Most Popular
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Court refuses injunction on medical school expansion
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Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
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Debate on 'no-seniors zones' heats up
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S. Korea, Cambodia forge strategic partnership
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Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
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Is NewJeans headed for a long 'break'?
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[KH Explains] Hyundai-backed Motional’s struggles deepen as Tesla eyes August robotaxi debut
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Police raid popera singer Kim Ho-joong's house over hit-and-run suspicions
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Trump may like to 'solve' N. Korean nuclear problem if reelected: ex-official
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New Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office chief vows full-fledged probe into first lady
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Explicit lesbian love epic wins Cannes top prize
CANNES, France (AFP) ― An audacious lesbian love story featuring hardcore sex, “Blue is the Warmest Colour” by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, won the top prize Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival in a watershed year for gay rights.An all-star jury at cinema’s top showcase led this year by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg crowned the graphically erotic coming-of-age story set in France and clocking in at an epic three hours.In an unusual step, Spielberg awarded the prize to Kechi
May 27, 2013
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'Blue is the Warmest Color' is Cannes' Palme d'Or
The tender, sensual lesbian romance “Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele” won the hearts of the 66th Cannes Film Festival, taking its top honor, the Palme d'Or.The jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, took the unusual move of awarding the Palme not just to Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche, but also to the film's two stars: Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. The three clutched each other as they accepted the award, one of cinema's greatest honors.“The film had a beautiful French
May 27, 2013
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S. Korean director Moon wins short film award at Cannes
South Korean director Moon Byoung-gon won the top prize for short films for "Safe" at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival on Sunday. It marks the first time that a Korean film has won an award for a short film at Cannes. "Safe," the winner of the Short Film Palme d'Or, draws a sad portrait of contemporary people through a female college student working part-time at an exchange booth in a gambling parlor and a gambling-addicted man."I'm bewildered and didn't know if I would win a prize. I
May 27, 2013
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Documentary on Khmer Rouge hell wins award at Cannes
CANNES, France (AFP) ― A documentary on relatives wiped out in the Khmer Rouge’s tyrannical grip on Cambodia in the 1970s earned Cambodian-French director Rithy Panh a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.Entitled “L’Image Manquante” ― “The Missing Picture” in English ― the 95-minute work earned the top award in the festival’s “Un Certain Regard” category, which showcases films by emerging directors.Panh, 49, has been previously singled out for praise for other documentaries on Ca
May 26, 2013
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Box office
Secretly GreatlyOpening June 5Action. Comedy. Drama. Directed by Jang Cheol-soo.In a film based on a popular webtoon with the same title published in 2010 by Hun, three handsome North Korean spies Won Ryu-hwan (Kim soo-hyun), Rhee Hae-rang (Park Ki-woong), and Rhee Hae-jin (Lee Hyun-woo) from the elite special corps 5446 are ambitiously dispatched to South Korea. They disguise themselves as a fool, a rock star-wannabe, and a high school student. While waiting for orders from the North, they grad
May 24, 2013
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‘Fast & Furious 6’ includes scene long dreamed by Justin Lin
The idea came screeching into director Justin Lin’s fuel-injected imagination in 2009: a fiery escape scene featuring a muscle car that crashes out of an airplane during takeoff.In production at the time on “Fast & Furious” ― the fourth installment of “The Fast and the Furious” franchise that has grossed $1.6 billion in worldwide box office since 2001 ― he commissioned digital “pre-visualization” artists to mock up a rendering even though the stunt did not fit the movie he was making and was too
May 24, 2013
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Redford steals Cannes show with comeback film
CANNES (AFP) ― He has almost no dialogue and the character he plays is never named, but Robert Redford delighted Cannes on Wednesday in his first meaty starring role in years, a solo performance as a lost-at-sea yachtsman fighting for his life.Now a hardy 76, the leading man of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “Out of Africa” carries “All Is Lost” by J.C. Chandor single-handedly, with just a few scripted lines.He plays a retired man on an Indian Ocean voyage whose vintage sa
May 23, 2013
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Hollywood to remake ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’
Famed director Park Chan-wook’s 2002 film “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” will get a Hollywood makeover, according to CJ Entertainment.The film is the first part of Park’s “Vengeance Trilogy,” which also includes “Oldboy” (2003) and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (2005). Hollywood remakes are already planned for the other two films in the series. According to CJ Entertainment, it has signed a deal with Silver Reel and Lotus Entertainment and Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s di Bonaventura Pictures to create
May 22, 2013
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Seoul cinema takes on Arab and Indian flavors
Seoulites may want to take a short break from local and Hollywood films in May and June, as two upcoming film festivals are bringing Indian and Arab movies to the city. One is the Arab Film Festival, to be held from June 5 to 9 at Artnine Theater in Sadang-dong. According to its organizers, they are screening a total of nine films, including two that have never been screened in Korea. The films deal with a variety of themes from the Arab region, including war and terrorism, unrequited love, and
May 21, 2013
