Author Archives: Haisan

Things Getting Darker for Vollertson

September 25, 2006 – 5:22 pm

Well, here is a very strange email that I just received from our favorite North Korea human rights activist, Dr. Norbert Vollertsen. He certainly paints a dark picture.
Coming back from Thailand after taking care for arrested North Korean refugees and South Korean activists there here in downtown Seoul I was attacked by a street gang [...]

Posted in Ministry of Barbarian Affairs, North Korea | Comments (9)

PIFF-o-riffic

September 14, 2006 – 10:40 pm

The annual Pusan International Film Festival is fast approaching, once again. And now that organizers have announced their complete lineup of movies, we have a better idea of what kind of fun stuff to expect this year. With 245 films being screened this year over the course of the festival (Oct. 12-20), there is certainly [...]

Posted in Completely Random Crap, Korean Culture | Comments (3)

Life’s a Beach

September 1, 2006 – 1:27 am

With all the talk about Korea-foreigner dating and the like going on these days, I thought I would add one thing — the latest movie by Hong Sang-soo, WOMAN ON THE BEACH. I just saw it tonight and I think it is one of Hong’s best films. Not as good as VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY [...]

Posted in Korean Culture, Ministry of Barbarian Affairs | Comments (18)

A Monster Opening

July 31, 2006 – 5:24 pm

Well, Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST finally was released last Thursday, and now its opening box office figures are in. And we have a new record holder. Weighing in at 2.6 million tickets sold and hailing from parts unknown, the biggest opening film in Korean history is — THE HOST.
Bong’s film sold an incredible 2.6 million [...]

Posted in Korean Culture, Korean Media | Comments (13)

Water Water Everywhere…

July 18, 2006 – 12:01 am

So, yesterday, I took a little trip down to the Han River. I like the rain in summer in Korea and I thought it would be fun to walk along the river bank. Only there was no river bank. I have seen the Han River swell up before, but never anything like this. So I [...]

Posted in Photos of Korea | Comments (9)

Don’t Quota Me on That

July 12, 2006 – 9:09 am

So The Korea Herald posts another long opinion piece on the screen quota, once again long on assertions but short on data (but you need not feel required to check it out… ’tis stupid).
Among the idiotic assertions:
- There has been little talk about how the screen quota reduction affects art-house films. (In fact: There has [...]

Posted in Korean Culture | Comments (16)

The Host With the Most

July 7, 2006 – 3:08 pm

On Tuesday, I caught the first preview for Bong Joon-ho’s much-anticipated monster movie THE HOST, and I can safely say it is the best Korean film of the year so far. Probably the best Korean film since THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG. It is no MEMORIES OF MURDER (Bong’s previous movie), but it is still very [...]

Posted in Korean Culture, Korean Media, ROK-US Issues | Comments (52)

Any Pentaport in a Storm

June 8, 2006 – 1:46 am

So, after a seven-year break, Korea is once again trying to break into the world of the summer rock festival: Pentaport
You might recall that the last time Korea attempted this — the muddy failure that was Triport — a typhoon blew through town, cancelling most of the acts that were supposed to perform. Somehow, despite [...]

Posted in South Korea | Comments (9)

Rat Race

April 16, 2006 – 11:59 am

By HAISAN
Marmotโ€™s Hole Guest Blogger
So, a Korean music company gives us the Bubble Sisters, and the shit hits the fan. But Japan produces Gosperats, and no one bats an eye. What gives? Why the different reaction?
Bubble Sisters:

Gospe-rats:

And, joy of joys, the Bubble Sisters are back, apparently. Mighty white of them…

Sphere: Related Content

Posted in East and Central Asia, Japan, Korean Tabloid Crap | Comments (63)

Cutting Gordian Knots

April 10, 2006 – 10:21 am

Could it be that someone has a rational thought on Yasukuni? Ichiro Ozawa, the newly elected president of the Democratic Party of Japan, has come out in favor of getting the War Criminals out of the Yasukuni shrine.
Yeah, it is not the first time this thought has been floated, and the DPJ are hardly poised [...]

Posted in South Korea | Comments (11)

No Experiments, Please — We’re Scientists

March 30, 2006 – 1:07 am

Warning — really long post ahead. I transcribed most of Robert Laughlin’s white paper on how to transform KAIST into a “world-class science university” ™ to give those interested a better idea of what Laughlin was really up to.

Sphere: Related Content

Posted in South Korea | Comments (14)

Never Rains but It Bores…

February 5, 2006 – 10:59 am

Last Thursday and Friday nights, we finally had the big New York City debut by the Korean superstar Rain (or “Bi,” as in Korean for “rain”) (certainly not “bi,” as in bisexual, so get your mind out of the gutter and stop your snickering). Rain tried to make it big in the Big Apple, and [...]

Posted in Korean Culture | Comments (11)

Busting the myths of the screen quota

February 3, 2006 – 8:32 am

By Haisan
FNY Guest Blogger
There are so many misconceptions and half-baked ideas about the screen quota and what it means for Korea, I find it really depressing. After reading a lot of myths and conjecture and silliness, I thought I would add my 20 won.
Some points:
1) The “real” screen quota was 106 days, not 146. You [...]

Posted in Korean Culture, ROK-US Issues | Comments (7)

Bad Behavior has blocked 13072 access attempts in the last 7 days.