Tickets to see boy band SHINee at the 6th London Korean Film Festival Opening Gala Concert have sold out. So many fans logged on to British online box-office website Odeon that it crashed just one minute after ticket sales began Thursday. The website was not restored for five hours, the group’s agency said.The group is to hold the one-hour gala concert on Nov. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Odeon West End Theater, opening the film festival, which will run for three weeks in London, Cambridge, Sheffield a

Disgraced comedian-turned-director Shim Hyung-rae has been banned from leaving the country in connection with suspicions that he embezzled huge company funds, police said Monday.Police have recently launched an internal probe into suspicions that Shim, chairman of the movie production company Youngg

Sulwhasu exhibition brings together handicrafts by 11 Korean masters in various fieldsIt is impossible to make “hanji,” or Korean traditional mulberry paper, without a hanji screen. And Yu Bae-geun, who is registered as Intangible Cultural Property No. 31, is the sole person in the nation who can make one. He spends his winters in the freezing Damyang County in South Jeolla Province searching for good four to five-year-old bamboo, and other months indoors extracting the thinnest-possible bamboo

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― Angry fans smashed equipment and hurled bottles in chaotic scenes after heavy metal group Metallica cancelled their first ever Indian gig at the last minute, reports said Saturday.Thousands of fans had already turned up at Friday’s concert, timed to coincide with this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix, but were enraged when it was axed for safety reasons.Newspaper pictures showed piles of shattered equipment and the Times of India said one man broke his leg when he was pushed do

Classical Music“Trio Owon”: Classical music group Trio Owon, led by cellist Yang Sung-won, will hold its debut concert in Korea at the LG Arts Center on Nov. 6. The other two members are pianist Emmanuel Strosser and violinist Olivier Charlier. The name “Owon” comes from late Korean painter Jang Seung-up (1843-1897), who was depicted in Im Kwon-taek’s 2002 film “Painted Fire.” The trio will showcase German Romantic musicians in the 19th century -- Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Tickets range

The King of Pigs (Korea)Opening Nov.3Thriller/Drama. Directed by Yeun Sang-ho. Kyung-min, a 30-something CEO impulsively kills his wife after his business goes bankrupt. He seeks out his long-lost friend Jong-suk, whom he was close with in middle school. The two meet up and talk about their middle school days where both of them were severely bullied by their classmates. At the time, they became friends with Chul, an outsider who helped them avoid abuse from the class bullies. Chul had planned a

SPO, Chung fly with Mahler No.1 Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra“Mahler Symphony No. 1”(Universal Music)After releasing the debut album “Debussy and Ravel” under Deutsche Grammophon, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director Chung Myung-whun will launch their live recording of Mahler Symphony No. 1 “Titan” on Nov. 3. The program was recorded at the Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall on Nov. 3, 2010, as part of the SPO’s “Mahler Series” concerts and was hugely popular among classical musi

If British comedian Rowan Atkinson had any doubts about his international appeal, they’ve been put to rest by stories he keeps hearing from English aid workers returning from trips to Africa.“They go to these African villages where there are four thatched huts,” said Atkinson, 56. “There is nobody in any of them except one, where the entire village is crammed in there. There’s a tiny black-and-white TV set being powered by a car battery, and there’s a ‘Mr. Bean’ VHS tape being played.”Mr. Bean i

Anne Enright doesn’t believe in leading readers gently into anything ― certainly not an affair. In “The Forgotten Waltz,” the Irish writer plunges us headlong into the world of Gina Moynihan, young IT consultant and adulteress at large.Gina is not so much an unreliable narrator as someone obsessed with her own unreliability. Dissecting her love affair with married man Sean Vallely, she constantly doubles back on her own thoughts and memories, gamely trying to pinpoint the moment when her convent

Veteran stage actress Yoon Seok-hwa is returning to the big screen after 24 years for director Kim Tae-gyun’s debut film.According to Pan Cinema, the production house of the upcoming movie, it only took a day for Yoon to decide to take the role. The actress was instantly moved by the script, the company said.Based on director Kim’s personal story, the film, titled “Spring Snow,” is about a family coming together after losing one of its members. Yoon will be playing Soon-ok, the mother of the fam

The first-ever online auction held by Herald artday, a subsidiary of Herald Media group, closed on Wednesday with 84 percent of items sold, the highest-ever in the history of online art auction in South Korea. “Herald artday First Online Auction” which took place for six days topped the K Auction’s April record of 82 percent sales. The total amount in sales was over 427 million won, also exceptional for an online auction.  Among the articles, Lee U-fan’s 1976 piece “From Line,” which was showcas