UPDATE: Oops, looks like I was wrong; Neon Bunny is on iTunes. Or back on iTunes? I don’t know what happened, but I am pretty sure her music was not there for at least a couple of weeks.
ORIGINAL POST: Neon Bunny (aka Lim Yoo-jin, aka “one of my favorite groups these days”) has just come out with a fun, four-song EP called Happy Ending. If you are a fan of catchy electro-pop (like Phoenix or Royksopp), you really should be listening.
Just four songs long, the EP is all upbeat and dancy (unlike Seoulight, which, while excellent at its best, did drag at times). There are elements of Roller Coaster and that Korean tradition of mellow funk-pop in Happy Ending, as well as a bit of ’80s New Wave (particularly in “Plastic Heart”). But mostly it is just first-rate, adult pop.
“Soap Bubbles”:
“Plastic Heart”:
“Prince”:
“First Love”:
Sadly, Happy Ending does not seem to be available at iTunes or any other online sites. Nor is her last album Seoulight, even thought I bought my copy at iTunes a few months ago. Maybe the original online distributor was one of those jerks who were selling albums online without a proper license (there were a bunch who got shut down). Anyhow, for now you will have to make do with Youtube and other streaming sites.
(NOTE: As I said up top, both Neon Bunny albums are now on iTunes).
Oh, and I just found this cool subtitled version of Neon Bunny’s “Come a Little Closer” — great for practicing your Korean:
The pre-release hype for the latest mega-huge Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, is reaching a peak, and so far the reviews look quite good. But I was amused to see Rises‘ rating on Metacritic at the moment, a very strong 81, still lags behind Hong Sangsoo’s mega-low-budget, rambling boozefest that is The Day He Arrives, with 84.
Was the budget for Hong’s movie enough to make one Batsuit? One day’s catering on the set of Rises?
Arg… Hard to read. Just to make things clearer, here is a close-up (note: this is Metacritic’s 90-day chart of highest-ranked movies):
– I’ve talked a few years ago about the end of the Dream Cinema, the last old-style, single-screen cinema left in Seoul. Well, after stumbling along on life support, Dream Cinema (aka Seodaemun Art Hall) finally screened its last movie yesterday, Bicycle Thief. Theater head Kim Eun-ju was apparently so upset, she shaved her head at the screening.
Dream Cinema opened in 1964 and for many years was one of the nicer theaters in Seoul. But that was quite a while ago, and it was terribly run down when I first went there in 1998-ish. Sad to see the theater go, but, still, considering it was supposed to close in 2007 or so, it had a pretty good run. Besides, who isn’t excited about a new high-rise hotel filling the Seoul skyline?
– Not only is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apparently dating a famous singer and incorporating Disney characters into its stage performances, but now Kim is reportedly using the theme from Rocky, Sinatra’s “My Way”, and “It’s a Small World.” All that is, of course, in addition to the North Korean accordion version of “Take Me On”:
– Meanwhile, over here in Spain, the torpid Rajoy government seems intent on running down the struggling economy any way it can. Remind me again why Spain has to undergo this sort of pain when its debt-to-GDP ratio is lower than in Germany, France, the United States, or Japan? What a crock.
At long last, I have finally started watching the Korean science-fiction triptych Doomsday Book.I wanted to watch it during my trip to Korea in May, but the film was already gone from the cinemas, even though it opened on April 20. Nice going, distributors (I think it was Lotte).
Doomsday Book is actually three short films, co-directed by Yim Pil-sung and Kim Jee-woon. Kim, of course, is one of Korea’s most highly regarded directors, knowns for constantly trying out different genres — Foul King (comedy about pro-wrestling), Tale of Two Sisters (gothic horror), Bittersweet Life (gangster noir), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (spaghetti western), and I Saw the Devil (hyper-violent and total shite).
Yim Pil-sung, on the other hand, is famous for being total box office poison. Antarctic Journal was a moody, ambient horror film about Korean explorers at the South Pole. It did not quite work, but at least it suggested possibilities and creativity. It also was one of the biggest money losers in Korea history (especially at the time it was released). Hansel & Gretel was a dark reinterpretation of the famous fairy tale. It completely did not work and suggested that the director might be really terrible (I reviewed it at my old website). After those two bombs, Yim was pretty much a filmmaking pariah, with no Korean production company or distributor willing to go anywhere near him.
