NEW YORK ― Luminous skyscrapers, the hustle and bustle of yellow cabs, poker-faced pedestrians and a dizzying mosaic of different cultures: it's New York City.
In a way, the Big Apple continues to symbolize the great American melting pot. For a "genuine" New York experience, a visit to Little Italy or Chinatown ― or the newly emerging hotspot Koreatown ― is essential.
Seoul in New York: West 32nd Street
On West 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway lies a small block lined with Korean-style stationary stores (Morning Glory), supermarket (Han Ah Reum) and cafes galore. West 32nd Street, with its anarchic array of neon signs that read "BBQ" and "Open 24 Hours", takes you back to Korea.
Flushing, Queens may be the ultimate Korean district in New York (and on the east coast), but it has that distinct "Korean American" quality that sets it apart from mainland Korea. Like Los Angele...| More
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It's not often that you find yourself identifying with creatures from another planet.
But that's what happened to actress Grace Park in the American television series "Battlestar Galactica".
Park, 33, plays pilot Sharon Valerii who discovers that she is actually a Cylon from the furthest reaches of space.
Cylons were created by humans, and, understandably, Valerii is faced with an identity crisis when she discovers the truth.
In her own life, Park has faced her own identity issues, though none as dramatic as discovering she comes from another planet.
But the show's storyline ― the space battle between the Cylons and Earth ― has taught Park a lot about identity, love and politics, the actress said.
Park was born in Los Angeles, raised in Vancouver and is ethnically Korean. But she considers herself more Canadian than Korean, even though her parents brought her up with a strong sense of her Korean identity.
And when she visits Korea, Park said she doesn't feel li...| More
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Following Jang Dong-gun and Jeon Ji-hyeon, actress Song Hye-kyo will also make her U.S. screen debut. But instead of heading to Hollywood, the 25-year-old left for New York Nov. 21 to take part in a low-budget independent film project.
In the psychological thriller "Fetish", Song will play the role of a Korean woman with supernatural powers, who possesses an American woman's body in order to steal her husband. She will star opposite Austrian actor Arno Frisch, who is well known from the 1997 film "Funny Games".
Korean filmmaker Son Soo-peom will helm the project. The New York University graduate is the silver medallist of the 2002 Student Academy Awards and was invited to the Cannes Film Festival that same year for his short films. Sohn makes his feature film directorial debut with "Fetish".
Casting director Susan Shopmaker ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch", Michael Kang's "The Motel" and "West 32nd") took note of Song in her latest film "Hwangjin...| More
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By bringing to Korea "West 32nd" ― a gritty, street-style crime film that delves deep into the underworld of New York Koreatown ― director Michael Kang explores the Korean-American identity, including his own. It is a continuation of the directorial concerns from his feature debut piece "The Motel"
"I needed this much time to get the film made, I needed `West 32nd' to be my second film. I think it was a personal journey, and it was a personal challenge, too, to make the film", Kang told The Korea Times in a recent interview in Seoul.
Growing up in the suburbs of New England, the award-winning director had never been exposed to such a large Korean community until he moved to New York for college.
"It was very jarring to me, my relationship with that community. I would walk around in Flushing (Queens, New York) and look like anybody else but I felt like I didn't belong there. That's what I very much wanted to explore (in `West 32nd'...| More
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It gets down-and-dirty like the gritty streets of New York. In "West 32nd", Korean-American director Michael Kang gives the classic detective genre a fresh twist as he tells the untold story of a Korea that exists in the heart of the Big Apple.
West 32nd Street is the geographic location of New York Koreatown (K-town) near the Empire State Building. But even those who are familiar with the "noraebang" (karaoke), stationary stores and "seoleongtang" (Korean beef broth) restaurants lining the strip will be shocked to know that there lies a whole new world beneath it all -- where Korean gangsters and "organized" mayhem reign.
While snippets of Koreatown have began to appear (fleetingly) as an exotic backdrop in Hollywood films like "Collateral" (2004) and "Shoot 'Em Up" (2007), it remained a relatively unexplored territory, and "West 32nd" breaks it down, once and for all.
In the dark corner of K-town, a bar owner Jin-ho (Jeong Joon-ho) is shot t...| More
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