io9: Korea

In The Fox Sister, a Korean priestess hunts down the fox demon who stole her sister’s body

Lauren Davis — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 08:00:00 PST

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Thanksgiving may have put you knee-deep in family dysfunction, but at least your sister isn't a people-eating fox demon. In the webcomic The Fox Sister, a young girl witnesses the death of her entire family at the paws of a nine-tailed fox and seeks revenge on the demonic killer. The only catch? The fox is now wearing her sister's body. More »

Motion capture suits may someday allow you to control a robotic twin

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:30:20 PST

The applications of motion capture technology go beyond Andy Serkis hopping around as Gollum, whispering to his Precious. Korean roboticists are researching the ways in which motion capture could someday aid humans in controlling a mechanical (or dare we say, a mecha?) doppelganger. More »

Could self-aware cities be the first forms of artificial intelligence?

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:36:26 PDT

The cities of the future will be huge and super-dense — but will they also be alive? Could the increasingly complex systems needed to manage the next generation of megacities become our first true artificial intelligence? More »

South Korea loses contact with rocket immediately after launch

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:00:00 PDT

That's not a happy rocket-launch picture. South Korea lost contact with its Naro-1 rocket right after launch, and the Koreans believe it exploded at 43 miles. The Koreans were attempting to launch a scientific satellite to cope with climate change. More »

Tech giant Cisco goes into the business of building instant cities in Korea

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:15:11 PDT

Cisco is a Silicon Valley company that makes routers, and famously helped generate the "great firewall of China" to aid that country's government with internet censorship. Now they're creating an instant, high tech city in Korea, controlled entirely via internet. More »

Korean Pig Monster Movie "Chaw" Goes Splatstick

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:00:00 PST

If you've been drooling over the new Korean monster film Chaw, about a giant, bloodthirsty pig who eats people, we've got a treat for you. A new trailer shows off the movie's deeply goofy side. Plus, glimpses of the monster! More »

A Robot Who Can Be Your Real-Life Avatar

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:00:00 PST

One of the dreams of robotics has been to create a machine that can act as a remote version of its operator - like the movie Surrogates, only cool. Now a group of Korean engineers have brought us closer to this goal. More »

The Superheroes of the Far East Are About To Get Really Good

Alex Carnevale — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:20:00 PDT

The Busan International Film Festival in South Korea wrapped yesterday, and everyone was buzzing about two major superhero flicks hitting Asian countries this winter. The sequel to 2003's Cicak Man from Malaysia will hit theaters in early December. And audiences eagerly anticipate Jeon Woo Chi, a Harry Potter superhero flick budgeted at $12 million. Want to get prepped for these movies early? We've got a crash course in Eastern superheroes for you, from Super Inframan to the Spider-man-inspired Mercury Man (left), and beyond. More »

China Takes Over Sequel to "The Host"

Graeme McMillan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:20:00 PDT

We’ve seen it all before: A giant monster attacks and countries come together as a result to defeat it. But here’s a different twist: Monster attacks, and countries come together to recreate it. Well, sort of. In fact, the sequel to last year's awesome Korean giant monster movie The Host is actually being taken over by another country. More »

The Evolution of Urban Madness

Lisa Katayama — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:40:00 PDT

Korean-born, Barcelona-based artist Lee Jang Sub takes blueprints of city roads as they existed in different eras and overlays them on top of each other to create art that shows the way urban spaces evolved crazily over the centuries. Here you can see Paris, a jumble of roads that developers built without really thinking ahead to the future. This kind of haphazard, overlapping road construction is what creates chaotic city streets and traffic snares all over the planet. More »

Korean Movie Explores Human Emotions From a Cyborg Perspective

Lisa Katayama — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:00:23 PST

Welcome to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. If you've ever questioned whether you're really an alien or a cyborg, well, you're not alone. Young-goon, the protagonist featured in acclaimed director Park Chan-wook's latest film, I'm a Cyborg But That's OK, is sent to a mental hospital after she tries to wire herself into a machine she's building at a radio factory. More »

Teardrop Skyscrapers and a Metonymic Park in Seoul 2016

LISA KATAYAMA — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:00:34 PST

Eight years and $31 billion from now, Seoul, Korea's Yongsan business district's cityscape will feature a whole new set of super-tall, futuristic buildings. The project is led by a seemingly odd alliance between Samsung Corporation and the National Pension Fund Service. More »

Korea of Space — Bad Commies, No Kirk

grae — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:20:48 PST

Music-and-comics blog Armagideon Time offers more proof that the 1950s were a golden age for science fiction that offered wonder, amazement, and more than a little bit of patriotic xenophobia. Witness the lost classic "Korea Of Space", which AT describes thusly:

The entire time I was reading this story, I had the most powerful feelings of deja vu. I eventually figured out why. "Korea of Space" is remarkably similar in plot to the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed," only heavier on the Red Scare agitprop and tragically devoid of an over-the-top fight scene featuring William Shatner and Ricardo Montalban.

With a tease like that, how could you not want to check this out? More »

Could the Cloverfield Monster Ever Top This?

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:30:40 PST

We just told you about how Host 2, the sequel to last year's awesome giant-pollution-monster movie from Korea, would have multiple cool monsters. Well, here's one of 'em, from the first Host. Top this, Cloverfield weenies! If your monster were this cool, I bet you wouldn't be afraid to show it before the flick comes out. More »

World's Fastest Lens Tracks Mega-Lightning

charliejane — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:00:07 PST

South Korea's first astronaut will take action shots of the "mega lightning" in the Earth's stratosphere. Mega lightning starts 9 to 12 miles above the Earth, and shoots upwards into space, reaching the upper mesosphere 60 miles up. (Internet whackjobs claim this "super lightning" destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.) Ko San will use specially designed micro-machined equipment to record the phenomenon. More »