But the funny thing is, in the Korean movie scene, he is pretty tight with a lot of the top Korean directors. That’s why he shows up in Bong Joon-ho’s The Host as a supporting character. And it also means that when Yim does get to make a movie, he is able to get top actors and support from Korea’s movie scene.
As I said, Doomsday Book is a triptych, with a segment about tainted food creating a zombie panic, a Buddhist robot, and a meteor crashing toward the Earth. Gord Sellar talked a lot about the film already, and, as with most things pertaining to Korean science fiction, he’s a good place to start.
Doomsday Book has been in the works for quite some time. I remember people talking about it years ago, and the Wikipedia page claims that production started in May 2006. But after Yim and Kim filmed their segments, financing fell through, and they were only able to raise the money to finish it last year.
Oh, SPOILER WARNING, of course.
So far, I have just seen the zombie segment, titled “A Cool New World,” about how a bad apple (literally) and some disgusting recycled organic matter leads to a kind of Mad Cow outbreak that created zombies. There is also a bit of a love story, although it is pretty weak and not terribly important. Mostly people eat tainted meat, then turn into zombies. There’s a lot of blood and gunk, but nothing too crazy violent and gory … In fact, I would say the most disturbing stuff are the real-life clips you see, like of pigs being pushed into pits for being killed during a hoof-and-mouth outbreak.
The amazing thing is that this was filmed in 2006, two years before the US beef freakout that shut down downtown Seoul for several weeks in 2008. Even more amazing, as Gord points out, is the film in no way blames outsiders for the plague, keeping the causes and agency totally directed at Korea. Kind of the opposite of The Host or Kim Seong-su’s coming film Flu (or, for non-s/f, Welcome to Dongmakgol).
Most of the film is, unsurprisingly, satire and social criticism, some of it quite funny and some of it silly. I’m sure I missed a lot of it, as it does come pretty fast and thick at times. There is a good long chunk that comes from a TV news-discussion program called 90-Minute Discussion, obviously a play off of KBS’s 100-Minute Discussion (100분토론). The program has a conservative woman named “Park Ho-Yeong” (actually played by Park Ho-yeong) from the “Hanauidang Best Hospital” who I bet is supposed to be Park Geun-hye of the Hannaradang conservative party (well, the party has changed names now, but that was its old name). Director Bong Joon-ho plays a progressive, wearing a casual hanbok, with a chart showing how the zombie virus outbreak coincides with conservative voting patterns. As the zombie plague gets worse, the show devolves into the host and speakers singing and playing music like from a 1980s university.
Hopefully I will get around to watching the next two segments later this week and post a few thoughts about them.
Anyhow, here’s the first trailer to Doomsday Book (with English subtitles):
That was a fast couple of weeks. I cannot believe my trip to Korea is over already. But at least I was able to travel to a lot of places and see a lot of people that I had long wanted to, but had not. Even was able to take in a couple of concerts in between all the running around.
It was great being able to see Korea with fresh eyes. Having lived there for so long, there was a lot I took for granted and many changes that had happened that I did not notice because I was in the middle of them. It really is amazing how much and fast Korea is constantly changing — from the new subway cars (very nice) to the new high rises and developments, the great Wifi everywhere (whatever happened to DMB?), and so much more. Even Itaewon continues to grow nicer and classier, which just boggles the mind.
Music
I did make it to a few shows during my trip and do some music-related interviews. I talked about Telepathy and an FF show I went to here, if you are interested. Of course, I went to Gopchang Jeongol a couple of times, as well as a very fun oldies bar in Apgujeong that was quite similar (I think it was called Electric Shoes, but I’m not sure). Oh, and at Electric Shoes, I was drinking with the singer of Byul.org, which was terribly good fun. I was also able to meet Brad, the drummer from Busker Busker, along with his girlfriend Dani, both of whom had a whole bunch of fascinating stories. Best of all, I managed to meet Kim Choo-ja, perhaps the best singer of the 1970s — I could hardly believe that meeting.
Travel
Sometimes I get embarrassed by the many cool places around Korea that I never visited. Luckily, this trip helped put that right. I was able to visit the Boseong tea fields, down in Jeolla Province, which really is ridiculously beautiful.
I also went to a great traditional makkeolli brewery in North Chungcheong province called Sewang Jujo. I’m not a big makkeolli fan, but this stuff was some of the best I’ve ever had. And the owner took a lot of time out to talk to my friend and I about the building and his brewing methods and the like.
But, dear lord, what a ridiculously huge city. It’s amazing anything gets done, there, as it takes so long to get around. They really need some more high-speed, express train lines (like the No. 9 subway).
