The Korea Herald

What our dreams say about us

Filmmaker Zhang Lu’s dreams often have scenery of Beijing and Seoul all mixed together, making it hard for him to recognize where he actually is.The ethnic Korean-Chinese filmmaker, who was born and raised in China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, has been working in Seoul since last year, after many years in Beijing. Zhang, who considers himself a “stranger” wherever he goes, pays special attention to the dreams of others in his latest film.Titled “The Scenery,” the film features 14 migr

Dec. 10, 2013

‘Gravity,’ ‘Her’ tie for LA Film Critics top honor

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association split between the space odyssey “Gravity” and the futuristic romance “Her,” lending no more certainty to an awards season that’s so far been full of contenders.The two films shared best picture in the awards announced Sunday by the Los Angeles critics, but “Gravity” was the top award-winner. The innovatively made, lost-in-space drama won for best director (Alfonso Cuaron), best editing (Cuaron and Mark Sanger) and best cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki).“H

Dec. 9, 2013

‘Han Gong-ju’ wins Golden Star at Marrakech film festival

Young Korean director Lee Su-jin has won the Golden Star at this year’s International Film Festival of Marrakech for his latest film “Han Gong-ju.” “Han Gong-ju” tells the tale of a traumatized teenage girl, a victim of a horrible crime, who is forced to change schools and chooses to leave her family to live with her teacher’s mother. “My main goal with this film was to give courage to all the Han Gong-jus in the world who find themselves in the same situation,” said Lee in his acceptance speech

Dec. 8, 2013

Box Office: Way Back Home, The Fake, The Hunger Games

Way Back Home Opens Dec. 12 Drama. Directed by Bang Eun-jinBased on a true story, “Way Back Home” begins when Korean housewife Jang Mi-jeong (Jeon Do-yeon) is asked by her husband’s longtime friend to bring a bag filled with diamonds to France. She arrives in France, but as soon as she sets foot in the airport she is arrested and police discover 17 kilograms of cocaine in her bag. She is forced to serve two years in prison in Martinique, an island in the eastern Caribbean, for alleged drug smugg

Dec. 6, 2013

Box Office: Way Back Home, The Fake, The Hunger Games

Director eyes Hollywood’s portrayal of the disabled in ‘CinemAbility’

A movie inspired veteran director Jenni Gold to seek a life in Hollywood behind the camera.“Tom McBride played a guy, confined to a wheelchair, in ‘Friday the 13th Part 2,” Gold says. “As a kid, what stood out to me was he was just like me, in a wheelchair. A guy who liked to hang out with his friends. I thought, ‘That’s AWESOME.’ He wasn’t some stereotype, the saintly guy or the bitter guy. He isn’t treated special. It’s ‘Friday the 13th.’ He gets killed like everybody else!”Such characters, th

Dec. 6, 2013

Director eyes Hollywood’s portrayal of the disabled in ‘CinemAbility’

Mandela inspired pop culture

NEW YORK (AP) ― Heroic in his deeds, graceful in his manner, sainted in his image, Nelson Mandela long served as both cause and muse in the entertainment community.From the 1960s, when he was a political prisoner and South Africa was under the laws of apartheid, right up to recent times, when the racist laws of the land had fallen and he was among the world‘s most admired people, Mandela inspired concerts, songs, poems, fiction and movies.Artists were equally drawn to the man and to what he stoo

Dec. 6, 2013

U.S. losing silent film heritage, report finds

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― More than two-thirds of silent movies shot in the United States between 1912 and 1929 no longer exist, says the Library of Congress in a report Wednesday underscoring an urgent need to preserve old motion pictures.Out of the 11,000 films made on U.S. soil in the early years of cinema, just 14 percent of them, or 1,575 in all, survive in their original 35 millimeter format, it said.A smaller number exist only in foreign versions or in lower-quality formats, while five percent a

Dec. 5, 2013

‘American Hustle’ named best film by N.Y. critics

NEW YORK (AP) ― The New York Film Critics Circle named “American Hustle” the best film of 2013, giving David O. Russell’s fictionalized Abscam tale an early jolt in Hollywood’s awards season. The film was also awarded best supporting actress for Jennifer Lawrence and best screenplay for the script by Russell and Eric Singer. The film, which doesn’t open in theaters until Dec. 13, is about a collection of FBI agents and con men that brought down high-profile politicians in and around New Jersey i

Dec. 4, 2013

Coen brothers coy about their development

NEW YORK (AP) ― “If you’re trying to assign the trait of maturity to us, frankly, it won’t wash.”A conversation with the filmmaking brothers Ethan and Joel Coen has only just gotten started when Ethan, quite gleefully, puts a stop to any discussion of growth, evolution or development. Now in their late 50s, the Coens have a host of awards, including best picture for their tense, bone-dry Cormac McCarthy adaptation “No Country for Old Men.” Their last film, the much Oscar-nominated Charles Portis

Dec. 3, 2013

Coen brothers coy about their development

Berlin Film Festival to honor Ken Loach

BERLIN (AFP) ― The 64th Berlin Film Festival in February will award veteran British director Ken Loach an honorary Golden Bear prize for lifetime achievement and present a retrospective of his work, organizers said Friday.Festival director Dieter Kosslick said the event would pay tribute to Loach’s brand of humanist cinema portraying the lives of working-class Britons and his outspoken political engagement. “Ken Loach is one of Europe’s great directors. Over his almost 50-year career, he has sho

