Enjoy the autumn atmosphere at Cheongsan Arboretum, where pink muhly and pampas grass create a picturesque scene in Taean, South Chungcheong Province. Both the pink muhly and pampas grass gardens run through the end of November. Cheongsan Arboretum attracts nearly 200,000 visitors annually, featuring over 3,500 plant species, a forest maze, a lily garden, a Metasequoia road and more. The combination of pink muhly and pampas grass has made the arboretum a popular spot for capturing the perfect pi

"Face to Face" (a literal translation of the Korean title) By Choi Eun-mi Changbi Publishers In the author's note for her second novel, "Face to Face," Choi Eun-mi writes, "I’ve developed a habit of thinking about someone’s 2020 when I see people passing by, to come up with a new character for my story. Where they went to sleep, where they worked, whom they were closest to, and what they feared the most in that year." Choi takes readers back to the

In Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn’s new documentary “Another Body,” a 23-year-old engineering student named Taylor finds herself victimized in a uniquely modern-day form of abuse: deepfake pornography. But this eye-opening 80-minute film doesn’t just show Taylor tracking down who has digitally planted her face over the bodies of porn stars -- it also shows how she navigates the devastating situation and manages her mental health. “Another Body” is told from

"Graiai" By Kim Hye-bin Moonji Publishing The novel "Graiai" begins with a powerful opening as the head of a mummy is unearthed in an Irish peatland. Named “Baek-hee,” the head is confirmed to have Korean ancestry. Why Baek-hee left the Korean Peninsula 2,500 years ago, and the whereabouts of her body remain a mystery. The narrative is divided into three parts: In Part 1, the story centers around Joo-na, a broadcast journalist, investigating the excavation in Ir

"Ghost Duet" By Kim Hyun Hankyoreh Publishing Poet Kim Hyun has been delicately depicting the lives of queer people in Korea. His commitment to social issues is also evident, from his participation in events such as the "304 Recital," a reading event commemorating the 304 victims of the Sewol Ferry disaster, and in a memorial literature recital honoring the victims of last year’s Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon. Kim’s debut short story collection, “Ghost Du

French director Sylvain George's “Obscure Night” won the grand prize at the 2023 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, or DMZ Docs, which took place Sept. 14-21. On Thursday evening, DMZ Docs held its closing ceremony at the CGV Goyang Baekseok theater in Gyeonggi Province, awarding 10 documentary films. George's “Obscure Night” was praised for its in-depth depiction of young migrants in Morocco who are trying to travel from Africa to Europe via land rout

The French drama series titled “The Fragile Colossus” received the Grand Prize at the Seoul International Drama Awards 2023 on Thursday. SIDA 2023 honored a total of 11 drama series as well as 15 actors, screenwriters and directors from around the world in a ceremony held at KBS Hall in Seoul. The French drama series was praised for its in-depth depiction of sexual violence. The plot of “The Fragile Colossus” revolves around Sebastien, a former rugby player who was sexu

An endowed curatorship for Korean art has been established at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Korea Foundation Curatorship Fund, funded by the museum and Korea Foundation. Eleanor Soo-ah Hyun was named the Korea Foundation and Samsung Foundation of Culture associate curator on Wednesday. Hyun joined the Met in 2019 after working at the British Museum as a curator for the Korean collection. The Met also announced its plans to bolster Korean art exhibitions at the museum, support collab

TvN recently confirmed the launch of “Wise Resident Life” (unofficial translation) -- a new spinoff of its hit 2020 medical drama “Hospital Playlist” -- starring rising actor Go Youn-jung. The upcoming series will offer the medical stories of doctors and professors in Jongno branch of Yulje Hospital, the setting for the original "Hospital Playlist." Go, 27, who garnered both local and global drama fans’ interest with “Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shad

Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr has been selected as the recipient of the 12th Park Kyung-ni Literary Prize, the award’s organizers said Wednesday. This year, a total of 37 nominees were chosen through four rounds of preliminary screening from among 234 novelists from around the world. In June, four writers -- Ransmayr, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood and Antonio Lobo Antunes -- were nominated as the finalists. The 69-year-old Austrian writer won global recognition with his novel &ldqu

