The Korea Herald

Midnight’s Children film may not be released in India

Sept 11, 2012

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― A new film of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” which is set in India after independence, may not be released in the country, its director has said, blaming “insecure politicians.” The adaptation, which has been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, is due for worldwide release in October or November, but has yet to find an Indian distribu...
Busan film fest embraces Asian diversity

Sept 11, 2012

A Hong Kong action-thriller and a rural drama from Bangladesh will open and close Asia’s top film festival next month, as its South Korean hosts look to share more of the spotlight with regional offerings. In the past, Korean films have nearly always bookended the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), but with the event now in its 17th year, organizers said they were keen to underline the di...
Famous Hollywood director says incest is okay

Sept 11, 2012

A big Hollywood director told news sources in an interview that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with incest, even comparing it to gay marriage. Nick Cassavetes, director of romance blockbuster “The Notebook,” was promoting his new film “Yellow” when he told interviewers that he didn’t see anything wrong with incest. Cassavetes said that because he did not have personal experience with i...
Ryan Reynolds gets married to Blake Lively

Sept 11, 2012

Hollywood big-names Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have tied the knot in secret, according to news sources. "The Proposal" star Reynolds, 35, and 25-year-old Lively, who currently stars in U.S. TV show "Gossip Girl," married at a plantation in Mount Pleasant, right outside of Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday. Sources say there were only 60 guests and only the closest of friends were invited...
Makeup masks all-star cast in ‘Cloud Atlas’

Sept 10, 2012

TORONTO (AFP) ― Heaps of makeup transformed the all-star cast of “Cloud Atlas,” which premiered on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival, “startling” the cast members themselves, they said. “I loved working with Hugh (Grant), you didn’t know it was him until he said (in a thick English accent) ‘Oh fuck off,’” quipped actor Jim Broadbent at a press conference. Grant, who celebrated a...
Can ‘Pieta’ enjoy success at home?

Sept 10, 2012

Film critics, distributor say the Venice fest winner is likely to earn Kim Ki-duk his biggest commercial success yet in Korea Award-winning director Kim Ki-duk and his works may have succeeded in overseas markets, but he never enjoyed such triumph in his homeland. Nicknamed an outsider, the eccentric director has seen local audiences turning their backs on his films, even those that won prizes a...
Former laborer becomes acclaimed filmmaker

Sept 9, 2012

Kim Ki-duk, who became the first Korean auteur to win the top prize at Venice with his gruesome morality tale “Pieta,” has long been considered an “outsider” in the local film industry. From the very beginning, he was nothing like any of the other filmmakers in the scene. He never went to film school, and never worked as an assistant for established filmmakers ― which was considered the “right w...
Venice festival winner a hard-hitting morality tale

Sept 9, 2012

The 51-year-old Kim is no stranger to the Venice film festival. He won the best director award in 2004 for his “Bin-jip” (“3-Iron”) about the relationship between a young drifter and an abused housewife. Hollywood producer and director Michael Mann, who presided over this year’s jury, paid tribute to all 18 films in competition. But “Pieta” in particular “seduced you viscerally,” he added. Th...
Kim Ki-duk: from monster with 'inferiority complex' to master director

Sept 9, 2012

Kim Ki-duk, the winner of the Golden Lion award at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, is a self-made man who started as a non-mainstream outsider but clinched top honors as a movie director. Having never studied film at school, the eccentric director built his own movie world turning his own life philosophy into visual poetry based on inborn artistic talent. He was born in Bonghwa, No...
Kim Ki-duk becomes 1st Korean director to win top film prize at Venice

Sept 9, 2012

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 dir...
Box Office

Sept 7, 2012

Pieta (Korea) Opened Sept. 6 Drama. 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 ...
‘The Words’ is a drama 12 years in the making

Sept 7, 2012

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...
‘Pieta’ tipped for Venice win

Sept 7, 2012

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 near...
Scientologists deny auditioning for Tom Cruise bride

Sept 6, 2012

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, w...
Kim Ki-duk returns with brutal revenge tale

Sept 6, 2012

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. Kim worked as a mechanic at a factory right after graduating from elementary school. He ...