Director Ridley Scott found a new muse for his next thriller: Japan’s earthquake-devastated northeast. “Japan in a Day” opens the Tokyo International Film Festival next month, and many anticipate that the documentary charting Japan’s recovery from natural disaster will lift spirits and revive a sense of purpose among the nation’s 127 million people. Hollywood disaster flicks have nothing on March 11, 2011. Tsunami waves as high as 133 feet left more than 19,000 dead or missing, wiped out whole t

Viewpoints Sept. 25, 2012

President Lee Myung-bak made the right decision when he accepted Friday the National Assembly’s demand that he appoint an independent counsel to look into his aborted retirement home construction plan.Earlier this month, the Assembly approved a bill to have an independent counsel investigate the allegations that Lee violated the law on real-name financial transactions by purchasing land for the residence in Naegok-dong, southern Seoul, in his son’s name.Lee’s son is also suspected of having comm

Editorial Sept. 24, 2012

South Korea and the United States are reportedly close to a missile deal that would allow Seoul to extend its ballistic missile range from the current 300 km to 800 km, while leaving its payload limit intact at the current 500 kg.If the missile range is lengthened as reported, South Korea would be able to hit any position in North Korea from bases located north of Daejeon, a city at the center of the nation.This would be a big enhancement in Seoul’s striking capability. Yet it still falls short

Editorial Sept. 24, 2012

South Korea is the place to be this election season. The fortune tellers are at it again. Defeat for Park, defeat for Moon, win for Ahn. Maybe. This year’s presidential election is a wide open contest. Whether this was foresight or plain good timing by Ahn we’ll never know. But the Ahn factor has galvanized interest right across South Korean society. Whether his humbleness and deference to the people is genuine or not, that’s another issue.The announcement on Wednesday (Sept. 19) seemed to be ta

Viewpoints Sept. 24, 2012

The CIA claims that it never saw the storm coming, but Canadian intelligence sure did.Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird landed in Vladivostok, Russia, earlier this month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and had barely stepped off the plane when he announced that Canada would be pulling its diplomats out of Iran and closing its embassy while kicking all Iranian diplomats out of Canada.At the time, some thought that maybe the minister had a few too many mini vodkas on th

Viewpoints Sept. 23, 2012

Last week, demonstrators incensed by Japan’s purchase of the disputed rocky outcrops known as the Senkaku Islands filled Chinese cities for the biggest anti-Japanese protests since 2005. These mostly young men and women holding pictures of Mao Zedong reminded me of Mao’s speech at the founding of the People’s Republic of China in September 1949: the “Chinese people, comprising one-quarter of humanity,” Mao warned, “have now stood up,” adding that “ours will no longer be a nation subject to insul

Viewpoints Sept. 23, 2012

Korean rapper Psy’s “Gangnam Style” hit No.1 on iTunes in Australia this week along with seven other countries including the United States. The song was first released in July making it YouTube’s most watched K-pop video in less than two months, viewed over 200 million times as of Sept. 18. Even the world’s great pop icon Britney Spears had a super time on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” emulating his horse-riding move, and the “Gangnam Style” music video was nominated under the category Best Video a

Viewpoints Sept. 23, 2012

The biggest enemy of Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, is neither Ahn Cheol-soo, an entrepreneur-turned-professor who declared his independent candidacy for president on Wednesday, nor Moon Jae-in, the standard-bearer of the main opposition Democratic United Party.Her worst enemies are within her own party. They are none other than her aides and people close to her. They are supposed to support her bid to become the nation’s first female president but are act

Editorial Sept. 21, 2012

Angry anti-Japan protests have eased off in China after peaking on Sept. 18, China’s Day of National Humiliation that marks Japan’s invasion and occupation of Manchuria in 1931.Rowdy demonstrations continued in cities across China for a week following the Japanese government’s decision on Sept. 11 to purchase the Senkaku Islands from its private Japanese owner. Tokyo’s move infuriated Beijing as it regarded the islands, which are called Diaoyu in China, as an integral part of its territory. On W

Editorial Sept. 21, 2012

Over many decades, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens in Middle Eastern states had been brutalized, arrested, tortured and killed before Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit salesman, set himself on fire in Tunisia, triggering the Arab Spring.A unique pair of affronts set him off. A government inspector confiscated his fruit and slapped him in the face. Bouazizi was insulted, humiliated in public. And the inspector threatened his very livelihood.His death resonated in a way that none of the previous ab

Viewpoints Sept. 21, 2012

American voters deserve a substantive debate between the presidential candidates about how the U.S. can manage China’s rise as a powerful economic and geopolitical rival in the coming decades. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama and the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, have so far been unwilling to have that discussion. Instead, the candidates have waged a war of words that gives voters oversimplified ― and sometimes false ― explanations of a vital and complex issue. Obama accuses Romney of se

Viewpoints Sept. 20, 2012