No. 3

No. 3 (넘버3) is a 1997 South Korean gangster comedy film starring Han Suk-kyu as the titular no. 3 man of a gangster organization who's aspiring to rise up the ranks and become the leader of his own gang. It was writer-director Song Nung-han's debut film.

Themes

In their Korean Film; History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination, Min Eung-jun et al. state that through his portrayal of gangster society in this film, Song allegorically criticizes all of contemporary South Korean society. Calling the film a "black comedy employing satire and self-reflexivity," Min says the film represents a revisionist impulse in contemporary Korean cinema for several reasons. It uses violence allegorically not as an expression of repressed sexuality, but as an expression of the absurdity of Korean society. Also, rather than focus exclusively on male aspirations, it simultaneously shows the desires of its female characters as well. Further, in satirizing Korean society, it does not exclude the bourgeoisie from its critical eye.

Anna Fedorova

Anna Fedorova (born 27 February 1990) is a Ukrainian concert pianist.

Biography

Fedorova was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, into a family of musicians, and began playing the piano at age five. She gave her first public recital when she was six, and she gave her national debut at the age of 7, at the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine.

Fedorova has given concerts in various halls across Europe, North America, and South America, including performances at the Concertgebouw in the Netherlands, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, and the Teatro Colón in Argentina. She has won 14 international piano competitions, including First Prize at the International Rubinstein in Memoriam piano competition in Poland, in 2009.

In 2008, she graduated from the Lysenko Musical College for Gifted Children. She is currently a student of Norma Fisher at the Royal College of Music in London and additionally studies with Leonid Margarius at the Accademia Pianistica Incontri col Maestro in Imola, Italy.

Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim (German: [baːrənboim], Hebrew: דניאל ברנבוים; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor, who also is a citizen of Palestine and Spain. He is general music director of the Berlin State Opera, and the Staatskapelle Berlin; he previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz and Willy Brandt Award. Together with the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. He has won seven Grammy awards for his work and discography. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German.