Most Popular
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10-man S. Korea lose to Indonesia to miss out on Paris Olympic football qualification
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Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
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Second Gimpo civil servant found dead, after apologizing for not finishing work
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DP leader says he will meet Yoon without conditions
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First-ever meeting of president, opposition chief set to finally happen
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NewJeans' singles, Japanese debut to proceed as planned, despite Hybe-Ador feud
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Experts raise concerns about Japan putting pressure on Naver over Line
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Samsung mobile chief, Google device head meet in Seoul
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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Ship linked to NK arms shipments to Russia is moored in China: State Dept.
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Kim Ki-duk becomes 1st Korean director to win top film prize at Venice
Gruesome morality tale ’Pieta’ tops Venice Kim Ki-duk received the Golden Lion award for his 18th feature-length film “Pieta” on Saturday to become the first Korean director to win the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.Venice, along with Cannes and Berlin, is considered one of the three most prestigious European film festivals. The film fests are often called the “Big Three.” No Korean directo
Sept. 9, 2012
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Box Office
Pieta (Korea)Opened Sept. 6Drama. Directed by Kim Ki-duk. A man (Lee Jung-jin) lives as a brutal loan shark, making money by mercilessly threatening people to pay their debts. The solitary man, an orphan, has nothing or no one to lean on and hurts people shamelessly without realizing the pain he causes. One day, a mysterious woman (Jo Min-soo) appears claiming that she is his mother. The man rejects her at first, but gradually becomes attached to her accepting her into his life. He eventually de
Sept. 7, 2012
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‘The Words’ is a drama 12 years in the making
There are two questions on the table during a recent interview regarding “The Words.” The first, to Bradley Cooper, is: What role did you play in helping the small independent movie with the big stars and bigger ideas get made?The second, to the writing-directing team, is: What’s the real scoop?“Why would you think I wouldn’t tell you the real answer?” asks a playful Cooper, who, at 37, is at a career point where just dropping his name could make or break a project. Then he laughs at the explana
Sept. 7, 2012
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‘Pieta’ tipped for Venice win
VENICE, Italy (AFP) ― South Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” and U.S. director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” are tipped as the critics’ favorites to win the coveted Golden Lion award on Saturday night.The two are among the 18 movies in competition at the world’s oldest film festival in Venice where stars, auteurs and industry honchos have been rubbing shoulders at the seaside for nearly two weeks of art house cinema.The selection is “the best around,” said festival director Alberto Bar
Sept. 7, 2012
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Scientologists deny auditioning for Tom Cruise bride
LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― The Church of Scientology denounced as “hogwash” Wednesday a report that it auditioned candidates to be Tom Cruise’s girlfriend, while the star’s lawyer branded the claims “tired old lies.”Vanity Fair quoted sources as saying the controversial church tested actresses as potential brides in 2004, after his split from Nicole Kidman and before he met and married Katie Holmes, who recently divorced him.The report included details of a failed match with an Iranian-born actress, w
Sept. 6, 2012
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Kim Ki-duk returns with brutal revenge tale
Lives of loan shark victims explicitly captured on ‘Pieta’After “Arirang,” the self-reflective documentary about his personal failings and struggles, director Kim Ki-duk returned to the movie scene with a gruesome revenge tale ― about a cruel debt collector running into a woman who claims to be his mother. “Pieta,” which is one of 18 films vying for this year’s Golden Lion prize in Venice, is Kim’s 18th feature-length film. The movie has almost every element that would make an audience uncomfort
Sept. 6, 2012
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’Matrix’ director admits getting sex change
Famed co-director of Hollywood films, like “V for Vendetta” and “Speed Racer,” admitted to having a sex change, according to news reports. Andy and Lana Wachowski, siblings, directed hugely influential films like the “Matrix” trilogy. Little was known about them because they remained very private. However, the siblings opened up in a recent interview to promote their new film “Cloud Atlas” and to give insight into Lana’s struggles to become a woman.Lana was known as Larry before her sex change i
Sept. 5, 2012
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Korean morality tale premieres at Venice film fest
South Korean director Kim Ki-duk brought his brand of excruciating emotion and troubling imagery to the Venice film festival Tuesday with his condemnation of extreme capitalism in “Pieta”.The film revolves around a brutal loan shark played by Lee Jung-jin who prowls the back alleys and small workshops of a central area of Seoul that is quickly going out of business and being replaced by skyscrapers.Kim said at a press conference that he had been inspired by Michelangelo‘s famous “Pieta” statue
Sept. 5, 2012
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Spain film fest to honor John Travolta
MADRID (AFP) ― John Travolta will grab a lifetime achievement award at Spain’s top film festival, alongside Oliver Stone, Ewan McGregor and Tommy Lee Jones, organizers said Monday.The 58-year-old American actor will be honored with a Donostia award by the Sept. 21-29 San Sebastian Festival in northern Spain, where he is presenting his latest film, Savages.The festival cited a string of Travolta’s famous roles including in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1996), Grease (1978),