Wearing a white shirt and jeans, Arts Council Korea Chairperson Choung Byoung-gug prepares coffee at his Seoul office in the small-theater district of Daehagno before the interview in late July. “Five or six years ago, we signed a memorandum of understanding for a 50 billion-won ($37 million) project to build a coffee museum, a coffee library and so on in Addis Ababa,” said Choung, recalling his work as a member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Commit

Korea Creative Content Agency announced on Thursday that it will host a special venue to promote Korean comics and webtoon IP at the upcoming New York Comic Con, starting from Oct. 12 to 15. NYCC, which is set to be held at Javits Center, New York City, is considered the biggest comic and pop culture event on the US East Coast drawing comics creators, gaming stars, top anime and celebrities. Poised to raise the profile of Korean webtoons in the US, KOCCA is scheduled to run “The House of K

Dr. Cheon, the fake, comical exorcist Gang Dong-won portrays in the upcoming occult comedy flick “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman,” has many similarities to the characters he played in 2009’s “Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard” and 2016’s “A Violent Prosecutor.” “I did intend to set the tone of Dr. Cheon character to be somewhere in between Woo-chi and Chi-won -- at least in the first half of the story where Dr. Cheon’s cunning wits had t

Namhae Oktoberfest comes to Seoul A limited-time pop-up event introducing Namhae German Village is being held in Seongsu-dong through Tuesday. The event sheds light on how Namhae German Village -- a village built by Koreans who went to work in Germany primarily as nurses and miners in the '60s and the '70s and returned to Korea after retirement, many of them with their German spouses. The village was first settled by about 75 families. The event showcases photos and maps of Namhae Germ

“Sleep” (South Korea) Opened Sept. 6 Mystery/Thriller Directed by Jason Yu A pregnant Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) discovers that her husband, Hyun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), has started exhibiting strange behaviors while asleep. Overcome with anxiety that he may be a danger to the family, Soo-jin goes to great lengths to protect them and their baby. “A Haunting in Venice” (US) Opened Sept. 13 Mystery/Crime Directed by Kenneth Branagh Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot returns to his peace

Wonju Dancing Carnival The Wonju Dancing Carnival will be held at the Wonju Sports Complex in Gangwon Province, Sept. 22-24. The event will feature various programs, including art performances, a dance competition, a fringe festival, a free dancing festa and more. K-pop girl group fromis_9 and singers Insooni and Kim Bum-soo are scheduled to perform onstage. Admission is 10,000 won, with a special discounted rate of 5,000 won for Wonju residents. More information can be found at ddcwj.com. Gim

Grand Hyatt Seoul presents special dining experiences Grand Hyatt Seoul is offering special dining experiences for the autumn season. The hotel’s Japanese restaurant presents dobin mushi, a traditional Japanese broth served in a tea pot with various ingredients and matsutake mushrooms. Tenkai, another Japanese restaurant at the hotel, offers lobster salad, unadon and meat and vegetable skewers, to be paired with craft beer and sake. The hotel’s Steak House offers premium beef steaks

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a part of Macmillan USA, boasts an impressive portfolio of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning titles. Rohan Kamicheril, a senior editor at FSG, said the company has yet to feature a Korean writer and hopes to broaden its literary horizon by discovering new Korean voices. “We want to find writers in other parts of the world who are doing challenging, provocative things,” said Kamicheril. “I don't want to just bring over writers who do something simi

Gwangju city’s annual art fair, Art:Gwangju:23, kicked off Thursday at the Kimdaejung Convention Center with 105 galleries participating. Some 13 booths are dedicated to special exhibitions. The 14th edition of the art fair in the southwestern city is hosted by the city government and run by the Gwangju Branch of Korean Fine Arts Association. The four-day art fair includes culture talks by Kim Byung-hun, director of Sochon Art Factory, and Yoon Byung-hak, director of Chungjang 22, a cultur

Forge Books, under its parent company, Macmillan USA, typically publishes three to four translated books a year. In recent years, they have consistently released one Korean book in translation each year. The past three years have seen the publication of works like "My Brilliant Life" by Kim Ae-ran (translation by Chi-Young Kim) and two novels by Lee Geum-yi, “The Picture Bride” and “Can’t I Go Instead” (translations by An Seonjae). Robert Davis, an editor