Chan-Wook Park is one of the most popular filmmakers in his South Korea. Actually I heard about him before coming here. His big succcesses are well know in Italy, too.  Ok, of course, who usually watches Carlo Vanzina’s movies does not know Chan-Wook Park .

The most famous movies are those included in the so-called Vengeance Trilogy (even if It was not originally intended to be a trilogy):

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Original trailer (korean)

Oldboy (2003) Original trailer (korean)

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) Original trailer (korean)

Subjects are sometimes brutal but the the style and the feeling and music is wonderful. Wathcing them is a must before coming to South Korea. My favourite one is Old Boy.

 LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chan-wook

I have not seen such a sudden and big snow in Italy for long time even if my hometown is located in the northern part. It seems I had to come here in Mokpo in order to see a good white blanket.

Mokpo has more or less the same latitude as Palermo in Sicily Italy, but the weather conditions ar very different in winter time.

Compare for instance the weather report today (December, 7th 2008)

Palermo

Mokpo

The snow covered Mokpo for about two days: December 5th and 6th.

Some pictures taken from Shangria Beach Hotel:

A korean has two names: the family name is followed by a personal name.

Most of the family names are of one syllabe like Park (박), but a few unusual ones have two syllabes like Hwangbo.

The most diffuses family names are:

Kim, Gim ( 김 )

Lee, Yi, Rhee ( 이 )

Park, Pak ( 박 )

Choi ( 최 )

Jung, Jeong, Chung, Cheong ( 정 )

If the family name has two syllabes, the personal name has only one, so that either way there are three syllables in the full name.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

It is generally considered rude to address anyone by their given name in Korean culture, especially if you are speaking to elder people, and anyway to adults.

Among adults of similar status you can address the other by the full name, with the suffix ssi (씨) added. 

Whenever the person has an official rank, usaually you address him/her using the name of that rank (such as “Manager”). Several times you will hear the honorific nim (님) added. In such cases, the full name of the person has to be appended, although this can also imply that the speaker is of higher status.

Among children and close friends, person’s birth names are commonly used. 

SUGGESTED LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name

The korean national flag, Taegeukgi (태극기) takes its name from the taegeuk circle in the center of the flag. It is divided equally and in perfect balance. The upper red section represents yang and the blue lower section represents yin,  an ancient symbol of the universe.

The powerful cosmic forces that oppose each other, achive perferct harmony and balance: darkness and lightness, heat and cold, day and night, positive and negative…

The trigram bars give you the same ideas of opposition and balance. The three unbroken lines stand for heaven; the opposite three broken lines represent earth. At the lower left the fire is represented and at the top right the water. The white background shows the purity of the Korean people and their peace-loving spirit.

The flag was suggested by Qing Dynasty diplomat Ma Jianzhong in 1882 and the Taegeukgi was officially declared the national flag of Korea by King Gojong on March 6, 1883. The Taegeukgi was both a symbol of the independence movement and of resistance during the Japanese occupation and mere possession of the flag was punishable by death.

A popular variant in Korea is the Sam-Taegeuk (三太極), which adds a yellow lobe, representing man, to the red and blue.

Mokpo is a small town located in the South Western part of South Korea. At least Koreans say this is a small town.

Mokpo logo

  Based on my feelings it is not so little, but I am looking with my european eyes. The citizens are more or less 260.000, however someone continue naming Mokpo “a village”. Korean standard, in terms of city sizes is quite different from the euopean one, anyway even big cities are livable in Korea.

Some data about Mokpo:

Area 47.92 km2 (18.50 sq mi) / many new areas in development
Population (2006) 241,679 / growing fastly
Population density 5,196.5 /km² (13,459 /sq mi) / it will be higher and higher: korean people like very high block of flats.
Administrative divisions: 22 dong

mokpo from satellite

Links:

General information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokpo

Maps:

http://www.worldmapfinder.com/En/Asia/Korea/Mokpo/