The film “Miss Granny” is a comedy about a foul-mouthed widow in her seventies magically transformed into her twenty-year-old self. The film’s preview was held on January 23 in the form of cinema concert, in collaboration with the Korean band Rose Motel. Here’s film columnist Kim Se-yun.



It was more of a concert than a preview. It featured actress Shim Eun-kyung, who played the leading role in the film, and the Korean rock band Rose Motel, who sang the songs played in the movie. It was a new attempt. When promoting a movie, it is important to publicize it with the help of well-known celebrities. Rose Motel got popular through TV shows and the band’s popularity was likely to translate into the movie, too. People who didn’t know about “Miss Granny” probably got interested in the movie through Rose Motel.

This song “When You Go to L.A.” was released 36 years ago, but thanks to its inclusion in the movie and the collaboration work with Rose Motel, even the younger generation can now sing along with it. Here’s film columnist Kim Se-yun again.

It’s a 1978 song, but the performance and adaptation of Rose Motel modernized the song. The older generation would feel familiar with it, while the younger generation would accept it as a new song performed by their favorite band. It became a song for people of all generations.



Usually movie promotion tours consisted of a preview with celebrities and the movie’s director and cast members making appearances at theaters and TV shows. But “Miss Granny” chose to collaborate with a music band and host a cinema concert. It’s become trendy in Korea’s cultural scene for artists from different fields to collaborate in order to generate more enthusiastic and far-ranging responses.

An unusual performance combining stillness and dynamism took place on January 28th at Seoul Arts Center. It was a performance centering around hanbok, Korean traditional costume, titled “Color Space.” The beauty of hanbok was not illustrated through a fashion show, but through a performance featuring dancers dressed up in hanbok. Here’s Ms. Park Seon-ok, CEO of Hanbok Art Yeobaek, who produced the show “Color Space.”

It just takes a couple of minutes at a fashion show to show off an outfit. It’s too short to demonstrate the beauty of hanbok. It may be possible for western style clothes, but not for hanbok, because hanbok can take many shapes. When it’s laid flat on the floor, it’s just a piece of clothing, but it becomes wonderful clothing when a person wears it and moves about in it. This show was designed to express hanbok’s versatility and dynamism.

This hanbok performance is a collaborative event between dancers and the traditional folk music company called “The Gwangdae.” The show is about how a little girl playing with hanbok fabric meets with a band of clowns, who teach her how beautiful hanbok can be. The clowns show her how to drape it on her body elegantly, making her realize the ever-changing appeals of hanbok.

Four clowns appear in front of a girl clad in a white dress and play the flute for her. Then they take out habok fabrics from the red, yellow, blue, and white pouches they were carrying, and soon the dancers dressed in hanbok fill the whole stage.

The stage becomes more splendid and the girl is enchanted by all the colors and flowing shapes. The dancers dressed in hanbok move in graceful steps to accentuate the gently curved lines and classy colors of hanbok.

The band of clowns and hanbok-clad dancers conclude the mesmerizing performance. Now the last part of this collaboration must be completed by the audience.



Following the clowns’ instructions, the audience plays with the hanbok fabrics provided in advance. The audience members cover their faces with the fabrics, hold them up and then wave it like a flag, and the clowns step down to the spectator seats to help them play around with the fabrics.

Hanbok was the star in this stage-play-slash-fashion-show. It was a fusion performance in which various genres like modern dance, video art, and percussion music were combined to bring out the beauty of hanbok. Judging from audience reactions, this hanbok performance “Color Space” achieved what it set out to do.

- I’ve only seen hanbok fashion shows, so this performance was very new to me. It was nice, because I was able to get more involved in the show. I was worried it would be boring, but the music was interesting and all the outfits were so beautiful that time just flew by.
- It was very nice. Korean music, tales, songs, and dance were all combined to boost the appeal of hanbok. The part where the audience was invited to participate was very different and having a little girl play a major part in the show was a nice touch.
- It felt like a modern fashion show. I’m majoring in fashion design, and this hanbok show broke the stereotype of hanbok, while emphasizing the unique style of Korea.

