“Honey Sweet” (South Korea) Opened Aug. 15 Drama/Comedy Directed by Lee Han Chi-ho (Yoo Hae-jin), a nerdy, workaholic researcher at a confectionery company falls in love with Il-young (Kim Hee-sun), a single mother and a remarkably passionate and optimistic telemarketer at a money lending company. “Oppenheimer” (US) Opened Aug. 15 Drama/Thriller Directed by Christopher Nolan Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is appointed to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheim

Film Sept. 1, 2023

The 28th Busan International Film Festival announced the list of films selected for its New Currents and Jiseok competition sections, which will showcase the works of Asia’s rookie and auteur directors. The New Current competition section focuses on showing up-and-coming Asian filmmakers’ works, reserved for those making their first or second feature films. Ten works are nominated, including two from Japan, two from Korea, two from Bangladesh and one each from China, Thailand, Malays

Film Aug. 30, 2023

In director Jason Yu’s “Sleep,” newlywed Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) finds out her husband Hyun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) suffers from a very bad sleeping habit. Soo-jin’s loving husband becomes a completely different person at night. On top of sleepwalking, he scratches his face until it bleeds or opens the refrigerator and munches on raw meat, fish and uncooked eggs. To protect their newborn baby, Soo-jin is willing to do even crazier things to confront her fear. The 94-minute film i

Film Aug. 29, 2023

“Cobweb,” director Kim Jee-woon’s first feature film in 13 years, brings to the big screen an unprecedented ensemble comedy portraying a delusional filmmaker and picky, unsupportive actors set in the 1970s, the director told reporters Tuesday. Starring veteran actor Song Kang-ho, “Cobweb” revolves around the struggles of film director Kim Yeol (Song) when the industry languished due to government censorship in 1970s. Obsessed by a delusion that his work -- also titl

Film Aug. 29, 2023

The city government of Wonju in Gangwon Province said Monday that it would file a lawsuit to stop the release of “Chiaksan,” a horror film that is slated to open Sept. 16. Wonju city said it would ask the court to ban the film from being released and further sue for any damages that the film might cause the city and its residents. Directed by Kim Seon-woong and starring Yoon Kyun-sang, “Chiaksan” is set in 1980 and follows a ghost story in which pieces of a dismembered bo

Film Aug. 29, 2023

Actor Jung Yu-mi said it was director Bong Joon-ho who recommended she join the cast of “Sleep,” a mystery thriller by rookie director Jason Yu. Yu worked with Bong as an assistant for “Okja" (2017). “Director Bong said a person he knows well wrote a scenario and that he hoped I would take a look at it,” Jung told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Aug. 22. She appreciated the succinct and straightforward story. "There were no unnecessary things

Film Aug. 28, 2023

“Oppenheimer” (US) Opened Aug. 15 Drama/Thriller Directed by Christopher Nolan Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is appointed to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists are directly involved in developing the atomic bomb from scratch, without knowing their research would forever change the course of history. “Concrete Utopia” (South Korea) Opened Aug. 9 Thriller/Disaster Directed by Um Tae-hwa Residents of Hwanggung Apartment buildin

Film Aug. 26, 2023

Prolific actor Lee Sun-kyun said the experience of working with rookie director Jason Yu on the soon-to-release “Sleep” gave him the opportunity to just focus on acting, with no need to concern himself with unnecessary things. “After a long interval, ‘Sleep’ was a project that allowed me to just focus on acting, liberated from concerns about characters or being sidetracked by other things like changes in the plot (thanks to the director’s preparedness),”

Film Aug. 24, 2023

Jason Yu, who makes his feature film debut with mystery thriller “Sleep” on Sept. 6, already had garnered worldwide attention even before the movie’s opening here, with his film invited to the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May. “Sleep,” starring Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi as newlyweds, is set in motion by Hyun-soo's (Lee) strange behavior while sleeping. His pregnant wife Soo-jin (Jung) tries to stop him some way or another, in the film that screened in the non

Film Aug. 24, 2023

According to Shin Hae-sun, the heroine of the 2020 hit drama “Mr. Queen” and the 2023 drama series “See You in My 19th Life,” her first-ever mystery thriller leading role in “Don’t Buy the Seller” was the most “ordinary” role she has ever played. “Soo-hyun is a character without any superpowers, a character that is colorless and odorless compared to the characters I played previously,” Shin told the Korea Herald in an interview in

Film Aug. 23, 2023

“Don’t Buy the Seller,” a mystery thriller directed by Park Hee-gon, tells the story of Soo-hyun (Shin Hae-sun) who works at an interior design company and lives the ordinary life of an office-worker. Soo-hyun struggles to deal with her workload and nagging boss and looks to online secondhand marketplaces for some income on the side. One day, she buys a secondhand washing machine for 300,000 won ($224), but soon she figures out that she has been scammed. She immediately reports

Film Aug. 23, 2023

Forget about Gang Dong-won as a serious seminary student Choi in “The Priests” (2015), who supports exorcism with Father Kim. In September, Gang returns with another occult flick titled “Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman” -- this time as a comical, fraud-committing exorcist. Directed by Kim Seong-sik, the film tells the story of fake exorcist Dr. Cheon (Gang) and his encounter with a strong demon. Heo Jun-ho, Lee Dong-hwi, Lee Som and Kim Jong-su also star. “It was a

Film Aug. 22, 2023

Who knew that so many different shades of pink could become so fashionable again? The pink trend, sparked by Valentino’s “Pink PP” concept in in its 2022 fall-winter Milan show, has become a mainstay in global fashion scene. Boosted by Greta Gerwig’s recent film “Barbie,” which has been riding on an enormous marketing budget, the pink-based “Barbiecore” trend is not going away anytime soon. Barbiecore is a 1980s retro fashion trend based on what Ba

Culture Aug. 21, 2023

Another peak time for box office competition, besides the summer holidays and Lunar New Year is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving. As this year’s Chuseok will be an extended holiday over the weekend from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, even more moviegoers are expected to hit the cinema. Prolific actors like Song Kang-ho, Ha Jung-woo and Gang Dong-won will compete at the Chuseok box office with their respective much-awaited films completed before the pandemic, raising anticipations among mov

Film Aug. 21, 2023

“Ongojishin,” a Korean idiom meaning “learn from the old to know the new,” also applies to the burgeoning coffee scene here. The cafe trend here was once dominated by sleek, trendy cafes that offered a decent cup of joe, something that’s not too watery or not too burnt. Now more cafes are creating their own, unique tastes and offering a whole new cafe experience by incorporating with Korea’s traditional taste and culture. Ongozisin is one example, offering ble

Food Aug. 19, 2023