Sunny

7PM, June 21, 2012

Multi-Purpose Hall, KCCUK

Soo-ni is a young woman stuck in an arranged marriage to a man who still loves his college girlfriend. Her husband, Sang-gil, is a soldier in the Republic of Korea Army, and though she visits him regularly, he doesn’t return her affections. After Sang-gil is sent to fight in the Vietnam War, Soo-ni resolves to follow him. She joins a band which is heading there, where she sings for the soldiers as “Sunny”, with the hope of being reunited with her husband.

Nippon Connection 2012

12TH JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL NIPPON CONNECTION

From May 2nd to 6th, 2012, you are invited to experience the various facets of Japanese culture in a program that tries to reject ordinary standards. Many of the 142 films are presented as international premieres in Frankfurt am Main and can be watched outside of Japan only at these screenings. In addition, the event offers workshops, parties, exhibitions, lectures, performances, and much more that attracts our visitors besides cinema. Nippon Connection doesn’t seek to guide your view but wants to diffuse it and avoid fixed stereotypes in order to foster openness, interest and tolerance. You are invited to join and watch beyond the screen, to explore and to celebrate a vivid exchange of cultures both with the organisers and with many guests from Japan.

PROGRAM

TICKETS

BLOG

Always

6:30 pm, April 26, 2012

Apollo Cinemas (Piccadilly)

Chul-min is a man whose life hides a dark past. He works as a delivery man by day and a parking-lot attendant by night.
One evening a chance encounter changes his life forever. He meets the partially sighted Jung-hwa whose optimism restores his faith in people and the world. As their friendship blooms Chul-min Seeks ways to finance the surgery that Jung-hwa desperately needs.
Fighting for high-stakes, can Chul-min’s return to the underworld be a success?

Booking: http://www.apollocinemas.com/ 0871 220 6000

Celebrate the Korean Film Night’s 100th Screening
26th April 2012, Apollo Cinemas, Piccadilly

With Director Song Il-Gon’s 2011 film ‘Always’ the KCCUK presents its 100th Korean Film Night and after the Q+A we will celebrate this milestone with a small reception.

Flower Island

7:00pm, April 05, 2012

Flower Island (2001)

Song Il-gon

On a winter day, three women with three different stories of anguish encounter each other on a road. The brutal city has expelled them, leaving them with nothing but bitterness. Oknam and Hye-na board the same bus by chance, and they rescue Yoo-jin from her attempted suicide on a snowy mountain. Having no place to rest, they begin their unplanned journey to Flower Island, where it is said all pain and sorrow disappear. On their way, they go through many unexpected events, and realize the journey itself is what heals their inner wounds.

 

Chilsu Wa Mansu

March 08, 2012

Multi Purpose Hall, KCCUK

Chilsu, a talented young artist, makes his living painting theatrical posters. He quits his job to join Mansu painting billboards. Chilsu dreams of joining his sister in the United States, but loses contact with her. Mansu’s father has long been a political prisoner. The two men spend their free time at discos and drinking with their student friend Jin-A. After Mansu’s fathers is denied leave for his hwangab, or 60th birthday celebration, and they discover that Jin-A has entered an arranged marriage, the two climb onto a roof over a billboard they have painted and begin venting their frustrations at the crowd below.

Untold Scandal

February 16, 2012

Untold Scandal

Based on the novel ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses,’ this film is set in aristocratic 18th-century Korea at the end of the Chosun Dynasty. The irresistible temptress Lady Cho asks her cad of a younger cousin, Jo-won, to deflower the innocent young Soh-ok, who is to become her husband’s concubine. But, his attentions soon shift to the graceful and aloof Lady Sook, who lives according to her convictions as a Catholic. Jo-won becomes obsessed with seducing this chaste woman who has remained celibate for nine years since her husband’s death.

However, conquering the most virtuous woman in the land proves to be more difficult than Chosun’s notorious playboy expects.

Director E J-yong keeps a familiar story interesting by virtue of unexpected juxtapositions (for example in the soundtrack, a mix of classical European and Korean music), visual elegence, and efficient storytelling. He stays true to the spirit of the original novel while giving it an entirely new aesthetic.

Always: Sunset on Third Street 2

Always – Sunset on Third Street 2

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki 山崎貴 / 2007 / 146 mins
Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 18:30
Doors open at 18:00 No admittance after 19:00
Free admission. Prior registration essential.

This film shows off the directional and VFX talents of the director and was nominated in almost every major category at the 2008 Japan Academy Awards. Set in 1959, following the completion of Tokyo Tower a year before, Tokyo wins the race to host the 1964 Olympic Games and Japan is entering a period of rapid economic growth. A heart-warming story of the people living on the lively ‘Third Street’, which triggers nostaligia for the “Showa Era” of Japan.

For more information and booking click here.

M

January 12, 2012

Lee Myung-Se

Hallucinations and nightmares torment up-and-coming young author Min-woo (Gang Dong-Won). He cannot concentrate on his new work, the much-anticipated follow-up to his first successful novel, nor can he lead a normal life. Old photos and images he does not recognize – though they are somehow familiar – materialize from the darkness as if developed in a darkroom. Haunted by these spectres of memories he can’t remember, he drags himself through days of confusion and alienation. Mimi (Lee Yeon-Hee), a beautiful young woman, follows him around like one completely lost in love. As Mimi intones the notes of “Mist” (popular song from 1960’s) for him, long-ago recollections sparkle in the darkness of his mind as if illuminated by flashbulbs. Flickering memories of his first love claim his concentration, calling for him to remember.

