Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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Box Office: The Hobbit, Way Back Home, The Fake
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Opened Dec. 12 Adventure. Drama. Fantasy. Directed by Peter JacksonHobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) join 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to travel into the Kingdom of Erebor. The group is on a mission to defeat the fierce and greedy dragon Smaug in order to reclaim the dwarves’ homeland, Erebor. The dwarves were once prosperous and lived with great wealth but their kingdom was sacked by Smaug,
Dec. 13, 2013
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Stately ‘Mandela’ humanizes an African icon
As Nelson Mandela, Idris Elba towers over the rest of the cast in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” That’s literally true and perfectly accurate. Mandela was tall, as is Elba (of the “Thor” movies and “Takers”). And Elba manages both the voice and a hint of the presence of the great man.He tends to tower over the movie, as well, in this comprehensive but generally dry account of one man’s journey from upwardly mobile attorney to activist to revolutionary to statesman. There are no “name” actors a
Dec. 13, 2013
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Documentary filmmaker dies of cancer at age 50
Documentary filmmaker Lee Seong-gyou, who is best known for his 2010 film “My Barefoot Friend,” died on Friday. He was 50.He started shooting “My Barefoot Friend,” a film documenting the life of a 50-something rickshaw operator named Shalim living in Calcutta, India, in 1999. It took him more than 10 years to complete the film, which became the first Asian feature-length documentary to be nominated in the competition lineup of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2010.Lee was
Dec. 13, 2013
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Jeon Do-yeon speaks about her latest movie, motherhood
Even after winning the Best Actress Award in Cannes in 2007, celebrated actress Jeon Do-yeon says she still struggles with self-doubt. “I think that is why I work hard,” the 40-year-old actress said in an interview with reporters in Seoul, Wednesday. “I don’t think I ever started something with confidence. My close friends tell me, whenever I tell them I feel insecure, ‘You’ll be fine, you know you’ll do fine. You are just saying this.’ “And I usually end up doing fine, I usually pull it off. Bu
Dec. 12, 2013
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CGV, Lotte refuse to show new ‘Hobbit’ film in fee dispute
The latest installment of “The Hobbit” topped the charts Wednesday, even though Korean audiences cannot watch the film at theaters in Seoul run by CGV and Lotte Cinema. CGV posted an apology on their official website on the problems with screening the film: “The distributor of the film Warner Bros demanded a raise in the profit-sharing ratio in theaters in Seoul and we have refused.” Lotte Cinema also refused, meaning the film was not shown at its theaters in the capital area. With CGV and Lotte
Dec. 11, 2013
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What our dreams say about us
Filmmaker Zhang Lu’s dreams often have scenery of Beijing and Seoul all mixed together, making it hard for him to recognize where he actually is.The ethnic Korean-Chinese filmmaker, who was born and raised in China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, has been working in Seoul since last year, after many years in Beijing. Zhang, who considers himself a “stranger” wherever he goes, pays special attention to the dreams of others in his latest film.Titled “The Scenery,” the film features 14 migr
Dec. 10, 2013
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‘Gravity,’ ‘Her’ tie for LA Film Critics top honor
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association split between the space odyssey “Gravity” and the futuristic romance “Her,” lending no more certainty to an awards season that’s so far been full of contenders.The two films shared best picture in the awards announced Sunday by the Los Angeles critics, but “Gravity” was the top award-winner. The innovatively made, lost-in-space drama won for best director (Alfonso Cuaron), best editing (Cuaron and Mark Sanger) and best cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki).“H
Dec. 9, 2013
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‘Han Gong-ju’ wins Golden Star at Marrakech film festival
Young Korean director Lee Su-jin has won the Golden Star at this year’s International Film Festival of Marrakech for his latest film “Han Gong-ju.” “Han Gong-ju” tells the tale of a traumatized teenage girl, a victim of a horrible crime, who is forced to change schools and chooses to leave her family to live with her teacher’s mother. “My main goal with this film was to give courage to all the Han Gong-jus in the world who find themselves in the same situation,” said Lee in his acceptance speech
Dec. 8, 2013
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Box Office: Way Back Home, The Fake, The Hunger Games
Way Back Home Opens Dec. 12 Drama. Directed by Bang Eun-jinBased on a true story, “Way Back Home” begins when Korean housewife Jang Mi-jeong (Jeon Do-yeon) is asked by her husband’s longtime friend to bring a bag filled with diamonds to France. She arrives in France, but as soon as she sets foot in the airport she is arrested and police discover 17 kilograms of cocaine in her bag. She is forced to serve two years in prison in Martinique, an island in the eastern Caribbean, for alleged drug smugg
Dec. 6, 2013
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Director eyes Hollywood’s portrayal of the disabled in ‘CinemAbility’
A movie inspired veteran director Jenni Gold to seek a life in Hollywood behind the camera.“Tom McBride played a guy, confined to a wheelchair, in ‘Friday the 13th Part 2,” Gold says. “As a kid, what stood out to me was he was just like me, in a wheelchair. A guy who liked to hang out with his friends. I thought, ‘That’s AWESOME.’ He wasn’t some stereotype, the saintly guy or the bitter guy. He isn’t treated special. It’s ‘Friday the 13th.’ He gets killed like everybody else!”Such characters, th
