Reading The Host in Context, Part 1

This entry is part 10 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Well, here I go. This is my attempt to provide a reading of the 2006 blockbuster Korean film The Host in context — that is , not only a Korean cultural and historical context, but also in the context of Korean Gwoesu (“Giant Monster”)  movies, and those films which influenced the development of the genre in South Korea. Disclaimer — all images not cited to an photographer at copyright their respective owners. They are used in this post for educational/critical purposes, and thus their use falls under fair use. Thank goodness, because this essay would be hard to read without …

Continue Reading

“the tops […] are comprised of two pieces, with a very dark grey (almost black) undershirt and the over shirt of the appropriate color, with a slight v-neck”

Remember when Thomas Disch wrote (in The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of) that in SF, about the singular importance of fashion in SFnal (and other pop entertainment) media? About the “pajamas” of Trek as singularly important to viewers, communicative of a kind of harmonious conformity that is especially resonant to those discovering Trek at an early age? I find it interesting that “spoilers” could even exist for clothing in a film, but look at this: Star Trek Movie Uniform Spoilers. And what you might not know is: I used to watch Original Series Trek as a kid in Lac …

Continue Reading

2008 SF&F Festival (Seoul)?

This entry is part 9 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Oh my… Well, I missed Denvention (this year’s WorldCon), but there is this, at least, to give a look-see: The 2008 SF&F Festival is going on in Seoul. It’s a two-day event with a bunch of movie screenings, along with some lectures (or maybe more like panel discussions?) I’m sure will be mostly incomprehensible. But it’s W1,000 — about a buck — to join in on the fun, it’ll be a chance to see a few films I’ve not seen, it’ll feature Korean SF geeks in their native environment, and it’s only a couple of days long… so what the …

Continue Reading

To Sate You For Now…

I’m working on a big post on The Host, but since people were so pleased about the (still unnamed) kitty, here are a couple more pictures.. You can click on them to see them in larger size. I’m still working on learning how to fiddle with RAW images, so some of them are a little hairy. All of them, actually. But anyway… And because I know some of you are weird enough to want to see more as they come, there’s a Flickr set here, and you can subscribe to the RSS feed from there, if you like. Weirdoes. ;)

Continue Reading

고양이의 이름은 아직도 몰라…

(Translation: We still don’t know what the cat’s name is….) Actually, we haven’t decided, though Lime suggested “Woolf” which appeals to me because of the obvious canine pun. Oddly, though, Lime has never yet read anything by Woolf. I wonder whether Orlando has been translated. (Or I could just as well find the movie, given the apparent quality of a certain proportion of translations from foreign languages into Korean.) Anyway, the cat has pretty much adjusted to our place. That is to say, in her kitten way, which is that she doesn’t really stray too far from the two “offices” …

Continue Reading