Anyhow … overall, a really good trip. Surprisingly free of “micro aggressions“, but filled with micro and macro niceties. Oodles of great food (thanks in no small part to the wife’s mom).
It is good to be back in Korea for the first time in a couple of years. Having lived here for so long, I was often too immersed in the culture to notice the changes going on, but after being gone for a couple of years, it is much easier to see them.
My first thought, upon arriving at the airport and taking the new(ish) train into Seoul was: Wow, is Spain a dump. I mean, there is a lot I love about Spain, but to see the clean, cool trains, with wifi everywhere, the difference was rather jarring. Great, though, to be able to take a train into Seoul, especially during rush hour when the bus would have been a nightmare.
Here in Seoul, the bizarro City Hall building is nearly finished now. A lot of people like it (“It looks like a tsunami rushing over the colonial era City Hall,” said one friend), but I’m not one of them. The new Gwanghwamun plaza is rather nice, and I think makes better use of the space than the old plaza. Looking forward to checking out an Imax movie or two while I am here, plus seeing all the other changes.
Apparently I am procrastinating. But in doing so, I swung by Soundcloud and started link hopping and came across some interesting music.
First fun discovery was Mimyo, who has apparently continued with his BoA obsession. Last year, he and Byul.org inspired a whole bunch of indie musicians to record a bunch of BoA covers and put them up on Soundcloud, calling the whole project Model B. I guess that was not enough for Mimyo, though, because he also recorded a shoegazer version of BoA’s “Game”–and quite a good version, imho.
I just found out that Kim Choo-ja recorded a version of “Brother Louie” on her 1974 album 가는 길 (Going Road). So much fun. If only Louis CK would open his TV show with it … just once!
(Sadly, this is the only version I could find on the Internet. The album version was much better, imho).
I should probably mention that Kim Choo-ja’s version is called “청개구리 사랑” — or “Green Frog Love.” I assume it is a reference to the famous Korean folktale about the frogs who don’t listen to their mother, except for one time after she dies, to terrible results (“Gaegu! Gaegu!”).
There’s a great look at how American pop hits are made these days in the New Yorker article “The Song Machine.” Of course, this sort of behind-the-scenes look at the sausage factory of pop music has been done before. But at the same time, pop music has never quite been how it is now. With hip hop having been transformed from into mainstream party anthems, the rise of “smart” pop (a la Phoenix, Peter, Bjorn & John, or Robyn), and rock mostly changing into party-rock, dance-pop has basically grown blob-like to absorb all of its former foes. Screw Goldman Sachs, today’s pop music is the true vampire squid.
Not that that’s a bad thing. Seriously, I think a lot of really good pop music is being made these days. It may not be Cole Porter, but it’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.
Great graph here:
Rihanna is often described as a “manufactured” pop star, because she doesn’t write her songs, but neither did Sinatra or Elvis. She embodies a song in the way an actor inhabits a role—and no one expects the actor to write the script. In the rock era, when the album was the standard unit of recorded music, listeners had ten or eleven songs to get to know the artist, but in the singles-oriented business of today the artist has only three or four minutes to put her personality across. The song must drip with attitude and swagger, or “swag,” and nobody delivers that better than Rihanna, even if a good deal of the swag originates with Ester Dean.
What a paradox, though, that in the most diverse musical age humanity has ever had, that one form should rise to rule them all.
No wonder K-pop is doing so well. Pop in the West is more uniform than ever, so how else can one exert one’s independence and rise above the crowd (and still be dance-friendly)? K-pop is like salsa for the next generation — catchy, danceable, and different.
But what do I know? I was at a Catalan bluegrass concert last night…
Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away — until her little brother is kidnapped by a goblin. The only way Young-hee can save him is by finding a magical plant called a pullocho, but little does she realize the fate of a whole world hangs in the balance.
Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture (2nd edition) is the only English-language book to examine the whole of Korea's entertainment industry and how it became such a powerhouse over the past 20 years. With profiles of many of Korea's top stars (including Lee Byung-hun and Rain), Pop Goes Korea features chapters on movies, music, television, comic books, the Internet, and more.
The original edition of Pop Goes Korea is now out of print.
K-Pop Now!
K-Pop Now! takes a fun look at Korea’s high-energy pop music, and is written for its growing legions of fans. It features all the famous groups and singers, and takes an insider’s look at how they have made it to the top.
