Michael Pena hopes family-friendly ‘Turbo’ will bowl over his son

For a guy who rarely goes bowling and is content with breaking 100 on the score sheet, Michael Pena ― best known for his roles in “Crash” and “End of Watch” ― sure carried himself like a big shot on the lanes last Monday. But it was all in good fun, other than the fact that Pena really wanted to win.“Are you nervous?” asked Pena, 37, before the first of our two embarrassingly low-scoring games at Lucky Strike Lanes in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. “I feel like you’re nervous.”In addition

July 19, 2013

‘Cold Eyes’ smashes 4 million mark

Korean thriller film “Cold Eyes” attracted 4 million viewers in just 17 days, becoming the fifth domestic film to hit the record this year ― following box office hits “The Berlin File,” “Secretly Greatly,” “New World” and “Miracle in Cell No.7.”The star-studded film, which stars actors Sol Kyung-gu, Jung Woo-sung, and actress Han Hyo-joo, tells the story of a group of detectives specializing in surveillance activities on high profile criminals. In the film, they together try to arrest the member

July 19, 2013

Hong Sang-soo’s latest work to compete at Locarno film festival

Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s latest work has been invited to Locarno International Film Festival’s international competition section, the film’s local promoters said.The film, titled “Our Sunhi,” tells the story of a young film student named Sun-hi (played by actress Jeong Yoo-mi) who is about to leave Korea to study overseas. Before moving abroad, she visits two of her ex-boyfriends (played by Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Jae-young) and her professor named Choi (played by Kim Sang-jung). “Our Sunhi

July 18, 2013

Ha Jung-woo to direct film adaptation of Chinese novel

Popular actor Ha Jung-woo will direct and star in a film adaptation of famed Chinese author Yu Hua’s 1995 novel “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant,” Korean film house NEW said.The novel, which is set from the early years of the People’s Republic of China until after the Cultural Revolution in the early 1950s to the 1980s, deals with a man who sells his blood for many years to support his family. The upcoming movie will be the first film adaptation of the novel. Author Yu’s 1992 novel “To Live” was f

July 17, 2013

Bong Jun-ho’s ‘Snowpiercer’ sets record with presales to 167 countries

Even before its world premiere in Seoul on Aug. 1, director Bong Jun-ho’s “Snowpiercer” has already been sold to 167 different countries, CJ Entertainment said Tuesday, setting a presale record for a film by a Korean director.Film distributor The Weinstein Company secured the distribution rights for countries in North America, the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and other English-speaking nations. French film distributor Wildside, which in the past distributed Korean films such as “Thirst” (2009),

July 17, 2013

Annual genre film festival arrives in Bucheon

The annual Puchon (Bucheon) International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), considered the largest genre film fest in Asia, opens this Thursday with 229 horror, fantasy, mystery and animated films from 44 countries.This year’s PiFan celebrates its 17th edition and includes a total of 53 world premieres. Its opener is Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman’s latest animated film “The Congress.” The filmmaker, who is best known for his 2008 animated documentary “Waltz with Bashir” ― which dealt with his own

July 16, 2013

Hugh Jackman talks ‘The Wolverine’

Following his visit to Seoul last year to promote “Les Miserables,” Australian actor Hugh Jackman made his fourth visit to the city, this time with the sixth installment in the X-Men Film series, “The Wolverine.”The actor, who made his first visit to Seoul in 2006 and his second in 2009, was appointed a goodwill ambassador for Seoul in 2009. “Actually, Korea is the only place in the world I can go out for dinner and it is still on my Wolverine diet ― that’s Korean barbecue,” the actor, who said

July 15, 2013

Johnny Depp’s interest in Wounded Knee causes a stir

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) ― For months, questions have swirled about whether developers, activists or tribes would be willing to plunk down millions to buy a portion of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark. Now there’s a new potential buyer in the mix: Johnny Depp.But is the star of “The Lone Ranger” really preparing to be the one who buys the property where hundreds of Native Americans were killed? Or is it just the latest rumor in the contentious debate over the landmark’s future?D

