'Snowpiercer' surpasses 8 mln viewer mark

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho's English language debut film, "Snowpiercer," has attracted more than 8 million viewers in 19 days since opening, the national film promotion agency said Sunday.The film, starring top Korean actor Song Kang-ho alongside Hollywood thespians Chris Evans, Ed Harris and Tilda Swinton, attracted a total of 8,004,089 viewers as of Sunday morning, the 19th day since first playing on local screens, the Korean Film Council said. The feat marks a faster speed in attract

Aug. 18, 2013

Box Office: The Grandmaster, The Flu, The Place Beyond the Pines

The GrandmasterAction. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Opening Aug. 22Ip Man (Tony Leung) is a martial arts specialist who enjoys a peaceful life with his wife (Song Hye-kyo) and two children in southern China. While Ip is training, he is challenged to a duel by Gong Yutian, a martial arts master known for his 64 hands technique. Ip wins, much to Gong’s surprise. He later runs into Gong’s daughter, Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), who visits Ip to regain her father’s honor. The two form a special bond through an

Aug. 16, 2013

The incomparable Karen Black in 1970s cinema

Though actress Karen Black never stopped working, news of her passing last week at age 74 sent me back to the 1970s. That era ― a transformative cultural moment for women in general ― had the films I remember the actress in most.It actually starts on the eve of the decade with 1969’s “Easy Rider,” the movie that put Black on Hollywood’s radar. (She had already made an imprint on stage.) It’s hard to forget her portrayal of a leggy prostitute with a long tangle of brown curls taking an LSD-fueled

Aug. 16, 2013

BIFF gives Asian filmmaking award to Cambodian director

Celebrated Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh has been selected as the winner of Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award.The annual prize from BIFF is given to an Asian filmmaker “who has significantly contributed to the development of Asian cinema and culture.” Past winners include Iran’s Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien and Hong Kong’s Andy Lau. The 49-year-old filmmaker’s works have been largely focused on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime

Aug. 15, 2013

15 years later, Oprah is back in the movies

NEW YORK (AP) ― The day before Oprah Winfrey began shooting “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” she was at the White House, talking to the president. Her access to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (this particular trip was for a 2012 campaign interview) is considerably greater than her character’s in the film. She plays Gloria Gaines, the wife of a long-serving White House butler (Forest Whitaker), whose service spans seven presidents and decades of civil rights sea changes. “They said, ‘Do you want to talk to s

Aug. 15, 2013

Matt Damon: ‘Elysium’ resonates with the world we live in

Following on the heels of “World War Z,” “After Earth” and “Snowpiercer,” local theaters are seeing the arrival of another dystopian blockbuster, this time starring Matt Damon. Damon, who is best known in Korea for his 1997 drama film “Good Will Hunting” which he co-wrote with his friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck, visited Seoul for the first time to promote his latest movie “Elysium.”The film, directed by “District 9” filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, is set in 2154 where the powerful live in a space

Aug. 14, 2013

Matt Damon: ‘Elysium’ resonates with the world we live in

Following on the heels of “World War Z,” “After Earth” and “Snowpiercer,” local theaters are seeing the arrival of another dystopian blockbuster, this time starring Matt Damon. Damon, who is best known in Korea for his 1997 drama film “Good Will Hunting” which he co-wrote with his friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck, visited Seoul for the first time to promote his latest movie “Elysium.”The film, directed by “District 9” filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, is set in 2154 where the powerful live in a space

Aug. 14, 2013

When martial arts become cinematic poetry

Filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s “Grandmaster,” contrary to what the title suggests, is not exactly a biopic of the legendary Chinese martial artist Ip Man (1893-1972), the grandmaster of Wing Chun who famously taught Bruce Lee.Rather, it is Wong’s poignant, visually stunning tribute to what is now gone ― China before the Japanese invasion and the glory years of Chinese martial arts in the 1930s. Though it features the life of Ip, the film focuses on martial arts itself rather than the individual. What

Aug. 13, 2013

Cho Jae-hyun wins acting prize at Montreal Film Festival

Actor Cho Jae-hyun won the best actor prize at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, for his performance as a hunchback in director Jeon Kyu-hwan’s film “The Weight.”In the 2012 film, Cho plays a mortician who accepts the corpses of those who died without any family or friends to pay for the funeral. Cho is said to have agreed to star in the low-budget movie for free.Director Jeon won the Queer Lion prize at last year’s Venice International Film Festival for the m

Aug. 12, 2013

Summer days with movies of all genres

From classics to cult, movies of different genres are being screened at an annual summer film festival in Seoul. The 2013 Cine-Vacances Seoul, in its 8th year, is showing 28 movies categorized into four sections at Seoul Art Cinema in Insa-dong, Seoul. The cinema is a non-profit cinematheque ― a film archive with small venues that screens mostly classic and art-house films. It screens some 500 films from various countries and receives over 60,000 visitors every year.  The films taken out of the

Aug. 11, 2013

Box Office: The Flu, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Terror Live

The FluDrama. Action. Directed by Kim Sung-soo.Opening Aug. 14A deadly strain of the avian influenza virus H5N1 suddenly spreads, causing widespread destruction in Bundang, a city of high-rise apartments outside of Seoul. The disease infects its victims through the respiratory system and it takes only 36 hours for the infected to die. People are helpless against the airborne disease and the number of infected increases quickly, spreading chaos. As a precaution against the worst-case scenario, th

Aug. 9, 2013

‘The Terror Live’ to get North American release

After marking 2 million viewers within just six days of release, “The Terror Live” will be released in seven cities in North America starting on Aug. 9, the movie’s investment distribution company Lotte Entertainment announced Thursday. The North American premiere will take place at CGV theater in Los Angeles on Friday, followed by New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Toronto. More screens may be added depending on the film’s performance. Meanwhile, nearly 3 million people have s

Aug. 8, 2013

Media Rating Board OKs screening of Kim Ki-duk’s controversial ‘Moebius’

The Korea Media Rating Board has lifted its ban on the screening of filmmaker Kim Ki-duk’s “Moebius” in Korea, after the director re-submitted the film twice and cut two minutes and 30 seconds from the original version. “Moebius” received an R rating, which prohibits teenagers under 18 from seeing the movie.The film initially received a “restricted screening” rating from the state-run rating agency in June, for its controversial subject matter ― especially for scenes that depict incestuous encou

Aug. 7, 2013

Makoto Shinkai’s latest work arrives in Seoul

Japanese anime director Makoto Shinkai has a solid fan base in Korea, with his previous works “Voices of a Distant Star” and “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” well received by anime lovers here.To their delight, Shinkai’s latest film is hitting local theaters this week. Titled “The Garden of Words,” the 46-minute film premiered in Korea during last month’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. Tickets for its screening sold out during the festival, and it received positive reviews from bo

Aug. 6, 2013

Sharon Stone happily unrecognizable in new role

NEW YORK (AP) ― Actors make physical transformations for roles all the time; it’s what they do. Still, many have found it truly stunning to see Sharon Stone ― who at 55 still looks unnervingly like the sleek, blonde, leg-crossing femme fatale she played two decades ago in “Basic Instinct” ― appear dark, severe, ungainly and nearly unrecognizable in “Lovelace.”“NOBODY recognized her,” says Amanda Seyfried, who plays Stone’s daughter, the “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace, in the film that opens F

Aug. 6, 2013