Beanie level: Water maid

Just finished Yoon Jong Chan’s 2009 film, “I Am Happy.” Story about mental illness and suffering. It was okay. Hyun Bin was definitely trying to expand his acting range around this time, he did fine.
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Finished Im Kwon Taek’s 1994 film, “The Taebaek Mountains.” Adapted from a 10 volume book series by Jo Jung Rae. It was good, but suffered by packing so much into a single movie.
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    The book is on the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die”-list… but it’s never been translated into English lol. I remember, way before getting so addicted to Kdramas, reading a discussion on Goodreads about not wanting to learn Korean just to be able to read it. And I thought “guess I’ll never get to read that book, cause I’ll probably never learn that language either”. And look at me now, understanding bits and pieces and dreaming about taking a Korean language course haha 😂

    (Sorry for the randomness, was just reminded of it by your post hehe)

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      Don’t be sorry, it wasn’t random at all. I’m not much of a book reader, but it’s too bad a lot of Korean literature is left untranslated. I know there are several Korean books translated to English like “Three Generations,” “Our Twisted Hero,” “The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong,” and a couple more, but like you said, this book series is untranslated. It’s the multi-volume epics like “Land,” “Eyes of Dawn,” and this one that aren’t translated which is a shame since I hear they are fantastic and a must-read for Koreans.

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        Glad you didn’t find it too random hehe ^^
        Yeah, finding translated Korean classics is not easy, nor even more modern books, so I haven’t had a chance to read any yet. I did however find a translation of Hong Gil Dong, but I don’t think the translation happened until a couple of years ago, despite how much of a cornerstone it is in Korean folklore.

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Han Suk Kyu in 1997 film, “Green Fish.” Lee Chang Dong’s directorial debut. Fantastic acting. Probably my favorite acting performance from him. This is the famous “phone booth” scene from the film.

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    Han Suk Kyu and anything Lee Chang Dong is worth watching!

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Finished the 1960 film, “The Housemaid” by Kim Ki Young. Considered one of the best K-films, influenced Park Chan Wook and Bong Joon Ho. Great thriller about a femme fatale. Ahn Sung Ki plays the son.
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Completed Jung Ji Young’s 1990 film, “North Korean Partisan in South Korea.” A Korean war film from the North’s perspective. Fantastic film if a bit exhausting. Watched it on the Korean Film Archive.

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Finished the 1993 film, “To the Starry Island” a week ago. This was the last of director Lee Chang Dong’s films I needed to watch. He wrote the screenplay. Quality film as expected.
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    Thank you for sharing! I’m still watching North Korean sageuk films from probably my grandparents generations lol. Very old but more interesting than the ones that are currently out.

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