Here is a documentary I will need to check out once it is available on Netflix:
Korean American Kim Yong-man and his video rental store, Kim’s Video and Music, served as a cultural cornerstone in New York City’s East Village during the 1980s and ’90s.
It was an iconic destination for cinephiles due to its extensive collection of rare and eclectic movies, and it became a favored spot for renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Todd Phillips, and the Coen Brothers.
Kim’s store, which began as a small section of his laundry in 1985, expanded into a chain of 11 stores with 300 employees and 250,000 members at its peak.
Following its premiere in Korea last September, the documentary “Kim’s Video,” released Friday in New York and Los Angeles, delves into the story of the legendary “video king” and the peculiar destiny of his collection of 55,000 video tapes. It is also scheduled to debut in China on April 19 and in Japan on May 1.
The real question is why is there any South Koreans left in Haiti when you have a gang called the Cannibal Army running around killing people?:
South Korea has evacuated 11 citizens from Haiti via helicopter due to deteriorating security, the foreign ministry said Monday.
The ministry said they were airlifted to the neighboring Dominican Republic, adding that further details would be withheld to ensure the safety of other South Koreans in Haiti.
Last month, the government evacuated two citizens from the Caribbean country, as gang violence has gripped the island nation.
Haiti has seen a rise in violence and poverty since the assassination of then President Jovenel Moise in 2021.
Around 60 South Koreans are currently believed to be in Haiti.
Here is some good news for those hoping for better air in South Korea:
South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions are believed to have fallen for the second consecutive year in 2023, government estimates showed Sunday.
According to the estimates by the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth, South Korea’s emissions in the energy transition sector last year were estimated at 203.7 million tons, a 4.8 percent fall from 219.3 million tons in 2022.
Emissions in the industrial sector are also believed to amount to 244.7 million tons last year, a 0.4 percent decline from 245.8 million tons in 2022, according to the estimates.
It looks like this news anchor went on a bender a little to early in the day:
JIBS, a private broadcaster on the southern island of Jeju, has started disciplinary proceedings against one of its news anchors after a live news segment led to public outrage, with accusations that the anchor was under the influence of alcohol while on-air.
The controversy unfolded during the “8 News” live broadcast on March 30, when anchor Cho Chang-beom exhibited difficulty when pronouncing words and displayed unnatural behavior, raising suspicions among viewers.
During the broadcast, the anchor struggled with pronunciation, notably stumbling over a sentence about the start of election campaign material distribution. He fumbled words like “candidate promises” and “voting precautions” multiple times. There were moments when the screen remained without any commentary from the anchor for roughly 7 seconds.
It would be great if the Korean government told him no on acquiring citizenship since he waited until he was old enough to avoid mandatory military service:
Shin Yoo-yeol, front row second from left, head of Lotte Corp.’s future growth office, listens to Lotte Innovate officials during CES 2024 in Las Vegas in this Jan. 10 file photo. Courtesy of Lotte Innovate
Speculation is growing that Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s oldest son, Shin Yoo-yeol, also known by his Japanese name, Satoshi Shigemitsu, may give up his Japanese citizenship this year to be naturalized as a Korean citizen, as he turned 38 years old on Saturday, according to industry officials, Sunday. At this age, one can acquire Korean citizenship regardless of the completion of military service.
The heir apparent, who currently assumes executive positions at Lotte’s holding company and its health care subsidiary, was born in London in 1986 and grew up in Tokyo. After joining Lotte in 2020, he has worked for his father’s company in Korea and Japan.
Due to his frequent attendance at the conglomerate’s important events recently, he has been expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, who gave up his Japanese citizenship at the age of 41 in 1996 to acquire Korean citizenship that year without completing military service. At that time, men younger than 40 were not allowed to be exempt from military service.
It appears the strike by Korean doctors to stop President Yoon from expanding medical school students is beginning to work. The Korean public may want to have more doctors, but the current strike denying them care now is impacting the ruling party in election polls:
President Yoon Suk Yeol reaffirmed his determination to expand the admissions quota for medical schools, Monday, urging the public to support the scheme, which he believes is crucial for safeguarding public safety.
However, at the same time, he left room for dialogue, saying doctors should come up with a unified alternative proposal if they want to reduce the number of new slots. This appears to be an effort to address the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) demand for the president to display greater flexibility on the issue, which is impacting support for the ruling bloc ahead of the April 10 general elections.
In a televised 51-minute address to the nation, Yoon outlined his rationale for adding 2,000 new slots and criticized doctors for walking off their jobs for nearly 50 days to protest the government plan.
You can read more at the link, but if the doctors want to cut a deal with President Yoon they better do it before the election. Whether Yoon’s ruling party wins or not; after the election he will have no incentive to strike a deal to end the strike.
To be fair a growing number of students may be overweight, but compared to U.S. obesity levels South Korea is doing way better:
The percentage of South Korean students who are overweight or obese inched down in 2023 compared to the year before, but a growing percentage of students were categorized as heavy drinkers, a government report showed Thursday.
Some 29.6 percent of elementary, middle and high school students across the country fell into the overweight or obese categories, according to the joint report by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. This figure marked a slight decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the year before, and of 1.2 percentage points compared to 2021.
1/ As @benjaminaengel notes, extremely disturbing scenes are unfolding in South Korea, where a far-right politician named Park Jin-jae is conducting sickening vigilante "arrests" of migrant workers. This is one of the results of hate rhetoric going more of less unchallenged here. https://t.co/8vzkKiyF1tpic.twitter.com/XA246NyWhp
I have seen the Yale, National Geographic, and Discovery apparel in Korea, but never CNN or BBC. Lockheed Martin has got to be the weirdest fashion branding. Has anyone else seen any other weird fashion branding in South Korea?:
On Seoul’s streets today, seeing someone clad in a CNN hoodie, Kodak pants, Yale socks, a Discovery jacket, a National Geographic backpack and a BBC Earth baseball cap may not seem out of the ordinary.
The presence of logos from global non-fashion brands, spanning academia, media and sports, in Korean everyday wear seems to be only growing, now including unexpected entrants like arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. (…..)
In the case of Yale, its apparel line was launched by the Korean fashion company Words Corporation in 2020 through such a licensing deal. The same goes for the recently launched Lockheed Martin streetwear collections, manufactured by the local firm Doojin Yanghang Corp.
You can read more at the link, but basically clothing manufacturers license logos from corporations that have brand appeal in South Korea. They find putting them on clothing sells in the Korean market. When it comes to Lockheed Martin they are the manufacturer for both the F-35 and THAAD which explains why they have brand recognition in South Korea.
