The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Opened Dec. 12 Adventure. Drama. Fantasy. Directed by Peter JacksonHobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) join 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to travel into the Kingdom of Erebor. The group is on a mission to defeat the fierce and greedy dragon Smaug in order to reclaim the dwarves’ homeland, Erebor. The dwarves were once prosperous and lived with great wealth but their kingdom was sacked by Smaug,

As Nelson Mandela, Idris Elba towers over the rest of the cast in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” That’s literally true and perfectly accurate. Mandela was tall, as is Elba (of the “Thor” movies and “Takers”). And Elba manages both the voice and a hint of the presence of the great man.He tends to tower over the movie, as well, in this comprehensive but generally dry account of one man’s journey from upwardly mobile attorney to activist to revolutionary to statesman. There are no “name” actors a

EXO shows diversity on new EP EXO “Miracles in December” (KT Music)Boy group EXO has taken the K-pop world by storm, garnering a fandom that allowed them to nab the title of Best Korean Act at the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards. The band’s most famous single, “Growl,” is a fast-paced track with a strong beat, but “Miracles in December” has a very different sound, featuring a more laid-back R&B vibe. The six-track EP shows the band has a diverse sound and despite the Christmas titles, the songs are

Korea’s homespun musical “Moon Embracing the Sun” kicked off its Japanese run at the Aoyama Theatre in Tokyo on Thursday, starring Lina from the girl group The Grace and Sung-je from the dance group Supernova. Based on MBC’s enormously successful 2012 drama series of the same name, the musical tells the moving love story of Hwon, a cynical but attractive fictional Joseon king, and Yeon-woo, a beautiful female shaman. The musical also deals with the court intrigues of those vying for political po

CLEVELAND (AP) ― Lydia Ko, who earned an exemption to join the LPGA Tour in October as a 16-year-old, has signed with management company IMG.Born in South Korea and raised in New Zealand, Ko is already No. 4 in the rankings and won the Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters last week in Taiwan in her second start as a professional.She won the Women’s Canadian Open at 15 last year to become the youngest winner in tour history and defended the title this year.Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie are among

Documentary filmmaker Lee Seong-gyou, who is best known for his 2010 film “My Barefoot Friend,” died on Friday. He was 50.He started shooting “My Barefoot Friend,” a film documenting the life of a 50-something rickshaw operator named Shalim living in Calcutta, India, in 1999. It took him more than 10 years to complete the film, which became the first Asian feature-length documentary to be nominated in the competition lineup of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2010.Lee was

Go Ji-yong, former member of the idol music group Sechs Kies, is getting married on Friday.Go and his bride-to-be, Heo Yang-im, will hold their private wedding at Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel, and about 50 bodyguards have reportedly been hired to protect their privacy. Heo is a doctor at the department of family medicine at the Seoul Paik Hospital who guest-starred on several TV shows, including “Vitamin” and “Escaping Crisis No.1.” Go Ji-yong is said to have been running his own business since the b

Korean-Japanese fighter Choo Sung-hoon said his wife Shiho Yano had encouraged him to appear on “Superman is Back,” a segment of a South Korean variety TV show that has become wildly popular.Yano’s agency was originally opposed to the idea of featuring the Choo family on a Korean program. Yano is one of the top models in Japan, and it is assumed that the Japanese agency did not want something to happen to undermine her image because of the show. But Yano asked Choo to consider the proposal posit

K Auction hauls in W2.5b, nine times the estimate, boding well for next week’s sale at Seoul Auction