Seoul Takers

October 26, 2007 7:48 AM

Halloween Subway Where? Korea, of course!
posted by Kirth Gerson (20 comments total)

Disproving the "pics or it is fake" meme.
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:57 AM on October 26, 2007

I'm just going to go ahead and start weeping now, rather than wait for later.
posted by aramaic at 8:08 AM on October 26, 2007

I just have to say, awesome title.

"Bus Taker!"
posted by josingsinthehall at 8:33 AM on October 26, 2007

Bus Taker. OMGLOL.
posted by DU at 8:43 AM on October 26, 2007

WOW.
posted by ORthey at 8:46 AM on October 26, 2007

gah. im so jealous, considering i just rode a dreary E train this morning.
posted by Mach5 at 8:46 AM on October 26, 2007

I don't believe I've ever said the phrase "Man, I'd like to go to Korea" before, but thats pretty damn hip. And yeah, Mach5, the E and the 2 I took today don't quite compare.
posted by Aversion Therapy at 9:04 AM on October 26, 2007

Every year around this time I want to go wild and have a spectacular Halloween display, haunted house, costumes, party...the whole deal. But I can't get anyone in my boring suburbia to go along with me.

Thanks, Korea, for kicking me while I'm down.
posted by misha at 9:09 AM on October 26, 2007

Wow, this is really something. Here in Tokyo you occasionally get entire cars taken over by one advertiser, but there's NOTHING like this. These are phenomenal! Wish there was a bit of background info with these pics, though... When/where were they taken? Who designs these things? How often do these kind of subway car transformations take place?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:47 AM on October 26, 2007

I've never seen this, and haven't even heard about it. I've lived in central Seoul for five years.

I guess I should start asking around, I'd love to see it.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:54 AM on October 26, 2007

THIS IS REAL???

I am sending links to these photos to every last one of my students, so they can tell every last one of their friends and every member of their families and somewhere along the line, someone is going have the kind of power within the Japan Railway system to bring this sort of glorious visual entertainment, here!

Japan is already thoroughly addicted to Korean soap operas, pop stars, aesthetic treatments and food...how could we have missed out on this trend?

(First, of course, I've got to find out if it's really, you know, real.)
posted by squasha at 9:54 AM on October 26, 2007

Not nearly as elaborate, but still kind of scary.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:09 AM on October 26, 2007

This is really neat.

What's the deal with the potatoes though? I've never really thought of them a symbol of Halloween.
posted by quin at 10:13 AM on October 26, 2007

Maybe the potatoes are part of a harvest theme, instead?
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:26 AM on October 26, 2007

What's the deal with the potatoes though? I've never really thought of them a symbol of Halloween.

Potatoes were the original jack o' lanterns. They were carved out and lit way before pumpkins and squash entered the picture.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:57 AM on October 26, 2007

This is all sorts of fab. All other Torontonians should email Adam Giambrone for comment.
posted by jamesonandwater at 11:27 AM on October 26, 2007

It's real. A few years back, I was on the train four pictures down, with the feathers-in-a-tube contraption. I think the entire train was themed 'touch and feel' or something like that, and it was full of excited kids (and adults) going from one end of the train to the other, wandering through neon pink and green cars.

Oh, and the last two photos of kids in classrooms is a hilarious activity that never fails to crack me up: corpse play.
posted by suedehead at 4:13 PM on October 26, 2007

All of the photos after the first three -- which are only the halloweenish ones, and considerably less elaborate, clearly -- are several years old, as suedehead suggests, from a one-time-only installation.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:36 PM on October 26, 2007

Not sure which is worse--Korean subway decorations or McDonalds holiday displays in China.
posted by jsteffensen at 2:29 PM on October 27, 2007

I'm in Korea too and I haven't heard, seen or read anything about this either.
posted by Brittanie at 7:07 PM on October 27, 2007