Embassies in D.C. get protested for lots of things, but this one may stand out. Animal rights activists will gather this afternoon and march on the South Korean embassy, where they will protest the use of dogs and cats for food.

After creating an international incident when they attempted to sign a high-school pitcher, the Baltimore Orioles have been banned from scouting players in South Korea.

In most movie plots described as cat and mouse games, there’s a whole lot of chasing, a few close escapes, and eventual capture. But have you ever watched an actual cat play with a mouse? The catch happens pretty quickly. Then the cat stuns or injures the mouse to ensure that real escape is virtually impossible. What follows is an impossibly cruel game of hardly sporting catch, maim, release, and repeat, ending with a gruesome death and a tiny broken body placed lovingly at your doorstep as an offering.

I Saw the Devil is a cat and mouse game of the latter mold.

Whatever you do, don’t hire a nanny. It’s a message that comes up again and again in movies about the destructive force that can be unleashed when you bring a stranger into your house, in films like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, or William Friedkin’s schlocky The Guardian. One of the landmarks of Korean cinema hits on the same territory: Ki-young Kim’s 1960 film, The Housemaid, which addressed the pains of upward middle-class mobility via the story of a family that hires a young woman they can barely afford to help them cook, clean, and watch their kids. She then seduces the father, gets pregnant, causes the death of one of the family’s children, and basically reduces the entire household to a broken heap of destruction and sorrow. Fifty years later, writer/director Sang-soo Im has decided this is material that bears a modern reevaluation.

Police have now confirmed that the man responsible for yesterday’s horrific murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech is Cho Seung-Hui, 23, who grew up in Centreville, Va. Cho, a citizen of South Korea, graduated from Westfield High School in Fairfax County in 2003. As well, several of the students killed were from Northern Virginia suburbs, including Mary Read, 19, Reema Samaha, 18, Erin Peterson, 18, Leslie Sherman, 20, and Emily Hilscher,19. The Post has…

When Fusebox closed its doors last winter, we lost a truly significant art gallery in this city. Lucky for us contemporary art lovers, a local hub of talent, Irvine Contemporary, took over the 14th Street space in Fusebox’s absence. After a few months of tweaking the lights, adding some comfy furniture, and installing the new signage, Irvine officially opened its doors on May 12 with a bangin’ reception and fascinating new exhibit – Ju-Yeon Kim’s…

Damn it. The Post beat us to the punch on a witty title for this story. In an article entitled “District Adopts a Seoul Sister,” the Post today reports that the District’s family of city siblings has grown by one — Seoul, South Korea was designated a sister city yesterday, bringing the tally so far to 10. During a ceremony at the John Wilson Building yesterday, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-Bak…

We considered not even posting the Classical Music Agenda this week, given how few concerts there are to hear. (Our concert schedule for the month of August at Ionarts is the shortest it’s ever been.) Still, it would be pathetic for this DCist to shirk work this easy, so we promise to keep it short. Basically, it comes down to one of two instruments, cello or organ, and both are free. So, choose your poison….