The Korea Times

The revolution of light and weight of words: Welcome President Lee Jae Myung

Considering he took office in early June, it seemed a somewhat strange assignment to spend my mid-August evening watching his official inauguration. But that’s where I found myself, sat in a television studio in downtown Seoul, providing live analysis and commentary while the rest of the country enjoyed a late-summer vacation. In a rather astute move, President Lee had decided to use the nation’s most emotional and celebratory public holiday to announce himself as the leader chosen by the people of the country and tasked with the challenge of returning not only the light from Japanese colonization but also power from South Korea’s conservative faction. The event itself felt like a combination of an Olympics opening ceremony, a christening, and a coronation. A night of performance, song, and music to announce the arrival of the new leader and provide him with legitimacy. There was taekwondo, K-pop, long speeches, and lots of clapping. Everything you expect from an event here in modern Korea. Changing Lee I must confess, based on his 2022 election campaign, I was rather skeptical ab

Aug 16, 2025By David A. Tizzard

The revolution of light and weight of words: Welcome President Lee Jae Myung

Opinion

Korea in 10 words: (8) Gwangbeokjeol

There’s a week left until Gwangbeokjeol (Liberation Day), but countless South Korean flags already line the streets of our town. They wave in the wind. Soak up the sun, and bow to the rain. We will put one up in our apartment in a few days to demonstrate our own patriotism and avoid running the risk of local side-eye. Online, my feed is slowly becoming filled with images and AI generated videos of patriotic martyrs such as Ahn Jung-guen and Yu Gwan-sun. The people’s voice is rising. You can hear it. Feel it. The day is coming. Literally, Gwangbeok means the restoration of the light, and thus it symbolizes the day upon which the hopes and fortunes of the Korean people returned. The terms independence and liberation are both also used here but some scholars here argue that rather than being the independence of a newborn nation, such as when the United States first achieved its independence from Britain, Gwangbeok instead refers to a formerly independent nation that was temporarily deprived of its sovereignty and then regained it. Liberation (hae-bang) is also the term generally favo

Aug 9, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

How 'The Wailing' became the defining Korean horror movie

It had been just over a week since I sat and watched the film with a group of visiting students. But there I was, at 4 am, awake, staring at the corner of the room, my mind racing with images from the movie. My breath sharp. A physical sensation ran through my body. Whether I liked it or not, this movie was now part of me. Part of my subconscious. How long would the imagery haunt me? How long would I think back to those closing scenes involving the robed man looking up at the priest? Why did this film affect me so much? I don’t have the answer to any of these questions. But I do know that this Korean movie didn’t end when the credits rolled. It began. And that morning as I glanced around my room, I was very glad it’s only a movie. Korean horror "The Wailing" doesn’t feature in the recent New York Times’ movie rankings. "Parasite" topped that list, but I think "Memories of Murder" is a far better movie. Elsewhere "Train to Busan" and "The Host" are often regarded as the country’s best horror movies, yet the latter is more akin to a comedy or a family drama. The monster of the

Aug 2, 2025By David A. Tizzard

How 'The Wailing' became the defining Korean horror movie

Opinion

Why Korea is cooler than China

Okay, so let’s play a game. I say, “South Korea.” What pops into your head? Even if you’re not big on media or modern culture, you can probably come up with BTS, "Parasite," mukbang queens and bowls of fire noodles, then those glass-skinned influencers who’ve convinced half the world that toner is more important than god. Japan? Easy! Anime, Studio Ghibli, Mario, Harajuku street fashion, and just enough weirdness to keep the internet engaged. And now... “China.” Let’s be real. Most people don’t think of music, or cinema, or fashion. It’s social credit scores. Xi Jinping memes. The CCP deleting Winnie the Pooh. Covid cover-ups. Tiananmen Square tank man. And so on. There’s a canyon-sized cultural gap here, and among my students, the difference is daylight. They’ll talk your ear off about Seventeen’s latest sub-unit, break down every episode of "Return of the Blossoming Blade," and tell you why Tzuyang is better than Hamzy. They’ve cried reading Han Kang. They know NewJeans choreo. But name a Chinese pop group? A drama? A film? Nothing. Dead air. Most can’t

Jul 26, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

The Greatest Acting Performance in Korean Cinema History?

Jeon Do-yeon’s performance in "Secret Sunshine" is not just acting, it’s a full body possession. It might be the best piece of acting ever put on screen in Korean cinema. In fact, it might be the best piece of acting in any cinema. Anywhere. Any time. Jeon is not performing the role, she becomes the role. And what you get isn’t some tidy little Oscar-bait sobfest. No. What you get is an emotional earthquake. A soul-level detonation. We're talking about the kind of raw, nuclear honesty you see maybe once in a generation. Like what Choi Min-sik did in "Oldboy" with a hammer and a mouth full of live octopus. Or how Song Kang-ho can take a single facial twitch and turn it into an existential crisis. But Jeon goes deeper. She goes to the kind of places that make most actors flinch and gives you everything: The guttural, animalistic cries of a mother who’s just lost her world. Silent, trembling tears that feel more violent than a scream. Eyes that are so confused, so broken, you start to question your own grip on reality. And just when you think she’s given all she can, she throws

Jul 19, 2025By David A. Tizzard

The Greatest Acting Performance in Korean Cinema History?

