Showing results by narrator "Earl T. Kim" in All Categories

In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence.

A meticulously observed, gorgeously-crafted snapshot of gay culture in the pulsing early years of the tech boom, Gaysians renders its hilarious, flamboyant, human protagonists with love and individuality, showing tenderly the particular joy of queer friendship and yearning.

One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he’s sure he won’t be able to hide for long. The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting.

When Tooru Kamiya is pushed into falsely confessing his love to Maori Hino, she tells him she’ll date him on three conditions. 1) Don’t talk to her until after school. 2) Keep any communication between them concise. 3) Don’t really fall in love. Unfortunately, he isn’t able to keep the last rule-and when he tells her how he feels, she reveals that she has an illness that prevents her from remembering anything that happened the previous day, and that she uses a diary to keep track. But Tooru is determined to build a relationship with her, one day at a time…

Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels.

Tooru Naruse’s life at university was mundane—until he met Izumi Wataya. Having fallen in love at first sight, he confesses his feelings for her, and she agrees to date him on one condition: He must promise never to fall in love with her. Thus, their pretend relationship begins—but Izumi cannot forget about her past love, and the attempt is short-lived. Hoping to learn who that person was and the reason behind her fleeting wistful expressions, Tooru reaches out to Izumi’s best friend from high school, Maori Hino. However, maybe some things are best kept secret…