Actress Song Hye-kyo will make a comeback to the big screen with a film based on leading writer Kim Ae-ran’s celebrated novel, “My Palpitating Life,” the movie’s production company announced on Sunday. “Song Hye-kyo has always wanted to work with the director Lee Jae-yong. The casting would not have been made possible without her respect toward the director and trust in the original book,” said an official. Song is to play an affectionate mother of a son who is suffering from a rare disease that

Oct. 15, 2013

Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ E&M’s English-language movie “Final Recipe” had its U.S. premiere on Thursday as the opening film of the Hawaii International Film Festival. Helmed by Korean director Gina Kim and starring singer Henry Lau and actress Michelle Yeoh, “Final Recipe” is one of CJ E&M’s international projects alongside Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi flick “Snowpiercer” and Korea-China joint production “A Wedding Invitation.” The film, jointly written by Kim and Chinese-American screenwrit

Oct. 14, 2013

The 18th Busan International Film Festival closed on Saturday with the screening of “The Dinner” by Korean filmmaker Kim Dong-hyun.The 10-day festival sold over 217,000 tickets for the 299 films screened, in spite of a rare October typhoon that hit Busan four days before its closing day. BIFF was attended by more than 220,000 viewers last year during its 17th edition, which remains a record for the festival.This year’s edition was filled with highly anticipated directorial debuts by prominent Ko

Oct. 13, 2013

Hwa-yiOpened Oct. 9Action. Thriller. Directed by Jang Joon-hwan. A five-member crime organization lives on a deserted farm in the middle of a forest. A plan-gone-wrong leaves the gang with a kidnapped boy, and the five members -- Seok-tae (Kim Yoon-seok), Ki-tae (Jo Jin-woong), Jin-sung (Jang Hyun-sung), Dong-beom (Kim Sung-kun), and Beom-soo (Park Hae-joon) -- raise the boy as their son. The boy, named Hwa-yi (Yeo Jin-goo), longs for an ordinary life but is deprived of his childhood, forced to

Oct. 11, 2013

It’s a moment rife with dread, surprise, panic, suspense. In “Captain Phillips,” Paul Greengrass’ white-knuckle re-enactment of the 2009 hijacking of a U.S.-flagged freighter in the Arabian Sea, four Somali pirates take the bridge of the Maersk Alabama.It is the first time that Muse, the lean, stone-eyed leader of the marauders, and Richard Phillips, the mariner in charge of the giant container vessel, meet.And for Greengrass, it was a doubly crucial moment. He had cast Barkhad Abdi, a Somali-Am

Oct. 11, 2013

Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, one of the world’s most acknowledged animation houses, will give a dual lecture on cultural content and its role in the creative economy with Korean film director Bong Joon-ho on Oct. 18. As part of CJ’s Global Creative Forum held at Daeyang Hall of Sejong University in Seoul, Katzenberg will talk about DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda” series and its strategy of mixing Asian characters with Western philosophies. He will also discuss the use of cutting-

Oct. 11, 2013

BUSAN (AP) ― How much would it cost to hire Asia’s biggest movie stars to host the region’s largest film event? Hong Kong star Aaron Kwok opened this year’s Busan International Film Festival for a mere 500,000 won, or $465, according to Yang Heon-kyu, who oversees the festival’s budget. In 2012, Chinese actress Tang Wei accepted the same amount. The goodwill from big-name stars is one indication of how important Busan has become to the Asian film industry in less than two decades.It is not just

Oct. 10, 2013

BUSAN (AFP) ― Two major Asian adaptations of classic Westerns have hit screens at the Busan International Film Festival, in a revival of a genre that drew some of its early inspiration from the cinema of the East. Japanese-Korean director Lee Sang-il’s “Unforgiven” is a remake of the 1992 Clint Eastwood classic of the same name, starring the Oscar-nominated Ken Watanabe. “Once Upon a Time In Vietnam,” directed by Vietnamese-American director Dustin Nguyen takes its inspiration from Sergio Leone’

