Innovative storytelling lifts ‘Louder Than Bombs’

Few actors, male or female, are better at portraying an innate sense of mystery than the great French actress Isabelle Huppert. Her face seems to hold dozens of expressions all at once. You get the sense that there’s always something deeper underneath -- and that you’ll never really know all of it.　And so it should be little surprise that Huppert is the most watchable and, yes, mysterious element of “Louder Than Bombs,” by Norwegian director Joachim Trier -- even though her character is already

April 8, 2016

Future of Asia’s largest film fest uncertain　

Preparations for the Busan International Film Festival have come to a standstill, following a yearlong conflict between the organizers of the global film event and the Busan Metropolitan Government, the event’s major sponsor.　“We can’t stand by and not do anything,” said Lee Hyo-jin, a member of BIFF’s public relations team, in a phone interview Wednesday. “But compared to last year, preparations are not going as they normally would.”　The two sides have been embroiled in a protracted dispute ove

April 7, 2016

Technicolor stores Hollywood history in a bottle

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- A Technicolor scientist surrounded by the latest virtual reality technology inspects a vial containing a few droplets of water -- and 1 million copies of an old movie encoded into DNA.　The company has come a long way since the Hollywood golden age, when the world gazed in awe at the lush palette of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind” provided by its three-strip cameras.　Now celebrating its centenary year, Technicolor’s laboratories are at the cutting edge of the scie

April 6, 2016

[Herald review] One woman's jealousy in 'Love, Lies'

Like the faces of its heroines, “Love, Lies” is a meticulously made-up movie. The picturesque streets of 1940s Seoul are recreated down to minute detail, and pastel hanbok -- traditional Korean costumes -- daintily embroidered with lace and floral patterns often fill the screen. It is undoubtedly no coincidence that the movie’s local release date is set for early April, when cherry blossoms are in bloom around the country. Every scene and every line of dialogue seems scrupulously arranged for a

April 6, 2016

Song Joong-ki to return to big screen

Actor Song Joong-ki will return to the big screen in director Ryoo Seung-wan’s upcoming film “Battleship Island.”　The film will depict the story of 400 Koreans who were taken to Battleship Island -- also known as Hashima Island -- to carry out forced labor during the Japanese colonial era. They desperately try to escape from the island.Song Joong-ki stars in “Descendants of the Sun” (KBS2)　Song will play the role of a soldier in the Korean Liberation Army fighting for Korea’s independence from J

April 4, 2016

Major Korean directors set for comeback

Some of Korea’s most internationally renowned directors are gearing up for a comeback this summer with projects that are pricier and on a grander scale than before, promising audiences a vigorous movie scene in the upcoming months. 　The level of Hollywood involvement in the local movie industry this year is significant, indicating that the country’s $1.52-billion film market -- led primarily by domestic films -- is becoming increasingly significant to foreign investors. It is also a testimony to

April 4, 2016

Controversial Hong Kong movie wins ‘Best Film’ award

HONG KONG (AFP) - A controversial movie about the future of Hong Kong won the top prize at the city's film awards Sunday, after being a local box office hit but antagonizing Beijing over its portrayal of the semi-autonomous territory in 2025.　“Ten Years” scooped the “Best Film” prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, following a short cinema release that was widely believed to have been curtailed for political reasons.　The film is made up of a series of five vignettes that tap residents’ worst fears

April 4, 2016

Chinese company to give Dick Cook Studios $500m for movies

BEIJING (AP) – A private film company in eastern China has agreed to invest at least $500 million in the studio of former Walt Disney boss Dick Cook to make movies to be distributed worldwide, the companies announced. 　The deal is the latest tie-up between Hollywood and Chinese companies as China is offering overseas producers more investment opportunities. Both look to increase their presence in each other’s film industries. 　Los Angeles-based Dick Cook Studios and Film Carnival, a film produce

April 1, 2016

Droll French comedy ‘Marguerite’ puts socialite-turned-awful-opera-singer at center stage

