Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:48:22 +0200 From: the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: The_Dojang digest, Vol 16 #101 - 4 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: The Internet's premier discussion forum on Korean Martial Arts. List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: Send The_Dojang mailing list submissions to the_dojang@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of The_Dojang digest..." <<------------------ The_Dojang mailing list ------------------>> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2009: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Korean Martial Arts. 2,500 members. See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of The_Dojang at http://MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! Today's Topics: 1. Korean film festival, April 17 - June 10 (Ray) 2. Martial artists, anachronisms, etc. (J R Hilland) 3. Re: Re: Under the Radar (Jye nigma) 4. Notice to Kukkiwon Special Testing Candidates (The_Dojang) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: Ray To: The_Dojang Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 19:39:34 -0700 Subject: [The_Dojang] Korean film festival, April 17 - June 10 Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Forwarded message COREAN FILM FESTIVAL DC 2009 April 17 – June 10 The Corean Film Festival DC 2009 is made possible by the Corean Film Council and the Corea Foundation. All films are 35mm and in Corean with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. FESTIVAL VENUES Freer Gallery of Art Meyer Auditorium Independence Avenue at 12th Street SW Washington, DC Metro: Smithsonian www.asia.si.edu Free tickets are required for films in the 300 seat Meyer Auditorium, located in the Freer Gallery. Up to two tickets per person are distributed at the auditorium one hour before show time. AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center 8633 Colesville Road Silver Spring, MD Metro: Silver Spring www.afi.com/silver/new NEW COREAN CINEMA LIKE A VIRGIN Wednesday, April 22, 9:30 PM, AFI Thursday, April 23, 9:10 PM, AFI A young woman trapped in a man’s body discovers that same body may hold the answer to her problems in this offbeat comedy-drama by Lee Hae-jun and Lee Hae-young. Oh Dong-gu is a high school student who has become convinced that he was meant to be a girl rather than a boy. Emboldened by the sassy attitude of his favorite singer, Madonna, and determined not to be intimidated by his father, an alcoholic former boxer whose tirades drove his wife from him, Dong-gu works a part-time job and saves his money, dreaming of the day he can afford a sex change operation. When he learns that a wrestling tournament is being held with a large cash prize going to the winner, Dong-gu decides grappling just might be the ticket to his new gender. (Description adapted from the All Movie Guide) (2006, 112 min., Corean with English subtitles) GOING BY THE BOOK Friday, April 24, 7 PM, FGA Jung Jae-young’s deadpan performance as Do-man, an unwaveringly straight-arrow cop, and a cleverly engineered plot make this one of the best Corean comedies of recent years. After a rash of bank robberies, the new police chief of the town of Sampo institutes a training drill in which the officers reenact a robbery so they can better solve them. But when Do-man takes to his role as the robber with the same exactitude he brings to his job every day, pretty soon a very real hostage situation threatens to embarrass everyone involved. Ra Hee-chan’s debut feature “manages to sneak in elements of social satire while being the most well-made, entertaining and downright likeable take on the bank heist in a very long time.” (Robyn Citizen, Critics Notebook) (2007, 102 min., Corean with English subtitles, video) MILKY WAY LIBERATION FRONT Sunday, April 26, 1 PM, FGA A witty, black comedy, Yoon Seung-ho’s directorial debut earned him comparisons to the young Woody Allen. It follows the personal and professional foibles of a filmmaker who is so neurotic that merely writing a screenplay about a character suffering from aphasia causes him to contract the condition himself. Although he manages to overcome this obstacle with the help of a ventriloquist friend, but his problems continue to mount when his girlfriend breaks up with him and the producer of his film threatens to turn the project over to an up- and-coming directorial team of Mongolian twins. Yoon’s film is full of Corean film industry in-jokes, but its sense of the absurd is universal. (2007, 99 min., Corean with English subtitles) TAXI BLUES Sunday, April 26, 3 PM, FGA Seoul is home to some 70,000 taxis, operated for the most part by drivers who work exhausting 12-hour shifts for little take-home pay. To make Taxi Blues, documentary filmmaker Choiha Dong-ha spent a summer working as a taxi driver, with a camera mounted on his dashboard as he carried passengers from all walks of life to every corner of the city. Choiha creates candid, sometimes unflattering portraits of his clients, and documents the toll this grueling job took on him in a film that, in the words of Corean cinema expert Darcy Paquet, “gives new insight and