Actress Song talks about working with director Wong

Actress Song Hye-gyo on Sunday downplayed rumors of her quarrel with Wong Kar-Wai, but admitted there had been “some difficulty” with the Chinese director, Hong Kong media reported.Song said there was “a bit of friction and misunderstanding” with Wong while filming his recent flick, adding that the difficulties helped her mature. “It has not been easy. For me, it was the first time working with Wong. Since their (movie makers in Hong Kong) way of filming was different from that of Koreans, there

FilmJuly 2, 2013

Granddaughter puts Picasso muse nudes on display

CANNES, France (AFP) ― As a child, Pablo Picasso’s granddaughter Marina often found herself shut out of his sumptuous Cannes villa “La Californie.” Four decades after his death, the gates of the house she inherited, along with thousands of his art works, are always promptly opened to visitors.“Living in this house, unconsciously perhaps it’s a way of recapturing lost time in a place where we were once excluded,” says Marina, who for many years struggled to accept “an inheritance given without lo

PerformanceJuly 1, 2013

Murakami’s latest novel tops bestseller lists on day of its Korean release

The Korean edition of famed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest novel “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” topped the local bestseller lists on the day of its release Monday. The novel tells the story of a 30-something man named Tsukuru Tazaki, who was suddenly cut off by his close friends during high school. After being terminally depressed for many years, he now makes a living designing train stations at a railway company in Tokyo. He one day decides to visit his once be

BooksJuly 1, 2013

Kang Se-hwang: A Renaissance man

The 18th century was a crucial moment for the people of the Joseon era (1392-1910). Cities started to form, trade was active and Western knowledge was introduced to the country by those who traveled to China, opening the eyes of the intellectuals who believed the traditional Confucianist way of life was the only one of merit. Kang Se-hwang (1713-1791) was a painter, calligrapher, poet and critic who captured the dynamic sceneries of the time. Drawing since the age of 10 and painting until his de

CultureJuly 1, 2013

Korean director wins award at Moscow film fest

Korean filmmaker Jung Young-heon won the best director award at the Moscow International Film Festival for his movie “Lebanon Emotion” on Saturday.The film was among 16 movies that received awards at the 35th edition of the festival, which started in 1959 as the biggest movie festival in Eastern Europe. “Lebanon Emotion” depicts the complex emotional changes of a man and a woman in both urban and rural settings. Despite its title, the film features no scenes based in Lebanon. The movie won the C

FilmJuly 1, 2013

‘JYJ Membership Week’ attracts 17,000 participants

The four-day “JYJ Membership Week” wrapped up Sunday with about 17,000 fans of the trio gathering to share their affection for the boy band.“The event was intended to bring fans of JYJ closer to the singers and we have managed to pull it off,” Back Chang-ju, CEO of JYJ’s agency C-JeS Entertainment, said in a press release. The agency said about 4,000 fans from Japan flew in to see the trio.The event at SETEC in southern Seoul consisted of three sections highlighting the members’ artistic talents

PerformanceJuly 1, 2013

Actress Kim Ko-eun wins ‘Rising Star Award’ in New York

Actress Kim Ko-eun from the 2012 film “Eungyo (A Muse)” received the “Star Asia Rising Star” award on Saturday at the New York Asian Film Festival 2013, held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. “Thank you so much for inviting me all the way here to the New York Asian Film Festival and giving me this honorable award. I’ll come back with good work,” Kim stated after receiving the award. Kim debuted last year in “Eungyo,” winning several awards, including those at Busan Film Critics

PeopleJuly 1, 2013

[Photo News] Soccer player Ki marries Han Hye-jin

Footballer Ki Sung-yueng and actress Han Hye-jin have tied the knot at the Intercontinental Hotel in southern Seoul, Monday.Both the groom and the bride said with one voice, “It’s the happiest day of my life,” at the press conference before the wedding ceremony.After the wedding, the Swansea City midfielder will head to the United Kingdom for a team training while the actress, 32, will stay in Korea until the end of July to finish her agenda. The newlyweds will set up homes in Korea and the U.

PeopleJuly 1, 2013

Hip-hop duo gets lucky with ‘Luckynumbers’

South Korea’s hip-hop duo, Dynamic Duo, released their seventh album “Luckynumbers,” on Monday, quickly topping online charts. “Luckynumbers” contains 13 hip-hop tracks whose styles range from Detroit to trap sounds.In the lead track “Baaam,” Gaeko and Choi Ja belt out about a man’s unstable mental state when he falls for an attractive woman. The song incorporates UV member Muzie’s play of a vocoder in sync with a strong jaunty beat. The new album mastered by Stuart Hawkes, who has previously wo

PerformanceJuly 1, 2013

Jewelry emerges as independent art genre

Many consider jewelry as merely an accessory, but a recently opened exhibition shows that it can also be art. Conceptual and experimental designs look very little like the everyday accessories worn by people today, but they have been recognized as works of art since the mid-20th century in the international art world. “Ornament and Illusion: Spectrum of Contemporary Jewelry” is the first jewelry exhibition organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. “As art, jewelry i

PerformanceJune 30, 2013

Beneath NYC’s ground zero, a museum takes shape

NEW YORK (AP) ― Gray dust blankets everything in the subterranean halls of the unfinished National September 11 Memorial & Museum. But while the powder may look ominously like the ash that covered lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks, this time it is a product of rebirth, not destruction.After a yearlong construction shutdown because of a funding dispute, and additional months of cleanup following a shocking flood caused by Superstorm Sandy, work has been racing ahead again at the museum,

CultureJune 30, 2013

R-rated coming-of-age musical to get Korean premiere

Korea may not be the most gay-friendly country in the world, but the cast of adult-themed Broadway musical “Avenue Q,” which deals with homosexuality along with racism and pornography, says they are regardless very excited to premiere the show in Seoul. “I think what we know is that some of the subject matters will certainly push the envelope and be somewhat challenging (for the local audience),” Paul Warwick Griffin, the upcoming show’s associate producer, said during a press meeting last week

FilmJune 30, 2013