In ‘20th Century Women,’ Bening found freedom in the unknown

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- In 1979, Annette Bening was 21 years old. A year earlier she had moved from San Diego to San Francisco to study classical drama. She remembers it as a time of tremendous change and uncertainty and the big moments like the day Harvey Milk and George Mascone were killed, but, for the most part her head was in Chekov and Shakespeare and Shaw and Arthur Miller. 　  So when she read the script for Mike Mills‘ “20th Century Women,” now in limited release, it caught her of

Jan. 1, 2017

[Box Office] This week’s movie releases

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story(US)Opened Dec. 28Epic, sci-fi. Directed by Gareth EdwardsFormer scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) leads a peaceful existence on a farm with his wife and daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones). His world comes shattering down when evil weapons developer Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) takes him from his family. Galen becomes the head engineer in developing a deadly weapon that will control the Death Star galaxy. Jyn, who has sided with the Rebel Alliance, sets out on a miss

Dec. 29, 2016

[Movie Review] Ben Affleck the director doesn’t do Affleck the star any favors in the period noir ‘Live by Night’

Ben Affleck is apparently at war with Ben Affleck. It is rare to come across someone with such gifts as both an actor and a director who struggles so much when it comes to directing himself as an actor. The new “Live by Night” finds him pulled in so many conflicting directions that what he ends up with is neither elegantly concise nor an epic sprawl, but rather something just awkwardly misshapen.“Live by Night” finds Affleck wearing the hats of director, star, screenwriter and producer, and in t

Dec. 29, 2016

Film on South, North Korean investigators’ bromance to open January

“Confidential Assignment,” an upcoming crime action flick starring Hyun Bin and Yoo Hae-jin, is slated to hit theaters on Jan. 18, its production companies CJ Entertainment and JK Film said Wednesday.　The film tells the story of the fictional first cooperative investigation between the South and North Korean police, to capture a North Korean criminal group that has defected and infiltrated South Korea. Hyun Bin (left) and Yoo Hae-jin star in “Confidential Assignment.” (CJ Entertainment)It center

Dec. 29, 2016

[Movie review] Comedy and heartache make perfect bedfellows in the magnificent German comedy ‘Toni Erdmann’

Sandra Huller does the subtlest, loveliest double take you’ve ever seen. More a quick dart of the eyes, really, followed by a tensing of the shoulders, before her expression hardens and her mind leaps into damage-control mode.It’s a gift that this brilliant German actress keeps giving in “Toni Erdmann,” in which she stars as Ines Conradi, a tightly wound corporate consultant who has become so skilled at managing her clients’ moods and demands that she knows just how to react — or not react — whe

Dec. 28, 2016

Please don’t see my animated blockbuster, says Japan’s ‘new Miyazaki’

PARIS, (AFP) - Makoto Shinkai has a problem, a big problem. His mystical teenage body-swap movie “Your Name” has become such a massive hit it’s beginning to worry him.“It’s not healthy,” the boyish director told AFP. “I don’t think any more people should see it.”Every week it gets closer to being the biggest Japanese animated film of all time.And now there’s talk of Oscars. “I really hope it doesn’t win,” he added.It would be funny if Shinkai wasn’t so in earnest about getting off the promotiona

Dec. 28, 2016

Film factory Budapest, where Hollywood dreams are made

BUDAPEST, (AFP) -- Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Hugh Jackman. Spotting hunky Hollywood actors is no big deal any more in Budapest, now one of Europe’s top hubs for foreign film productions thanks to attractive tax breaks and cutting-edge facilities.Some of the biggest US blockbusters in recent years were filmed here, including 2015 action comedy “Spy” with Jude Law and 2016 mystery thriller “Inferno” featuring Tom Hanks.The 60-year-old star of the sequel to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” spent seve

Dec. 28, 2016

German comedy is international sensation of 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- “Make sure they know to play it loud,” the filmmaker Maren Ade advises ahead of a screening of her film, “Toni Erdmann.”Since its rollicking debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, “Toni Erdmann” has been the unlikely rock star of the international film festival scene. It’s a German comedy that runs 162 minutes and prominently features fake teeth, Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All” and a furry Bulgarian kukeri costume . “I knew I had something that I liked,” said Ade in

Dec. 28, 2016

Korean cinema of 2016: Women, politics, horror

Women, female relationships and political intrigue were the hallmarks of Korean cinema this year. A number of films that delved into the world of the occult, driven by unfathomable forces of evil, also stood out in a year that saw the return of some of Korea’s most renowned directors, including Park Chan-wook and Na Hong-jin, who each added significant pieces to their idiosyncratic oeuvre. Spotlight on women  Kim Tae-ri (left), Kim Min-hee star in "The Handmaiden." (CJ Entertainment)Kim Ha-neul

