‘Jane Eyre’ role a dream come true for Wasikowska

“You can only breathe so much in corsets,” says Mia Wasikowska, who was required to wear such an apparatus, along with various bell-shaped skirts, flounced petticoats, and tight little bonnets, as she assayed the title role in the new and beautifully miserable “Jane Eyre.”“It restricts your voice and your breath, and it’s really symbolic of the repression of the day,” she observes. “That’s very mu

March 25, 2011

Film focuses on remote Uzbek museum at odds with politics

Back in 2000, University of Southern California film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country’s desert.

March 25, 2011

Singer Kim Gun-mo leaves MBC survival program

Singer Kim Gun-mo said he has voluntarily decided to stay out of MBC’s survival program “I am a Singer,” apologizing for his earlier choice to remain in the program even after he received the lowest score from the audience in the competition against six other singers in the latest episode. In each episode, seven singers are given a mission to perform in front of a 500-member audience made up of or

March 24, 2011

Don Quixote: ballet to make you laugh

Presented by Universal Ballet, the nation’s oldest private ballet company, the humorous ballet “Don Quixote,” opens Friday at the Opera Theater in Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul. Based on Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes’s novel of the same title, its ballet version premiered in the 1750s. Since then, it has been the world’s most-loved comical ballet. While the original novel r

March 24, 2011

Singer Kim Gun-mo quits ‘I am a Singer’

Singer Kim Gun-mo (Yonhap News)Top singer Kim Gun-mo, one of the contestants of TV singer survival program “I am a Singer,” announced Wednesday night that he was leaving the show. Speaking at a press meeting, he said he felt sorry and responsible for any problems caused by his decision.MBC said they will replace the main producer of the show as he keeps singer Kim in the show despite him being eli

March 24, 2011

Film legend Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79

   LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, theviolet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen life was often upstagedby her stormy personal life, died Wednesday at age 79.   She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai MedicalCenter, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks,publicist Sally Morrison said.Elizabeth Taylor (AP-Yonhap News)   ``All her children were with her

March 23, 2011

‘In Love and the War’ not typical war film

Upcoming film tells a touching yet comical tale of a North Korean officer during the Korean WarJust about two months ahead of the Korean War, a young communist military officer (Kim Joo-hyeok) and his soldiers arrive in a secluded country town in Chungcheong Province.Amid the intense political turmoil, the town, Seokjeongri, is peaceful. It is so remote that its people don’t even take the war rumo

March 23, 2011

MBC to replace producer of singer survival program

MBC said Wednesday it will replace Kim Young-hee, the veteran producer of singer survival program “I Am a Singer,” admitting that the producer’s decision to keep Kim Gun-mo ― who should have been eliminated in the first round of the competition with six other singers ― was wrong.In each episode, seven singers are given a mission to perform in front of a 500-member audience made up of ordinary view

March 23, 2011

Puccini and Verdi operas coming in April

Maestro Chung Myung-whun, Seoul Philharmonic to perform in Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccanegra’Popular operas by Italy’s two most famous opera composers ― Puccini and Verdi ― will be staged in Seoul in April.The Seoul Metropolitan Opera Company will stage opera “Tosca,” one of the most frequently performed operas among Puccini’s works, from April 21 to April 24 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts’

March 23, 2011

‘Worst song ever’ tops 30m YouTube views

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A song by a California teenager that has been mercilessly panned by music critics has topped 30 million views on YouTube and rocketed up Apple’s iTunes charts.“Friday,” sung by 13-year-old Rebecca Black, was uploaded to YouTube last month by Ark Music Factory, a Los Angeles-based company that was hired by the girl’s parents to produce the song for their daughter.“It’s Friday, Fr

March 23, 2011

Lindsay Lohan's dad arrested in West Hollywood

 WEST HOLLYWOOD, California (AP) _ Authorities in Los Angeles say Lindsay Lohan's father has been arrested over allegations he held his girlfriend against her will and prevented her from calling police.Sheriff's investigators say deputies were dispatched on a domestic violence call at 9 p.m. Monday to Michael Lohan's apartment. (AP)A news release says the 51-year-old was booked for investigation o

March 23, 2011

Korea sweeps Asian Film Awards

HONG KONG (AFP) ― South Korea’s finest in film celebrated after blitzing the annual Asian Film Awards on Monday, bolstering the country’s growing reputation as the pre-eminent force in the region.South Korean movie stars and filmmakers dominated the glitzy ceremony in Hong Kong, now in its fifth year, snapping up awards for best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actress and be

March 22, 2011

Intoxicating poppy flower paintings

Like the woman of the same name who was known to have been one of the four beauties of ancient China, the “Yang Guifei,” or “poppy flower,” was so mesmerizingly beautiful that he stopped short and stared for a long time. Artist Kwon In-su, who had never really been into flowers before, was totally captivated by the flower and ended up opening a solo exhibition entirely dedicated to it. “It was a t

March 22, 2011

National museum exhibits 14th century Chinese celadon

Popular Longquan ware found in sunken ship off coast of Sinan shows beauty and culture of 14th century AsiaThe National Museum of Korea is holding a special exhibition featuring about 90 pieces of 14th century Chinese celadon ware found in a shipwreck.The featured pieces are known to be from the Longquan region of China’s southern Zhejiang province, where the most superior kind of Chinese celadon

March 22, 2011

MBC singer survival program stirs dispute

MBC’s new singer survival program is mired in controversy as its participant Kim Gun-mo ― who was eliminated in the first cut on the episode televised on Sunday ― was given a special offer to compete in the next round. The decision to keep Kim in the next episode breaks the rules of the show.The show, “I Am A Singer,” pits a total of seven real-life, big-name singers in Korea ― Kim Gun-mo, Baek Ji

March 21, 2011

Disaster images of Japan lend visual power

NEW YORK (AP) ― Sometimes it’s a fast-moving ooze: A street becomes a stream, grows into a river and then a raging mountain of moving debris. Sometimes, it’s a wet curtain of water crashing over a shoreline, tossing trees, ships and cars casually aside as a child would a stack of Legos.Until a week ago, a tsunami was one of the most mysterious of natural events, its devastating power usually evide

March 21, 2011

Public consequences of pop stars’ private gigs

LOS ANGELES ― When pop stars Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Nelly Furtado and 50 Cent recently said they’d renounced millions of dollars they’d received for performing for members of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s family, they drew attention to a growing and controversial cultural phenomenon: celebrity artists being hired by rich, powerful and sometimes disreputable clients to play at private or semi-

March 21, 2011