Actors love working on animated movies because it’s so easy: Just say a few lines into a microphone and pick up your check.That wasn’t the case with “Mars Needs Moms,” where filmmakers used a process called motion capture to create the animation. Instead of just speaking, the actors had to perform every scene. Film of those performances was used to make computer-generated images.“This was the hard

Film March 18, 2011

A man torn by history Land of BanishedBy Jo Jung-rae(Jimoondang, 5,000 won)A heart-rending tale of a man warped by the hardships of the Korean War, Jo Jung-rae’s “Land of Banished” vividly portrays a victim of Korea’s checkered history.Mahn-seok, the protagonist, is born into a family of landless peasants in the late 1920s Korea. All the members of his family are servants of a nobleman called Choi

Books March 18, 2011

Journalist takes readers back to future Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now Our Culture, Our Politics, Our EverythingBy David Sirota(Ballantine Books, $25)Ah, the 1980s. Those carefree years spent spinning the gears of Rubik’s Cubes, popping Pac-Man cartridges into Atari consoles, slipping on legwarmers or parachute pants, and checking out the latest episodes of “Fam

Books March 18, 2011

A restlessness in her soul would not let Gloria House be.She was a graduate student in 1963 studying French at the University of California at Berkeley.But how could she study when four little black girls were blown to bits by dynamite that tore through their Birmingham, Ala., church? And when the bodies of three boys ― two white, one black ― who’d gone south to help black people, were found burie

Books March 18, 2011

Poet shares his view on Korea’s 2008 candle-lit protest and its significancePoet Kim Ji-ha thinks Korea’s 2008 candle-lit protest against U.S. beef imports was a crucial moment in world history.“It was the very first protest that was initiated by the most marginalized in the patriarchal society,” Kim said at a literary circle meeting held at the residence of Swedish Ambassador to Korea in Seoul, T

Books March 17, 2011

More than 140,000 Korean cultural artifacts are currently in overseas countries, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage announced on Tuesday.Last January the research institution drew up a list of Korea’s missing cultural assets that have been located in foreign countries. At the time, the list had concluded that there are a total of 116,896 Korean items located overseas. The newly r

Performance March 15, 2011

Im Kwon-taek’s ‘Hanji’ features ‘moon-like’ beauty of traditional Korean mulberry paperAfter making a series of films that were “replicas of Hollywood films” in the 1960s, director Im Kwon-taek set one solid goal in his mind.“The films I made in the 1960s were solely created for box-office profits and audience appeal,” Im told The Korea Herald on Monday. “But I wanted to get away from that America

Film March 15, 2011

In the upcoming movie “Battle: Los Angeles,” L.A. represents the last stand for humankind in a fight against invading aliens.The action-packed film, however, was mostly shot in the other LA: Louisiana.Having Baton Rouge and Shreveport stand in for Santa Monica, California, and L.A. might seem as preposterous as aliens attacking the city.But several factors drew filmmakers to the Bayou State, chief

Film March 11, 2011

Red Riding Hood (U.S.)Opening March 17 Fantasy. Horror. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry (Max Irons). Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they

Film March 11, 2011

The Little Red Riding Hood of our collective imaginations is usually carrying a basket, but what she’s really got is baggage ― the kind of socio-sexual-psychological baggage that has kept certain fairy tales and myths alive from one end of the media forest (oral tradition) to the other (iPads).As a movie star, Red hasn’t had quite the career of Cinderella, say, or Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, ev

Film March 11, 2011

Essays on mountain, life Story of Dobong MountainBy Pyo Jae-doo(Hansom Publishing House Co., 10,000 won)Former journalist Pyo Jae-doo loves climbing mountains, especially Dobong Mountain in Seoul. He finds the mountain fascinatingly beautiful and therapeutic, offering opportunities for its visitors to connect with nature.Pyo’s newly released book, “Story of Dobong Mountain” consists of seven chapt

Books March 11, 2011

Trauma and ethicsThree Days in That AutumnBy Park Wan-suh(Jimoondang, 5,000 won)Among the many Korean novels dealing with the Korean War (1950-1953), Park Wan-suh’s “Three Days in That Autumn” tells a rare and original account of a female protagonist who tries to overcome her personal trauma while faced with ethical questions surrounding her profession.Raped and pregnat with an unwanted child duri

Books March 11, 2011

‘Focusing on good books, experience: key to success’As thousands of booksellers around the United States lose their jobs this month at bankrupt Borders, Nicola’s Bookstore buyer Bill Cusimano feels no pain.Here in the cramped back office at this profitable, American independent bookstore, Cusimano is swamped getting new orders in for rush customers, planning events such as the appearance of local

Books March 11, 2011

There is a lot to like in “Couture in the 21st Century,” a collection of essays by prominent fashion designers edited by Deborah Bee, and produced in conjunction with the British department store, Harrods.It’s an excellent way to get a feel for the history of the century-and-a-half -old fashion industry started by Charles Worth in the mid-1800s.However, it also provides some stark contrasts betwee

Books March 11, 2011