Bong Joon-ho, the director of “The Host” and “Snowpiercer,” will receive one of the highest French cultural orders in Seoul next week for his contributions to the arts, the French Embassy in South Korea said Wednesday.Bong will be honored the “Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters” by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication during the opening ceremony of the French Cinema Tour 2016 on Nov. 10, according to the embassy. It is the second-highest cultural honor awarded by the French gov

Director Um Tae-hwa’s “Vanishing Time: a Boy who Returned” offers a mix of genres unfamiliar to Korean cinema -- it is fairy tale-like in its plot, fantasy-esque in its computer graphics, but also firmly rooted in reality.　Um has always been interested in “the area where the real and surreal clash, or influence one another,” he told reporters after a press screening on Tuesday in Seoul. “I imagined what it would be like to live in a place where time stops. I imagined it would be a lonely existen

While shooting 'The Wall,' Irish director David Kinsella was struck by the reclusive state’s obsession with image, racism and profit-seeking

Some of the biggest names in Korean cinema are coming together in an upcoming production.　　Directed by filmmaker Jo Ui-seok, “Master” will feature heavyweights Lee Byung-hun, Kim Woo-bin, Gang dong-won, Oh Dal-su and others. Jo is best known for crime thriller “Cold Eyes” (2013), which was nominated for best cinematography at various international film festivals. 　Hollywood breakout actor Lee, who most recently starred in a remake of 1960s classic “The Magnificent Seven,” returns as businessman

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- Taiwanese-born filmmaker Ang Lee predicted Friday that the Chinese film market was about to explode, not only overtaking but dwarfing the American box office in a matter of years.The two-time Oscar winner said executives in the world‘s second economy used to rely on him as a bridge to Hollywood, but the newly-confident Chinese film industry no longer finds it necessary.“It’s huge, it‘s going to be bigger in a few years,” the 62-year-old told reporters on the red carpet at th

Doctor Strange(US)Opened Oct. 26Superhero, Fantasy. Directed by Scott DerricksonDoctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a genius surgeon who has fallen deep into despair after an unfortunate accident. His last thread of hope leads him to the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who bestows on him unconquerable superpowers that will save the world. Kubo and the Two Strings(US)Opened Oct. 26Animation, Adventure. Directed by Travis KnightKubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy living on the edge of a cliff wi

While it doesn’t tear up the envelope of the action genre or stray far from the familiar template of mysteries, “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” is agreeable middle-of-the-road entertainment.Following up on the successful 2012 original, Tom Cruise returns as the ex-Army officer turned hitchhiking-nomadic-vigilante, inflicting pain and injuries on wrongdoers, henchmen and anybody who gives him too much lip. It’s a change of pace from Cruise’s work as intellectual superspy Ethan Hawk in the “Mission

Just in time for Halloween comes a new documentary focusing on one of Earth's most frightening treats -- volcanos. Even better, swashbuckling director and writer Werner Herzog is the filmmaker, so it’s sure to be a hair-singing descent into the fiery heart of volcanos.But, alas, Herzog has really just pulled a nasty trick on us. The legendary filmmaker's “Into the Inferno” -- not to be confused with the new Tom Hanks film “Inferno” -- is actually a lazy, meandering mess that gives off no heat.He

The hit Korean movie “Sunny” is getting a US remake, CJ Entertainment said Thursday.The company is currently engaged in the production process with RatPac Entertainment, run by Brett Ratner, the director of the “Rush Hour” movies.  Heather Hach, who wrote the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday,” will write the script. The director has yet to be chosen. The original “Sunny,” directed by Korean auteur Kang Hyung-chul, tells the story of a group of middle-aged women who come together after being apart f

TOKYO (AP) -- Cannes-winning Brillante Mendoza is among three directors tapped by the Tokyo International Film Festival to create "Reflections," a trilogy that depicts the intertwining of stories among Asian nations.Be it a Filipino worker in Japan or a Japanese bureaucrat in love with a Cambodian woman, the main characters are old and lonely, caught in an Asian nation other than their own, in films that reflect the real-life erasing of barriers in this region. Having premiered on Wednesday, "Re

TOKYO (AFP) -- Oscar-winner Meryl Streep had to learn how to “screw around” with songs when she played a tone-deaf socialite, she told reporters in Japan on Monday.Streep, whose latest work “Florence Foster Jenkins” opens the Tokyo International Film Festival, has an enviable musical pedigree, but had to tamp down her skills when she took on the lead role.“I did try to learn how to sing these arias properly, so I got a very, very good, true opera coach and he taught me the arias correctly,” Stre

TOKYO (AP) -- Time warps, half-bestial children and parallel worlds are, for Mamoru Hosoda, a natural way to pursue the universal coming-of-age story that has driven all his movies. “A child growing up is fascinating and stunning, a true wonder of the world,” the burly, friendly Japanese animation director said recently in an interview at his suburban Tokyo Chizu Studio. “There is struggle in growth and change, between that wolf, that blood, that drive within you and order or reason needed to li