10 Minutes (Korea)Opening April 24Drama. Directed by Lee Yong-seung.Ho-chan (Baek Jong-hwan) takes an internship position at a state-run agency, while dreaming of becoming a TV producer one day. He works hard as an intern, just as much as full-time workers, volunteering to work overtime and even giving up his weekends to attend his senior colleague’s social gatherings. He gets conflicted when he is asked to work as a stable full-time worker, as he doesn’t know if the job offer is worth giving up

Film April 18, 2014

Peter Matthiessen, who died on April 5 at age 86 of complications from leukemia, was complex, even contradictory, in the most compelling sense. Born into privilege, he attended Hotchkiss boarding school and Yale and founded the Paris Review in 1953 with George Plimpton and Harold L. Humes. Yet he later became a Zen monk and in his own fashion was something of an ascetic.He was perhaps best known as a writer of nonfiction, particularly “The Snow Leopard,” the 1978 account of his trip to the Himal

Books April 17, 2014

Everything to LoseBy Andrew Gross (Morrow)Who hasn’t thought that a bag of money could solve a lot of problems? But it’s also prudent to remember that money can be the root of evil, as the adage goes.Hilary Blum knows that money can’t really buy happiness but it could buy her some peace of mind. She’s drowning in debt, taking care of her 7-year-old autistic son, Brandon, who is finally thriving at his progressive, but pricey, private school. She doesn’t receive any help from her ex-husband, who

Books April 17, 2014

Doing HarmBy Kelly Parsons (St. Martin’s Press)Kelly Parsons’ highly entertaining debut delves deep into the ethics and competitiveness of the medical profession while exploring why doctors choose their careers. “Doing Harm” starts strong and never loses its momentum throughout the energetic plot infused with an intriguing look at modern medicine without being overwhelmed by the intricacies of the profession.“Doing Harm” also will scare anyone who has to go to the hospital.Steve Mitchell, the ch

Books April 17, 2014

Kathy Kulig was out of town for a business trip when she texted her husband, Joe.“Don’t be worried,” she wrote. “I learned to use a flogger tonight and I have a few bruises.”“Why should I be worried?” he replied.Attending a conference on bondage and sadomasochism is just business as usual for Kathy, whose latest erotic romance is “Summer Sins” (Ellora’s Cave).Her second career ― she has a day job in a medical laboratory ― has created a few relationship challenges, the Kuligs say, but not because

Books April 17, 2014

Young professional Jeong So-hee was surprised when a coworker complained about “people who speak English when they are fluent in Korean.” The 26-year-old works at a company where she and her colleagues deal with foreign clients almost on a daily basis. Every employee has considerable knowledge of the English language, although not everyone has studied overseas. “I think it’s rude to speak to your coworkers in Korean when you have a foreign client sitting in front of you, who can’t understand Kor

Culture April 16, 2014

It took Crown Prince Sado (1735-1762) eight days to die of starvation after his father King Yeongjo ordered him to be confined in a cramped wooden rice chest. Sado’s son, who later became King Jeongjo, was only 10 when his father was killed by his grandfather. Exactly 33 years after Sado’s death, Jeongjo threw a grandiose festival in 1795, which lasted for eight days ― the same number of days his father spent alone locked in the wooden box.KBS Media’s latest 3-D documentary, “Uigwe, the 8-Day Fe

Film April 15, 2014

Theater“Ophelia”: Local musical “Ophelia,” an interpretation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” is being staged in Seoul in May. Ophelia is a fictional character who appears in “Hamlet.” She’s a young noblewoman whose father is killed by her love interest, Hamlet, and eventually goes mad. The upcoming musical is centered around Ophelia, rather than Hamlet ― the protagonist in the original Shakespeare play. Composer Choi Woo-jeong, screenwriter and former Culture Minister Kim Myung-gon, and contemporary

Culture April 11, 2014

“Draft Day” is a “ticking clock” thriller built around the NFL draft, a movie that counts down to the fateful decision that one embattled general manager (Kevin Costner) makes with his team’s first round pick.It’s a reasonably interesting ― to NFL fans, anyway ― peek behind the curtains at the wheeling, dealing and over-thinking that goes on as teams and managers and coaches try to avoid looking as if they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re nagged into making hasty or ill-advised decisions b

Film April 11, 2014

Innocent Thing (Korea)Opened April 10Thriller. Directed by Kim Tae-gyun.Former athlete and school teacher Joon-gi (Jang Hyuk) is married to his dutiful, pregnant wife, Yoo-jin (Sun Woo-sun). He doesn’t have much interest in teaching and would rather be a rugby coach, but this would not guarantee a stable income. He eventually falls for one of his students at an all-girls high school, who is seductive and at times too mature for her age. My Father’s Emails (Korea)Opening April 24Documentary. Dire

Film April 11, 2014

An American independent film about three teenage friends who build a home in the woods will open this year’s Green Film Festival in Seoul, organizers said Monday.The debut feature by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, titled “The Kings of Summer,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year. The director is to attend the festival’s opening ceremony in Seoul.Celebrating its 11th edition this year, GFFIS is the nation’s first international film festival to highlight environmental issues. It will

Film April 10, 2014

“I should write a book.” We’ve all heard that statement before from friends or family or co-workers. We might even have said it ourselves. We all have stories to tell, whether real or fictional.In the past, those who wrote a book faced a limited number of options: They shopped their manuscripts around to agents and editors at publishers, a process that could take years, if ever. Alternatively, they could contract with a vanity press for production that could cost them thousands of dollars. They

Books April 10, 2014

Barbara Ehrenreich never meant to write a memoir.“It seems very self-involved,” she says by phone from her home in Arlington, Virginia. “I have anxiety about it.”That anxiety is heightened at the moment because her new book, “Living With a Wild God: A Nonbeliever‘s Search for the Truth About Everything” (Twelve, $26), is as personal a piece of writing as she has ever done, built around a journal from her teenage years that traces both a spiritual quest and a youthful mystical experience, each ha

Books April 10, 2014

The year 2011 was a memorable period for Korea’s independent cinema. A number of films, such as Yoon Sung-hyun’s “Bleak Night,” Park Jung-bum’s “The Journals of Musan” and Min Yong-geun’s “Re-encounter,” enjoyed both critical and commercial success.The industry hopes to see such success repeated this year, as some of the most anticipated indie films are opening in theaters all at once this month. One of them is director Lee Su-jin’s local debut feature “Han Gong-ju,” which nabbed eight trophies

Film April 9, 2014