K-pop star Rain released his new song at KBS’s music program Music Bank on January 17. Rain’s long-awaited single “La Song” drove his fans wild at the show.

Rain owned the stage that day to the delight of his countless fans. But a week later he introduced another version of “La Song.”

In that day’s show, gone was his hot, sexy dance and there was only a dandy-looking guy dressed in a 60’s style suit with his hair gelled back. The only hint that he was still Korea’s biggest heartthrob was a kiss mark on his left cheek.

When the first verse of the song was about to be over, Rain shouted out the name of his singing partner, Tae Jin-ah, the famed Korean traditional pop singer.

With his head wrapped in a bandana and wearing a fur coat, Tae Jin-ah appeared alongside Rain and sang in unison with the younger K-pop star. Tae Jin-ah even sported a kiss mark on his right cheek to match the one on Rain’s left. The audience went wild at the two legendary performers’ perfectly synchronized act.

The joint performance of 32-year-old Rain and 61-year-old Tae Jin-ah went viral immediately after it was first aired on Music Bank. But their collaboration was planned in the beginning, says culture critic Kim Heon-shik.

Rain and Tae Jin-ah’s “La Song” was originally a user-created music video. An internet user had spliced and combined Rain and Tae Jin-ah singing at different venues and posted the video on the internet. The video drew wide online attention, and Rain and Tae Jin-ah eagerly included it in their act. So it was actually collaboration between an artist and a fan. This performance was especially meaningful, because it involved an ordinary internet user and was shown on national TV.

The catchy refrain of “La Song” is sung in Tae Jin-ah’s style, and the popularity of the collaborative act compelled Rain to include it in his new regular album. The cooperative version of “La Song” propelled Rain back to stardom after a four-year hiatus. Here’s culture critic Kim Heon-shik again.

Two totally different music genres were combined to create this unexpected result. It was something new to see an unlikely pair of a K-pop singer and a traditional Korean pop singer perform together. Also, their age difference won our interest. Their collaborative work was a surprise hit because they never expected such an extraordinary public response.

There have been some collaborative pieces among musicians, but they were usually between artists of different genres. The latest trend in collaboration, however, is not only between different genres, but also between different generations, like Rain and Tae Jin-ah. Here’s culture critic Kim Heon-shik again.

Collaboration is done among different genres to create synergistic effects. But the trend in 2013 and 2014 is closing the generation gap. Balladeer Shin Seung-hun recently released an album with the hip hop rappers, Dynamic Duo. Such collaboration between older singers and younger, more hip singers seems to meet the evolving demands of today’s music lovers.

That was “Hello,” the title track from Korea’s incomparable pop star Cho Yong-pil’s 19th album released in last April. “Hello” became an instant hit not only because it was Cho’s comeback track after a 10-year break, but also it was collaborated with rapper Verbal Jint.



The impish IU sang her new song “Child, Walk with Me” with a much older Choi Baek-ho. Culture critic Kim Heon-shik says there is a reason why artists of different generations and genres are working together more frequently these days.

The K-pop market is saturated now. There should be new attempts and new creations, but that’s hard to do in the confines of conventional music. So musicians are creating a new realm by coming together with other musicians. It’s not a merger of musical instruments or genres. It has to do with two different people connecting with each other. I think pop music is recreated when a musician meets with another musician. The effect is very positive and I foresee more of such collaborative efforts in music.

Overcoming the boundaries of genre and generation is the key to successful collaboration in pop culture. The public sees something fresh in unexpected combinations of artists and people of different age groups get a chance to bridge the generation gap by sharing their feelings about the collaborative works. With such positive effects driving the popularity of collaborative works, there are likely to be more artists of different areas working together in the Korean culture scene.