안녕하세요, it’s Ari, your friendly Korean source and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about Korean movie recommendations, a line from BTS’s speech at the White House, and a comfort food recipe. Let’s start!
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🎬 Stranger Korean Movie Recommendations
I just finished watching Stranger Things season 4, part 1 and I’m obsessed with it! The series has always been my all-time favorite Netflix show (along with Money Heist) but season 4 was beyond my expectation. I don’t want to spoil you. Just watch the series! You won’t regret it. Even if you get a little bored with long episode lengths at first (over an hour), please watch at least till episode 4 which is crazy good! 🙃
The Korean title of Stranger Things is 기묘한 이야기 which literally means ‘strange story.’ I always think it’s a really good title because whenever I watch the series, it feels truly strange. The series is about mysterious events happening in Hawkins, a fictional small town in the U.S. during 1980s. I’m not good at watching monster movies, so I felt a little uncomfortable to watch at first. But as I watched the series, I learned that the uncomfortable feeling is a part of the fun. After all, it’s about a ‘strange’ story.
There are many good Korean movies that are about strange stories. The ones that could make you feel uncomfortable at first but you’ll eventually fall in love with, just like I did with Stranger Things. The followings are my recommendations.
1. Oldboy 올드보이 (2003)
This movie was a sensation when it was released back in 2003. It's based on a Japanese comic book of the same title and it's directed by Park Chan-wook who recently won Best Director at 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The movie is about a man who suddenly got kidnapped and imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing who kidnapped him and why he got imprisoned. After 15 years, he got released and he finds out shocking truths. One of them will blow you away.
2. The Handmaiden 아가씨 (2016)
Another strange but fantastic movie made by Park Chan-wook, the director of Oldboy. According to Wikipedia, The Handmaiden is an erotic psychological film which is inspired by the 2002 novel Fingersmith by Sarah Walters, with the setting changed from Victorian era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. The movie is consisted of 3 parts. In part 1, a con man plans to seduce a Japanese heiress named Lady Hideko, then marry her and commit her to an asylum in order to steal her inheritance. He hires a pickpocket named Sook-hee to become Hideko's maid and encourage Hideko to marry him. It’s filled with beautiful scenes and lines. Even the trailer ☝ is a piece of art.
3. The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion 마녀 (2018)
If you love a teen girl with super power, you’ll love this Korean horror action movie. The Witch is about a poor country girl living on a farm. One day she auditions for a national TV singing contest to earn money for her financially struggling parents. After she showed off her singing and other special talent which is to make a microphone levitate, she got visited by a group of gunmen. And she learns a shocking truth about her origin. The heroine’s story and power are a lot like with the ones of Eleven in Stranger Things. The heroine’s superb acting and a big plot twist at the end will take your breath away!
🎤 Mic Drop- BTS visits the White House
Today’s mic drop line is something special💜 Recently, BTS visited the White House to meet the U.S. President Joe Biden and speak up about anti-Asian hate crimes. During the visit, the members talked about the issue in both Korean and English. And I picked a line from Jimin’s Korean speech, (Click to play the above video to listen to a part of his speech ☝)
최근 아시아계를 대상으로 한 많은 증오범죄에 굉장히 놀랐고, 또 마음이 안 좋았는데요.
The line means, “We were devastated by the recent surge of anti-Asian hate crimes.” This is what the White House YouTube channel translated. There are two takeaways in this sentence. First one is 증오범죄 which means ‘hate (증오) crimes (범죄).’ You’ll see this word often when you read Korean news about hate crimes. Second one is 마음이 안 좋다 which means ‘to feel bad/sorry (about something bad)’ It’s a very common and casual expression to show one’s sympathy about a bad or tragic event.
Words in the line,
최근 Recently
아시아계 Asians
대상으로 하다 V. To target
많은 A lot of, many
굉장히 Greatly, overwhelmingly
-에 놀랐다 To be surprised/shocked by - (past tense)
👄 You can practice speaking the line on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other your favorite podcast platforms. Don’t forget to send me your voice message 👇 If you send it by 4 pm Wednesday, June 15th ET, your voice will be on the next podcast episode!
🥘 Potato Sujebi
If you’re looking for comfort food, I got you covered! 수제비 ☝ or sujebi is one of comfort food that Korean moms make for families. It’s hand-pulled dough soup with vegetables. (수 means ‘hand’) You make dough with flour, pull apart the dough into thin small pieces, and then put them in boiling vegetable stock. You can make many different kinds of sujebi. Add grated potato in dough or add sliced potato in stock to make 감자(potato) 수제비 which is the most common one. Or you can add some seafood like clam in stock to make 해물(seafood) 수제비. Watch the English-narrated 1-min cooking video and comfort yourself! 🥰
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I’ve seen both Handsmaiden and Old Boy! So so so good! I’m looking forward to now giving Witch: Subversion a watch :)