Kim Eui-suk, new chairman of the controversy-plagued Korea Film Council (KOFIC), said he will regain public trust in the organization, after officially taking appointment Wednesday. It is the first time ever for a former movie director to take the position. Kim said his background as a film director will help him in the role. “I’ve seen the real problems and conflicts in the field because I’ve ...

Opera director Achim Freyer leads The National Changgeuk Company’s ‘Mr. Rabbit and the Dragon King’ The National Changgeuk Company of Korea has joined hands with Achim Freyer, the world famous German opera director, to introduce “pansori,” or Korean traditional narrative singing, to the world. Freyer, known as one of the best stage directors today, is in charge of the directing and stage/costum...

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and music companies EMI Group PLC, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America on Friday. The judge ruled ...

Seoul has gone through a lot in the past century, from Japanese occupation to the Korean War, and rapid industrialization to prosperity. Seoul Museum of History is holding two separate exhibitions featuring Korea’s capital in two different time periods that offer a rare glimpse into how the city has been transformed into what it is today. One of the exhibitions, “Seoul 1953-1963” showcases phot...

The Korea Furniture Museum, which hosted luncheon for spouses of G20 leaders during the G20 Seoul Summit in November, launched an academic program on Tuesday for spouses of foreign ambassadors to Korea and expat CEOs to help them discover traditional Korean heritage. While spouses of foreign ambassadors normally spend about three years in Korea, their exposure to Korean culture is relatively lim...

Hong Ra-hee, wife of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, recently returned to her post as director of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. Hong resumed to the post on March 16 and attended the opening ceremony of “Korean Rhapsody,” an ongoing exhibition at the museum, on the same day. “She planned to return in time for the Korean Rhapsody exhibition. But then the earthquake hit Japan and the ove...

Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson (MCT) Hollywood icon Scarlett Johansson, 26, turned up at Reese Witherspoon’s March 26 wedding with Sean Penn, 50, new reports said Tuesday. “Turning up at a wedding with your boyfriend is definitely a huge statement, especially that wedding. What it’s doing is announcing to the whole of Hollywood that they are serious,” a friend of Johansson was quoted as sayin...

Photographer Koo talks about finding beauty in bric-a-brac as he opens exhibition of his collection of miscellaneous objects As a boy, Koo Bohnchang liked to explore his father’s front yard alone rather than playing ball with his friends, a constant cause of concern for his parents. Little did they know that their boy would grow up to be a famous photographer. Koo, who is now 58 and a professo...

“Norwegian Wood,” “Confessions,” “Closed Note” and “Paradise Lost.” These Japanese films, set to be released in Seoul next month, have one thing in common: they are all cinematic versions of Japan’s bestselling novels. According to Cracker Pictures, one of local distributors of the films, this is no coincidence ― the trend of making book-based films has been popular in Japan for the past couple...

LOS ANGELES ― If the music to the Season 9, Episode 5 installment of Fox’s animated sitcom “Family Guy” had a relaxed feel, maybe it was because of the 104-degree mineral water. Glenn Morrissette helped orchestrate the score after a leisurely soak last October in the natural hot springs in the tiny northwestern Wyoming town of Thermopolis. Morrissette did his work from his recording studio on w...

Late composer Yun I-sang’s birthplace holds concerts, master classes, lectures TONGYEONG ― When the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra abruptly canceled its opening concert for the Tongyeong International Music Festival due to fear of radiation from Japan spreading to Korea, TIMF artistic director Alexander Liebreich said he was quite surprised and could not understand the decision. Despite the short...

Earthquake-driven plot of new multinational TV series to remain unchanged No one could have predicted the massive earthquake that hit the coast of Japan on March 11, especially not the team and cast of the forthcoming quake-centric drama, “Strangers 6.” On March 3, just nine days before disaster struck, a press conference in Seoul unveiled the ambitious joint collaboration among Chinese, Japane...

WARSAW (AFP) ― Six letters written by 19th century composer and pianist Frederic Chopin, thought to have been lost since World War II, were Thursday revealed by the Polish museum dedicated to the musical icon. Warsaw’s Chopin Museum said that it spent almost a decade trying to obtain the letters and dozens of other documents related to the composer after getting wind of them in 2003. The paper ...