Opinion

In search of sansin

Cities tell you what a country builds. Mountains tell you what it believes. And so I learn more about Korea when I walk alongside it. When I lose myself in the mountains. Venturing further and further outside of Seoul. Here the mountains sensitize you. They are intense. They are spaces and places where the light feels brighter. The snow sharper. The air travels through your nose like a wire down to your lungs. It’s transformative. In the mountains, everything crackles and tingles. And, perhaps most of all, mountains are dangerous. There is rock and ice and water. Snow and sun. Bugs. Bites. Bits of things that have no name. Paths without handles. A life without a safety vest. There’s not much intrepid about a coffee shop in Namdaemun. The Yongsan department stores offer little in the way of thrill. Hongdae is alive with neons and electronica, but it lacks that very visceral, vertiginous scale of mountain life. And because mountains are alive, you have to be alive. There is a constant risk assessment taking place. Are those rocks safe? Is the heat okay? That’s not a snake, is it? Y

Jul 12, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Park Chan-wook’s forgotten masterpiece: A film about mental health and K-pop idols before the world was listening

In 2025, South Korea has developed a strange fetish for performative vulnerability. Anxiety is the new luxury handbag: everyone has one, everyone’s flaunting theirs, and if you don’t, you’re either lying or dangerously maladjusted. Pop stars weep into LED-lit ring lights. Influencers livestream their therapy sessions, sandwiched between collagen mask unboxings and affiliate codes for supplements. Mental health, once taboo, has been monetized, merchandised, and algorithmically optimized for engagement. And yet, there’s something deeply valuable about this shift. Because people, real people, are finally able to speak about the things that were once buried in silence. Trauma, anxiety, and depression aren’t just trendy terms. For many, they are lived realities. And what’s changed is that now, those experiences can be spoken aloud without immediate shame or dismissal. There’s help available. Conversations happen. People are walking into clinics, talking to professionals, and seeking treatment, not because they’re weak, but because they want to live. They want to understand

Jul 5, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Park Chan-wook’s forgotten masterpiece: A film about mental health and K-pop idols before the world was listening

Opinion

Saja boys, shaman pop, and the ethics of self-sacrifice

I wasn’t going to watch KPop Demon Hunters. In fact, when a few friends messaged me asking for my thoughts on it, I sidestepped the conversation. I had subconsciously written it off as yet another piece of overproduced bubblegum aimed at a global audience hungry for surface-level K‑vibes. That was definitely my own prejudice speaking. But then I watched it with my daughter. We were planning a movie night anyway, so why not give it a shot? By the time the credits rolled, I was quietly stunned. KPop Demon Hunters isn’t just good: it’s outrageously good. It’s everything I had expected it not to be. It’s not a shallow cash grab. It’s not derivative. It’s not K‑pop karaoke dressed up in Marvel cosplay. It is, somehow, all of those things, of course … and yet much more. The premise is absurd in the most delicious way: three girls, Rumi, Mira and Zoey, form a K‑pop idol group named Huntrix. But they don’t just perform on stage. They’re also demon hunters. Their concerts generate “Honmoon,” a shimmering barrier between the human and demon realms. It’s a traditio

Jun 28, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Saja boys, shaman pop, and the ethics of self-sacrifice

Opinion

Narrating Korean Life - Part 4: Along With the Mountain Gods

There are days in Korea when the city feels like it’s trying to eat you whole. Horns, neon, motorcycles, students rushing to private academies, and every surface coated in a coffee-fueled barrage of efficiency. But just north of all this, silently, patiently, the mountain waits. Bukhansan is sprawling. Ancient. Unmoved by the frantic tick of modern Seoul. You can walk for hours and forget about capitalism, politics, and convenience stores. It’s also where I found myself last week, hiking toward Baegundae Peak. I took the hard way up. Because, well, I don’t really know why. Maybe some vague memory of Nietzsche. Maybe something to do with masculinity. Or maybe just poor planning. Setting off around 3 p.m., the June sun was still brutal. Thankfully, however, the crowds were sparse. Everyone I did see was heading in the opposite direction. For much of the hike, I was accompanied by no one but the sound of cicadas and the distant laughter of streams trying to hide themselves behind rocks and trees. The air smelled of stillness. The mountain was letting me in gently, as a guest rather

Jun 21, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Narrating Korean Life - Part 4: Along With the Mountain Gods

Opinion

Korea in Ten Words: (7) Minsim

In Korea, the people’s opinion is often described as the voice of heaven: the heart of the nation. Even under the rigid hierarchy of the Joseon Dynasty, "minsim," the collective will or sentiment of the people, was seen as a vital element of governance. Though the monarchy was absolute in theory, kings were still advised by Confucian scholars and civil officials who cited minsim to sway royal decisions. If the hearts of the people turned cold, it was believed that the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven (cheonmyeong). Effective Korean politics can therefore only be achieved by properly understanding what the people think and acknowledging what they hold in their hearts. It was this understanding that brought the Confucian philosopher Yulgok to say that minsim is the will of heaven. In Confucian tradition, rulers were expected to rule with virtue. We see early traces of this in the Donghak Peasant Movement of 1894, which arose from deep dissatisfaction with corrupt officials and growing foreign intrusion. That rebellion, while ultimately suppressed, has since been interpreted as a r

Jun 14, 2025By David A. Tizzard

David A. Tizzard

Read more

The revolution of light and weight of words: Welcome President Lee Jae Myung

Korea in 10 words: (8) Gwangbeokjeol

How 'The Wailing' became the defining Korean horror movie

Why Korea is cooler than China

The Greatest Acting Performance in Korean Cinema History?

In search of sansin

Park Chan-wook’s forgotten masterpiece: A film about mental health and K-pop idols before the world was listening

Saja boys, shaman pop, and the ethics of self-sacrifice

Narrating Korean Life - Part 4: Along With the Mountain Gods

Korea in Ten Words: (7) Minsim

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