Oct. 9, 2013

BUSAN (AFP) ― Korean director Bong Joon-ho on Monday played down controversy over the international release of his English-language debut “Snowpiercer,” saying he would accept any final cuts Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein made to the film.“For me, the important thing is that it reaches an audience,” said Bong, a king of the box office in Korea, where his sci-fi thriller has been a hit with takings so far of more than $61 million.Weinstein has picked up the rights to the apocalyptic cliff-hange

Oct. 8, 2013

BUSAN (AFP) ― Six-time Oscar-nominated Irish director Jim Sheridan said Sunday that Hollywood’s fixation with making money from the international box office had moved drama off the big screen and onto television.“We’re in a transition period worldwide,” he told a press conference on the sidelines of the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the largest in Asia.“I think Hollywood is making movies for China and India and Brazil and Russia. So they don’t want dialogue movies. They don’t wa

Oct. 7, 2013

Technically dazzling and emotionally gripping, “Gravity” is a space-age science fiction thriller grounded in something pretty close to reality.A space shuttle / space junk accident picture, Alfonso Cuaron’s movie gives us Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, space-walkers whose ship is wrecked, forcing them to face the ultimate human fear.No one wants to die alone. There is no place lonelier than the cold, silent and airless vacuum of space.Filmed in a stunning “How’d they DO that?” 3-D, we meet c

Oct. 4, 2013

 RushOpens Oct. 9Action. Drama. Directed by Ron Howard. Based on a true story, race-car drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda are young and talented, and both are looking to win it big. After a Formula Three race in 1970 at the Crystal Palace circuit in England, where both their cars spin out-of-control but Hunt ultimately wins the race, the two begin to view each other as rivals. A rivalry that first began on the track grows into off-track drama, and the pair experiences

Oct. 4, 2013

Filmmaker Im Kwon-taek announced Friday that his 102nd movie would be a film adaption of author Kim Hoon’s 2004 award-winning short story “Hwajang.” Actor Ahn Sung-ki, who previously starred in a total of six films by Im, has been cast in the leading role. Kim’s short story, which won the prestigious Yi Sang Literary Award in 2004, is about a middle-aged man who spends most of his life working for a cosmetics company, and his wife, who is dying of cancer. The devoted and patient husband also has

Oct. 4, 2013

South Korea’s top actors and celebrities on Thursday attended the 18th annual Busan International Film Festival, one of the major film festivals in Asia, attracting media coverage. In particular, actresses were flooded by camera flashes when they walked the red carpet to enter the opening ceremony. A growing number of female celebrities are going for bold, revealing outfits to steal the spotlight at film festivals. BIFF will run through Oct. 12 in Busan Cinema Center.By Im Woo-jung, Intern r

Oct. 4, 2013

BUSAN― A Bhutanese film directed by a Buddhist monk, featuring India’s traditional dance and its spirituality, opened the 18th Busan International Film Festival in Busan on Thursday.Cohosted by veteran Korean actress Kang Soo-yeon and Hong Kong singer and actor Aaron Kwok, the festival’s opening ceremony was attended by some 4,000 guests, including renowned cineastes from home and abroad such as Japanese filmmaker Shinji Aoyama, French film critic and historian Charles Tesson, and Korean filmmak

Oct. 3, 2013

Korea’s biggest annual film festival opens in Busan today, featuring a total of 301 films, including 95 world premieres from 70 countries, and two highly anticipated directing debuts by prominent Korean actors.Part of the lineup of the Korean Cinema Today section are actor Ha Jung-woo’s (“Love Fiction,” “The Chaser”) directing debut “Fasten Your Seatbelt” and veteran actor Park Joong-hoon’s (“Nowhere to Hide,” “Radio Star”) directing debut “Top Star.”Ha’s “Fasten Your Seatbelt” is a comedy about

Oct. 2, 2013