While the popular musical “Wicked” is largely promoted in Korea as a fairy tale-like story about two witches, its composer Stephen Schwartz put the show’s political interpretation in the spotlight during a press conference in Seoul on Monday. “The other day in America, somebody died recently,” he told reporters. “His name is Fred Phelps. He was a very angry person who used to organize pickets at funerals. And he caused a lot of trouble. When he died, someone wrote an article for one of our major

Performance March 25, 2014

Last year, the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots,” co-produced by Korean entertainment company CJ E&M, won a total of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Leading Man.The company, which has been investing in West End and Broadway musicals such as “The Bodyguard” and “Big Fish,” invested $1 million in “Kinky Boots,” becoming the sixth-largest investor in the production. It was the first time that a musical co-produced by a Korean company received such honors. “I guess

Performance March 21, 2014

Han Gong-ju (Korea)Opening April 17Drama. Directed by Lee Su-jin. Han Gong-ju is a 17-year-old girl who starts a new life in a new school, leaving everything behind in her hometown. She makes new friends and begins to sing again, which she gave up after going through a traumatic event in the past. But everything changes when the parents of her old classmates visit Gong-ju out of the blue. The debut feature by director Lee Su-jin won numerous awards from international film festivals, including Ro

Film March 21, 2014

Movie doubles seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate. At last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival both “Enemy” and “The Double” grappled with what happens when you confront your doppelganger, and the idea appeared again in several films at the Sundance Film Festival.With their enigmatic explorations of identity and persona, these recent films seem to be grappling with the human issues of the online age.“Enemy,” opening in theaters Friday and already available on VOD, also has its own

Film March 21, 2014

Bruce Weber claims that traveling by bicycle isn’t “the contemplative, mind-meandering activity that it is generally presumed to be.”And the New York Times writer, whose “Life Is a Wheel” chronicles his 79-day, 6,600-kilometer pedal from Astoria, Oregon, back to his apartment in Lower Manhattan, has a point: riding 70, 80, 90 kilometers a day, sometimes on busy blacktops with tractor trailers rocketing alongside, on county roads that suddenly dissolve to gravel, through endless prairies wonderin

Books March 20, 2014

If you adore Lorrie Moore, as so many of us do, you’ll find much to enjoy in her new collection of eight stories, “Bark.” All the sparkly balls are in play ― puns, politics, pop culture details, sometimes all at once, as when a character confuses an unnamed torture prison with a line from Jabberwocky, “the mome raths outgrabe.” (Abu Ghraib for $500, please.)Every story delivers the classic Moore club sandwich of melancholia and humor, and if none is the equal of the best stories in “Birds of Ame

Books March 20, 2014

Filmmaker Lee Su-jin’s first feature film “Han Gong-ju” is finally hitting local theaters after scooping up awards at international film festivals, including Rotterdam and Deauville.The film tells the tale of a traumatized teen sexual-assault victim, who is forced to change schools and leaves her family. It had its world premiere at the Marrakech International Film Festival in November, and won the top prize there, given by a Martin Scorsese-headed jury. It also nabbed the Tiger Award, which is

Film March 19, 2014

Yukio Ninagawa, a Japanese theater director best known for his Japanese adaptations of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies, is presenting his Japanese Zen comedy-drama “Musashi” in Seoul this month. “I guess I am known as the director who interprets Shakespeare plays in a very Japanese way,” the director told reporters during a press conference in Seoul. “But with ‘Musashi,’ I wanted to do something that does not rely on Shakespeare (and his scripts).”The upcoming show is Ninagawa’s second pie

Performance March 18, 2014

Actress Kim Go-eun made an impressive breakthrough film debut back in 2012, with filmmaker Jung Ji-woo’s critically acclaimed sensual drama “Eungyo (A Muse).” The 22-year-old is best known by the name of her first-ever film character, Eungyo, a lively teenager who becomes the object of desire for a renowned elderly poet. Many expected her to continue her professional career after finishing “Eungyo” ― which received much attention for its subject matter and sexually explicit scenes ― and nabbing

Film March 16, 2014

As the Korean music market is beginning to receive more international recognition, the local scene is looking to rise up and represent the next generation of Korean music. This is the third installment of a series of interviews with Korean rock, acoustic and alternative bands. ― Ed.Known for going wild and their notorious antics both on and off stage, the rock stars of Galaxy Express started from humble beginnings. They then took their garage band sound further than any of the members had ever p

Performance March 16, 2014

Stories We Tell (Canada)Opened March 14Documentary. Directed by Sarah PolleyCanadian filmmaker Sarah Polley discovered in 2007, at age 28, that her father was not her biological father and that she was the result of an extramarital affair. Her personal documentary “Stories We Tell” follows her shocking discovery and family secrets, consisting of interviews with her siblings from her mother’s two marriages, as well as Michael Polley, the man who raised her, and her biological father Harry Gulkin.

Film March 14, 2014

“The Monuments Men” is the “Last Vegas” of World War II movies. A roughly true, fictionally embellished account of the efforts of American arts scholars ― drafted into the Army ― to preserve the artistic patrimony of Europe from the scourge of combat and theft by the Germans, it is a cute but clunky ensemble piece that director George Clooney rarely bestows with the gravitas and jauntiness this material demanded.They changed the names ― well, of almost everyone ― from the historic “Monuments Men

Film March 14, 2014

Jeonju International Film Festival on Thursday announced its lineup for this year’s Korean competition section, consisting of 11 films including three documentaries. Among them, nine will be screened as world premieres. A total of eight feature films have been included in the lineup, including Yang Ji-eun’s “Sook-hee,” a film about female sexuality with an unusual narrative, and “Monkeys,” which deals satirically with Korea’s independent film scene.  Jang Woo-jin’s “Fall Break” tells the story o

Film March 13, 2014

Black HorizonBy James Grippando (Harper) Through his 21 novels, James Grippando has found new ways of telling stories about the intricacies of Florida, drawing inspiration from real events.In “Black Horizon,” Grippando explores a disaster that has affected Florida in the past ― a devastating oil spill ― and creates an intriguing political spin by showing how this could affect relations between the United States and Cuba. But Grippando also ladles a love story and the ever-reliable theme of greed

Books March 13, 2014

“I developed a phobia of Los Angeles,” says David Grand.That could have been a problem for the 45-year-old author, whose novel “Mount Terminus” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26) is set in early 20th century LA. But it was the book ― which he spent more than a decade writing ― that estranged Grand from the city where he grew up.“I couldn’t deal with the sensory overload I experience when I’m there,” he says from the safety of his Brooklyn walk-up. “Whether it’s the light or the landscape or transiti

Books March 13, 2014