The American remake of famed Korean auteur Park Chan-wook’s iconic 2003 film “Oldboy” is finally arriving in Korean theaters, after suffering a box office disappointment in the U.S.Directed by Spike Lee, whose works include “Do the Right Thing” (1989) and “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Kills You” (2011), the film stars Josh Brolin as Joe Doucett, the American version of Park’s Oh Dae-soo (played by Choi Min-sik back in 2003), who becomes imprisoned in a hotel room for 20 years without even knowing

Film Jan. 12, 2014

Leonardo DiCaprio’s most charismatic performance ever anchors Martin Scorsese’s robust and raunchy low lifes-of-high-finance comedy “The Wolf of Wall Street.” This is their greatest teaming, a veritable “Citizen Kane” of the post-“greed is good” era ― three hours of cocaine and orgies and high-living by the sorts of gauche gamblers who brought that age, and the world economy, to its knees.It is Scorsese’s “La Dolce Vita,” a manic, coke-fueled stock market “Goodfellas” following the rise and epic

Film Jan. 10, 2014

Cinephiles in Seoul will get a rare chance this month to watch films selected by some of the most celebrated cineastes in the country, including Lee Jun-ik, Kim Jee-woon and Lee Dong-jin.The annual Cinematheque Friends Film Festival opens next week, celebrating its ninth edition. This year’s lineup consists of 23 films, including opener “Spring in a Small Town.” Selected by Korean-Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu for the festival, the opening film is a 1948 work by Chinese filmmaker Fei Mu. The film r

Film Jan. 9, 2014

Fear NothingBy Lisa Gardner(Dutton)Nobody writes about the psychological aspects of working in law enforcement better than Lisa Gardner. She can take potentially disturbing scenarios that are frighteningly real and make them compelling, which she does in her latest novel, “Fear Nothing.”An alternative title could be “Pain Management” because the story takes a hard look at what constitutes physical pain ― and how a person deals with it.Police Detective D.D. Warren is checking out a crime scene fo

Books Jan. 9, 2014

Renowned Korean-American writer Lee Chang-rae has ventured into the genre of fantasy fiction with his latest novel, “On Such a Full Sea.”The novel, published in the U.S. earlier this month, is set in a dystopian future where a socially stratified society ― consisting of elite Charter villages, middle-class labor colonies and the wild and impoverished “open counties” ― dominates its people. Fan, the novel’s 16-year-old protagonist, is a fish-tank diver in the community of B-Mor (once known as Bal

Books Jan. 9, 2014

Minumsa, one of the leading publishing houses in the country, unveiled its ambitious project this week: A new 16-volume series featuring Korean history.The publishing house introduced the first two volumes of the series on Tuesday, one featuring 15th century Joseon and the other on the 16th century. The remaining 14 installments will hit local bookstores over the next three years. “For the last 50 years, we have been publishing a lot of books on philosophy and literature, not too many on history

Books Jan. 9, 2014

Filmmaker Hwang Dong-hyuk’s latest protagonist Oh Mal-soon (played by veteran actress Na Moon-hee) is the kind of old woman whom you don’t want to have as your mother-in-law.She is shameless and controlling, complains about your food, and is not afraid to belittle you in front of your children. Mal-soon’s biggest pride is her son, who is a university professor, and that she managed to raise him by herself, against all odds. The real story of the film, “Miss Granny,” begins with Mal-soon suddenly

Film Jan. 7, 2014

Musical actress Park Ji-yeon grew up listening to music, always wearing her earphones. As a teen, her first crush was a guitarist in a school rock band. Her favorite singer? Michael Bolton.“When my teacher told me to study at the back of the classroom, I would listen to Michael Bolton instead,” Park said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “And I remember breaking down in tears after listening to his song, ‘How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.’ I was 18 at the time, and the lyrics just got

Performance Jan. 6, 2014

“The Dinner,” the closing film of last year’s Busan International Film Festival, is finally hitting theaters this month, according to its distributor IndieStory.Directed by Kim Dong-hyun, the film is a drama about an ordinary Korean family facing a series of financial and other misfortunes. It was screened as a world premiere during BIFF last year.The film features an old married couple, who are financially dependent on their children. Yet all of their children have their own problems, often fin

Film Jan. 5, 2014

“August: Osage County” travels from the stage to the screen with much of its theatricality intact. Too much. For all the scenic prairie panoramas and lived-in look of the big, rural Oklahoma house that is the setting, it still feels like a play ― with Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and pretty much everybody else projecting to the back row.It’s a sharp-tongued melodrama of cruelty, comical cursing, “big scenes” and shocking revelations. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts kept it all in th

Film Jan. 3, 2014

Flight and room package at Lotte Hotel JejuCelebrating the arrival of the New Year, Lotte Hotel Jeju presents flight and room in a package. The New Year’s Airtel (Airline & Hotel) Package consists of a two-night stay in the hotel’s Deluxe Mountain View Room and two round-trip Asiana Airlines tickets to Jeju. Bookings for this package are limited to 10 rooms per day. Reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. As part of the Lotte Mega Gift 5 event, guests can also enjoy five addit

Food Jan. 3, 2014

Just about two days after Girls’ Generation’s YoonA confirmed that she has been dating TV personality Lee Seung-gi for the past few months, her fellow member Sooyoung revealed her own relationship with actor Jung Kyung-ho.Sooyoung’s agency SM Entertainment confirmed to a local media outlet on Friday that the girl group member and Jung ― who had been close friends since 2012 ― have dated since last year. Rumors of the two dating have previously floated in the local media, one time in February and

Television Jan. 3, 2014

Those who have seen actor Han Ji-sang on stage, especially as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” or the wacky hero in “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” would be surprised to discover that Han calls himself an “extreme introvert.”“One of the things that I hated the most while attending a theater school was having to give a speech about myself,” Han said in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul, Friday. “I simply did not know what to say. It would be just really awkward. I find it very challenging to

Performance Jan. 2, 2014

The National Dance Company of Korea is keeping up its efforts to reinvent its performances by making them more approachable and new.Following last year’s “Scent of Ink,” its collaboration with celebrated fashion designer Jung Ku-ho, the troupe ― known for specializing in traditional Korean dance ― is showcasing three experimental projects this month.“Scent of Ink” was a tasteful, modern interpretation of traditional dance, featuring the “four noble ones,” the four plants believed to epitomize Ko

Performance Jan. 2, 2014

From the first pages of his debut book, “The Faithful Scribe,” journalist Shahan Mufti gets personal.He imagines a dinner party in which you, the reader, ask where he’s from, and after hearing him reply, “Pakistan,” you ask him why the country is such a mess.Mufti, who grew up in the United States and Pakistan, attempts to answer that question and many more by probing his own family history to better understand the roots of the world’s first Islamic democracy.He artfully weaves stories of his an

Books Jan. 2, 2014