North Korean actress Han Jong-sim will take part in a film festival held in Italy to promote the movie “Comrade Kim Goes Flying,” U.S.-based news outlet Asia Free Radio reported on Wednesday. Han reportedly held a signing event in Beijing on Monday before flying to join the Udine Far East Film Festival, one of the biggest film events in Europe to showcase Asian movies. Han’s participation surprised many, since the visit can be interpreted as the reclusive country’s move to participate in an inte

April 25, 2013

French writer-director Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed drama about two utterly unhappy individuals forming an unlikely but genuine relationship arrives in local theaters next month.Based on short stories by Canadian writer Craig Davidson, the movie, “Rust and Bone,” stars Marion Cotillard (“Midnight in Paris,” “The Dark Knight Rises”) as Stephanie, a beautiful, self-assured killer whale trainer who works at a marine park in Antibes, a resort town in southern France. One night she runs into Ali (Matt

April 24, 2013

As director Alfred Hitchcock once said, the act of watching others for voyeuristic pleasure is a “basic human trait.” In the end, the cinematic experience, sitting in the dark hidden and distanced from the events on the screen, is a form of voyeurism. Movie spectatorship is, in late French film theorist Christian Metz’s words, “inherently antisocial”: It offers us the pleasure of looking ― from romance to murder to horror ― knowing the scenes we see cannot look back at us.Director Choi Seung-ho’

April 23, 2013

A film school student won the top prize at the third Olleh International Smartphone Film Festival on Sunday for his smartphone-made short “After 24 Months.” Kim Chan-nyeon, who is currently on leave of absence from Dongguk University’s film program, won the competition by creating a work that features a dystopian world where everyone communicates through smart devices. His protagonist is the only human being in the world who tries to make human-to-human eye contact. The 24-year-old also won the

April 22, 2013

CJ Entertainment’s latest Chinese-language film topped the Chinese box office in the first week of its release, becoming the first-ever Korea-China joint production film to gross 100 million yuan ($16.2 billion) in the country.“A Wedding Invitation,” directed by Korean filmmaker Oh Ki-hwan (“Last Present,” 2001, “Art of Seduction,” 2005), features Chinese stars Eddie Peng and Bai Bah-he as the leads. It tells the story of two former lovers who run into each other after being separated for five y

April 21, 2013

Kim Dong-ho, the founding director of Busan International Film Festival and its current honorary chief, received a lifetime achievement award at the opening ceremony of Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy on Friday.Kim is considered a pioneering figure in the Korean film history. He was BIFF’s founding director for 15 years, and retired from the position in 2010. Though BIFF started small in 1996, Kim’s well-known leadership and networking skills turned it into the largest film festival in Asi

April 21, 2013

Spring is here, and that means the return of three annual film festivals in the country. Green Film Festival, International Women’s Film Festival, and Jeonju International Film Festival are all arriving this season, showcasing films dealing with the environment, women’s issues and social changes worldwide.JIFFThe Jeonju International Film Festival, one of the biggest events for alternative cinema in Korea, kicks off on April 25 with Cannes Golden Palm-winning filmmaker Laurent Cantet’s latest wo

April 19, 2013

A Song for YouOpened April 18Comedy. Drama. Music. Directed by Paul Andrew WilliamsShy, grumpy pensioner Arthur (Terence Stamp) gets dragged into an unconventional local choir by his cancer patient wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave). Marion is eager to perform at a choir competition but she dies before the contest, asking her husband and friends to perform for her. After Marion’s death, Arthur is lost in grief but the charismatic choir director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) persuades him that he can le

April 19, 2013

The dystopian thriller “Oblivion” is a breathtaking collage of welcome originality and references to a huge common cultural bank of fantasy images and themes. It’s grandiose in scope and scale, attentive to important details like character and tone, and unafraid to tackle mature themes like love and loss, personal identity and redemption. If there’s a better science-fiction blockbuster this year, I’ll count us lucky.The film stars an intensely focused Tom Cruise as Jack Harper, a futuristic repa