understanding into a profession that for many people seems so ordinary as to be invisible.” (2005, 98 min., Corean with English subtitles) NIGHT AND DAY Saturday, May 2, 3:30 PM, AFI Sunday, May 3, 6:10 PM, AFI Sung-nam is a 40ish, married painter who takes it on the lam to Paris after getting caught smoking pot with some American tourists in Seoul. But his escape doesn’t come a moment too soon: feeling trapped in life and blocked in his art, the getaway proves welcome — only now that he’s actually settled in the City of Light, what should he do? Hong Sang-soo creates a beautifully observed, characteristically wry chronicle of Sung-nam’s attempt to savor his wandering year even if it’s come 20 years too late. Not speaking a word of French, Sung-nam joins a floating group of Corean ex-pats and exchange students. When he meets art student Hyun-ju and her roommate Yu-jeong, it could be that love is in the air—or is it just Paris? Hong’s eye for telling details has never been sharper, and Sung-nam’s running commentary on the French and those aspiring to live like them is often hilariously perceptive. (Description by the New York Film Festival) (Hong Sang- soo, 2008, 145 min., Corean with English subtitles) DAYTIME DRINKING Friday, May 15, 7 PM, FGA The multi-talented Noh Young-seok wrote, directed, produced, edited, designed the sets and composed the music for his first feature, a droll independent comedy. Dumped by his girlfriend and stranded in the countryside after his drinking buddies forget to join him on a trip they planned, the film’s hapless hero winds up on a series of comical misadventures as he bumbles across the wintry landscape encountering rude guesthouse operators, mysterious seductresses and endless opportunities to drink himself into a stupor in the middle of the afternoon, all of which lead to a hangover of epic proportions. Clever and refreshingly unpretentious, Daytime Drinking marks the debut a talented new director on Korea’s independent cinema scene. (2008, 116 min., Corean with English subtitles) THE CHASER Saturday, May 16, 7:30 PM, AFI Wednesday, May 20, 7 PM, AFI In this utterly riveting, twisting, no-holds-barred thriller, an ex- cop turned pimp races against time to locate one of his girls after she’s kidnapped by a serial killer who’s been terrorizing the streets of Seoul. Director Na Hong-jin embeds the film’s harrowing suspense and relentless brutality in a furious denunciation of police ineptitude and corruption. As the morally compromised hero, Kim Yoon- suk gives a knockout performance in more ways than one. One of Corean cinema’s biggest hits last year and winner of best picture, director, actor, and screenplay at the 2008 Corean Film Awards. (Description by the Film Society of Lincoln Center) (2008, 125 min., Corean with English subtitles) CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST Sunday, May 24, 5:30 PM, AFI Wednesday, May 27, 7 PM, AFI The sidelong glance, the shared ice cream, the lazy afternoon nap, the date that no one's calling a date - out of these tiny details Hur Jin- ho builds a movie about the beginning of falling in love. Considered by many to be the Great Corean Movie Romance, this is a gentle mediation on life, death, and parking violations that's lingers on your eyes long after it's over. In 1998, it swept the Corean Film Awards, coming away with "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best Actress" (Shim Eun-Ha), and "Best Cinematography." (Description by Subway Cinema) (1998, 97 min., Corean with English subtitles) THE SHOW MUST GO ON Sunday, May 31, 2 PM, FGA Song Kang-ho, star of, among other films, The Host and Memories of Murder, and one of the best actors in Korea if not on planet Earth, gives a true star turn in Han Jae-rim’s The Show Must Go On. He plays a successful gangster whose main aspiration is to provide an idyllic middle-class lifestyle for his family. But when trouble at work spills over into his domestic life, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything. “Brimming with crime, comedy and (finally) poignancy.” (Russell Edwards, Variety) (2007, 112 min., Corean with English subtitles) BREATHLESS Saturday, June 6, 12:30 PM, AFI Monday, June 8, 7 PM, AFI Lead actor Yang Ik-June also serves as director, scriptwriter, and producer of this story based on the autobiographical experiences of a gangster and extortionist. Having grown up with a violent father whom he held responsible for the deaths of his mother and sister, things begin to change his life when he meets cheeky schoolgirl Han Yeon-Heui who is herself the daily victim of the brutality of her mentally-ill father and insensitive brother. (Description courtesy of the International Film Festival Rotterdam) (2008, 130 min., Corean with English subtitles) EPITAPH Tuesday, June 9, 9:20 PM, AFI Wednesday, June 10, 9:20 PM, AFI Both visually lyrical and horrific, this film codirected by Jung Sik and Jung Beon-sik is a bloodstained foray into the depths of obsessive love and unbearable grief. Set in a small Corean hospital, the once peaceful place is now a labyrinth of haunted corridors and the stage for frightful events: a medical student is inexplicably drawn to a