A Korean Film Director On Modern Korea
I'm a fan of the films of Ki-duk Kim. They're grotesque in the Flannery O'Connor sense of the word. His movies are largely misunderstood and underappreciated at home. The NY Times profiles his vision in Lost Seoul*.

Here's a taste:

Kim questions the foreign values that have challenged Korea’s millenniums-old culture, altering what had been to hard-working South Koreans ‘‘our way of life.’’ But he readily admits that not all South Koreans share his pejorative view of Westernization and rapid change, certainly not those in the entertainment industry of which he is a part. Today, Seoul is Asia’s pop-culture capital, with teenagers and hip adults emulating stylish South Korean singers and movie stars throughout Asia, whether at nightclubs, karaoke bars or plastic surgeons’ offices. Kim describes a current generation gap in which parents lead traditional, family-oriented lives starkly different from those of their children — adoring fans of ‘‘Friends’’ and ‘‘Sex and the City’’ who pursue cash-rich careers and live alone in brand-new studio apartments,eating pizza and sandwiches, which require far fewer utensils and are less of a hassle to prepare.

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