Financial reporter William D. Cohan likes alpha males in troubled waters, and he wades into especially brackish murk for his new investigative book, “The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite and the Corruption of Our Great Universities.”The scandal grew out of a spring break party on March 13, 2006, for which the Blue Devils’ varsity men’s lacrosse team hired two strippers. One woman accused three players of raping her in the bathroom of the off-campus house shared

Books May 1, 2014

The annual International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul (IWFFIS) returns this month, paying special attention to women’s experiences after the 2008 global financial crisis worldwide.Celebrating its 16th edition this year, the upcoming festival will bring 99 films from 30 countries, including documentaries by Chinese women filmmakers, films about women’s experiences in the neo-capitalist economy, and a retrospective of veteran Japanese actress Kyoko Kagawa.“This year’s theme is ‘The Vision of 99

Film April 30, 2014

Korean author Bae Su-ah has been invited to the PEN World Voices Festival, an annual literary festival underway in New York, LTI Korea said.Bae is one of about 150 writers from 30 countries who have been invited to the weeklong event, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Two other Korean writers, Hwang Sok-yong and Kim Young-ha, participated in the festival in 2009 and 2011, respectively.During the festival, Bae will read excerpts from her short story “Highway with Green Apples.” It

Books April 30, 2014

Jeon Do-yeon has become the first Korean actress to be a jury member at Cannes International Film Festival in its upcoming edition.The actress has been announced as one of nine panel members who will join jury president Jane Campion. Jeon won the Best Actress prize at the renowned film festival in 2007 for playing the emotionally distraught mother in Lee Chang-dong’s drama “Secret Sunshine.” Joining Jeon and Campion as the main competition jury members are Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, American

April 29, 2014

In 1961, at age 25, Faye Pinchbeck crossed the Pacific Ocean to be with her beloved, a Korean man 15 years her senior. The American woman from Connecticut met Stephen Moon (Moon Tong-hwan), well-known pastor and social activist, while studying to be a social worker at Hartford Seminary in the U.S., where Moon was working on his doctorial thesis in Christian Education as an international student. After landing in the port of Busan, Faye married Moon in Seoul on a snowy day. So began a remarkable

Books April 28, 2014

One of the most anticipated films this year was unveiled to the press last week: a tale about King Jeongjo, the well-known, hapless ruler of 18th-century Joseon.The period blockbuster is a film debut by prominent TV drama director Lee Jae-gyu, who is best known for period drama “Damo” (2003) and “Beethoven Virus” (2008), and actor Hyun Bin’s latest film in three years. The 10 billion won project has been drawing attention even since preproduction for its star-studded cast including Han Ji-min, J

Film April 27, 2014

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” has blown the doors off theaters across the world. But it didn’t spring out of a screenwriter’s brow: A lot of it has happened before in comics, most of which has been collected in one form or another.Warning: Spoilers ahead. But, honestly, is that necessary? Boxofficemojo.com says “Winter Soldier” earned $317.7 million abroad and $159 million domestically by April 14; is there anybody who wants to see it but hasn’t yet? Well, if so, the 89 percent positive

Film April 25, 2014

After its season-opening gala “Thank You!” in February, Korea’s Universal Ballet Company is premiering a new piece choreographed by Spanish artist Nacho Duato. Titled “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness,” the dance features well-known Baroque compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and aims to deliver the emotional essence of his music and important moments of the legendary composer’s life. Universal Ballet is the fifth troupe to perform the piece choreographed by Duato, following the Na

Performance April 24, 2014

Two books written by Korean author Bok Geo-il have been published in English, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea said.One is Bok’s sci-fi novel “The Jovian Sayings,” which the author first penned in Korean in 2002. Bok translated the novel into English himself. The story is set in the 29th century, where robots and human beings live on a satellite near Jupiter called Ganymede.The other book, “The Unforgotten War,” is a play depicting the Battle of Jangjin Lake, also known as the Battl

Books April 24, 2014

When John Updike died in 2009 at the age of 76, followers of American literature could not quite comprehend it. Novels, criticism and poetry (60 books) had flowed like a river from Updike’s pen since his years as a Harvard undergraduate. It was as if the writer vanished midsentence.One of Updike’s last public appearances before his lung-cancer diagnosis was in 2008 at Seattle Arts & Lectures ― at the time Updike thought he had “walking pneumonia.”He appeared with Seattle novelist David Guterson,

Books April 24, 2014

Robert Wagner is in a reflective mood.“Movies last forever,” noted the veteran actor (“Broken Lance,” “The Pink Panther,” the “Austin Powers” series), but the Hollywood he once knew has all but disappeared.“I turned around, and it was all gone,” Wagner, 84, said recently in Beverly Hills.Known as R.J. to his friends and colleagues, he’s dapper, charming, handsome and very much cut from the same cloth as the suave characters he played in the TV series “It Takes a Thief” and “Hart to Hart,” in whi

Film April 24, 2014

As a child, jewelry designer Yoon Hye-rim loved playing with her magnifying glass. “I’ve always been an observer,” she said. “I would use it to observe flowers, insects and other things in nature.”The up-and-coming designer recently launched a brand named “Efluvi,” which offers magnifying glasses in different forms, including necklaces, handkerchiefs, and even paperweights. She is one of the artists-in-residence at Seoul Art Space Sindang, an artist residency program funded by the government at

Arts & Design April 23, 2014

The Korean Film Archive has rediscovered the original reel of a popular film from the 1960s based on a real-life diary kept by a child from an impoverished household. The film, titled “Sorrow Even Up in Heaven,” enjoyed enormous popularity when it was released in theaters in 1965, drawing 285,000 viewers in Seoul alone. It is the highest-grossing black-and-white Korean film of all time, according to KOFA.Despite its box-office success, the film went missing along with many others produced before

Film April 22, 2014

In Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 film “The Host,” its gigantic, amphibious monster ― which emerges after an American military pathologist dumps bottles of formaldehyde into Seoul’s Han River ― does not move forward. The ferocious creature stays by the river, as if it is trapped, even after kidnapping a teenage girl. Scholar and filmmaker Kim So-young thinks director Bong’s monster is a symbol of South Korea’s geographically isolated condition ― the country is practically an island as its division with Nor

Film April 20, 2014

“How you doin’, baby?” Marlon Wayans said, leaning down to kiss a doll on the lips.The toy, a prop from Wayans’ latest movie, “A Haunted House 2,” was propped up in a chair across the table from the actor at a stuffy Beverly Hills restaurant. The doll, named Abigail, was meant to resemble a creepy figurine from 2013’s “The Conjuring”: Both shared dead green eyes, sooty peasant dress and pigtail braids.Wayans, 41, has long been known for his outrageous comic taste. He dressed as a Caucasian femal

Film April 18, 2014