Korea Special 05 - The Festival, Korea and I

this is the festival venue. It is quite a big festival in the city and there are a lot of booths for the public to involve in like workshops and stuff. There is also a big press release booth.

this is the cinema that showed my film "Cinema Jungon"

the mayor of seoul

opening ceremony as a cold freezing night. At first I want to stay behind and watch the opening film, but....i ended up cant stand the cold and go back to my hotel room instead and go to bed early. I even missed the opening reception which they told me later that it has a lot of delicious foods.

Korea Special 04 - The Han River - Tribute to "the HOST"

The Host - one of my all time favourite film. When I know that I got the chance of visiting Seoul, visiting the Han river became a very high priority. When I met Eunvy on the plane, we started talking about everything and film is one of the topics. We have decided to have a one day adventure at the han river and do things as the characters did in the film. This might sound silly to you but hey I don't care, I had fun! 

some of you might remember that this is the bridge area where the monster was hanging and jumping around like an acrobat.

This is the convenient store where the character works. And in this scene he was making fried octopus and beer to his customers. Where he intentionally "steals" two long octopus legs.

We had fried octopus and beer next to the river. We talk and laughed....such a beautiful monday afternoon!!!
I pretend to be throwing beer can down the river Han. Again, if u 've seen the film, u'll know why.

I can't believe that I get to see the great monster itself at last!!

Korea Special 03 - Day and Night Part II

Korean Mc Donald's, its the fist maccer that i 've seen that isn't using its original english title

8 nights of holidays passes just like.......that!

some street corners around the hotel area...i was trying to look for restaurants that has english menu...but again its hard.

phonebooth that i use to call home everynight!!

Mung Dong is great for shopping!! Looks really like japan!

We went to this pub called SKA after the dinner for the closing ceremony. People that went are mostly volunteers and with the technical team. I took the camera out, wanting to take a pic with this beautiful korean girl. The staff then quickly come towards me and told me that I am not allowed to take pics....so here it is...the only pic that i could take @ SKA.
This is the university area (Hungit University) and there are a lot of nice shops and trendy clothes for sale over there. We finishes the drink at around 5am in the morning and there were still a lot of people hanging around on the street!!

A very nice Karaoke.

Korea Special 02 - Day and Night Part I

This is a very nice shot of my bed in my hotel, its like the most comfy hotel I have ever stayed in my life. The only reason I can stay in such a posh hotel is because all the other guest invited by the festival could not make it and I ended up becoming the only guest in the festival! That's why they can allocate all their budget for me......haha lucky~

downtown in Seoul City~


a nice sunset view from the Han River Bank
I only took this two shots because this bridge looks like the one from Jules and Jim~

suburban Seoul 

This is a fence at the Seoul Tower. You must be wondering what are these locks for. They are locked up here by couples and young lovers......for luck in LOVE.

~ to be contined ~

Korea Special 01 - Friends

This is the first pic that I took with Eunvy when we met on the plane~

Her name is Eunvy and I met her in a very interesting way...............we met at the plane!! She was sitting next to me in my flight to Seoul. She start asking me if I am Korean and we started talking. One thing lead to another, we exchanged details and she kindly offered to show me around Seoul City and of coz she did.

We went to the Han River and spend the whole afternoon there. The main reason I want to visit this river so much is because of the movie the host, its one of my favourite korean movie about this mutated monster which was hiding in this river and starts capturing and eating people!! 

Anyway, I dont want to off topic too much~ she is very nice and kind and I thank her for showing me the city and came to my screening with her bf~

This young man....i cant even remember his name....he show us where the train station is when we finished having a walk at the han river. He reminded me of Luigi when he was young~....all so fat and cute.

Now, he is really the main main in my trip!! Junni is the guy that has been showing me and arranging all my hospitality needs and he has done a really great job!! He was assigned by the film festival to show me around and at first when I am communicating with him I thought he was Korean and I was worried that I can't communicate with him properly....but when I first see and talk to him at the airport.....all my doubts are gone as he is actually british. He was originally from Manchester~ I basically talk more english than most of my days in HK...which is great!!

His background was very interesting. His father is korean and he decided to come over to Seoul and studied Korean language for two years. Now, he speaks fluent korean and got himself a very nice korean gf...how cool was that!!

This again supports my theory is that to learn a language proper, date one of the girls that talks that language.

During the 8 days we spend together, we chat a lot....from korean history to customs and from his dreams to desires. He also show me how to order food which is very important in Korea as most of the restaurants there do not have english descriptions and of coz the people who work there can hardly speak any engish, so it is really hard for tourist who dont understand korean to order the food that they really want. But Junni show me this restaurant which is just right across the street from the cinema and its like 5 minutes away from my hotel and this restaurant soon became my canteen of this trip! 
This is Boek Heun Oh, he is a projectionist for the film festival and he asks questions in every screening! We became friends after the closing ceremony as we both drank a lot. And he keep buying me drinks and dont let me pay as he says it's "korean tradition" to treat tourists this way....i like this custom a lot haha! He is really friendly and he also agrees to have an adventure with me in Seoul. We ended up walking up the Seoul Tower and he tells me a story about the film industry in Korea.

Chloe is a volunteer at the film festival and she is very shy to me at the closing ceremony dinner and we started chatting. I ended up calling her on my last night in Seoul and take her to dinner~

I met a lot of local people in this trip and I am very proud of it. As I think it is terribly hard to meet local people when you join a tour or you are in a very tight schedule. But for me, I got the film festival as a base for me to meet new people and of coz the film festival is very kind enough to allow me to stay back for 5 days even after the film festival is a very generous gesture to me and this allow me to relax and chill out and feel Seoul like no other trip that I have ever experienced in my life. Understanding one's culture is always a very interesting subject to me and I really look forward to my next long holiday........I wonder where should I go next? Well...I got plenty of time to think about it.

Lost in translation? not really.....

last night was the closing ceremony of the film festival and it was much fun. I go have dinner with all the staff of the festivals and then all the crews decided to go to have a drink and dance at a local club called Ska.....

I 've always wanted to experience one's culture and of coz i decided to join them.....
the whole vibe of the club was so nice and everyone was having a great time. I experienced the strong friendliness in korean teenagers and this raises question in my head....

can Hong Kong teenagers be this kind to foreigners ? I seriously doubt that!!

I think koreans are really shy about speaking in english, but this do not apply after they have a few drinks of alcohol...well...they speak in broken english but it is more than enough for me to understand and being ab le to communicate with them. They are very curious about me and at the same time I am very curious about them. We ask each other really silly questions and I think this is the most enjoyable part of really understanding one's culture.

After the night club, the boys took me to have traditional pork intestine soup which apparently they said that it is good for one after they had consumed much alcohol~ taste nice and yea~

but the only thing that I have regretted is that it is the last day of the festival and I just hesitated to take a picure with this really cute volunteer which after I have a brief chat with her,.... I know that her name is candice and she studies radio frequency engineering and has been unemployed since. She is really tall has a really "Doll face" and during each screening I gets really excited because she will talk to me in korean....a bunch of words which i can't undedrstand but she say it really beautifuly with her tones and all.

I ended up going back home at like 6am in the morning and prepare for another big day at the electronic market.

** I went to the han river with Euncy ( the girl that I met at the plane) and it was again another fun night. You guys that havent seen the movie, please go download it or get a dvd.....i took lots and lots of funny photos and i even have friend octopus and drink beer along the river.....all so very nice!

I am now feeling a bit sad because holiday is about to end very soon!!

until next time

Tom