Dec. 6, 2013
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Mandela inspired pop culture
NEW YORK (AP) ― Heroic in his deeds, graceful in his manner, sainted in his image, Nelson Mandela long served as both cause and muse in the entertainment community.From the 1960s, when he was a political prisoner and South Africa was under the laws of apartheid, right up to recent times, when the racist laws of the land had fallen and he was among the world‘s most admired people, Mandela inspired concerts, songs, poems, fiction and movies.Artists were equally drawn to the man and to what he stoo
Dec. 6, 2013
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U.S. losing silent film heritage, report finds
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― More than two-thirds of silent movies shot in the United States between 1912 and 1929 no longer exist, says the Library of Congress in a report Wednesday underscoring an urgent need to preserve old motion pictures.Out of the 11,000 films made on U.S. soil in the early years of cinema, just 14 percent of them, or 1,575 in all, survive in their original 35 millimeter format, it said.A smaller number exist only in foreign versions or in lower-quality formats, while five percent a
Dec. 5, 2013
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‘American Hustle’ named best film by N.Y. critics
NEW YORK (AP) ― The New York Film Critics Circle named “American Hustle” the best film of 2013, giving David O. Russell’s fictionalized Abscam tale an early jolt in Hollywood’s awards season. The film was also awarded best supporting actress for Jennifer Lawrence and best screenplay for the script by Russell and Eric Singer. The film, which doesn’t open in theaters until Dec. 13, is about a collection of FBI agents and con men that brought down high-profile politicians in and around New Jersey i
Dec. 4, 2013
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Coen brothers coy about their development
NEW YORK (AP) ― “If you’re trying to assign the trait of maturity to us, frankly, it won’t wash.”A conversation with the filmmaking brothers Ethan and Joel Coen has only just gotten started when Ethan, quite gleefully, puts a stop to any discussion of growth, evolution or development. Now in their late 50s, the Coens have a host of awards, including best picture for their tense, bone-dry Cormac McCarthy adaptation “No Country for Old Men.” Their last film, the much Oscar-nominated Charles Portis
Dec. 3, 2013
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Berlin Film Festival to honor Ken Loach
BERLIN (AFP) ― The 64th Berlin Film Festival in February will award veteran British director Ken Loach an honorary Golden Bear prize for lifetime achievement and present a retrospective of his work, organizers said Friday.Festival director Dieter Kosslick said the event would pay tribute to Loach’s brand of humanist cinema portraying the lives of working-class Britons and his outspoken political engagement. “Ken Loach is one of Europe’s great directors. Over his almost 50-year career, he has sho
Dec. 2, 2013
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Box Office: The Fake, The Hunger Games, The Counselor
The Fake Opened Nov. 21Animation. Thriller. Directed by Yeon Sang-hoA rural Korean town is on the verge of being flooded. Amid the gloom, a good-looking young minister enters the scene. He charms the villagers, and seems to have the ability to heal. He and his coworker tell the villagers they will build a church and a house where they will all be able to live together after the town is completely submerged, all the while periodically collecting money from them. Min-cheol, a man known in the vill
Nov. 29, 2013
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‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is bigger, better, broodier
The Districts are in revolt. People are being shot simply for raising their hands and whistling ― not because they’re trying to hail a cab (they’re too poor), but as a symbol of solidarity and protest.And Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) ― the girl from Appalachia with the fierce eyes, daunting archery skills and multi-demographic fan base ― is making trouble.“She’s become a beacon of hope for the rebellion,” a worried President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) confides to the new head ga
Nov. 29, 2013
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Ang Lee plans to make movie in Philippines
MANILA (AP) ― Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, who plans to make a movie in the Philippines, said Thursday that independent Asian filmmakers have a better chance these days of finding audiences around the world.The Taiwan-born director of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is in the country as a guest of Taiwan’s de facto embassy, which honored him with a special screening of “Life of Pi.” Lee told a forum with filmmakers and media that he was inspired by how the wo
Nov. 29, 2013
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Spike Lee riffs on ‘Oldboy’ in remake
Nobody ever accused Spike Lee of an overabundance of subtlety. He’s an unapologetically bold filmmaker, one who hasn’t shied away from using a tattered American flag or a “Dead End” sign as hard-to-miss metaphors. But this also works to his benefit: Lee’s films rarely fail to leave an impression. So that Lee would take on a remake ― or “reinterpretation,” as he calls it ― of Park Chan-wook’s grotesque revenge melodrama “Oldboy” is perhaps fitting. He’s one of few filmmakers who would take the or
Nov. 27, 2013
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U.S. remake of the film “Oldboy” receives criticism
The 2013 remake of “Oldboy” is under harsh criticism after its release on Wednesday, dashing hopes for those who were anticipating it to surpass the original 2003 film. The new remake of Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” was directed by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee. On the first day of release, 23 left negative comments on the U.S. film review website Rotten Tomatoes, while 17 reviewed the film positively though not for comparison with the original. One film watcher evaluated the film as “one
Nov. 27, 2013