Sept. 4, 2012
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Fundraising for new Korean film draws large response
The number of participants in a rare fundraising campaign for a local film project has topped the 10,000 mark, the movie’s production company said Monday.The project to make “26 Years,” a new film based on a famous Webtoon by Kang Pool featuring the 1980 Gwangju people’s uprising for democracy, has drifted for years due to financial problems.This situation prompted Cheongeorahm Film, a local movie studio that organized the project, to launch a campaign among citizens on June 25 to raise the mone
Sept. 4, 2012
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Actor Michael Clarke Duncan dies at 54
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile’’ and such other box office hits as “Armageddon,’’ “’Planet of the Apes’’ and “Kung Fu Panda,’’ has died at age 54.Duncan died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancee, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement r
Sept. 4, 2012
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Actor Michael Clarke Duncan dead at 54
(AFP)LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in ``The Green Mile'' and such other box office hits as ``Armageddon,'' `'Planet of the Apes'' and ``Kung Fu Panda,'' is dead at age 54.Clarke died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being tr
Sept. 4, 2012
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‘You cannot get away from your past’
Korean-Canadian director Yi speaks on her work, connection to her rootsFilmmaker and journalist Yi Sun-kyung grew up in a Canadian city where her family was one of only a half-dozen Korean households in town. That small community was what shaped her view on Korea as a little girl. It was the world where she was pressured not to be a reporter, but a teacher or a nurse. For many years, she tried to stay away from it as much as possible. “There was competition and gossip,” the filmmaker told The Ko
Sept. 3, 2012
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Jay-Z mimics Rocky at Philly Made In America fest
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― Jay-Z’s entrance said it all: He bounced up and down on top of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, mimicking Rocky before he took the stage in front of nearly 50,000. His song “Made In America’’ played in the background.Jay-Z, like Rocky Balboa, has a rags-to-riches American dream story, and the 42-year-old entertainer ― who grew up in the Brooklyn projects and released his debut album in 1996 ― shared some of that through songs in his 90-minute set Saturday night at
Sept. 3, 2012
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Winds of economic crisis at Venice film festival
VENICE, Italy (AFP) ― For all the glamorous seaside partying at the Venice film festival, there is a distinct air of austerity at this year’s edition for an industry that is questioning its economic future.The festival line-up has been slimmed and the star wattage toned down while even some of the movie plotlines reflect various forms of fallout from the financial crisis ― from family and relationships to faith and spiritual values.“The main recurring theme is the crisis. The economic crisis, wh
Sept. 3, 2012
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Anti-Obama documentary ‘2016’ surprises film world
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― It wasn’t backed by any Hollywood movie studio. Reviews were mostly negative. It premiered in Houston, not Los Angeles or New York. And yet despite the unconventional release of “2016: Obama’s America,’’ the movie is now among the most successful political documentaries of all time ― and it doesn’t show signs of cooling down ahead of the presidential election in November.The conservative film exploring the roots of President Barack Obama’s political views surprised the film in
Sept. 2, 2012
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Scientology-inspired ‘The Master’ casts spell at Venice festival
VENICE, Italy (AFP) ― The film “The Master” cast a spell on viewers at the Venice festival on Saturday with Philip Seymour Hoffman playing a charismatic leader loosely based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.Hoffman’s character takes a troubled World War II vet played by a feral Joaquin Phoenix under his wing in this latest work by Oscar-winner Paul Thomas Anderson, director of “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood.”The film starts with Phoenix as Freddie Quell and his rapid descent into
Sept. 2, 2012
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Store owner: Cage owes $224 in DVD fees
Actor Nicolas Cage owes a Los Angeles video store $224.48 in late fees for renting two DVDs and not returning them, the owner of the store said.The actor rented "A Star is Born" and "The King of Comedy" in April, but has yet to return them to Old Bank DVD in downtown Los Angeles, the store's owner, whose name was not reported, said.The owner has taken to Facebook to try to get Cage's attention, TM
Sept. 2, 2012
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Box office
The Traffickers (Korea)Opened Aug. 29Crime. Thriller. Directed by Kim Hong-sun. Sang-ho (Choi Daniel) and Chae-hee (Jung Ji-yoon) are a married couple on a cruise for their first trip to Weihai, China. However, Chae-hee suddenly disappears while Sang-ho is away. He soon finds out that Chae-hee’s pictures, belongings as well as her records of boarding the ship have been completely removed. On the other side of the cruise ship, Young-gyu (Im Chang-jeong), the best known human trafficker in the ind
Aug. 31, 2012
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Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just looking for a little big screen luck
Movie fans, those with too much time on their hands, love to ponder the imponderable.Why did America flock to see “Ted”? How did Tyler Perry build an empire by donning a dress? What is new about “The Hunger Games,” other than its haven’t-seen-many-movies audience?And why isn’t Jeffrey Dean Morgan a star?In an era when Hollywood has all but given up that Leo DiCaprio’s voice will ever change and has cast its net far afield looking for macho leading men ― Gerard Butler from Ireland, Jason Statham
Aug. 31, 2012