beautiful dead girl; a troubled child is tortured by bloody visions of her dead parents; and a married couple find themselves investigating a series of gory murders. Certain to give you goosebumps and have you peering over your shoulder with every ghastly twist, this Corean chiller will keep you guessing till the end. (2007, 98 min., Corean with English subtitles) COMING INTO THEIR OWN: WOMEN DIRECTORS OF COREAN CINEMA FOREVER THE MOMENT Friday, April 17, 7 PM, FGA Saturday, April 18, 5 PM, AFI In Person: Yim Soon-rye A major hit at the Corean box office, Yim Soon-rye’s crowd-pleasing sports melodrama won the Best Picture award at the 2008 Blue Dragon Awards (Korea’s equivalent to the Oscars). The film recreates the on and off court turmoil leading up to the Corean women’s handball team’s silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Yim focuses on the unique struggles faced by female athletes as they try to balance their daily lives with their sports careers, and skillfully builds up the tension to the exciting finale, in which “everything is where it ought to be, including our tears.” (Brian Hu, Asia Pacific Arts). (2008, 124 min., Corean with English subtitles) WAIKIKI BROTHERS Saturday, April 18, 2 PM, FGA In Person: Yim Soon-rye This wistful comedy documents the disintegration of a never-quite- successful rock band made up of a bunch of high school friends now sliding into middle age. Sprinkled with goofy cover versions of Western and Corean pop hits, Im’s film depicts its characters’ inability to let go of their dreams with perfect emotional pitch. “The start-it-up garage-band myth has never had such a witty and despairing redress.” (Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice.) (2001, 105 min., Corean with English subtitles) THE WEIGHT OF HER CRUSH AND BLUSH Sunday, April 19, 1 PM, FGA In Person: Lee Kyoung-mi, Yim Soon-rye Lee Kyoung-mi’s debut feature is a madcap comedy of vengeance and obsession. It stars Gong Hyo-jin (in a brilliant comic performance), as a middle school teacher who suffers from a condition that makes her blush bright red whenever her emotions get out of control. Unfortunately for her, this happens quite a lot. Obsessed with one of her colleagues, who just happens to be married and dating another fellow teacher on the side, she befriends her love object’s daughter in order to concoct a revenge scheme that ends up spinning hilariously out of control. Intended for mature audiences. (2008, 101 min., Corean with English subtitles) Yim Soon-rye’s short film The Weight of Her is a satirical look at female body images set in a girls’ finishing school, with a surprising twist at the end. (2003, 20 min., Corean with English subtitles, video) PANEL: WOMEN DIRECTORS IN KOREA Sunday, April 19, 3:15 PM, FGA Filmmakers Yim Soon-rye and Lee Kyoung-mi join scholars Kelly Jeong and Seung-kyung Kim to discuss increasing role women play in Corean filmmaking. Panelists: Yim Soon-rye is the director of the features Three Friends (1996), Waikiki Brothers (2001) and Forever the Moment (2008). Her films have been shown at major film festivals around the world and been honored with prizes at the Pusan International Film Festival and the Blue Dragon Awards, among others. Lee Kyoung-mi got her start in the film industry working on the crew of Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005). Crush and Blush (2008), her first feature, had its world premiere at the Pusan International Film Festival. Kelly Jeong is Assistant Professor of Corean Studies, Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Modernity Arrives Again: Crisis of Gender, Masculinity, Nationhood in Modern Corean Literature and Cinema, forthcoming from Lexington Books. Seung-kyung Kim is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and an affiliate faculty of Department of Anthropology, Department of American Studies, and Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland. Her research expertise includes Women and Work, Gender and Labor Politics, Gender and Development, Ethnography, Feminist Theory, and women in East Asia and Asian America. Moderator: Tom Vick, film programmer, Freer and Sackler Galleries and author of Asian Cinema: A Field Guide, published by HarperCollins/Smithsonian Books. TREELESS MOUNTAIN Sunday, April 19, 5 PM, AFI Tuesday, April 21, 7 PM, AFI Six-year-old Jin and her younger sister Bin live on the edge of disaster, but they are not aware of it. One day their mother packs all their belongings. For Jin, the days of going to school are over. Mommy is gone, leaving her and Bin in a hostile home with their alcoholic big Aunt and a piggy bank to slowly fill with tinkling coins and shining hopes. Evoked by early childhood memories, the story of a precocious journey to maturity comes into focus with exquisite simplicity in Kim So-yong’s gentle masterpiece. (Note courtesy Toronto International Film Festival) (2008, 89 min., Corean with English subtitles) THE WONDER YEARS Friday, May 29, 7 PM, FGA Kim Hee-jung, the first Corean director to receive support from the prestigious Cinefondation Cannes Residence program, makes an assured debut with this poignant character study. Talented young actress