The Korea Herald

’Matrix’ director admits getting sex change

Sept 5, 2012

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 t...
Korean morality tale premieres at Venice film fest

Sept 5, 2012

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 skyscra...
Spain film fest to honor John Travolta

Sept 4, 2012

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 Travol...
Fundraising for new Korean film draws large response

Sept 4, 2012

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 ...
Actor Michael Clarke Duncan dies at 54

Sept 4, 2012

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 treate...
Actor Michael Clarke Duncan dead at 54

Sept 4, 2012

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 trea...
‘You cannot get away from your past’

Sept 3, 2012

Korean-Canadian director Yi speaks on her work, connection to her roots Filmmaker 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...
Jay-Z mimics Rocky at Philly Made In America fest

Sept 3, 2012

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 rele...
Winds of economic crisis at Venice film festival

Sept 3, 2012

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 relat...
Anti-Obama documentary ‘2016’ surprises film world

Sept 2, 2012

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 ...
Scientology-inspired ‘The Master’ casts spell at Venice festival

Sept 2, 2012

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 Nigh...
Store owner: Cage owes $224 in DVD fees

Sept 2, 2012

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 attentio...
Box office

Aug 31, 2012

The Traffickers (Korea) Opened Aug. 29 Crime. 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 ...
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just looking for a little big screen luck

Aug 31, 2012

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...
‘The Thieves’ now 2nd top-selling Korean film

Aug 31, 2012

“The Thieves” has outperformed “The King and the Clown” to become the second most popular Korean film ever shown at home, according to an industry tally. “The Thieves” has attracted 12.31 million viewers as of 5 p.m. Thursday, breaking a record set by the all-time No. 2 Korean film “The King and the Clown” (12 million) in 2005, Mediaplex Co., the distributor of the latest film said on Friday. D...