Kim Dong-ho, the founding director of Busan International Film Festival and its current honorary chief, received a lifetime achievement award at the opening ceremony of Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy on Friday.Kim is considered a pioneering figure in the Korean film history. He was BIFF’s founding director for 15 years, and retired from the position in 2010. Though BIFF started small in 1996, Kim’s well-known leadership and networking skills turned it into the largest film festival in Asi

Spring is here, and that means the return of three annual film festivals in the country. Green Film Festival, International Women’s Film Festival, and Jeonju International Film Festival are all arriving this season, showcasing films dealing with the environment, women’s issues and social changes worldwide.JIFFThe Jeonju International Film Festival, one of the biggest events for alternative cinema in Korea, kicks off on April 25 with Cannes Golden Palm-winning filmmaker Laurent Cantet’s latest wo

The dystopian thriller “Oblivion” is a breathtaking collage of welcome originality and references to a huge common cultural bank of fantasy images and themes. It’s grandiose in scope and scale, attentive to important details like character and tone, and unafraid to tackle mature themes like love and loss, personal identity and redemption. If there’s a better science-fiction blockbuster this year, I’ll count us lucky.The film stars an intensely focused Tom Cruise as Jack Harper, a futuristic repa

Korean author Han Kang’s 2007 novel “Vegetarian” has been translated into Spanish and published in Argentina, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea said.The sensual novel tells the story of a video artist who finds himself obsessed with his sister-in-law after she suddenly stops eating meat. He asks her to be a model for his art project, which requires painting her naked body with flowers. The book deals with human desire and violence, as well as conflicted dynamics between social norms

Like a stoned Forrest Gump, Dennis Hopper always managed to be where the action was in American pop culture history.When James Dean was inventing the Angry Young Man in “Rebel Without a Cause,” Hopper was on the set (and in the movie).When Andy Warhol was turning the art world on its ear, Hopper was buying one of his early soup cans (and went on to scoop up Rauschenbergs and Ruschas). When the old movie studio system was dying, Hopper used the success of “Easy Rider” to help drive a nail in the

The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring PowerBy Victor S. Navasky (Knopf)Few people afflict the comfortable more savagely and effectively than political cartoonists. In “The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power,” veteran magazine editor Victor S. Navasky investigates how they work and celebrates some of the greats, from pioneering artist William Hogarth to contemporary caricaturist David Levine.His book features 76 black-and-white illustrations pl

After sweeping international film awards and hitting the 100,000-viewer mark last week, director O Muel’s independent film about the 1948 Jeju Massacre continues to attract audiences, earning additional screenings this week.The film will be opening in 14 more theaters nationwide on Thursday to meet demand, according to the movie’s producer Japary Films. “Jiseul” was initially released on March 21 in 56 theaters. The number of theaters screening the movie increased to 66 on April 11, and by last

A Korean short film is heading to the upcoming Cannes International Film Festival. Director Moon Byoung-gon’s short “Safe” has been included in the lineup of the competition of short films, to vie with eight other filmmakers from around the globe for the prize. More than 3,500 entries were submitted by filmmakers in 132 countries for the section. The 29-year-old studied film at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, and has directed two shorts ― “No More Coffee Break” (2008) and “Finis Operis” (2011). T

Whether you are a fan of the hit 1990 movie “Ghost” or musicals in general, the upcoming Asian premiere of the West End’s “Ghost the Musical” will likely come as a delight. For one, you get to hear the famous “Unchained Melody” live on stage, as well as witness the famed pottery wheel sequence. Two, it is being delivered in Korean and stars an all-Korean cast ― including “Bridal Mask” heartthrob Joo Won and talented up-and-coming actress Park Ji-yeon (“Mama Mia!” “Les Miserables”). Major local m

Following the towering success of Tom Hooper’s film adaptation in the box office, the musical “Les Miserables” again managed to capture the hearts of Seoulites on stage this weekend.The musical’s culminating number “One Day More” ― delivered in Korean by an all-Korean cast ― was greeted with tumultuous applause and standing ovation at Blue Square’s Samsung Electronics Hall Sunday, with members of the 1,700 audience members repeatedly cheering as the actors took their bows. It took 27 years to st

Korean gangster film “New World” will have a Hollywood remake, according to the film’s Korean distributor Next Entertainment World.NEW said it recently signed a deal with Vertigo Entertainment, a production company located in Beverly Hills, California, to create the remake. The thriller was released in North America in late March, following its Korean release in February.Screenwriter Will Fetters, who is working on Clint Eastwood’s next project “A Star is Born,” will be writing the script, NEW s

Earnest, righteous, historically accurate and often entertaining, writer-director Brian Helgeland’s “42” is pretty much all you could hope for in a Jackie Robinson film biography.Minus the excitement, which given how well-known Robinson’s story is to baseball fans, is no cardinal sin. And the cast is more adequate than thrilling.It’s the sort of story that you find yourself hoping they don’t screw up ― that the baseball will be convincing, that the racism isn’t watered down, that the actor playi

Psy’s new single “Gentleman” swept the local music charts immediately after it was released in 119 countries at midnight on Thursday.The electro-dance song with more English-language lyrics and a catchy dance tune topped Korean music charts on Friday including Naver Music, Mnet, Soribada, Melon and Bugs.The song, a mocking portrait of a self-proclaimed “gentleman” trying to seduce women at a party, has more English-language lyrics than “Gangnam Style,” with repeated phrases including “I’m a moth

A Korean scholar has published a book suggesting environmental problems will cause a world food crisis.Titled “Food War 2030,” the book is written by Lee Cherl-ho, who holds a Ph.D. in food science from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Fredericksberg, Denmark. After working as a researcher for four years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he worked for the Korea Food Security Research Foundation for 30 years. “We now know that the world cannot be conquered through m

Poetry doesn’t get enough credit as a social activity, Caroline Kennedy says.“More and more kids are memorizing poems together or participating in poetry slam teams,” she says. “For kids, if you do something with your friends, it makes it a lot more fun.”Her own experience has run the gamut from reciting four-liners as a child living in the White House to receiving classic lines translated from “Metamorphoses” as a Christmas present from her Latin-loving daughter.So does Kennedy even have specia