South Korean actress-cum-boxer Lee Si-young’s win at the South Korean national team tryouts last month has sparked controversy after the Korean Amateur Boxing Federation (KABF) was accused of giving the star an unfair advantage to boost the sport’s fading popularity.
Lee, 31, edged out the 19-year-old Kim Da-som in a 22-20 decision in the 106-pound class to become the newest member of the South Korean national boxing team.
Although Kim seemed to have dominated the fight, the umpire, Jo Jong-deuk, determined it was Lee who landed more effective blows. Jo also said after the fight that at least a handful of Kim’s shots were open-handed blows, a term used to describe illegal hits with the inside of the glove.
According to KABF regulations, losers have 30 minutes to protest the decision but Kim’s party apparently didn’t raise questions until a day after the fight. Continue Reading »
Will Smith explained why he chose Korean American singer and rapper, Jay Park, to record the end credits song for his new sci-fi thriller After Earth, allkpop reports.
During the Seoul red carpet premiere, Smith and son Jaden, told the audience that the 26-year-old ex-2PM member’s song, ”I Like to Party” was picked following a recommendation by the Korean wife of Smith’s brother-in-law. Park made an impression on the Hollywood A-lister and he got the gig.
At the event, Park told the two-time Oscar-nominated actor that, for the first time in his life, he was “star struck” meeting Smith.
Photo by Jimmy Lee
Keeping It Real
Andy Park, a concept artist for Marvel Studios, brings comic book heroes and villains to life for the big screen.
by JIMMMY LEE
When Andy Park attends the Hollywood premiere of Iron Man 3 on May 3, along with Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, he will see the products of his creativity up on that silver screen. Having the opportunity to bring his wife to this star-studded event is just one perk of being a concept artist for Marvel Studios, where he gets to craft the cinematic look for the heroes and villains of the iconic comic book company.
Reaching this point took not only talent, but a whole lot of initiative, traveling a road—which included dropping out of UCLA—that his parents certainly didn’t want him taking. But when Image Comics offered him a job as a penciller back in 1995, college would have to wait.
“My first love was comic books. That’s what I dreamed of doing as a kid,” said Park, 37, who would go on to draw for the likes of Marvel and DC.
However, as an adult excelling at his profession, Park realized he wanted to expand his artistic horizons. Continue Reading »
A Los Angeles-based actor has been cast in a key role for the upcoming young-adult scifi movie, The Maze Runner.
Ki Hong Lee, best known for his role as Paul in ABC Family show The Nine Lives of Chloe King, will play Minho, a character who helps the main character Thomas, to be played by Dylan O’Brien of MTV’s Teen Wolf. The film is based on the New York Times best-selling novel by James Dashner.
Min Yong Lee, featured in the documentary Memories of Forgotten War, is pictured here (left) during a reunion with his brother in North Korea. Photos courtesy of Ramsay and Deann Borshay Liem.
War Wounds Remain Open
A new documentary explores the legacy of separation left by the Korean War.
by CHELSEA HAWKINS
It is a well-known reality that the stories and voices from the Korean War have long been muted. For such a bloody and longstanding conflict, little seems to be known about the “forgotten war,” even 60 years out. But with their latest documentary project, Memories of Forgotten War, Ramsay Liem and Deann Borshay Liem are hoping to reignite conversations about the legacy of the still unresolved conflict, which took place between 1950 and 1953.
Ramsay and Deann, who are brother and sister-in-law, wrote, produced and directed the film. Deann, a Korean American adoptee, has worked in film for over two decades; her work includes the Emmy-nominated documentary First Person Plural (2000) and the personal film In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (2010). Ramsay is a psychology professor at Boston College, where he specializes in community psychology and Asian American and Korean studies.
Memories of Forgotten War represents part of a much larger, multimedia project exploring the residual trauma of the Korean War, which left the peninsula divided. Born out of the Liems’ earlier oral history project and the accompanying gallery exhibit, “Still Present Past: Korean Americans in the Forgotten War,” the film centers on four survivor stories. The documentary’s release coincides with this year’s 60th anniversary of the armistice, which was signed in July of 1953. The filmmakers spoke to KoreAm last month about the project and the relevance of this history to Korean Americans today.
Why did you decide to make this specific documentary, and was there a specific story you wanted to tell through it? Continue Reading »
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