LOS ANGELES ― The field that made scientist Stephen Hawking an international celebrity may be physics, but the reason “The Theory of Everything” is emotionally effective as an examination of his life and thought comes down to chemistry, the interconnected performances of Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.Redmayne and Jones are beautifully compatible as Hawking and his then-wife Jane as they navigate the ebb and flow of 25 years of their relationship, a subtle, nuanced connection that posits that

Set Me Free (Korea)Opened Nov. 13Drama. Directed by Kim Tae-yongSeventeen-year-old Young-jae (Choi Woo-sik) lives in the “House of Isaac,” a group home sponsored by a Catholic church, with younger children who have nowhere else to go. Not knowing when he will be kicked out of the house because of his age, he pretends to be a good and pious boy before his foster parents. Though he steals donated goods from the church to sell to his friends, he also sings in the church choir, voluntarily does chor

Park Chan-wook. (AP-Yonhap)“Old Boy” director Park Chan-wook’s second Hollywood film is set to be a sci-fi thriller titled “Second Born,” American entertainment magazine Variety reported on Thursday. Based on a script by David Jagernauth, “Second Born” takes place in a futuristic world where people can store human consciousness in neural microchip implants, which has led to a body-swapping black market. David Lancaster’s newly launched Rumble Films, which recently produced “Whiplash” and “Nightc

Hollywood actor Brad Pitt said Thursday that his new war flick, “Fury,” depicts the horrors and psychological pressure that soldiers had to face in a war zone. “This film for me speaks to the horrors of the war,” Pitt told a press conference in Seoul. “The film is about accumulative psyche and damaged psyche that these men and women (soldiers) had to go through.” “It is a ridiculous fact that you will be chopping each other (up) one year, and the next year, sitting down for a beer and for dinner

Ha Ji-wonActress Ha Ji-won was appointed the honorary ambassador of the nongovernment organization Operation Smile on Tuesday.Following the appointment ceremony held at the office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion agency, a partner of Operation Smile, the actress became the second Asian honorary ambassador of the children’s charity after Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan. Ha is the first Asian female to represent the group. The action blockbuster queen will begin her promotional mission Nov

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Everybody knows Bill Cosby’s humor, but the comedian has kept his artistic tastes close at home. Now the extensive art collection of Bill and Camille Cosby is opening to the public for the first time Sunday at the Smithsonian Institution, revealing some works by African-American artists that until now have been seen only by family and friends. The exhibition not only celebrates African-American heritage, it also provides a glimpse at works the Cosbys have enjoyed intimately, wi

‘Set Me Free,’ ‘Late Spring’ open after successful debuts at international film festivals

The much-anticipated space epic “Interstellar” nabbed the top spot on Korea’s weekend box office chart in its opening week. Christopher Nolan’s film garnered more than 1.25 million viewers in the four days after its release on Thursday and dominated 1,310 of the 2,599 screens nationwide, according to the state-run Korea Film Council. The film, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, is an end-of-days sci-fi flick, which takes place at a time when humanity is facing extinction as a result

Judging strictly from the title, it might seem safe to assume that “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” the concluding installment in Peter Jackson’s latest trilogy of films based on the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien, would arrive as something of a war film, Middle-earth style.But Jackson insists that the blockbuster fantasy, which opens in theaters Dec. 17, is far more interested in charting the descent of proud dwarf Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) into a crippling madness than it is

Cart (Korea)Opening Nov. 13Drama. Directed by Boo Ji-youngThe film depicts temporary employees of a mega supermarket chain who are facing unfair layoffs. They are ordinary women, including Sun-hee (Yum Jeong-ah), a mother of two, Hye-mi (Moon Jung-hee), a single mother, and Soon-rae (Kim Young-ae), a janitor. When their jobs are at risk, the three and junior manager Dong-jun (Kim Gang-woo) gather with other employees to fight against the company’s exploitative practices.Interstellar (U.S.)Opened

Film director Boo Ji-young talks about her new film ‘Cart,’ inspired by the 2007 Homever strike