“Hamilton: The Revolution” By Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarterGrand Central Publishing (288 pages, $40)The revolution started with the idea that a hip-hop-Broadway marriage was the perfect vehicle for the story of Alexander Hamilton, the $10 Founding Father who created America’s monetary system. The genius who came up with the idea and executed it to groundbreaking, earth-shaking, money-making success is Lin-Manuel Miranda, so it should come as no surprise that he gets “Hamilton” in book

Books July 13, 2016

It is not every day that a Hollywood heavyweight stars in a Korean film, particularly one retracing real-life events in Korean history. But Liam Neeson, who portrays the legendary Gen. Douglas MacArthur of the U.S. Army in the upcoming war drama flick “Operation Chromite,” says he was made an offer he “couldn’t refuse.”The film’s director Lee Jae-han and producer Jung Tae-won, who helms the production company Taewon Entertainment, were “very, very persuasive, let’s just put it that way,” said th

Film July 13, 2016

GFriend has no intention of losing its innocent schoolgirl image anytime soon, the K-pop group’s members said Monday. They were holding a press showcase for the release of their first full-length album “LOL,” whose track “Navillera” topped major Korean music charts after its release at midnight on Sunday. “For now, we still want to be girls,” Sowon said when asked whether the group was ready to show off a more mature side. “It’s only been a year and a half since our debut ... we thought it would

Performance July 12, 2016

Fans came from all over Asia. According to S.M. Entertainment, some 6,000 fans flocked to Seoul’s Olympic Park on Sunday for Girls’ Generation member Taeyeon’s first solo concert.On Sunday, the concert’s second and last day, occasional bursts of cheers in Chinese, Japanese and even Spanish could be heard throughout the packed stadium in between songs. The show was also live-streamed at some 44 theaters in Japan, according to the singer. The 27-year-old singer performed 22 songs, including those

Performance July 11, 2016

The members of indie duo Kim Sawol X Kim Haewon were nearly complete strangers when they recorded their award-winning album “Secret” back in the summer of 2014 in a cramped studio in Seoul. At first, it was “intensely awkward” to be cooped up together, writing songs and recording for long hours that often stretched into dawn, the band told The Korea Herald in an interview last week at a café in Itaewon. But if it hadn’t been for that shabby room, the sweltering heat and that tension between them

Performance July 10, 2016

Veritas, a Christian music group of Kwangshin University, has released its first full-length album “Psalm 95.” Famed veteran singer Yoon Bock-hee, who debuted in 1967 and was one of the first Korean singers to perform abroad in Vietnam and the U.S., has expressed her strong support for the album. Yoon praised the album, describing the tracks as “God’s will” and a “hymn of youth’s grace that will awaken all the spirits of Korea and the world.”“Psalm 95” contains 11 songs that depict each of the g

People July 7, 2016

“Olympic Boulevard” Philip Onho Lee (Translated by John Cha)Seoul Selection (12,000 won, $10)Philip Onho Lee’s “Olympic Boulevard,” published last month, details the daily joys and sorrows of immigrant life in the U.S. in the ’80s and ’90s.It features a series of vignettes about the life of a first-generation immigrant navigating through the ups and downs of adjusting to a new life in a new country.The story is told from the perspective of Myung Tay, who opens up a dry cleaning store in Los Ange

Books July 6, 2016

“The Loney” By Andrew Michael HurleyHoughton Mifflin Harcourt (294 pages, $25)A menacing presence inhabits the Loney, the locals’ name for Britain’s north Lancashire coastline.A small group of Catholic faithful have traveled to the rain-battered seacoast from London on an Easter pilgrimage to visit a fabled shrine in hopes of a miracle cure for one of the travelers. The young man is simple-minded and cannot speak, but he has a pure heart and a deep love for his younger brother, our narrator.As E

Books July 6, 2016

A new generation of multinational K-pop groups is emerging, ready to take on the global music scene.Some earlier experimental groups, such as girl group ChoColat, created by Paramount Music in 2011, included members of German, Italian and Puerto Rican descent. The group, however, has not been active since 2013.  Miss A, one of K-pop’s most popular multinational groups with Chinese members Fei and Jia, is facing a shaky future with Jia having left the group’s agency JYP Entertainment in March. On

Performance July 5, 2016

When it was first introduced by young street dancers in New York City in the early 1970s, the distinctive art of break dancing, or B-boying, was widely seen as a nonglamourous, low-level style of street dance. Despite its absence from the mainstream pop culture spotlight, B-boying eventually made its way to Korea in the ’80s. For decades, however, break dancing was far from the mainstream and had just a small following among young, amateur dancers whose only opportunities to perform were on the

Performance July 5, 2016

The 2016 World Cultural Camp of the International Youth Fellowship, a Christian-based global youth initiative, opened in Busan’s Haeundae Beach Sunday. Some 4,000 university students from over 50 countries, about 30 ministers from 27 countries and the presidents of 23 universities attended the opening. In its 19th edition, this year‘s camp is organized under the slogan “The Ship of Change.” The annual event takes place each summer and includes diverse programs such as lectures, cultural performa

Culture July 5, 2016

An association of indie record shop owners and their supporters protested in Hannam-dong on Sunday, accusing a new large music store of price dumping, monopolizing music tastes and hurting the livelihood of small businesses.The target of the protest was Vinyl & Plastic, a massive two-story establishment which opened on June 10. The store has over 4,000 vinyl records and 8,000 CDs on sale, and turntables on which customers can listen to music. It is run by Hyundai Card, a credit card company that

Performance July 4, 2016

South Korea on Sunday strongly condemned a terrorist attack that took place last week at a restaurant in Bangladesh, vowing to join global efforts to eradicate terrorism.A total of 22 people, including two police officers, have been killed after a group of gunmen on Friday stormed the restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and took scores of customers and restaurant workers as hostages.South Korea's foreign ministry said the government cannot hide its shock and anger over the attack in B

Foreign Affairs July 3, 2016

Familyhood(Korea)Opened June 29Comedy, Drama. Directed by Kim Tae-gonSelf-absorbed diva Ju-yeon (Kim Hye-soo) has so far in life pursued fame, money and handsome young men. Now that she has entered her 40s, Ju-yeon realizes what she needs in life is a baby. The Hunt(Korea)Opened June 29Action, Thriller. Directed by Lee Woo-cheolDong-geun (Cho Jin-woong) ventures deep into the mountains when he hears gold has been discovered in a collapsed coal mining site. There, he meets Ki-seong (Ahn Sung-ki),

Film July 1, 2016

From the metallic shell of the 1996 smash “Independence Day,” director Roland Emmerich has pulled a seriously lousy sequel, dripping with alien goo and incoherence.I take no pleasure in reporting this news, folks. I’ve been a lonely, half-mad defender of some of Emmerich’s cheesiest cheese, including “10,000 B.C.” But “Independence Day: Resurgence” is the Emmerich movie his fiercest detractors always said he could manage, if he put his mindlessness to it.Will Smith, star of the original, passed

Film July 1, 2016