Dec. 25, 2016

Secrets behind the dazzling dances of ‘La La Land’

BURBANK, California (AP) -- Choreographer Mandy Moore was lying under a car on the hot pavement while more than 100 dancers above her twirled through gridlocked LA freeway traffic during the opening number of “La La Land.”The sequence was months in the making -- the most complicated ever undertaken by Moore, who’s been creating routines for TV’s “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” for years.“I’m going to call it hashtag panic attack,” the Emmy-nominated choreographer said o

Dec. 25, 2016

Son of actor Song Kang-ho joins pro football club

 The son of the popular actor Song Kang-ho joined a South Korean professional football club Thursday.Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the top-flight K League Classic said they drafted right fullback Song Jun-pyung out of Yonsei University.The 20-year-old previously played on Maetan High School based in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, some 45 kilometers south of Seoul.In this photo provided by Suwon Samsung Bluewings football club, Song Jun-pyung (top row, second from R), son of the popular actor Song Kang-h

Dec. 22, 2016

[Herald Review] ‘Misbehavior’ of two female teachers, one male student

“For a very long time, she had heard stories about stupid women. She was warned more often against stupid women than against dangerous men,” reads an excerpt from “Good Person” (unofficial translation), a novel released last month by Korean writer Kang Hwa-gil.The book draws on the small inconveniences and anxieties that a woman faces in everyday life, and the striving to become a “good,” well-reputed and likeable person. Like the novel, “Misbehavior,” the latest drama film by emerging director

Dec. 22, 2016

[Herald Interview] Kim Woo-bin and his scented characters

Kim Woo-bin is known for putting a lot of thought into his roles.In the past, he would make a list of 100 questions he wanted to ask his characters, imagining their stories. More recently, he’s taken to picking out fragrances that best suit his character, the 27-year-old actor told The Korea Herald at a cafe in northern Seoul on Monday.“When filming ‘Master,’ director Jo Eui-seok said he would know when I walked past him because of a distinctive scent,” said Kim, who was wearing a comfortable da

Dec. 20, 2016

[Movie review] ‘Rogue One’ is a dark, exhilarating blast

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story “ seemed suspicious on paper, like any film saddled with the dreaded “spinoff” label. For a while all the odds looked stacked against it too -- reshoots, script changes and a director in Gareth Edwards whose last blockbuster “Godzilla” had visual flair but no humanity, not to mention the fact that the film would be asking us to learn a dozen new characters with strange names, none of which were Skywalker or Solo. And of course as with any franchise there’s that ever

Dec. 17, 2016

[Box office] Upcoming movie releases

Will You Be There(Korea)Opened Dec. 14Drama. Directed by Hong Ji-youngScrupulous pediatric surgeon Han Soo-hyun (Kim Yoon-seok) is transported back in time to meet his 20-something self (Byun Yo-han) when he swallows a mysterious vial of gold pills he received as a gift for curing a child in a remote African village. He tries to guide his younger self not to make the same mistakes and change the course of his and his loved ones’ livesPandora(Korea)Opened Dec. 7Drama, thriller. Directed by Park J

Dec. 17, 2016

‘Passengers’ co-stars Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt land in Seoul

What happens when two strangers find themselves stranded in a spaceship headed for another planet? They fall in love. At least that is what happens in romantic sci-fi flick “Passengers,” which comes to theaters in Korea on Jan. 5.“I thought the script was very original, the concept and the idea, so grand in scale,” said Chris Pratt during a press conference held Friday in western Seoul. “But I don’t know what I would do in that situation,” he said. “Life is meaningless if you can’t share it with

Dec. 16, 2016

Lost ‘sensual’ Da Vinci drawing discovered in France

PARIS (AFP) -- A lost drawing by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in the papers of a French provincial doctor, a Paris auction house said Tuesday.The dreamily sensual sketch of Saint Sebastian is thought to be worth around 15 million euros ($15.8 million) and is an “extraordinary discovery,” the Tajan auction house said.It has been authenticated by the French specialist Patrick de Bayser and Carmen C. Bambach, curator of Renaissance drawings at New York’s Metropolitan

Dec. 15, 2016

Zo In-sung, Jung Woo-sung play ‘King’ and his maker

In upcoming political thriller “The King,” Zo In-sung returns to the big screen as ambitious prosecutor Tae-soo, who yearns to wield absolute power.To rise to the top, Tae-soo teams up with Han Kang-sik, played by Jung Woo-sung, a kingmaker who is the real decision-maker behind the country’s politics. “I thought it was very brave,” said Jung at a Thursday press conference in southern Seoul, regarding the film’s resemblance to Korea’s current scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her in

Dec. 15, 2016