Lee Young-ae – Mark James Russell

More than 100 years of “Arirang” recordings, on display until Feb. 28 at National Gugak Center (Korea JoongAng Daily)
Terrible suggestion for fixing problem of lending Korea’s National Treasures — just lend replicas! (Korea JoongAng Ilbo)
At least one left-wing group wasn’t guilty of insurrection (Hankyoreh)
Not good — Hankyoreh claims evidence linking Blue House to resignation of Korea’s head prosecutor (and NIS foe). (Hankyoreh)
Fascinating look at the Korea Crime Victim Support Fund, a badly flawed (if well-intended) program (Korea JoongAng Daily)
Has it really been 10 years since Daejanggeum? Lee Young-ae looks back on the pivotal drama and her career. (Chosun Ilbo)
As cool as it is that Drunken Tiger’s new release, The Cure, is doing so well, it feels more like a Yoon Mirae album than a Tiger one. Her vocals really define it, not just on “The Cure,” but also tracks like “Beautiful Life” and “Time Travel.” (Billboard) (Soompi‘s not bad either) Buy it on iTunes!

Moon So-young takes a great look at new Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art in Seoul, with architect Mihn Hyun-jun (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Beer popsicles! Beer ice cream. And plenty of craft beers. (Korea JoongAng Daily)
A look at one of the Han River rescue teams responsible for a 22km stretch of the river that contains 15 bridges. The team responds to 774 suicide attempts and drownings last year — saving 258 people and stopping another 185. Still, that’s a lot of suicides. (Hankyoreh)

Enjoying the hot weather? I hope so because the Korea Meteorological Administration says it is going to stick around until Chuseok — that’s Sept. 19 this year. Which I suppose means we’ll have snow by Oct. 1. (Chosun Ilbo)
This is the first Gwangbokjeol (Independence Day) I’ve ever spent in Korea so close to the Japanese Embassy. As of 9am, there were plenty of police everywhere, with all the side alleys and roads around the embassy closed off. Could be exciting.

And in movie news:

The summer may be mostly over (especially for Hollywood), but the competition at the Korean box office is ramping up, as two big films were released yesterday for Gwangbokjeol. Kim Sung-soo’s first movie in a decade, The Flu, is the new No. 1, with 306,000 admissions yesterday. Hide and Seek was second with 294,000 admissions. (All stats from KOBIS)
Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer fell to third with 200,000. It’s now at 7.1 million admissions and 51 billion won ($45.6 million).
The top four films in Korea yesterday were all Korean. Then the next six were all animated films (Japanese and Western). No live-action Hollywood movies in top 10.
So far this year, Korean films have had 56.3% of box office. 40.3% for Hollywood. Nearly 1% for Japan.
Lee Young-ae goes from JSA to the DMZ (Chosun Ilbo).

Tag: Lee Young-ae