A classic Korean film depicting poverty in the aftermath of the Korean War has been digitally restored for the first time.　The restored version of  “O Bal Tan (The Aimless Bullet)” was screened for the press on Thursday as part of the opening event for the Paju Conservation Center, a center established by the Korean Film Archive for the preservation and restoration of old films. A still from a digitally restored version of the 1961 film “O Bal Tan (The Aimless Bullet),” directed by Yu Hyun-mok (

JEONJU, North Jeolla Province -- Director Andrew Ahn came to Korea to spark a conversation. 　His film, “Spa Night,” depicts David, a second-generation Korean-American working with his parents at their Korean restaurant. When the restaurant closes, David surreptitiously works at a Korean spa -- instead of studying to enter university -- to help the family. There he notices for the first time the spa’s role in secretive homosexual hookups, just as he begins considering his own identity.　“I hope th

CANNES, France (AFP) -- US filmmaker Jeff Nichols said Monday he hoped his rapturously received Cannes contender “Loving,” about an interracial couple’s landmark marriage-rights case, would help change the current vicious tone of America’s culture wars.　The movie, which prompted early Oscar buzz after a press preview, tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple who battled before the Supreme Court in 1967 for their right as a white man and an African-American woman to live t

CANNES, France (AP) -- Director Park Chan-wook is defending his use of elaborate lesbian sex scenes in his erotic thriller “The Handmaiden,” saying that avoiding them would be like “a war film without battle scenes.”　The film, adapted from the Welsh novel “Fingersmith,” is the tale of a young maid who is hired to seduce a rich heiress, only to fall in love with her. Together the two women plot their revenge on the men who tried to destroy them.  From left: Actress Kim Min-hee, film director Park

CANNES, France (AFP) -- British filmmaker Andrea Arnold said Sunday the “shocking” poverty she saw travelling across America drove her to make her Cannes contender, and appreciate the relatively intact state of her own country’s social safety net.　“American Honey” stars maverick Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf and a cast of amateurs playing disadvantaged youths who shuttle from town to town selling magazine subscriptions in a country that has long abandoned print media for digital.　Arnold, 55, a fo

Park Chan-wook’s latest film “The Handmaiden” premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Saturday evening. The film is in competition for the Palme d’Or prize.　 At a press conference following the film’s press preview on Saturday morning, Park discussed his fondness for the unfamiliar.　“Countries like England, France, Japan, the U.S. and South American nations are completely different from the world I live in, which is why I have always had a curiosity for foreign

Documentary on global environmental organization’s struggle between ideals and reality nabs top prize at Green Film Festival

Lee Gates, the main man in the complex thriller “Money Monster,” plays a popular stock specialist on live television, telling viewers what to buy, sell or hold. He looks and acts like the classic stereotype of a Wall Street whiz on TV -- $5,000 suit, winning smile, sharp patter.　Lee, played by the handsome and genial George Clooney, is big on TV because even when his proposals are risky, they sound brilliant. If he warns that your retirement savings will tank unless you stockpile Nigerian hedge

Actor Lee Min-ho’s big screen debut in China “Bounty Hunters” will premiere on July 1 in China.The South Korean-Chinese production was originally slated to be released in mid-June, but this was delayed to make the film higher quality and to target the busy theater season which starts from July.  Still from film "Bounty Hunters" (Starhaus Entertainment)“The movie is expected to have popular appeal, since it is an action-comedy blockbuster,” said an official from its production company Starhaus En

The Wailing(Korea)Opened May 11Mystery, thriller. Directed by Na Hong-jinA series of horrifying murders takes place in a quiet village upon the arrival of a strange fisherman (Jun Kunimura ). Policeman Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) teams up with a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) to get to the bottom of the mystery. Phantom Detective (Korea)Opened May 4Drama, action. Directed by Jo Sung-heeGenius detective Hong Gil-dong (Lee Je-hoon) seeks to find and kill his worst enemy, Kim Byung-deok (Park Geun-hyung). On th

“The Wailing” by filmmaker Na Hong-jin topped the Korean box office on Thursday, bumping “Captain America: Civil War” to second place after two weekends in first. 　The thriller has attracted more than 170,000 audiences since its preopening on Wednesday night, according to the Korean Film Council. The movie, starring actors Hwang Jung-min, Kwank Do-won, Jun Kunimura and actress Chun Woo-hee, is about a series of mysterious deaths in a rural village upon the arrival of a stranger.  A scene from “T

CANNES, France (AP) – The 69th Cannes Film Festival opened Wednesday with stormy skies, heightened security, the premiere of a new Woody Allen film and resurrected sex abuse allegations against the 80-year-old director regarding his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. 　Allen brought his 1930s Hollywood romance “Cafe Society,” along with stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, to Cannes to kick off the French Riviera festival. But just minutes before their press conference, a column by Allen’s so