WHS Korean Department held their 3rd annual Korean Culture Night on May 24, 2019 in the Performing Arts Center. Numerous performances related to korean culture were showcased. These performances included traditional dances, such as the fan dance, modern korean pop dances, a fashion show, a traditional drum routine known as Nanta, and a korean drama titled “깽,” (translation: Gang), an original production of the Korean 3 and Korean 3H classes.

  Joshua Han (11) was the director/producer of the drama. Although he was assigned with the task of managing this drama by Mrs. Lee, the Korean teacher, he was excited to work on this project with fellow classmates since he hopes to one day enter the film industry. For this project, Joshua had to plan the shoots, choose camera angles, direct while filming, and edit the scenes. While Joshua expressed his satisfaction for the outcome of the final product, he also shared a bit of what the process for creating this was like.

  Unfortunately, there were some obstacles that came up during filming. Joshua stated, “Finding a location was a big challenge. It was originally supposed to take place at 7-11, but communication with the company wasn’t very good so I was stressing out for a second. Julie knows the manager at Poke Bar, which is the place we ended up filming at, and he allowed us to film in there.”

  The script writers for the drama were Julie Lee (11) and Joanne Seol (11). While writing the script for the drama, Lee used various Korean dramas, such as Sassy Go Go, for inspiration. She has enjoyed watching Korean dramas from a young age and her love for Korean culture pushed her to learn more about it through the class and Korean Club. She stated, “What inspired me to do this [drama] was to known more than just Julie Lee from Korean class, but as Julie Lee, one of the scriptwriters for the KCN drama.”

  The cast of the drama was comprised of students from every grade. Playing a variety of charming characters were Irene Lee (12), Stephen Han (12), Crystal Chung (12), Thomas Elder (11), Jenny Kim (11), Noah Yi (11), Daniel Shin (11), Emily Cho (11), Justin Kim (11), Anandi Ahlawat (10), Jonathan Lee (10), Tobin Lee (10), and Joseph Choi (10). For many of these students, this drama was their first experience with acting.

  Irene stated, “This year’s KCN was a bit harder because I had to act (something I’ve never done) but I had fun with everyone filming. Joshua made my acting skills a bit bearable with his amazing editing and filming skills.”

  Hours of work were required by the students of the Korean 3 and Korean 3H classes in order to make this production possible. Every year Korean Culture Night has been able to shine a light on the hidden talents of West High students and many students are already looking forward to next year’s KCN.