If only love were all! Then loving what you live for -- for Ed Wood, it was the cinema -- would make you an interpretive artist of the highest order.　In “Marguerite,” the title character is working on a cruel passion-to-talent ratio. She’s a terrible, screechy, off-pitch would-be opera singer, but she loves Mozart and Bellini and Handel so much that her delusions prevent her from hearing how little she can bring to her pursuits. It’s a movie about a sweet-natured mediocrity and her social circle

April 1, 2016

[Box Office] Latest movie releases

Misconduct  (U.S.)　Opened March 30　　Drama/Thriller. Directed by Shintaro Shimosawa　　Ben (Josh Duhamel), an ambitious lawyer, becomes mired in a case of corruption and blackmail, caught between Denning (Anthony Hopkins), an unscrupulous pharmaceutical executive and his firm’s partner Abrams (Al Pacino).  　The Great Actor　(Korea)　Opened March 30　　Comedy. Directed by Seok Min-woo　　Obscure actor Jang Sung-pil (Oh Dal-soo), who has been playing a dog with no lines for nearly 20 years in a play, dream

April 1, 2016

What to look out for at this year's Jeonju Film Festival

Jeonju International Film Festival is striving to return stronger than ever this year for its 17th installment, reinforcing its aim of showcasing some of the world’s most experimental and avant–garde films -- while also reaching out to the wider public.　It is slated to run April 28-May 7 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, some 1 1/2 hours away from Seoul by high-speed train KTX. Most of the festival will take place on Movie Street, a street dedicated to films in Gosa-dong. This year’s edition boa

March 31, 2016

De Niro yanks anti-vaccine documentary from film fest

NEW YORK (AFP) - A documentary by a former British medical researcher who claimed a link between vaccines and autism has been withdrawn from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, event founder and actor Robert De Niro said.　“Vaxxed: From Cover-UP to Catastrophe” had drawn protests from critics who said including the film in the festival line-up amounted to siding with the anti-vaccine movement spawned by the discredited research.　“My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity f

March 29, 2016

[Weekender] Space films score big on Koreans’ curiosity, fantasy

Space has become a new theme powering ticket sales in Korean theaters of late, thanks to the growing interest in science as well as evolving visual technology.The past three years at the Korean box office have seen a string of successful Hollywood movies set in space. Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity” set the spark in October 2013, followed by the blockbuster hit “Interstellar” by Christopher Nolan in November 2014, and “The Martian” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” just two months apart in late 2015

March 25, 2016

[Box office] Latest movie releases

One Way Trip　(Korea)　Opened March 24　Drama. Directed by Choi Jeong-yeol　Four friends who have just reached their 20s take off on a journey together. Carefree, they roam about the beach at Pohang in southeastern Korea when they come across a woman in danger. The four are then swept up in a crime case, testing their friendship and masking a cloud over their youthful days. 　Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice　(U.S.)　Opened March 24　Fantasy/Superhero. Directed by Zack Snyder　Two years after Superman’

March 25, 2016

Nothing new in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’

Back in 2002, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” became a bona fide cultural phenomenon, a romantic comedy that mined the cultural specificities of the Greek heritage of unknown writer and star Nia Vardalos. The film picked up an Oscar nomination for Vardalos’ original screenplay, everyone began adding “My Big Fat” in front of various nouns, and we all learned a thing or two about the versatility of Windex. Fourteen years later, Vardalos and gang are back again for another wedding, but this time, it’s t

March 25, 2016

Theaters to screen “Dong-ju” with English subtitles

Selected theaters around the country will screen “Dong-ju: The Portrait of a Poet” with English-language subtitles, starting Thursday.　The subtitled film will be shown at 12 theaters. In Seoul, it will be shown at Yeongdeungpo Lotte Cinema; Megabox cinemas in Coex, Central, Sinchon and Dongdaemun; and CGV cinemas Yeouido, Yongsan and Sinchon. Elsewhere around the country, it will be shown at CGV Cinema Centum City in Busan and Megabox theaters in Busan, Suwon and Ilsan.　Directed by Lee Joon-ik,

March 22, 2016