on March 18. “Fighter” depicts the story of North Korean refugee Jin-ah (Lim Seong-mi) who is always exhausted from her part-time jobs. One day, Jin-ah discovers boxing and finds meaning to her life through the sport. Yun’s new movie was invited to compete in the Generation 14plus category at the Berlinale, which is a c

Film Feb. 22, 2021