Eyelike: James Taylor, Robert Glasper, Third Eye Blind

James Taylor solid, at times sublimeJames Taylor “Before This World”(Concord Records)Taylor’s new album, “Before This World,” arrives 13 years after his last studio album of original songs. And it does nothing to threaten his legacy.The 67-year-old has retained his abilities to craft and deliver a song. His simple, elegant acoustic fretwork and supple tenor sound much as they did in his 1970s hit-making heyday. The new collection sounds familiar without being a retread.“Montana” evokes “Sweet Ba

June 19, 2015

[Herald Review] ‘The Silenced’ visually stunning, but ultimately lacks substance

With lush green mountains, pretty schoolgirls dressed in uniforms, a beautiful boarding school and an impeccably styled Uhm Ji-won, “The Silenced” offers many visual delights. The plot, however, is a messy hodgepodge, the result of overreaching on the part of screenwriter and director Lee Hae-young.“I wanted to create a mystery film set in a girls’ boarding school in the 1930s, full of girlish emotions,” Lee said at a press preview at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University on June 9. “But I wanted to po

June 17, 2015

Lucas’ legacy: 40 years of magic

SAN FRANCISCO ― Ask George Lucas what he thinks about the forthcoming “Star Wars” movie ― the first one the series creator has not had a hand in ― and he morphs into sagacious Obi-wan Kenobi.“I’m very eager to see what they’ve done with it,” Lucas tells USA Today. “You know, I’m not going to be around for 100 years. You reach the age of 70, and you understand it’ll take a decade to do a group of these new movies. So it’s time to realize, ‘Star Wars’ needs someone else.”Three years ago, Lucas, 71

June 17, 2015

Bucheon film festival offers ‘love, fantasy, adventure’

This year’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival will take place under the theme of “Love, Fantasy and Adventure” and screen 235 films of various genres from 45 countries, including 64 films making their world premiere.According to the organizing committee, BiFan (formerly known as PiFan) differentiates itself from other fantasy film markets by broadening its definition of genre films beyond horror and the grotesque to include sci-fi, suspense and action.“As a premium genre film showcas

June 16, 2015

[Herald Review] Two unsung heroes remembered in ‘Classified File’

The year is 1978. A little girl has been kidnapped for ransom in Busan, but the perpetrator does not contact the family for two weeks. Nearly everyone assumes that the girl is dead and is focused only on making an arrest, while the parents are praying that there is still some way to bring their daughter back safe. The girl’s mother meets a fortune-teller named Kim Joong-san, who tells her not only that her daughter is alive, but that she can be saved if she enlists the help of detective Gong Gil

June 15, 2015

Box Office

The Classified File (Korea)Opening June 18Crime. Directed by Kwak Kyung-taekWhen a Busan detective named Gil-young (Kim Yun-seok) is asked by a prominent businessman to lead up the investigation of his daughter’s kidnapping, he decides to run the investigation completely underground to deceive the perpetrator. While waging political conflicts within the agency, Gil-young enlists the help of a fortune-teller named Joong-san (Yoo Hae-jin) who has an uncanny ability to predict how events will unfol

June 12, 2015

Eyelike: A Thousand Horses, Galantis, Yelawolf

A Thousand Horses brash on ‘Southernality’A Thousand Horses“Southernality”(Republic Nashville)Southern rock specialists A Thousand Horses pride themselves on being influenced by some of the genre’s greats, such as The Black Crowes and The Allman Brothers. You can hear those influences throughout their latest album, “Southernality.”Push play on the album’s first track, “First Time,” and the listener is treated to a raucous keyboard-fueled song that is uncomfortably close to Black Crowes’ “Jealous

June 12, 2015

Olivia Cooke moves from horror’s shadows into indie film’s limelight

You can’t make a movie out of the tragicomic novel “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” without the perfect, terminally-ill final third character in that title. The film’s director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon cast about and found someone in a genre that both he and she are well-versed in ― horror.“It’s a very expressive genre,” says Gomez-Rejon, who directed episodes of TV’s “American Horror Story” and the big screen “The Town That Dreaded Sundown.” He found his “Dying Girl” on TV’s “Bates Motel.” But youn

June 12, 2015

Ku Hye-sun to drop New Age album

Actress, singer-songwriter and film director Ku Hye-sun is slated to drop a New Age album Friday, her label YG Entertainment said Tuesday. The upcoming album “Breath 2 ― After 10 Years, 100 Years” arrives six years after her last album, “Breath,” in 2009. All 13 songs of the album are composed and written by Ku. She wanted to depict changing seasons and the solitude of life and love through the album.  Ku Hye-sun. (Korea Herald file photo)The soundtracks of her self-directed films, 2012’s “The P