Dec. 2, 2013

Box Office: The Fake, The Hunger Games, The Counselor

The Fake Opened Nov. 21Animation. Thriller. Directed by Yeon Sang-hoA rural Korean town is on the verge of being flooded. Amid the gloom, a good-looking young minister enters the scene. He charms the villagers, and seems to have the ability to heal. He and his coworker tell the villagers they will build a church and a house where they will all be able to live together after the town is completely submerged, all the while periodically collecting money from them. Min-cheol, a man known in the vill

Nov. 29, 2013

Box Office: The Fake, The Hunger Games, The Counselor

‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is bigger, better, broodier

The Districts are in revolt. People are being shot simply for raising their hands and whistling ― not because they’re trying to hail a cab (they’re too poor), but as a symbol of solidarity and protest.And Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) ― the girl from Appalachia with the fierce eyes, daunting archery skills and multi-demographic fan base ― is making trouble.“She’s become a beacon of hope for the rebellion,” a worried President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) confides to the new head ga

Nov. 29, 2013

‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is bigger, better, broodier

Ang Lee plans to make movie in Philippines

MANILA (AP) ― Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, who plans to make a movie in the Philippines, said Thursday that independent Asian filmmakers have a better chance these days of finding audiences around the world.The Taiwan-born director of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is in the country as a guest of Taiwan’s de facto embassy, which honored him with a special screening of “Life of Pi.” Lee told a forum with filmmakers and media that he was inspired by how the wo

Nov. 29, 2013

Spike Lee riffs on ‘Oldboy’ in remake

Nobody ever accused Spike Lee of an overabundance of subtlety. He’s an unapologetically bold filmmaker, one who hasn’t shied away from using a tattered American flag or a “Dead End” sign as hard-to-miss metaphors. But this also works to his benefit: Lee’s films rarely fail to leave an impression. So that Lee would take on a remake ― or “reinterpretation,” as he calls it ― of Park Chan-wook’s grotesque revenge melodrama “Oldboy” is perhaps fitting. He’s one of few filmmakers who would take the or

Nov. 27, 2013

U.S. remake of the film “Oldboy” receives criticism

The 2013 remake of “Oldboy” is under harsh criticism after its release on Wednesday, dashing hopes for those who were anticipating it to surpass the original 2003 film. The new remake of Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” was directed by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee. On the first day of release, 23 left negative comments on the U.S. film review website Rotten Tomatoes, while 17 reviewed the film positively though not for comparison with the original. One film watcher evaluated the film as “one

Nov. 27, 2013

Controversy persists for Palme d’Or winner in H.K.

HONG KONG (AFP) ― The director of a highly charged lesbian love story that dazzled Cannes said Monday he felt “great regret” at a controversy that has threatened to overshadow the film’s rapturous critical reception.Abdellatif Kechiche, director of “Blue is the Warmest Colour,” said he did not understand remarks by his leading actresses in a series of interviews, in which Lea Seydoux said that making the film was “horrible” and co-star Adele Exarchopoulos complained that the director’s working m

Nov. 26, 2013

Korean animated film wins award at Spanish festival

Korean animator Yeon Sang-ho’s latest film “The Fake” won Best Animated Film Award at Festival Internacional de Cide de Gijon, an annual international film festival held in Gijon, Spain.The film, the second feature-length work by Yeon, is a powerful tale of truth and deception, taking place in a rural Korean town on the verge of being flooded. It competed against 10 films in the section, and shared the prize with American animator Bill Plympton’s “Cheatin.”The movie’s plot develops as the villag

Nov. 25, 2013

Korean animated film wins award at Spanish festival

‘Wish’ snags three wins at Blue Dragon Film Awards

The 34th annual Blue Dragon Film Awards on Friday night recognized some of the film industry’s best including the top winner this year, the intensely dramatic “Wish.” Directed by Lee Joon-ik and starring Sol Kyung-gu and Uhm Ji-won, the film is based on the true story of an 8-year-old rape victim known to the public as “Na-young.” Although “Wish” caused controversy when it was released earlier last month because the story revolves around real-life events, the film took home the Best Film award a

Nov. 24, 2013

‘Wish’ snags three wins at Blue Dragon Film Awards

Box Office: Hunger Games, The Counselor, Friend 2

Hunger GamesOpened Nov. 21Fantasy. Action. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) inspired an uprising among the people of post-apocalyptic Panem against the oppressive rule of the Capitol when they broke rules and both emerged as winners of the annual Hunger Games. To quell the rebellious movements churning in the nation, the Capitol forces Katniss and Peeta to participate in a special edition of the Hunger Games. The strongest vic

Nov. 22, 2013

Box Office: Hunger Games, The Counselor, Friend 2

Critic’s choice: Holiday films to look forward to

As a film writer I get to see a lot of movies before they hit theaters ― not all, or I’d have no life. Despite having seen nearly a dozen on our holiday list, there are a number of films I’m still greatly looking forward to seeing over the next six weeks.The Thanksgiving period brings Disney’s charming and eye-popping animated 3-D musical “Frozen,” which has one guaranteed showstopper, “Let It Go,” sung by “Wicked’s” Idina Menzel. The studio also has the sweet comedy “Delivery Man” starring Vinc

Nov. 22, 2013

Critic’s choice: Holiday films to look forward to