Category: Korea

‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

April 28, 2024

Today, my mom and I made the perilous trek into the city to visit the hallyu exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. From the official website, “Today, South Korea is a cultural superpower—a global trendsetter producing award-winning films like Parasite, riveting dramas like Squid Game, and chart-topping music by K-pop groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK. But behind the country’s meteoric rise to the world stage—a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave, or hallyu—is the story of remarkable resilience and innovation.” … More ‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers Part III

April 17, 2024

I cannot imagine that, upon finishing the finale of Love is for Suckers, one doesn’t immediately go back and rewatch the very first scene. Not because it’s a twist-movie “now it all makes sense,” but because the show opens with a flash-forward tease that doesn’t come back in the end. For those who didn’t be-kind-rewind, the first episode opens with our heroine Goo Yeo-reum taking a van to the Kingdom of Love house. She scrolls through articles on her phone about a wedding between contestants after a controversial season. On the set, she first speaks with Sang-woo, who says it’s been a long time. The contestants are gathered nearby, dressed up like brides and grooms. Han Ji-yeon excitedly calls out to Yeo-reum – which, like, whoa. This makes Jae-hoon turn, and the lovebirds lock eyes. Sang-woo corrals everyone for pictures, and then Jae-hoon and Yeo-reum make eyes again. The clock winds backwards, taking us into the show… … More K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers Part III

K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers Part II

April 14, 2024

Something I’ve long found interesting in media studies is why people decide to watch what they watch. What goes into the decision, if a decision ever comes from the endless browsing across multiple platforms? In this most academic pursuit, I’ve been privileged with a curious, compelling subject – myself – and every now and again, he baffles me. At the moment, I’ve got at least two shows running: Love is for Suckers, and season two of The Shield. That follows. It’s season two because I watched the first way back in college, during the great mania around prestige television. Unfortunately, it vanished off streaming, and I’ve only returned to it ten years later. It’s good. It’s probably the best police procedural I’ve ever seen (if The Wire and Mindhunter are just stage-left of procedural), in part because it’s honest and seems to have a mission. In its exploration of police corruption, we see the grisly effects but we also understand the very logical cause. The bad guy’s gonna get away with it, so we want Vic Mackey to step in with his extrajudicial methods. Why wouldn’t that impulse exist in the real world, and is the system strong enough to resist it? … More K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers Part II

Physical: 100 Season 2 Part II – The Final [PODCAST]

April 10, 2024

A winner declared! We’ve found the perfect physique, though the search continues! (What?) This week, Donovan and I recap episode #5 through the finale of Physical: 100 – Underground. Has a heart-pounding ending sustained our enthusiasm for the show despite a rocky, even controversial sophomore season? … More Physical: 100 Season 2 Part II – The Final [PODCAST]

K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers

April 8, 2024

Another K-drama, another shock — to me and my imagination so constrained by the conventions of story. In countless instances before, I’ve shrieked, “You can’t do that!” upon narrative shortcuts like coincidence or melodrama. Here, Love is for Suckers plays out for four episodes and only begins on the fifth — and it’s brilliant. Clued in by a flash-forward cold open, we know that this will be about a romance between the producer of a Bachelor-style reality show and one of the contestants. But before that reality show even begins filming, we watch entire relationships come together and fall apart. Jobs are lost. There are medical emergencies. We learn about pasts enough for people from those pasts to reemerge. It may just be table-setting, but it feels like an entire show — with the commensurate emotional weight. … More K-Drama Report: Love is for Suckers

Ballerina (2023) | From the World of John Wick

March 30, 2024

I was ready, as soon as I’d seen the trailer last year, to see a review for Ballerina here as part of an ongoing conversation (with myself). In 2020, I’d written about Furie, a female-led Vietnamese action movie addled by flashbacks. Later, it was The Villainess, a Korean action movie with at least two set pieces now canonical to the genre, but which didn’t fully believe in its female lead. It’s now 2024, and in the time since, I’ve actually avoided a lot of the female-led action movies that seem to be a natural byproduct of the genre’s current renaissance (if everyone’s making action movies, some of them are gonna star women). I mean, ten years earlier, I would’ve given a limb to see “Mary Elizabeth Winstead the action star” in something like Kate, but alas. It could be option paralysis, because there are a lot of these movies, but I also wonder if the many, varied disappointments over the years have burrowed into my subconscious, impacting whatever impulse it is that I hit play instead of browsing on. Furie and The Villainess especially seemed to follow the formula nearly perfectly, nearly, and Ballerina is very much the next example in that sequence. … More Ballerina (2023) | From the World of John Wick

Physical: 100 Season 2 Part I [PODCAST]

March 24, 2024

Don’t forget to turtle up! This week, Donovan and I discuss the first four episodes of Physical: 100 Season 2 — Underground, the triumphant return of the greatest show on TV. Despite loving the first season, we definitely had issues with the production and the ambitious but inevitably uncomfortable mission statement as it pertains to gender. Did they listen? … More Physical: 100 Season 2 Part I [PODCAST]

03/14/2024 – Redefining What It Is to Be a Wendy

March 14, 2024

Last time we spoke of Wendy’s solo outing, it was her debut, 2021’s Like Water. That title track remains memorable, especially as a snapshot of a tumultuous time in Red Velvet history. Of course, I’m glad they went in a different direction with this one, “Wish You Hell” being more pop-punk — a soft Paramore, let’s say. Though for Mother Wenresa, that marks a stylistic departure (and a really good song). … More 03/14/2024 – Redefining What It Is to Be a Wendy

What-If Question | Past Lives (2023) Review

December 10, 2023

A critic shouldn’t be saying things like this, but I do want to establish or reestablish that a negative movie review isn’t necessarily me saying a movie is “bad.” Past Lives is very well acted, and it’s beautiful – notably shot on film – but my experience with it was minimal, and the subsequent evaluation remains confused. I don’t know what the writer/director was going for, though the later discovery that it’s semi-autobiographical surely explains a lot. The film opens on the climactic scene, in a New York bar at 4:00 a.m., as an Asian woman sits between an Asian guy and a white guy, with disembodied voices trying to guess at the nature of their relationship. We then rewind to 24 years earlier, when children Na-young and Hae-sung are friends in Korea, with the former moving to Toronto. Fast-forward 12 years, and they reconnect over social media but remain in different time zones. … More What-If Question | Past Lives (2023) Review

DO NOT POST: “Chill Kill” Thoughts

November 21, 2023

First of all, I want to establish that there are no stakes here, and I am in no way disappointed or upset. Red Velvet is so far past the point of “they don’t have to do anything,” nearing a decade and having released a masterpiece in the after-years. They’ve given me everything; I don’t get to be disappointed or upset. Red Velvet doesn’t have to do anything, and so anything they do is a bonus – for which I’m grateful. Their latest album has been occasion for behind-the-scenes footage, and that’s always fantastic. The album itself? I haven’t finished it. I tapped out after four songs. Of those four, the title track “Chill Kill” was the best, where the others are shockingly low-key mood pieces. … More DO NOT POST: “Chill Kill” Thoughts