In 2010, the clock of the Korean pop culture is set for June 1950. TV and movies will be flooded with war stories as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. TV stations are raising their stakes in war-themed mega dramas and Chungmuro, the Korean counterpart of Hollywood, is also betting high on block-buster war movies.
Ammunition (casting of top stars) is loaded and the war chest (massive budget) is huge.
The battle between two major networks KBS and MBC first grabs attention. One turns the clock back and remakes "Comrades", a hit TV series of the 1970s into a modern war drama while the other meets the challenge head-on with a block buster costing 10 billion won in budget. KBS' 20-episode series "Comrades" is the remake of a weekday TV series of the same title that was aired from 1975 to 1977. Both series are scheduled to start airing in June.
The 2010 version of "Comrades" centers on the battlefields during the Korean War, focusing on comradeship among soldiers fighting for life under dire circumstances while depicting various kinds of people from all walks of life.
Choi Soo-jong was cast as the platoon leader, the lead character, making a comeback to TV after a 3-year hiatus. Each episode will cost 300 million won.
Kim Hyeong-il, chief producer of KBS said, "This is not a simple anti-communist drama. We are trying to graphically and vividly describe the horrible atrocitie...
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By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
The tiger may well be Korea's most beloved animal throughout its history. The country was once dubbed the "nation of tigers" as it has mountainous areas that provided them with a good habitat.
The animal has been a symbol of bravery, strength and dignity, and hence 2010, the Year of the Tiger, according to Chinese astrology, will be fervently hailed as a year of good fortune and vigor.
Tiger as Time, Space and Zodiac Sign
The tiger is the third sign in the Chinese zodiac of 12 animals. It is also represented by the month "inwol", the first month of the year; and the hour "insi", the 3rd in the 24 hour clock ― 03:00-5:00 a.m. in the lunar calendar. It also points to the bearing east-northeast. The white tiger is one of the four guardian gods ― three others are the blue dragon, the red bird and the black tortoise. They protect the four major directions with the tiger taking care of the west.
From Myth to Everyday Life
People's perception of tigers has changed over time ― in the past, they feared becoming prey to them, but nowadays they probably only see tigers in a zoo.
But the process of that change is interlaced with mysticism. The tiger, a vicious and ferocious beast, is also considered a mystical creature that keeps away evil spirits.
"In ancient times, the tiger was deemed a scary animal, but our ancestors weren't consumed by that fear. What is rather mystifying is that people also saw it as a guardian that drove away evil spirits, keeping peace and well-being in the village", Gu Mun-hoe, curator of the National Folk Museum of Korea, said.
Gu said that in their daily lives, warding off evil spirits was one of the major duties of the tiger. "It means the animal keeps a...
MoreA Korean-language guidebook will be available to visitors of the American Museum of Natural History in New York from Aug. 1. Seo Kyoung-duk, a visiting professor at Sungshin Women's University said the museum decided to provide the 50,000 guidebooks in a project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first Korean museum in U.S. Sponsored by the celebrity couple,
Choi Soo-jong and
Ha Hee-ra, the guidebooks provide information on the museum, its collections floor-by-floor, and how to navigate through the building.
Korean is the fifth language serviced at the museum after English, German, French and Spanish. The guidebook can be downloaded from the museum's website at http://www.amnh.org.
"This project can help Korean visitors enjoy the museum to its fullest, and also let our language become known to American and foreign visitors", Choi said. Ha said ...
MoreSeven top actors, including
Kim Hye-soo and
Ahn Seong-gi, have donated the entire amount of fees that they had received for giving lectures to students to scholarships for young actors. The seven actors were invited to teach the "master class" at
Im Kwon-taek Film and Art College of Dongseo University this year, receiving 10 million won in fees. They donated the entire amount to scholarships for nurturing young actors.
The donation ceremony was held May 27 at Dongseo University. It was attended by ...
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