One cannot be sure why film director Roh Deok calls this young couple “very ordinary,” but it is the “ordinary” post-break-up behavior that is on her mind ― or at least in her feature debut: The two get into a physical fight while drinking with their coworkers, obsessively check each other’s Facebook accounts, secretly follow their ex on their dates, and swear at each other in public.The film, “Very Ordinary Couple,” seems to be arguing that this is what most of us, the “ordinary,” go through af

Film March 18, 2013

Abigail Breslin burst onto the scene in 2006, playing Olive, the youngest member of a dysfunctional clan in the quirky film “Little Miss Sunshine.” Despite sweatbands and nerdy glasses, Olive was obsessed with beauty pageants and led her family on a cross-country road trip to a pageant where she’d perform the choicest dance numbers.Breslin, who earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for that role, turns 17 next month and stars in another road trip movie of sorts ― though

Film March 15, 2013

Local film weekly Movieweek is going out of business this month, leaving Cine21 as the last Korean movie weekly standing.The magazine announced the news through their official Twitter account on March 12. “Our upcoming 571st edition, which will be out on March 22, will be our last issue,” the weekly said via Twitter.The film magazine was founded in 2001, and has been considered one of the two most influential movie weeklies for the last 12 years, along with Cine21. From the late 1990s to the ear

Film March 15, 2013

Just a few months ago, Eloise Klein Healy was chosen as L.A.’s first poet laureate. Now a new anthology of Healy’s work offers ample proof, if any were needed, what an inspired choice she was.“A Wild Surmise” is a vivid record of one woman’s artistic and emotional quest, a journey that unfolds, for the most part, in the streets, gardens and homes of Los Angeles. The City of Angels appears again and again in the work of Healy, a native of El Paso who grew up in Iowa but who has made Los Angeles h

Books March 14, 2013

The staircase is narrow and creaky, with a bookshelf made from a 100-year-old harp case teetering on the precipice of collapse at the top of the landing. Overflowing with open books, pages wildly askew and dangling from uneven shelves, the bookcase looks as if it’s escaped from a vintage cartoon.Rolls of yellowed, turn-of-the-century sheet music waft through the air, unfurling from a manual typewriter suspended from the ceiling.A black-clad young woman, with a prominent pierced dimple and a phil

Books March 14, 2013

In March of 2000, Kim Joo-won was watching French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem perform at the Royal Opera House in London. Kim, who was the Korean National Ballet’s prima ballerina at the time, was visiting the United Kingdom for a gala performance. She alone decided to check out the tragic ballet she’d never seen before.The ballet was “Marguerite and Armand,” a 1963 piece by renowned choreographer Frederick Ashton. The British artist created the ballet, based on 19th century writer Alexandre Du

Performance March 14, 2013

A devoted son takes care of his aging, ill father. He clears his father’s mess, strips him naked, washes him and changes his diapers. The son repeats the same cycle every 15 minutes, every time his father spills the contents of his diaper all over the white sofa and the floor of the stage. The audience then has to endure the odor that fills the theater, while watching the son clear the brown liquid on the floor. One of the most controversial European theater pieces in recent years is being stage

Performance March 13, 2013

Director Park Chan-wook has been there, and so has director Kim Jee-woon. Hollywood may not be an undiscovered place for Korean directors as of this year: They’ve made their debut films there, released them, and experienced the red-carpet glamour. Hollywood, however, still remains foreign to most local actors. One of the few exceptions is top actor Lee Byung-hun, whose performance in his 2009 Hollywood debut “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” left a mark. The actor is now ahead of the opening of the

Film March 12, 2013

Universal Ballet Company’s principals Hwang Hye-min and Ohm Jae-yong have been dancing together for some 10 years, as Romeo and Juliet, Onegin and Tatyana, and Albrecht and Giselle. The two, famous for their chemistry and caliber onstage, in fact tied the knot last year and became husband and wife. The star dancers were featured as prince Siegfried and Odette in the opening show of the troupe’s season opener “Swan Lake” on Friday ― proving why they dance well as a team. UBC performed the piece i

Performance March 10, 2013

Actor-turned-director Yoo Ji-tae’s first feature film has won the Jury Prize at this year’s Deauville Asian Film Festival, the film’s local promoters said Sunday.Titled “Mai Ratima,” the film features a love affair between a destitute Korean man (played by Bae Soo-bin) and a young Thai woman who moved to Korea as a mail-order bride (played by Park Ji-soo). Both of the characters face discrimination against their social status and ethnicity.  The movie was premiered at last year’s Busan Internati

Film March 10, 2013

In the movies’ version of March Madness, Sam Raimi turns out to be a much better Tim Burton than Bryan Singer. Unlike “Giant Slayer” Singer, Sam’s got a sense of humor. Taking on a prequel to the fairytale that frightened generations, Sam does scary. And does it well.“Oz the Great and Powerful” is a winning back-engineering of the Oz fantasy, a “How the Wizard got to be wonderful” romp that is a stunning update “The Wizard of Oz’s” effects, and the most gorgeous use of 3-D since “Alice in Wonder

Film March 8, 2013

From Interpretation to Communication: Dreaming of Becoming a Global LeaderBy Choi Jung-wha (HUEBOOKs)Choi Jung-wha, president of Corea Image Communication Institute, has written a new book “From Interpretation to Communication: Dreaming of Becoming a Global Leader.”The book presents life and career tips for aspiring interpreters and professionals. The professor-interpreter also teaches at the Korean-French department of the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University o

Books March 7, 2013

The StorytellerBy Jodi Picoult (Emily Bestler Books/Atria)Sage Singer, the protagonist of Jodi Picoult’s ambitious 20th novel, “The Storyteller,” is a physically and emotionally scarred young woman working as a baker in a small New Hampshire town. She avoids human contact, interacting only with the wise former nun who owns the bakery and a married undertaker with whom she is having an affair.Her quiet existence is shaken, though, when she befriends Josef Weber, an elderly German who frequents th

Books March 7, 2013

Don Causey was beginning to plan his retirement, selling off his profitable sporting newsletters, when his life took a horrific turn. While on a safari on a long-anticipated trip to Africa, a tree tumbled onto him, breaking his back. The process of getting a medical transport to take him from a remote village back to Miami proved arduous and costly.Today Causey’s back is healed, and at 70 he finds himself in a post-retirement career ― consulting for a company that sells travel memberships that i

Books March 7, 2013