No Where To Hide

January 05, 2012

Multi-purpose Hall, KCCUK

No Where To Hide

Lee Myung-se

A known drug boss is murdered in broad daylight but there are no witnesses and no leads. Detective Woo from the homicide squad is assigned to the case and along with his men they set about finding the killer. Woo is unrelenting in his quest and eventually discovers that the murderer is the infamous drug lord Chang Sunmin.

 

Happy Erotic Christmas

December 15, 2011 7pm

Multi Purpose Hall, KCCUK

Happy Erotic Christmas (2003)

Everybody dreams of a merry Chirstmas with loved ones. Burt these three characters want more than just a happy holiday. They want an Erotic Chirstmas. The three are an innocent young cop, a pretty wanna-be actress who is secretly adored by the cop, and a romantic, abig-0time gang boss. Will their nest Chirstmas be an erotic one?

London Korean Film Festival 2011

4 November 2011 – 10 November 2011

The 6th London Korean Film Festival finally arrives this 4th November at the ICA. We will be showing a wide selection of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films to come out this year in Korea.

This includes the Korean submission into the 84th Academy Awards; The Front Line, the award winning Journals of Musan and Dance Town, the biggest and most successful Korean animated film, Leafie A Hen Into The Wild as well as short films, comedies, dramas and European premieres. This year’s festival is an event not to be missed.

For further information click here

My Secret Cache

Films at the Embassy of Japan

My Secret Cache 

Monday, 24 October 2011, 18:30
Doors open at 18:00 No admittance after 19:00
Free admission. Prior registration essential.

Directed by  Shinobu Yaguchi　矢口史靖 /1997/83 mins

Much of the comedy of this film is generated by the ungainly physical humour of Sakiko’s single minded determination, using voice-over, flashback, and other forms of reconstructed narrative such as the ‘flick book’.

Money-lover, Sakiko is abducted by bank robbers to the Aokigahara forest, famous for its confusing layout and magnetic soil that confuses compasses. There they crash and burn: only Sakiko survives, unable to forget the money that she knows survived but which everyone else thinks burned up in the crash.

Click here for booking details.

Call for Artists for ‘2011-2012 UK based Korean Artists’ Exhibition

Deadline for Submissions: 5pm, October 31st 2011

Each year the Korean Cultural Centre UK promotes UK Based Korean Artists with an Exhibition at the KCCUK, now in its fourth Year, the 2011-12 Exhibition will focus upon video art that is inspired by London.

 In collaboration with the British Council Korea, the KCCUK is seeking submissions of 3 minute video clips under the theme of ‘My Muse, My London’ from artists of Korean origin based in the UK.  Selected works from this open call will be exhibited here at KCCUK from December 2011 to January 2012; further additional events for the exhibition are being planned in both Korea as well as the UK in the build up to and during the 2012 London Olympic Games. (For more details, please see attachment)

Application guidelines:

This scheme is open to all UK based Korean artists/designers/architects etc.  or collectives working in the field of visual arts as well as art students of undergraduate level or above.

You must have demonstrable experience of having studied or practised in the UK in order to be eligible, please include your CV (2 Pages max) and Artistic Statement of your work with your application.

Please submit your 3 minute Video clip inspired by working and/or living in London in one of the following formats: CD or DVD (video clip shall be no more than 3 minutes) in avi or mov file format.

Video Files must be received by the KCCUK no later than 5pm 31st October 2011

Submissions may be delivered by hand or posted to the following Address, (submissions can only be returned if a Self Addressed Envelope including postage is included)

 

2011-12 UK Based Korean Art Exhibition

The Korean Cultural Centre UK

 

Grand Buildings

 

1-3 Strand

 

London

 

WC2N 5BW

The submitted works will be reviewed carefully by an advisory panel, the selected artists be announced in November 2011 along with the exhibition schedules.

Application forms and guidelines are available from the Korean Cultural Centre UK or at: http://www.kccuk.org.uk

 

Yoga

Yoga (2009)

October 20, 2011

Yoon Jae-yeon

Hyo-jung visits a mysterious yoga institute run by an ex-actress where her radically changed friend recommended for her to go. At the intensive training course the young yoga master, Nani, explains to Hyo-jung and four other girls that only one person can master the course and successfully discover the secret of immortal beauty.

Deathbell

Deathbell (2008)

7pm, October 13, 2011

Yoon Hong-Seung

The film is set in a high school, where an elite group of twenty students—including rebellious heroine Kang Yi-na, her timid best friend Yoon Myong-hyo, and her would-be boyfriend Kang Hyeon—are taking a special class for their college entrance exam. After Kang Yi-na is nearly strangled and another student throttled in the restroom, the classroom TV screen switches to an image of top-ranking student Hye-yeong trapped inside a fish tank that is slowly filling with water. A disembodied voice announces that her life depends on the exam questions he will set for them, and that a student will die for every question the class gets wrong. Trapped with the students are head teacher Hwang Chan-wook and English teacher Choi So-yeong. Yi-na realizes that the students are being killed in order of their rank in the class, and she is ranked fifth. Someone is slowly killing the students one by one, but who are they? And what do they want?