Next Stop Seoulywood

KOFFIA is upon us again, how lucky are we?
Once a year The Korean Film Festival in Australia tours our east coast.
Starting in Brisbane (14-18th Aug), sailing through Sydney (21-29th Aug) and ending in Melbourne (5-11th Sept). This years theme is the many faces of Korean Cinema.

Not only is  it packed with South Korean Cinematic yumminess (check the program) but for the second year running they are running a short film competition.
There are some good prizes up for grabs and they will be decided by an illustrious jury that always includes a guest filmmaker from South Korea. This year we welcome Moon Byoung-gon.
Ten films are short listed from the entries and screened in Sydney (the home of the festival and of the Artistic Director Kieran Tully). This year you can catch them at the Event Cinemas in George Street on Sunday 25th August, starting at midday.
In 2012 I entered an ode to my favourite Korean director Hong Sangsoo but the feedback I got was that a lot of people didn't 'get it'. It relied on not only knowing this director's film work but specifically knowing the trailer for one of his films. This year I approached the competition in similar fashion to last years entry The Way He Arrived, short, sharp, sweet, with the minimum of fuss but I opened up the subject matter to a wider audience.
It's a little story about an audition. Ian Dixon plays the role of a Director who wants to break into the Korean film market with his next film and he is casting for a Korean speaking woman (Joanne Tran) to fill one of the roles, problem being he can't speak Korean, oh and she's not Korean!
So what appears to be a very spooky scenario around the casting couch quickly gets subverted with the woman fully taking advantage of the director's ignorance and prejudice. It even features Google Eyes or Google Glasses and everyones most accurate language aid Google Translate.
She gets what she wants and he is left happily in his blissfully ignorant world.

This films satisfies a lot of wants, I got to play with language, dubbing, actors and I got to use some music from Nylon Pink, The New Black, an original not one of their K-POP covers.
I didn't make it to the screening last year but this year I'm going to blitz Sydney for the day and check out all the other films in the screening.
And the bonus this year???? There is always a bonus with KOFFIA
This year they the session will also include a special screening of Jury 주리, the acclaimed directing debut of Kim Dong-ho, former Festival Director of Busan International Film Festival.
I saw this short at MIFF 2013 and it's one of the best shorts I've seen for a long time. 
Should be a lotta fun.

 

And as for the rest of the festival? I'll catch it when it's in Melbourne. See you there?

Box Fresh

Box Fresh.
Heard the term today.
Funny language.
Brand new, fresh out of the box. esp with sneakers.
We must talk Unboxing Videos one day, ...fascinating genre.
They'd be very Box Fresh
The latest cover from , Just back from Japan, Nylon Pink's version of BIGBANG's Monster
featuring Scotty the Kid.

Here's the original.

And here's some more

I reckon they should cover this one from Rurouni Kenshin

Nylon Pink - K POP gets Rocked

Coming out of LA, California USA all grrrll band Nylon Pink have been honing their skills in the Dark Art of the cover song. Not just any song but.
They have been picking the cherries of the 'go nuts' music phenomenon of K-POP.
Pop Music in Korea.
Sounds odd? maybe, until you look at the size of this industry.
Sometimes slightly twee, usually quite epic, love it or hate it, knowing Psy is just scratching the surface.
There is Sistar, Girls Generation, 2NE1 (twenty one), T-ara (tiara) and a whole lot more.
PS these are just the girl groups, plenty of boy ones too.

I don't really get the highly manufactured looks, choreographed performances, the miming but caught wind of this whole thing through the epic film clips of the band T-ara.
Day by Day is an epic 20min, big budget post apocalyptic/sci fi showcase video clip from T-ara that is more film than music clip. Check out the costumes, the sets, the camera moves etc. OK the story may not be great but it is narrative.
This outfit seems to have laid claim to the filmic music video promotion title but the others also plough plenty of bucks or Won (KRW) into their clips too.

But the music always got in the way for me, good songs but a bit too froth and bubble for me.
That is until I stumbled onto Nylon Pink.
For starters they hold and play instruments, they translate the lyrics to english but most importantly they rock the froth and kick the bubble. Oh yeah they kinda look good too. (smiley face emoticon)
They describe themselves as Hello Kitty on Acid!

Here's a couple of of their versions along side of the originals so the comparison can be yours.

I am the best - 2NE1


I am the best - Nylon Pink


Gee - Girls' Generation


Pretty light on eh?

Gee - Nylon Pink


There are others  like Hyuna's Ice Cream and Big Bang's Blue (they're a boy band) but these girls also do their own music.
They aint just a cover band but the covers are a clever way to raise ones' profile.
Nylon Pink are a self funded, Indie rock/pop outfit and they've been at it for over four years.

Now if you are in Japan you can catch them as they will be touring at the end of March and early April 2013 and to help cover the costs of such a tour they are running a KickStarter campaign.
So if you wanna get behind them you can check em out live, or maybe pitch in some bucks ($US) or even join their global army of Ninjas (social media promoters)

They could sure use your help at this stage with only 3 days to go