The Korea Herald

American movies thrive abroad, but foreign films face challenge in U.S.

Dec 13, 2011

LOS ANGELES ― Although Hollywood movies are making more money than ever overseas, it’s still a struggle for foreign films to sell tickets in the United States. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ― Part 2” collected nearly a billion dollars abroad this year, the most of any American studio production. About $120 million of that sum came from one country ― Japan. Other U.S. films that hit big o...
Tilda Swinton needs to talk about ‘Kevin’

Dec 13, 2011

NEW YORK ― If you search online for photos of Tilda Swinton, you’ll find one, from the 2008 Academy Awards, that particularly delights the actress. She won the supporting-actress award that night for playing a squirmy lawyer in “Michael Clayton,” but that’s not why Swinton ebulliently brings up this photo of her and a young mystery man. “I was with the Coens (directors Ethan and Joel) and Fran M...
Christian Bale says his Chinese film not propaganda

Dec 12, 2011

BEIJING (AFP) ― Oscar winning actor Christian Bale defended Sunday the upcoming Nanjing Massacre film “The Flowers of War,” by China’s most famous director, Zhang Yimou, as more than an anti-Japanese propaganda film. In the film, Bale plays an American drifter who becomes the unwitting protector of a group of Chinese schoolgirls and prostitutes trying to escape the Japanese army’s brutal sacking...
Park Jung-bum recalls making of ‘The Journals of Musan’

Dec 12, 2011

After winning 17 awards with his feature debut, director says he is ‘overrated and lucky’ This is the sixth in a series on up-and-coming Korean filmmakers. ―Ed. Clad in blue jeans and a grey hoodie, director Park Jung-bum looks nothing like the North Korean defector he played in his award-sweeping feature debut, “The Journals of Musan.” He no longer has the character’s bowl-cut, nor does he hav...
L.A. film critics association names Yoon Jung-hee best actress of 2011

Dec 12, 2011

South Korean actress Yoon Jung-hee was chosen as the best actress of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) for her lead role in the award-winning South Korean film "Poetry." The association announced a list of the 2011 award winners, including Yoon, on Sunday (L.A. standard time). Yoon won the honor, beating her close competitor from Hollywood, Kirsten Dunst, the winner o...
Oswalt says love scene with Theron was ‘nightmare’

Dec 11, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― Shooting a love scene with Charlize Theron would be a dream come true for many actors, but for Patton Oswalt, who co-stars with the Oscar-winning actress in the new movie “Young Adult,’’ the experience was “a nightmare.’’ “Why do I have to be in my underwear next to the most physically perfect person on the planet? Why couldn’t I have been next to John Goodman or Michael Moore in...
Zombies storm Havana cinema festival

Dec 11, 2011

HAVANA (AP) ― The hottest ticket in Havana is a gory, campy zombie flick with a wicked sense of humor about Cuba’s obsessive relations with the United States, one that revels in islanders’ knack for making the best of things even when everything around you ― buildings, streets, human limbs ― is falling to pieces. Audiences thronged movie houses this week to catch screenings of “Juan of the Dead,...
Box Office

Dec 9, 2011

My Barefoot Friend (Korea) Opening Dec. 15 Documentary. Directed by Lee Seong-gyou. Shalim is one of the 10,000 rickshaw workers who taxi people around barefoot in Calcutta, India. The 50-year-old man’s dream is to buy a motorized rickshaw and make more money to support his family better. He works alone in Calcutta, through the merciless traffic in the overcrowded streets, while the rest of his...
eye like

Dec 9, 2011

Diva leaves fans with last treasure Amy Winehouse “Lioness: Hidden Treasures” (Universal Music) This album, filled with 12 unreleased songs, will take fans through a journey of joy and sadness. Listening to the diva’s trademark sultry and smoky voice, one will be constantly reminded that she is no longer among us. Serving as Winehouse’s follow-up to 2007’s “Back to Black,” “Lioness: Hidden T...
Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo make noise for ‘The Artist’

Dec 9, 2011

There’s a very good chance that Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, two actors little-known outside of France, will be nominated for Academy Awards next year. Not that such an honor holds much immediate meaning for the stars of “The Artist,” the silent black-and-white film that has become a critical darling on the festival circuit since having its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. “In Am...
Tom Cruise undisputed star at opening of Dubai film festival

Dec 9, 2011

DUBAI (AFP) ― Actor Tom Cruise was the undisputed star on the red carpet at the opening of the Dubai Film Festival, sharing the limelight with Bollywood stars and the widow of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. Cruise attended the screening of his latest release, “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” which was filmed in Dubai and includes a dramatic scene where the U.S. actor climbs the s...
A burden carried barefoot

Dec 8, 2011

Korean-directed documentary ‘My Barefoot Friend’ offers captivating human drama They will soon be gone from the vibrant streets of Calcutta. The rickshaw operators, who haul customers and cargo across the city using their bare feet, work about 15 hours a day in merciless traffic, overwhelming heat and even torrential rain. But their profession could be extinct in just two or three years, as the...
Fonda, stars of ‘The Help’ honor Hollywood women

Dec 8, 2011

BEVERLY HILLS (AP) ― For the 20th consecutive year, Hollywood’s most powerful women came together to break bread and celebrate their achievements in entertainment. Jane Fonda and the late filmmaker Laura Ziskin were honored at the breakfast ceremony Wednesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel, held by the Hollywood Reporter in concert with its annual Power 100 ranking of the entertainment industry’s mo...
Poof! Harry Potter park to appear in Hollywood

Dec 7, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Universal Studios will spend several hundred million dollars to build a Harry Potter attraction inside its existing Hollywood theme park in hopes of mimicking the success of a similar park in Orlando, Florida. Executives announced the project Tuesday with much fanfare, spraying confetti and hoisting mugs of the wizardly brew butterbeer. The attraction, based on the Warner Bro...
Dunst, Willis, Gere are Sundance-bound

Dec 7, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― It’ll be a busy shopping season at next month’s Sundance Film Festival, whose star-studded premieres are up for grabs by potential theatrical distributors. Some premieres usually enter the independent-film showcase with U.S. distribution already lined up. But festival director John Cooper said all the premieres that Sundance announced Monday will be looking for distributors. ...