Lee Se-young plays Soo-ah, the daughter of a struggling single mother, whose overactive imagination and teenage angst lead her to believe that her real mom is actually a famous pop star. Superb performances and Kim’s subtle direction make this a closely-observed portrait of an adolescent misfit’s physical and psychological world. (2007, 95 min., Corean with English subtitles) COREAN CINEMA CLASSICS THE SEASHORE VILLAGE Friday, May 8, 7 PM, FGA This film by pioneering director Kim Soo-yong begins with a tragedy: despite bad omens, a fishing boat departs from a small village, only to be lost at sea, leaving several of the town’s women widows. Widely praised for its questioning of the restrictive Confucian beliefs on gender roles that dominated Corean society at the time, Kim’s film tells the story of one of them, who, left alone after only ten days of marriage, decides to freely pursue her passions. (1965, 91 min., Corean with English subtitles) THE MAN WITH THREE COFFINS Sunday, May 10, 2 PM, FGA Man with Three Coffins is about two travelers - a man carrying his wife’s ashes to her hometown, and a nurse secretly escorting the dying CEO of a business conglomerate to his – who cross paths on their way to their destinations, which lie near the DMZ. Drawing on Corean Shamanist imagery and themes (including fortune telling and reincarnation), and haunted by the legacy of the Corean War, Lee Jang- ho’s beautiful, brooding film is, unfortunately, rarely given its due as a great work of Corean cinema. But, asDarcy Pacquet writes, it is “too good to be forgotten.” (1987, 104 min., Corean with English subtitles) Noh, Kwang Woo Doctoral Candidate Graduate School College of Mass Communication and Media Arts 1100 Lincoln Drive Southern Illinois University Carbondale IL 62901 USA Phone (work) 618-453-3093 --__--__-- Message: 2 From: "J R Hilland" To: Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 00:22:35 -0500 Subject: [The_Dojang] Martial artists, anachronisms, etc. Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net While I am not giving an opinion on the subject, I will note that at my brother's aikido dojo 'Aikido of Houston' a member of the Hombu dojo in Tokyo, those wanting to be a new students must 'interview' with the chief instructor, Lee Sensei (48 years experience) before being accepted, or not... Jere R. Hilland www.FargoHapkido.com <<>> --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 22:31:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Jye nigma Subject: Re: [The_Dojang] Re: Under the Radar To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Yeah I think I'm like you are now. I think what shocked me was the fact that she used to want to "push push" with me back in the day, but me being younger by a few years, I was intimidated and never pushed pushed with her. So what shook me up was the fact that I could have been in a relationship with her, and who knows what could have happened with that you know? I find someone like her to be more unsettling then my people who were gangsters, drug dealers, etc.   Jye --- On Tue, 4/7/09, Dakin Burdick wrote: From: Dakin Burdick Subject: [The_Dojang] Re: Under the Radar To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 1:11 PM Jye, I'm sorry to hear about your high school friend and the insanity of that situation. I've heard similar stories, and it always shocks people when I'm not amazed that so and so turned out to be a serial killer. I guess I have a low opinion of humanity in general, probably because of my training as a historian. Perhaps one can't read about assassinations, the Holocaust, and war without becoming cynical in that way. The good news, of course, is that being a parent also makes one hopeful and probably a lot more loving. Maybe that's how the world balances itself out. Yours in the arts, Dakin _______________________________________________ The_Dojang mailing list, 2,500 members The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net Copyright 1994-2009: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://the-dojang.net --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 15:04:26 -0700 From: The_Dojang To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] Notice to Kukkiwon Special Testing Candidates Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Notice to Kukkiwon Special Testing Candidates April 07, 2009 USA Taekwondo has received notification from Kukkiwon that the test results and certificates will be finalized as of April 20, 2009. We will privately notify all candidates of the results and mail the certificates as soon as they are received. We apologize for the delay in obtaining these results. There were a number of sensitive issues with Kukkiwon relating to the testing that needed resolution prior to relase of the results. USAT apologizes for any inconvenience and thanks all of the candidates for their patience. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ The_Dojang mailing list The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://the-dojang.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/the_dojang Copyright 1994-2009: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of The_Dojang Digest