Seoul has gone through a lot in the past century, from Japanese occupation to the Korean War, and rapid industrialization to prosperity.Seoul Museum of History is holding two separate exhibitions featuring Korea’s capital in two different time periods that offer a rare glimpse into how the city has been transformed into what it is today.One of the exhibitions, “Seoul 1953-1963” showcases photograp

Performance March 29, 2011

“Norwegian Wood,” “Confessions,” “Closed Note” and “Paradise Lost.”These Japanese films, set to be released in Seoul next month, have one thing in common: they are all cinematic versions of Japan’s bestselling novels.According to Cracker Pictures, one of local distributors of the films, this is no coincidence ― the trend of making book-based films has been popular in Japan for the past couple of y

Film March 28, 2011

I Am a Dad (Korea)Opening April 14Action. Directed by Lee Se-young and Jeon Man-bae. Jong-sik (Kim Seung-woo) is a detective whose daughter is in need of a heart transplant. Finding it impossible to afford the expensive operation for his daughter, Jong-sik receives a bribe from illegal human organ traders and drops their murder charges for them. A man named Sang-man (Sohn Byeong-ho) is falsely cha

Film March 25, 2011

“You can only breathe so much in corsets,” says Mia Wasikowska, who was required to wear such an apparatus, along with various bell-shaped skirts, flounced petticoats, and tight little bonnets, as she assayed the title role in the new and beautifully miserable “Jane Eyre.”“It restricts your voice and your breath, and it’s really symbolic of the repression of the day,” she observes. “That’s very mu

Film March 25, 2011

Back in 2000, University of Southern California film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country’s desert.

Film March 25, 2011

Career tips for working womenTurn Your Passion into Your CareerBy Kim Joo-yeon(Business Books, 13,000 won)Being a working woman in Korea isn’t necessarily easy, especially when you are in your 20s and 30s.There are tough decisions to make between your career and family, and promotions and salaries to worry about. Being on good terms with everyone at work can be a challenge.For any working woman wh

Books March 25, 2011

Growing up in a port cityChinatownBy Oh Jung-hee(Jimoondang, 5,000 won)Set in the port city of Incheon in the 1950s, author Oh Jung-hee’s novella “Chinatown” explores the theme of growing up in post-war Korea.The narrator is a 12-year-old elementary school girl who has recently moved to Incheon with her family after the Korean War. Her family settles in Incheon’s Chinatown, where the streets are s

Books March 25, 2011

The further they get from Jane Austen, the better the zombie mash-up books become.Enter “Dreadfully Ever After” by Steve Hockensmith, book three in a zombie trilogy that started with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which was a combination of Jane Austen’s classic novel of manners set in the early 1800s and contemporary zombie movie mania.The first in the series was “Dawn of the Dreadfuls” by Ho

Books March 25, 2011

Singer-songwriter’s new book tells story of fictional English composerJohn Wesley Harding is Wesley Stace.That is, Wesley Stace is John Wesley Harding.That is, they’re the same person. Folk-rocker Harding ― intelligent, bardic songwright ― is the nom de rock of Wesley Stace, novelist, whose splendid new book “Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer” is out now.As usual, all sorts of things are a

Books March 25, 2011

Upcoming film tells a touching yet comical tale of a North Korean officer during the Korean WarJust about two months ahead of the Korean War, a young communist military officer (Kim Joo-hyeok) and his soldiers arrive in a secluded country town in Chungcheong Province.Amid the intense political turmoil, the town, Seokjeongri, is peaceful. It is so remote that its people don’t even take the war rumo

Film March 23, 2011

Popular Longquan ware found in sunken ship off coast of Sinan shows beauty and culture of 14th century AsiaThe National Museum of Korea is holding a special exhibition featuring about 90 pieces of 14th century Chinese celadon ware found in a shipwreck.The featured pieces are known to be from the Longquan region of China’s southern Zhejiang province, where the most superior kind of Chinese celadon

Performance March 22, 2011

MBC’s new singer survival program is mired in controversy as its participant Kim Gun-mo ― who was eliminated in the first cut on the episode televised on Sunday ― was given a special offer to compete in the next round. The decision to keep Kim in the next episode breaks the rules of the show.The show, “I Am A Singer,” pits a total of seven real-life, big-name singers in Korea ― Kim Gun-mo, Baek Ji

Television March 21, 2011

Dooman River (Korea, France)Opened March 17Drama. Directed by Zhang Lu. Chang-ho (Choi Geon) is a young ethnic Korean boy living in a Chinese province that shares its border with Hamgyeong Province in North Korea. His mother works in South Korea to support the family and Chang-ho lives with his grandfather and his older sister, a mute. He likes to play soccer and is extremely protective of his sis

Film March 18, 2011

Growing up in nearby Compton, Ava DuVernay fell in love with movies thanks to the passion and nurturing of her aunt, Denise Sexton.“She was a registered nurse and a community theater actress,” recalled DuVernay, 38, who has had her own public relations agency in Los Angeles since 1999. “She was a huge film buff. She wasn’t married and didn’t have a family, but her nieces were a big part of her lif

Film March 18, 2011