‘The Unjust’ best picture at Blue Dragon Awards

Kim Ha-neul, Park Hae-il hailed best actress, actorDirector Ryu Seung-wan’s crime thriller “The Unjust” won Best Picture at the 32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards on Friday, while actress Kim Ha-neul and actor Park Hae-il received the top acting honors in a repeat of last month’s Daejong Film Awards.An incisive portrayal of corruption and extortion of public officials surrounding a serial murder case, “The Unjust” also won Best Director and Best Screenplay.Ryu, who was reportedly on a business trip i

Nov. 27, 2011

Korean documentary wins top prize at IDFA 2011

Korean documentary “Planet of Snail” won the top prize at the world’s largest documentary film festival in the Netherlands on Saturday, becoming the first Asian film to win the award.An everyday portrayal of a hearing and visually impaired man and his partner by director Yi Seung-jun, the film won the Best Feature-Length Documentary prize at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Yi received a $16,600 cash prize.The film previously won the UNICEF Special award at last yea

Nov. 27, 2011

Box Office

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1(U.S.)Opening Nov. 30Fantasy. Romance. Directed by Bill Condon. Newly married Bella (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) go off on their honeymoon to a private island off the coast of Brazil. While enjoying herself with her husband, Bella realizes she may be pregnant with a half-vampire baby. As Bella gets confirmation that she is actually pregnant, the couple immediately leave the island and return to their home. Worried that the baby, w

Nov. 25, 2011

Williams prepared by immersing herself in all things Monroe

Her eyes were searching the grounds of the Beverly Hills Hotel, peeking over the bougainvillea at a row of terra cotta-roofed buildings.“I always wonder which bungalow was hers,” said Michelle Williams, staring into the distance at a lodging that could have been home to Marilyn Monroe. The icon, whom Williams plays in the film “My Week With Marilyn,” lived at the hotel in the late 1950s while in production on the movie “Let’s Make Love.”“Is it too pretentious to say I feel I have a relationship

Nov. 25, 2011

McAvoy feels duty to voice any film animated in the U.K.

“The Last King of Scotland” (2006) made Scottish actor James McAvoy a film star, and “Wanted” (2008) made him a bankable Hollywood name. He does most of his work, these days, in American projects such as “X-Men: First Class” and “The Conspirator.”But he’s not forgetting where he came from. At 32, he’s starring in his fellow Brit Danny Boyle’s heist picture, “Trance.” And any time there’s a bit of animation to be done in the UK, count him present. From the sleeper hit “Gnomeo and Juliet,” which m

Nov. 25, 2011

Sienna Miller says paper hacked her emails

LONDON (AFP) ― Actress Sienna Miller told an inquiry Thursday her emails and phones were hacked by the News of the World as part of a “web of surveillance” that led her to make paranoid accusations against her friends.It is the first time the inquiry has heard evidence that emails were hacked as well as phone voicemails, and came shortly after British police said they had made their first arrest in a computer hacking probe linked to the paper.Miller, the ex-girlfriend of Hollywood star Jude Law,

Nov. 25, 2011

JK Rowling: UK press left me feeling under siege

LONDON (AP) _ Writer J.K. Rowling and actress Sienna Miller have given a London courtroom a vivid picture of the anxiety, anger and fear produced by living in the glare of Britain's tabloid media, describing how press intrusion made them feel like prisoners in their own homes.J.K. Rowling (Bloomberg

Nov. 25, 2011

Kermit the Frog was green before green was cool

LOS ANGELES ― Kermit the Frog is cooling his cloth-and-cotton heels in the Beverly Hilton hotel room.“Miss Piggy apologizes. She’s delayed. Actually she’s standing right outside the door. She wants to make a special entrance,” Kermit says.As if on cue, the door flies open and Miss Piggy enters like a beauty queen making her first trip down the runway. She stops and asks how long we’ve been waiting. Upon hearing it’s been only 30 seconds, Piggy turns and leaves.The move doesn’t surprise Kermit. T

Nov. 24, 2011

Clooney on witness list for Berlusconi trial

MILAN (AP) — George Clooney and his ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis are among more than 200 witnesses accepted Wednesday by a Milan court in the trial of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute.Clooney has said he was approached by Berlusconi'

Nov. 24, 2011

Honorary BIFF chief awaits his film debut

Kim Dong-ho shares founding of BIFFHe is soft-spoken, extremely polite and remembers your name only after a quick phone call.Meet Kim Dong-ho, the founding director of Busan International Film Festival and one of the pioneer figures in the Korean film industry.On a bright Monday afternoon, Kim, who now serves as the festival’s honorary chief, sits in the cafe located in the Plaza Hotel, central Seoul. Dressed in a suit and his hair tidily gelled down, the 74-year-old greets all with a warm hands

Nov. 23, 2011

Animation is the future: Yeun Sang-ho

Director talks about making “The King of Pigs”This is the third of a series on up-and-coming Korean filmmakers. -- Ed.It is a bright Wednesday morning in Seoul, and a man wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses walks into the quiet cafe near Hongdae. In spite of his toned-down manner and geek-like vibe, director Yeun Sang-ho cannot hide the twinkle of excitement in his eyes.It is just a day before the official release of Yeun’s multiple award-winning feature animation debut, “The King of Pigs.” H

Nov. 21, 2011

Natalie Wood detectives face conflicting accounts

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Natalie Wood's drowning death nearly 30 years ago came after a night of dinner, drinking and arguments but the question remains _ was it anything more than a tragic accident?In a Nov. 25, 1959 file photo, Natalie Wood and her husband Robert Wagner are made up for their roles

Nov. 20, 2011

Box Office

SIU (Korea)Opening Nov. 24Crime. Directed by Hwang Byeong-gook. When his colleague is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant, detective Seomg-beom (Eom Tae-woong), with the support of the Police Agency, sets up a special investigation bureau to chase down the suspect. He gets Ho-ryong (Joo Won) a former FBI member, as his partner in the team. After a series of investigations, the duo pegs working police officer Park Gyeong-sik (Kim Jeong-tae) as the suspect on the basis of several circumstanc

Nov. 18, 2011

Demi Moore to divorce Ashton Kutcher

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Demi Moore is ending her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, she told The Associated Press on Thursday.(Ashton Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore, AP)Moore, 49, and Kutcher, 33, were wed in September 2005, but the couple's relationship became tabloid fodder in recent months as r

Nov. 18, 2011

Sharon Stone announces 2 new roles

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Sharon Stone is taking on two very different roles: One in a Linda Lovelace biopic, and another online to welcome returning troops.The 53-year-old actress says she will play Lovelace’s mother in “Lovelace.” But before filming starts, the “Basic Instinct” star has another mission: She’s taking her first steps into the world of social media with a Facebook page that welcomes returning military personnel home from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.Stone says her page will serve as a c

Nov. 17, 2011

Two different gay films to arrive on K-film scene

‘Life is Peachy’ and ‘REC’ bring different approaches, styleAfter this year’s success of “Miracle of Jongno Street,” the nation’s first gay-themed documentary, Korea’s film scene sees the arrival of two very different queer films. One is the feature debut of So Joon-moon, one of the four gay men featured in director Lee Hyuk-sang’s documentary released in June. In the non-fiction film, So appeared as a struggling film director who often gets discouraged by social scrutiny of his sexual orientati

Nov. 17, 2011