June 9, 2015

TVXQ’s Yunho to enlist in July

K-pop singer Yunho will enlist for his mandatory military service on July 21, according to an official announcement by his agency Tuesday.Yunho, whose full name is Jung Yun-ho, is a member of K-pop duo TVXQ, which is managed by SM Entertainment.“Yunho will take part in boot camp for five weeks before serving in his active military service for 21 months,” his agency said. YunhoThe singer wishes to enlist quietly and has hence declined to disclose the specific time and location where he will repor

June 9, 2015

Impressions of a quiet rural city unfold in ‘A Midsummer’s Fantasia’

“A Midsummer’s Fantasia” is being marketed as a romance movie, but its director, Jang Kun-jae, thinks of it as more of a road movie. “That’s what I intended,” he said in an interview. The film, set to open in local theaters this week, takes place in Gojo, a sparsely populated city in Nara prefecture, Japan. It was a collaborative project between Jang and Cannes-acclaimed Japanese director Kawase Naomi, who joined as a producer. Although Kawase had lived and filmed in the area for many years, Jan

June 8, 2015

Song Kang-ho, Jeon Do-yeon named best actors in survey

A survey of 10,447 moviegoers conducted by Maxmovie on May 11 and 12 showed that actors Song Kang-ho and Jeon Do-yeon were considered the best actors by Korean audiences.In the male category, Song Kang-ho (known for films like 2013’s “Snowpiercer”) was followed by Choi Min-sik (“Oldboy” from 2003) and Ha Jung-woo (2013’s “The Berlin File”). In the female category, Jeon Do-yeon, whose movie “The Shameless” was recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Un Certain Regard section, was closely

June 7, 2015

Box Office

Perfect Proposal (Korea)Opened June 4Romance. Directed by Yoon Jae-guJi-yeon (Lim Soo-jung) is a woman at the end of her rope. Having been betrayed by her friend, she is pursued by loan sharks when she meets Seong-yeol (Yoo Yeon-seok), an assistant to the head of a powerful casino group. Seong-yeol suggests that Ji-yeon captivate the group’s president and become a real-life Cinderella, offering her help in exchange for half her inheritance if she succeeds. Ji-yeon is drawn to Seong-yeol’s perfec

June 5, 2015

[Herald Review] ‘Helios’ is only lukewarm

Terrorism, nuclear weapons, a stellar pan-Asian cast and a hefty $26 million budget ― “Helios” has all the right ingredients for a pulsating Hong Kong action thriller, but ends up amounting to much less than the sum of its parts.The film is undoubtedly an ambitious endeavor, touching upon big issues like the inefficacy of international diplomacy and Hong Kong’s precarious position vis-a-vis mainland China. It attempts to bring together the action blockbuster and the noir by interweaving high-spe

June 4, 2015

New film searches for ‘Beauty Inside’

“Beauty is only skin deep, and it is the beauty inside that matters.”The upcoming film “The Beauty Inside” challenges itself to reinvent this time-old statement in a fresh, intriguing way on the big screen.Directed by the visual artist and advertisement director Zong Baik (who goes simply by Baik), the film is about a woman named Yi-soo (Han Hyo-joo) who develops a romance with a man (Woo-jin) whose appearance changes every morning. Each morning, he may wake up as a man, a woman, young or old, o

June 4, 2015

[Herald Review] ‘Perfect Proposal’ far from perfect

According to director Yoon Jae-gu, “Perfect Proposal” is two movies in one.“The first half is a classic romance, while the second is a thriller,” he said at a press preview at CGV Wangsimni on May 28.Unfortunately, the film fails to deliver on both counts.Adapted from Catherine Arley’s story “La Femme de paille (Woman of Straw)” published in the 1950s, “Perfect Proposal” follows a young woman named Ji-yeon (Lim Soo-jung), a tour guide-turned-bartender trying to pay off her debts in Macau. Just w

June 2, 2015

Actor Won Bin ties knot with actress Lee Na-young

Well-known Hallyu or Korean Wave star Won Bin who gained popularity for his role in the popular TV series "Autumn in My Heart," married actress Lee Na-young on Saturday, their agency said.The wedding was held in Won Bin's hometown of Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, with only select family members and close friends invited, Eden9 Entertainment Co. Ltd. said in a news release.(Yonhap)The two have been in a relationship for years which was first officially confirmed by the agency in 2013."It was a sma

May 31, 2015

Box Office

Perfect Proposal (Korea)Opening June 4Romance. Directed by Yoon Jae-guJi-yeon (Lim Soo-jung) is a woman at the end of her rope. After being betrayed by her friend, she is being chased down by loan sharks when she meets Seong-yeol (Yoo Yeon-seok), an assistant to the head of a powerful casino group. Seong-yeol suggests that Ji-yeon captivate the group’s president and become a real-life Cinderella, offering her help in exchange for half her inheritance if she succeeds. Ji-yeon is drawn to Seong-ye

May 29, 2015