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'Between Goodbyes' takes close look at adoptees reconnecting with birth mothers

"Between Goodbyes" is an amazing documentary by talented filmmaker Jota Mun that premiered in Korea and continues to make waves throughout the international film scene. It follows Mieke, an ethnic Korean who was sent to the Netherlands at a young age for adoption. The film focuses on Mieke as she experiences a moment many adoptees long for: reuniting with her birth mother. But her journey doesn’t stop there — she also meets her extended birth family. As moving as this reunion is, it is only the beginning. The film does a remarkable job of exploring such a reunion's complexities and emotional weight. It delves into Mieke’s perspective and offers something rarely seen in films — an intimate look at the birth family’s emotions and experiences. Often, in both fictional and documentary storytelling, the birth mother or family appears only at the end, their reunion portrayed as an unfiltered moment of joy. "Between Goodbyes," however, presents a more nuanced reality. Mieke’s birth mother, Okgyun, opens her heart to the audience, sharing the relief, happiness, stress and frustrat

Mar 9, 2025By Antonia Giordano
'Between Goodbyes' takes close look at adoptees reconnecting with birth mothers

LAUGHING THROUGH HISTORY 8 'Devious Teacher, Cunning Students'

“Bwahahahaha” is a weekly column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book “Kkalkkal Useum,” originally published in 1916. By G.S. Hand The joke I’m translating today features a teacher and students. The student-teacher relationship shown here isn’t idealized. In particular, the failed deception — the teacher’s attempt to control the students’ understanding, and the students’ ability to immediately see through it — is winningly true to life. The teacher pretends to follow moral norms while being secretly greedy and dishonest. And although the students admit to misbehaving, they pretend to be much more afraid of the consequences than they actually are. In the final scene the students clearly knew that eating the persimmons would not be fatal, and the teacher likely understands that, but he can’t criticize them without admitting to his own dishonesty. This impossible position explains why he’s lost for words at the end of the joke. What interests me about this situation is that even though this isn’t a moralistic text and the relationship dep

Mar 9, 2025
[LAUGHING THROUGH HISTORY 8] 'Devious Teacher, Cunning Students'

KOREAN TEMPLE ADVENTURES Meeting the artist at Baekryeon Hermitage

I’ve made it a bit of a personal mission to visit all of the traditional temples in my home province of South Gyeongsang Province over the past year. In total, there are currently 105 of these traditional temples. This little mini-adventure of my own creation has brought me to cities big and small. But in the process of completing one task, you sometimes complete a couple of others along the way. Occasionally, I’ve been asked whether I know, or if it’s known, who created a certain painting or statue at a Korean temple or hermitage. And while it’s sometimes known, oftentimes it isn't. The perception I had about the creation of Buddhist artwork and artistry changed after a visit to one of the 105 traditional temples in South Gyeongsang Province. Baekryeon Hermitage is located on the eastern slopes of Mount Jigul (896.9 meters) in Uiryeong, South Gyeongsang Province. Baekryeon Hermitage, which means "White Lotus Hermitage" in English, is said to have been founded in 1317. During the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty, it's said that Gwak Jae-u (1552–1617), who was known as the "Red Robe G

Mar 7, 2025By Dale Quarrington
[KOREAN TEMPLE ADVENTURES] Meeting the artist at Baekryeon Hermitage

BWAHAHAHAHA 5 'I Wanted to Smooth It Out'

“Bwahahahaha” is a weekly column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book “Kkalkkal Useum,” originally published in 1916. By G.S. Hand Everyone knows that kids say the darndest things. That’s my best explanation for why — perhaps surprisingly — the jokes in “Kkalkkal Useum” that depict grandfathers and grandsons are quite different from the ones that depict fathers and sons. The jokes portraying father-son relationships often involve unintentional insults. In "Three Brothers Talking Crap" (BWAHAHAHAHA 3), for example, I translated a joke in which three sons accidentally insult their father through a series of foolish verbal blunders. My sense is that the accidental nature of these insults is a necessary part of the joke, because showing respect to one’s parents is an important part of traditional Korean values. If these characters openly disrespected their father, that might be offensive enough to make them unsympathetic. And when an audience sees something as an actual breach of important moral standards they stop feeling comfortable laughing alo

Mar 7, 2025
[BWAHAHAHAHA 5] 'I Wanted to Smooth It Out'

Taiwanese sound poet brings onomatopoeic performance to Busan, Seoul

When Yang Yu-Chiao was studying at National Taiwan University, he was exposed to a recording of the Korean pansori play "Simcheongga," which has a passage in which the main character's blind father opens his eyes. "The dramatic performance and intense vocal tension deeply captivated me, and from that moment, I became very interested in traditional Korean music and performance art," Yang told The Korea Times. The inspiration he felt put him on a collision course with Korea, which he visited in 2023 to share his "Blackboard Scribophone" performance. He's coming back this weekend to do three performances in Busan and Seoul. But what can we expect out of this Taiwanese professional oral tradition and folktale narrator, interdisciplinary narrative artist and sound artist? If you view a video of one of his past performances, you'll probably see him babbling incoherently while making marks on a chalkboard. This may be daunting for the uninitiated. Yang combines sound poetry, traditional folk storytelling, writing and vocal free improvisation. "The theme of this tour focuses on locally created sou

Mar 4, 2025By Jon Dunbar
Taiwanese sound poet brings onomatopoeic performance to Busan, Seoul
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