July 14, 2013

Box Office: RED 2, Mr. Go, Side Effects

RED 2Action. Comedy. Crime. Directed by Dean Parisot.Opening July 18While trying to enjoy a normal life, retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is notified by his old friend Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) that Interpol is hunting him. When Frank tries to clear his name, he gets reacquainted on a global mission to track down a missing nuclear device that was sneaked into Russia and reassembled. While Frank reunites his former team of elite operatives and is working on the mission,

July 12, 2013

SeaWorld gets a black eye in new documentary

Filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite was something of a “SeaWorld mom.” She’d taken her kids to the San Diego location of the popular theme park corporation, “planted us firmly in the Shamu splash zone. We all just ate it up.”Then she read of SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau’s grisly death by orca in February 2010. She “just couldn’t come to terms with it. I could not understand how a highly intelligent, beloved mammal could make that decision. I was confounded. Was he playing? Did she drown

July 12, 2013

Homegrown tech brings gorilla to life

Korean moviegoers have seen Richard Parker, the stunning CG tiger in Ang Lee’s 2012 3-D adventure drama “Life of Pi.” On screen, the CG animal looked nothing less than a flesh-and-blood Bengal tiger. Just about a year later, moviegoers are being introduced to Ling Ling, a CG gorilla created using local technology. Director Kim Yong-hwa’s (“Take Off,” “200 Pounds Beauty”) ambitious and expensive 3-D project, titled “Mr. Go,” was unveiled to the press on Monday, ahead of its scheduled opening on J

July 10, 2013

Box Office: Mr. Go, Side Effects, Cold Eyes

Mr. GoComedy. Drama. Directed by Kim Yong-hwa.Opening July 17The film revolves around a young circus ringmaster Wei Wei and her special gorilla friend Ling Ling. After her grandfather dies in the Great Sichuan earthquake leaving an insurmountable debt, Wei Wei depends on Ling Ling as her only family member. The two enjoy playing baseball and are quite good at it since Wei Wei‘s grandfather was a huge fan of baseball. Story of the two is introduced in Korea and the materialistic sports agent Sung

July 5, 2013

‘Way, Way Back’ a romance that’s nostalgic for the present

A person can come of age at any time. But in the movies, a lot of that growing up seems packed into the summer months. Especially for boys. That’s when a lad can hang out on the beach, come to some sort of arrangement with girls and endure entirely too much of his closely-observed family for his own good.“The Way, Way Back” is a semi-nostalgic coming-of-age dramedy from the folks who wrote “The Descendants.” It’s about a shy, put-upon lad, his long-suffering mother, the mom’s difficult new beau

July 5, 2013

48 Meters: Between life and death

Located on the border between North Korea and China, the Amnok River, or Yalu River in Chinese, separates the two countries by just 48 meters. The river is the shortest route of escape for many North Korean defectors, who risk their lives to cross the border to China. Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are currently believed to be hiding in China, where many of them are caught and repatriated to the North to face severe punishment, torture and even execution. An upcoming film, titled “4

July 3, 2013

Won Bin, Lee Na-young dating: agency

The agency of South Korean movie stars Won Bin and Lee Na-young on Wednesday confirmed reports that the two stars are an item. The admission came just hours after a local tabloid published photos of the stars on a date.“The two (Won and Lee) are just starting their relationship,” Eden9 Entertainment said in a statement. “They recently grew fond of each other after frequently bumping into one another while working at the same agency.”Eden9 CEO Kim Nam-kyung had previously denied the reports that

July 3, 2013

Box office sales near 100 million in first half

Nearly 100 million movie tickets were sold at cinemas in the first half of this year, with more than half of them seeing Korean films, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday. Inspired by the record-breaking number, the authorities have been pushing a number of policies to support the local filmmaking industry, including subsidies, stipulation of fair contracts and encouragement of exports. According to the ministry, the number of cinemagoers marked 98.5 million between January

July 2, 2013