South Korea
Daily Comment
The Worrying Democratic Erosions in South Korea
In recent months, authorities have raided offices of press outlets publishing critical reports on President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Persons of Interest
Kim Hyesoon’s Animal Obsessions
The Korean poet, now in her fifth decade in the public eye, inhabits a world of knives and carcasses and dark orifices—a fantasia of feminine rage.
The Front Row
Hong Sangsoo’s “Walk Up” Signals a Break from Routine
The prolific director’s latest movie relies and reflects on his famously low-budget filmmaking system.
Culture Desk
The Self-Taught Artist Whose Work Tells the History of Modern Korea
Oh U-Am’s paintings depict working-class life in this century and last, yet seem to exist in the timeless space of allegory.
Dispatch
Surfing Through Korea’s War Games
Every fall, U.S. and South Korean forces conduct drills in waters shared by North Korea and China. This year, I saw the exercises up close.
Personal History
Longing for More Stoppage Time
The World Cup brings back the man who made me love this beautiful game.
Dispatch
In Itaewon, Another Betrayal of Young Koreans
Why have politicians and bureaucrats, of both major parties, failed so radically at the basic provision of public safety?
The Front Row
“The Novelist’s Film,” Reviewed: A Drama of Artistic Crisis from a Wildly Prolific Director
In Hong Sangsoo’s latest, a blocked writer tries to relaunch herself as a filmmaker.
Comma Queen
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I went to Seoul and visited a library that has a set of bound volumes of The New Yorker.
Cultural Comment
The Door Opened by “Gangnam Style”
The global hit primed Western audiences for films and shows about South Korea as a dystopia.
Culture Desk
How BTS Became One of the Most Popular Bands in History
In an age of despair and division, a boy band from South Korea remixed the rules of pop and created a fandom bigger than Beatlemania.
The Front Row
“Clytaemnestra,” Reviewed: A Tyrannical Director Looms Over a Backstage Hothouse
Plus: a longlist of other daring, underseen independent and international films to be found on MUBI.
Screening Room
The Cost of Justice in the Aftermath of Tragedy
In “Georgia,” the Korean American filmmaker Jayil Pak draws on the notorious 2004 Miryang gang-rape case to relate a story of parents struggling to hold their daughter’s abusers to account.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
What Makes a Mass Shooter?
The authors of “The Violence Project” note that mass shootings have risen alongside overdoses and other deaths of despair—which is not a coincidence.
The New Yorker Interview
Hong Sangsoo Knows if You’re Faking It
The prolific Korean director talks about sincerity, Cézanne, and the nature of reality.
The Front Row
“In Front of Your Face,” Reviewed: The Great Hong Sangsoo Reaches New Heights
In the luminous tale of an actress’s homecoming, the South Korean director takes on the overwhelming mysteries of life and art.
Personal History
A Welcome Unfreedom
Quarantining with my mother in her homeland, I questioned the U.S. approach to the pandemic and public health.
The Front Row
Hong Sangsoo’s Audacious Clash of the Generations
With “Introduction,” the prolific director portrays a world of bonds so tight that they leave scars.
The Front Row
“The Woman Who Ran,” Reviewed: A Provocative, Profound Drama of Marriage, Friendship, and Solitude
Hong Sang-soo’s film relies on disturbing ironies to approach the mightiest of subjects: the nature of happiness.
