Bruce Fulton
A horrific study of clashing beliefs about marriage and parenthood on film
Have you ever viewed a film and thought to yourself early on, I know how this will end? I must confess to having made this assumption at the beginning of Seire, in which a...
A compassionate film about a woman’s alienation
In present-day South Korea “aloners” constitute the country's so-called “1conomy” — restaurant, food-service, entertainment, and leisure enterprises geared to a population of singles who prefer living alone and eating, drinking, and entertaining themselves unaccompanied, to...
Two young adult novels explore the rigorous K-Pop training system
Focusing on the rigorous K-Pop training system in Seoul, Korea, these two novels break new ground in an already rich body of young-adult fiction by Korean-American authors. Both novels are deeply informed, Shine by...
“I Am Sun Mu” follows the struggles of a North Korean defector artist
In Adam Sjöberg’s film I Am Sun Mu, Sun Mu is an artist and defector from North Korea who has exhibited throughout the world and is now about to hold his first solo exhibition...
Three Friends and the Collusion of Culture
Don Lee has set himself a daunting task in this, the successor to his Edgar Prize-winning “Country of Origin” and his second novel, “Wrack & Ruin.” He utilizes a well-worn topic —“the way we...
My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store
First, a few words on what this book is not: It’s not a memoir, it’s not a compilation of generalizations about the Korean immigrant experience, and it’s not self-selling (self-serving?), Author’s Note protestations to...