The Korean Wave has been spreading Korean pop culture across Asia and beyond for more than a decade, although it has barely reached Poland, in the centre of Europe. It is sad to admit, but Korean culture (traditional as well as the "new wave") does not exist in Polish minds as a distinctive identity. It is often mixed in with Chinese and Japanese cultures, which are more defined in Poland yet still often confused with each other.
Still, it is trendy nowadays in Poland to go to an East Asian restaurant, buy Chinese souvenirs, own Japanese-style furniture, follow feng-shui rules, watch an Asian movie or send kids to taekwondo or karate classes.
Although Polish knowledge of Korean culture is minimal, the present article aims to show that there is a gentle Korean wind that is blowing into Poland faster than the mainstream Wave.
There is, however, still no trace of: (1) the Korean entertainment industry invading the Polish media market; (2) any Polish fans adopting the lifestyles of Korean pop stars; (3) package tours to Korea; or (4) Polish families gathering around TV sets to watch their favorite Korean drama.
The Polish media feed us alternately with images of the Demilitarized Zone and new threats from the North Korean regime, or with data on the influx of Korean investment and technology products, leaving no space for cultural news.
The traffic of Korean culture to Poland exhibits a different pattern compared to the Asian model of Hallyu. It is not fascination with Korean pop culture that drives enrollment in Korean language courses - rather, universities, as centers of high culture, are the best "advocates" of Korean-ness and initiators of cross-cultural interactions. At present, there are three main channels of Korean culture in Poland: (1) high culture disseminated by universities; (2) commercial distributors launching Korean films; and recently (3) Korean pop culture penetrating the youth environment through the internet.
The Korean elite and mass culture
Poland appears to be the only country in East and Central Europe that offers Korean courses at bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. levels at its three main universities - Warsaw University, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and Jagiellonian University in Krakow. All of them have academic exchange agreements with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and cooperate with other Korean universities through academic programs offered mainly by the Korea Foundation and the Academy of Korean Studies.
In cooperation with HUFS and the Korean Embassy in Warsaw, the universities actively promote Korean high culture in our country. For example, they organize annual Korean Culture Days to educate local people about Korean traditions and arts, e.g. through taekwondo shows, jangu and samulnori concerts, traditional dances and theater performances. The Department of Korean Studies in Poznan holds annual conferences with scholars from other Polish and Korean universities.
In 2007, professor J. Banczerowski, the founder of the Korean Studies department in Poznan, was given a presidential medal in recognition of his ...
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A middling period actioner under the shadow of yesteryear's Hong Kong cinema
Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
With financial successes of the politically muddled but pretty-to-look-at "Hero" and the exquisitely spiritual "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon" in North America, Hollywood studios have perked up their antennae trying to locate the next East Asian chop-socky flick that can make bucketloads of money for them. Following the footsteps of Miramax and Sony Classics, New Line Cinema has ventured into the martial arts territory by co-producing "
Shadowless Sword" with Taewon Entertainment.
uestion that popped into my mind, as the clipped-film logo of New Line flashed by as the movie opened, was whether the American producers had had a chance to see "Bichunmoo (2000)", the debut film of director
Kim Yeong-joon. Director Kim, armed with a thoroughly trite, culturally featureless love triangle backstory, created what appears to be a blatant pastiche of a '90s Hong Kong period piece, complete with the actors spinning crazily like whipped tops, but with one difference: the whole shenanigans were presented as deadly serious. Lugubrious and dour when it's not unintentionally hilarious, "Bichunmoo" is not the kind of film a potential investor finds inspiring, unless of course the said investor is looking for a sullen copy of a Hong Kong wu-xia pian. Of course, in this case the logical question one must ask is, why not go for the real thing by giving the dough to, say, Tsui Hark?
At any rate, Director Kim was able to draw upon American dollars to upgrade the produ...
MoreShadowless Sword, a big-budget swordplay fantasy by
Kim Yeong-joon set in the tenth century, is expected to be released in over 60 territories across the world.
The film is represented internationally by Hollywood-based New Line Cinema, which provided 30% of the financing in a deal with Korean production company Taewon Entertainment. According to Robert Remley, a senior vice president in charge of international marketing, New Line is also planning a large scale release in the North American market in 2006.
The influence of New Line Cinema, which often signs output deals with foreign distributors for works such as the hit trilogy Lord of the Rings, is expected to help the film sell widely to other international markets.
The film was shot in China, and was released in Korea on November 18. Set during the Balhae Dynasty in the tenth...
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When director
Kim Yeong-joon, whose "
Shadowless Sword" hits movie theaters Friday, said he was going to make a breakthrough in Korean martial arts movies, his chances of failure were good. But as easily digestible commercial fare, the film delivers.
The year is 962 A.D. in the Balhae kingdom ravaged by the invasion of Khitan -- Tungusic or Mongol residents of the southern part of what is now Manchuria, Northeastern China.
In a country almost wiped off the face of the earth, the last survivor of the dynasty, Dae Jeong-hyeon (
Lee Seo-jin), ekes out a meager existence in a frontier town while hiding his true identity. Then those...
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