South Korean director Kim Ki-duk brought his brand of excruciating emotion and troubling imagery to the Venice film festival Tuesday with his condemnation of extreme capitalism in “Pieta”.The film revolves around a brutal loan shark played by Lee Jung-jin who prowls the back alleys and small workshops of a central area of Seoul that is quickly going out of business and being replaced by skyscrapers.Kim said at a press conference that he had been inspired by Michelangelo‘s famous “Pieta” statue

National Museum features some 200 relics from Mayan civilizationKnown for their calendars, art and astronomical systems, the Mayan civilization (B.C. 1500 to A.D. 1500) in Mesoamerica is one of the most fascinating civilizations. Without using any metals or wheels, the Mayans built the well-known ceremonial platforms for religious rites, as well as pyramids, temples and colossal royal palaces. They had their own fully developed written language as well as sophisticated astronomical observatories

The number of participants in a rare fundraising campaign for a local film project has topped the 10,000 mark, the movie’s production company said Monday.The project to make “26 Years,” a new film based on a famous Webtoon by Kang Pool featuring the 1980 Gwangju people’s uprising for democracy, has drifted for years due to financial problems.This situation prompted Cheongeorahm Film, a local movie studio that organized the project, to launch a campaign among citizens on June 25 to raise the mone

‘Hallyu Dream Festival’ to gather Korean singers and amateur dancers from around the world for three daysCelebrating the “2010-12 Visit Korea Year,” Korea Entertainment Producers’ Association, Visit Korea Committee, and Gyeongju City are co-hosting the annual “2012 Hallyu Dream Festival“ from Sept. 21-23.With events including “Family Dream Concert,” “K-Pop Cover Dance Festival” and “Hallyu Dream Concert,” the three-day festival will be held at Gyeongju Citizen Stadium in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsa

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile’’ and such other box office hits as “Armageddon,’’ “’Planet of the Apes’’ and “Kung Fu Panda,’’ has died at age 54.Duncan died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancee, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement r

(AFP)LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in ``The Green Mile'' and such other box office hits as ``Armageddon,'' `'Planet of the Apes'' and ``Kung Fu Panda,'' is dead at age 54.Clarke died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being tr

Korean-Canadian director Yi speaks on her work, connection to her rootsFilmmaker and journalist Yi Sun-kyung grew up in a Canadian city where her family was one of only a half-dozen Korean households in town. That small community was what shaped her view on Korea as a little girl. It was the world where she was pressured not to be a reporter, but a teacher or a nurse. For many years, she tried to stay away from it as much as possible. “There was competition and gossip,” the filmmaker told The Ko

YG Entertainment’s Psy set another record with his hit-single “Gangnam Style,” becoming the first Korean singer to break the 90-million mark in YouTube views on Monday.The viral song’s online music video had attracted 92.5 million views as of 11 a.m. on Monday. It became the most-viewed music video in the history of Korea’s music industry surpassing Girls’ Generation’s “Gee,” which currently has a viewer count of 83 million. However, that figure includes all views in the three years since its re

Baek Chung-gang, winner of MBC Star Audition Season One, will have to cancel his entire September schedule and perhaps further as well for health reasons, his management agency said via its official website on Aug. 31. Multiple local dailies have claimed that Baek is suffering from rectal cancer while others claimed that it is an adenoma. Thor Entertainment, the Yanbian-born singer’s agency, stated that Baek underwent surgery to remove a 4-centimeter-large benign tumor in his rectum and is curre

G-Dragon, the leader, singer, rapper and singer-songwriter of boy band Big Bang, is the official producer for YG Entertainment’s new girl group, according to local reports. “G-Dragon was chosen as the producer for his management agency’s new girl group. It is his first time for him to produce songs other than for himself or his team,” said a media industry insider in an interview with a local daily. As a leader of a group and a solo artist, the 24-year-old singer has been producing songs in genr