Thatโs it. Thatโs the blog entry. ๐บ
A transcript of the guided discussion and open forum I moderated for Ateneo Korean Studies: Emerging Convergence Across the Seas (The 1st Conference on Korean Studies in Maritime Southeast Asia)
Hereโs a link to the conference proceeding of โEmerging Convergence Across the Seas (The 1st Conference on Korean Studies in Maritime Southeast Asia)โ [Vol. 5, No. 1 (2021)]. This conference took place back in 2021, but this conference proceeding might satisfy the curiosity of those who are wondering what Southeast Asian Koreanists are up to.
You can also find here the transcript of the guided discussion and open forum that I moderated about Korean Studies in Singapore and East Timor. =)
Published at HanPil: Studies on Korea and the Philippines (Vol 5 Aug 2021)
Check out my article titled โA Show of Soft Power: Korean Drama Crash Landing on You and Representations of Inter-Korean Relationsโ at HanPil (Volume 5 August 2021).
I presented the first version of this paper during the 3rd Philippine Koreanist Congress in August 2021. Thanks to the UP Korea Research Center and my two anonymous peer reviewers, I was able to improve this paper A LOT. =)
Non-Korean films as “palate cleanser”
Weekends are when I usually watch movies, and you don’t have to take a wild guess which country’s films I gravitate to.
But since I’m teaching a Korean Cinema class this semester, and I don’t want to have blinders on, I am consciously seeking out films other than Korean to balance things out.
Here are some of the non-Korean films I’ve enjoyed this semester…so far:
Belfast (2021)
Watched it on HBO Go and I just had to text my high school buddy about being distracted by the fast that the film was set in Ireland, home of 1990s Irish boy band Boyzone!
Dune (2021)
I’ve had my eye on this movie for quite some time now, and I finally made time to watch it. Two thumbs up! Again, on HBO Go!
Blonde (2022)
This one, I regret spending 2hours and 46 minutes of my life on. Where is Marilyn’s agency? As the trailer says, I watched this on Netflix.
Minari (2020)
Okay, I have to explain this one. It is a film in Korean language, yes. BUT (but!), it is an American film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It is set in America and tells the migration story of a family, and how they tried to make it in the land of milk and honey.
Oro, Plata, Mata (1982)
I really enjoyed this one because it made me remember that there are a lot of very good Filipino films out there, waiting to be re-discovered and watched. Plus, the one on Netflix was digitally restored by the now-defunct (huhuhu) ABS-CBN Film Restoration.
I’ve bookmarked Markova: Comfort Gay (2000) on Netflix and I’m waiting for Himala (1982) to pop up in my notifications.
So there.
Thesis reviewer
I just want to say that I’m happy that more undergraduate students from the Communication Department are doing Korea-related thesis projects. A few weeks ago, I was invited to serve as thesis reviewer for two such projects and I enjoyed reading and providing feedback for those.
I’m going to get (academically) published (again)!
Thatโs it. Thatโs this weekโs blog entry. ***Ugly cries because I havenโt received this level of good news in a long time***
New Jeans
I’m late to the party but I’m liking the new K-pop girl group New Jeans. Well, not the members, exactly (yet), but more of the songs. “Attention”, “Hype Boy”, “Cookie”, and “Hurt” are all actual songs. These are not the usual bubblegum K-pop songs that where the vocals sound Minnie Mouse-ish. And the early 2000s vibe of their songs and their MVs just brings me back to my youth. I could have stanned them in my young days.
I am also aware of the controversy regarding “Cookie”. It just brings to mind the similar concerns when Miss A debuted years ago. I guess the K-pop world hasn’t resolved that kind of issue yet.
Watched Carter (2022) and I really hope Korean films stay Korean =(
The plot was convoluted and difficult to follow. =(
The only convoluted movie plot that I appreciated was Steel Rain (2017) because the convoluted part, I felt, just centered on inter-Korean conflicts…and…you know…as a Koreanist, it’s a convolution that I can follow. If you know what I mean. =)
Carter, on the other hand, had inter-Korean conflict, zombies, memory loss, US-Korea tensions, etc. I am teary-eyed as I write this. Kidding. Or maybe not.
The action scenes were thrilling and all, but the thing that disturbed me the most was how I felt like I was watching a Hollywood movie which had some actors speaking in Korean. =(
The way the movie piled on the action and offered very minimal drama and backstory made made me feel that something was amiss and missing. Like, Friend (2001), for example, may be a Korean gangster film BUT I sympathized and empathized with the main characters. Seobok (2021), as another example, is a sci-fi action thriller, but it also offered something about the human nature. Carter was just…spectacle but not much substance. Sad.
Slice of Life Webtoons and Me
I suppose that one good thing that came out of this pandemic is my newfound resolve to protect both my physical health and my mental health.
In terms of physical health, I’ve cut back on processed food (especially processed meat!) and have been exercising at least once a day and at most twice a day.
In terms of mental health, I have been making an effort to surround myself with more positive media content, one of which is slice-of-life webtoons.
I started with a webtoon called ์ค๋๋ฅผ ๋ด๋ค a few years back. It’s a webtoon about the joy and pleasure of home cooking, and how food nourishes one’s relationship with oneself and with others.
Recently, I’ve started reading a webtoon called ์์คํ ํ๋ฃจ๋ฅผ ์ด๋ค and so far, so good. It’s been a ํ๋ง๋๋ ์นํฐ, so to speak.
My favorite line thus far is: “ํ๋ฒํ ์ฌ๋์ด ๋์ด ํ๋ณํ ์ผ์์ ๋ณด๋ด๊ณ ์ถ๋ค”.
I like it because it sort of eases my worries about the delays this pandemic has caused on the life map I have made for myself. Of course I have my career ambitions. Of course I want to make my mark in my field– even if that mark is merely a small dot in the grand scheme of things. And of course I wish I could be moving faster now. But living out the awesomeness of my ordinary days is good, too.
Grocery shopping vlogs
Some time ago, I fell into the grocery shopping vlog rabbit hole. I’m not really sure why. Perhaps it’s the sound of cans lightly bumping into each other as the vlogger puts them in the cart. Perhaps it’s the crumpling sound of plastic packaging as the vlogger reaches for a bag of chips, or pasta, or whatever. Or maybe it’s because of me, silently judging random Youtubers through their supermarket shopping choices. (Haha.)
I don’t really know.
But I watch them, anyway.
This is my favorite Youtube channel thus far: CnV Lifestyle.
This is a vlog run by two sisters. They shop together, organize their pantry together, and they even take trips together.
I especially enjoy their S&R shopping vids because I like seeing food items from around the world.
Their videos are also nicely made, the intro to each video looks professional, and (AND!) the grammar of their captions is almost always correct. Very relaxing vids here.
Asianist Life 