April 19, 2013

After sweeping international film awards and hitting the 100,000-viewer mark last week, director O Muel’s independent film about the 1948 Jeju Massacre continues to attract audiences, earning additional screenings this week.The film will be opening in 14 more theaters nationwide on Thursday to meet demand, according to the movie’s producer Japary Films. “Jiseul” was initially released on March 21 in 56 theaters. The number of theaters screening the movie increased to 66 on April 11, and by last

April 18, 2013

A Korean short film is heading to the upcoming Cannes International Film Festival. Director Moon Byoung-gon’s short “Safe” has been included in the lineup of the competition of short films, to vie with eight other filmmakers from around the globe for the prize. More than 3,500 entries were submitted by filmmakers in 132 countries for the section. The 29-year-old studied film at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, and has directed two shorts ― “No More Coffee Break” (2008) and “Finis Operis” (2011). T

April 17, 2013

The first teaser trailer for the Korean movie “Eunmilhage, Widaehagae (Discreetly, Greatly)" starring Kim Soo-hyun was unveiled on Wednesday.The 30-second trailer showed the hallyu star as a fierce North Korean spy disguised as the town fool, wandering around a neighborhood in Seoul on a great mission.Kim plays the part of Won Ryu-hwan, an elite spy who beat out 20,000 competitors to be dispatched to South Korea with two other colleagues as special agents.The movie tells the story of the three e

April 17, 2013

South Korean actress Bae Doo-na has joined the cast of Lana and Andy Wachowski’s upcoming sci-fi movie, “Jupiter Ascending.”In an interview with a local magazine, Bae said she was once again starring in the Wachowskis’ film after successfully making it into the Hollywood scene with the siblings’ previous flick “Cloud Atlas.” She said she felt more comfortable working with them this time.The new sci-fi adventure film, written and directed by the Wachoski siblings, features Mila Kunis (“Oz the Gr

April 16, 2013

Korean gangster film “New World” will have a Hollywood remake, according to the film’s Korean distributor Next Entertainment World.NEW said it recently signed a deal with Vertigo Entertainment, a production company located in Beverly Hills, California, to create the remake. The thriller was released in North America in late March, following its Korean release in February.Screenwriter Will Fetters, who is working on Clint Eastwood’s next project “A Star is Born,” will be writing the script, NEW s

April 15, 2013

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Police action thriller “Cold War” swept the Hong Kong Film Awards on Saturday, carrying off nine prizes including the best actor gong for veteran star Tony Leung Ka-fai.The film, about two rival officers’ struggle to run a hostage rescue operation, also took best film, best director and best screenplay at the glamorous event considered to be Hong Kong’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.“It’s because of this group of such fine performers that we have been successful in producing

April 14, 2013

Opening April 18Drama. Directed by Choi Seung-ho. The beautiful young actress Jung Ji-hae (Min Ji-hyeon) dies and the media rails against the sexual bribery rampant in the entertainment industry. With the victim dead, the accused are the only ones left in court, rendering the trial useless. The young actress had been taken advantage of by a film director and producer who is successful in the entertainment business. As he is an important man in the industry, people decline to testify. Lee Jang-ho

April 12, 2013

Earnest, righteous, historically accurate and often entertaining, writer-director Brian Helgeland’s “42” is pretty much all you could hope for in a Jackie Robinson film biography.Minus the excitement, which given how well-known Robinson’s story is to baseball fans, is no cardinal sin. And the cast is more adequate than thrilling.It’s the sort of story that you find yourself hoping they don’t screw up ― that the baseball will be convincing, that the racism isn’t watered down, that the actor playi

April 12, 2013

PARIS (AFP) ― French actress Audrey Tautou, best known for the 2001 film “Amelie,” will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Cannes Film Festival next month, one of the organizers said on Tuesday.The opening ceremony of the 66th Cannes Film Festival will take place on May 15 with the closing ceremony on May 26, pay-TV operator Canal+ said.Director Steven Spielberg has already been announced as the head of the festival jury.“Amelie,” set in Montmartre, was a critical and box office succ

April 10, 2013