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All-star crime thriller flops at Cannes
CANNES, France (AFP) ― Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and her partner, French actor and director Guillaume Canet, teamed up for the all-star “Blood Ties” premiering Monday in Cannes but faced audiences’ stony silence after high hopes for the picture.The film features one of the most high-wattage casts of the festival including Clive Owen, James Caan, Billy Crudup, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis and Lili Taylor.And the hard-boiled screenplay by Canet and New York-based director James Gray, another Cannes
May 21, 2013
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Korean director Park Chan-wook's 2002 film to be remade in Hollywood
A crime thriller by South Korea's acclaimed filmmaker Park Chan-wook will get remade for American audiences, a Korean film studio involved in the project said Tuesday. CJ E&M said it has decided to co-produce the remake of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" with three Hollywood studios -- Silver Reel, Lotus Entertainment and Di Bonaventura Pictures. Released in 2002, "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" is a dark, disturbing tale about a young girl's kidnapping and her father's quest for merciless reven
May 21, 2013
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‘Before Midnight’ as charming as its predecessors
They are now in their 40s, with more responsibility on their shoulders and more to lose. Meet Celine and Jesse again, this time as a long-term, committed couple.After its very successful world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January, the follow-up to the famous “Before Sunrise” (1995) and “Before Sunset” (2004) was finally unveiled to the local press last week. Titled “Before Midnight,” the latest installment of the trilogy turned out to be equally ― if not more ― compelling as its predece
May 20, 2013
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Psy wins Billboard award for Top Streaming Song
Korean rapper and singer Psy won the Top Streaming Song Billboard Music Award in the video category with his international hit song “Gangnam Style” on Monday. He is the first Korean artist to ever win a Billboard award. The award is for the most watched music video of that year. Psy was nominated along with several other musicians including Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, and fun., among others.Billboard said they determined the nominees and winners based on key fan interactions over the last ye
May 20, 2013
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Hot off the press: Seen and heard in Cannes
CANNES, France (AP) ― Will a switched-at-birth Japanese drama tug on Steven Spielberg’s heart strings?The Cannes Film Festival was wondering that Saturday, when Kore-eda Hirokazu’s elegant and emotional “Like Father, Like Son” premiered. It quickly emerged as an early contender for the Palme d’Or, the winner of which will be decided by a jury headed by Spielberg.Though reviews varied, “Like Father, Like Son” largely charmed Cannes with its sweet, understated examination of nature versus nurture.
May 19, 2013
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007's Pinewood expansion turned down
The owner of Pinewood Studios Ltd., where movies including James Bond’s “Skyfall” and “The Dark Knight” were filmed, was denied approval to develop new studios and stages at a campus about 20 miles west of London after an earlier plan was rejected last year.Pinewood Shepperton Plc, Europe’s largest provider of stage and studio space, wants to develop 100,000 square meters (1.1 million square feet) of new space to allow increased film production at a site about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Heath
May 16, 2013
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Box office: The Fast and the Furious 6, Montage, Dear Dolphin
The Fast and the Furious 6Opening May 23Action. Crime. Thriller. Directed by Justin Lin.Members of the professional criminal gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) have retired following their successful heist of $100 million, but are scattered across the globe as wanted fugitives. Meanwhile, U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) offers to clear their criminal records in exchange for help taking down an extremely skilled mercenary organization led by Owen Shaw (Luk
May 16, 2013
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Korean indie movies for English speakers
While there is much hype in the local media about hallyu, especially Korean films and their fame overseas, it would be difficult to claim that the local film industry is foreigner-friendly. Most local commercial films are screened without English subtitles in the country, not to mention subtitles in other foreign languages.Located in posh Nonhyeon-dong in southern Seoul, the state-run theater Indieplus is one of the very few places in Seoul where non-Korean speakers can enjoy Korean movies witho
May 16, 2013
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Behind Cannes glamour, tougher times for European movies
CANNES, France (AFP) ― Europe’s top film festival opens in Cannes on Wednesday to its annual show of glitz and popping champagne corks, but for many in the continent’s movie business, times are tough and likely to get tougher still.The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 is now biting hard into state and regional subsidies and TV programming budgets that are a key support for film-making. Added to that in some countries is the problem of rampant piracy, as people snub a trip to the cinema and
May 15, 2013
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Gay filmmaker to tie the knot
Gay filmmaker and producer Kim Jho Kwang-soo is to marry his longtime partner, according to queer film house Rainbow Factory, a subsidiary of Kim’s film company Youth Films.The 48-year-old has been dating his partner, the head of Rainbow Factory who is said to be 19 years his junior, for more than 8 years. The filmmaker said that he’d marry his current partner if the couple got their parents’ blessing during the press premiere of his queer film “Two Weddings and a Funeral” last year.One of the f
May 14, 2013
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From ‘Gatsby’ to Gosling, a preview of Cannes
For even those most accustomed to the frenzy of celebrity, the Cannes Film Festival can be a disorienting experience. For 12 days every year, the French Rivera resort town turns into one giant seaside swirl of glamour, high art and backroom deal-making. Like some sun-drenched phantasm, all of cinema comes alive in Cannes: its serious ambitions, bottom-line commerce and crass spectacle. “Every time I go to Cannes, it feels like I’m entering the helicopter scene in ‘La Dolce Vita,’’’ says Leonardo
May 14, 2013