Point Blank (France)Opening July 13.Thriller. Directed by Fred Cavaye. Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is a nurse living in Paris who is happily married to his wife, Nadia (Elena Anaya). One night, however, two unknown men break into Samuel’s apartment and kidnap his seven-months-pregnant wife. The only way to have his wife back is to get one of the wounded patients out of his hospital and deliver him t

Seth Gordon knows from bad bosses. He once worked as a dishwasher in an old folks home, where his micromanaging supervisor told him everything he did was wrong ― whether it was stacking the plates, cleaning things in the right order or moving fast enough. “It was really about her need to be in charge,” Gordon says, “and I’ve seen versions of that ever since in different forms.”Which makes Gordon t

You’re NextBy Gregg Hurwitz(St. Martin’s Press)Gregg Hurwitz delivers a chilling look at one man’s efforts to save his family from his haunted past in “You’re Next.”Mike was left at a foster home when he was 4. His last memory was his father promising to return. He never did.Flash-forward to the present: Mike has an amazing wife and a wonderful 8-year-old daughter. He runs a construction company t

RustBy Yang Gui-ja(Jimoondang, 5,000 won)What happens to your dreams when you know you can never reach them?In answer, author Yang Gui-ja’s novella “Rust” presents a portrait of a middle class man who no longer wants to be what he wanted to be, and is deeply disillusioned by his old ideals and aspirations.Yi, who used to dream of becoming a journalist, was rejected for his dream job as someone els

She had to kill off Precious.That was what Sapphire, the 60-year-old author of the 1996 underground classic “Push,” the novel that was the basis for the unflinching movie “Precious,” concluded.The California-born literacy teacher, poet, and author had no choice, given her commitment to social realism: An HIV-infected black woman in the 1980s would not have lived long enough to make it past the fir

Photographer Yousef Karsh took this famous portrait of Ernest Hemingway in 1957. (MCT)For much of the 1980s, beginning when I was in college, I used to read a Hemingway book a year. The point was not self-improvement but rather a kind of exploration: What was it, exactly, about his writing that I’d missed? I had read “The Sun Also Rises” in high school and had admired its spare portrayal of 1920s

Cho Joo-hee, Seoul bureau chief of ABC News, poses at a press conference promoting her book, “Aspire with Grace,” in southern Seoul, Tuesday. (Yonhap News.)Cho Joo-hee, Seoul bureau chief of ABC News, has published her first memoir “Aspire with Grace“ in Seoul this month.Having worked for both ABC News and the Washington Post as a foreign correspondent in Seoul since 1999, Cho seemed more than con

Some people believe the world literally revolves around them. It’s a belief born not of selfishness but faith.A small group of conservative Roman Catholics is pointing to a dozen biblical verses and the Church’s original teaching as proof that the Earth is the center of the universe, the view that prompted Galileo Galilei’s clash with the Church four centuries ago.The relatively obscure movement h

Researcher Song Soon-ok at the Academy of Korean Studies shows a copy of the Royal Genealogy of Joseon Dynasty to the members of Korea’s jongga, the prestigious households descended from distinguished ancestors through the eldest son of each generation, at the newly opened Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. (Claire Lee/The Korea Herald) Ne

  Five significant copies among 297 returned Uigwe shown to mediaThe National Museum of Korea on Monday revealed five significant copies of the total of 297 retrieved ancient royal books, known as “Uigwe,” to the media for the first time since their return from France earlier this year.Korea retrieved the royal documents ― which contain both text and hand-drawn illustrations of significant royal r

Prof. Choi Mi-kyung wins Grand Prix at 10th Korean Literature Translation AwardsEwha Womans University professor Choi Mi-kyung and former French diplomat-turned-translator Jean Noel Juttet together received the Grand Prix Prize at the 10th Korean Literature Translation Awards, a biennial competition organized by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, for their co-translation work at Korea Pre

The Hairdresser (Germany)Opening July 14Comedy. Directed by Doris Dorrie. Kathi (Gabriela Maria Schmeide) is a mid-aged, big-sized unemployed hairdresser who has just returned to her hometown, Berlin, with her daughter, Julia. She’d left her husband, who often cheated on her, in order to start afresh. She is very excited when she finally gets a call for an interview at a hair salon in a large shop

Andrei Yevgrafov remembers it vividly, the way an American kid might recall the moment he realized there is no Santa Claus. Except this was Russia, not the United States, and Andrei was no kid.He serving in the Soviet army and had just applied for membership in the Communist Party. Regretfully, the membership committee turned him down. Andrei’s record was spotless, an officer told him, but who cou

Korean allegory on democracy Our Twisted HeroBy Yi Mun-yol(Hyperion)Among many Korean novels published in the 1980s, author Yi Mun-yol’s “Our Twisted Hero” has been considered the modern classic that dealt with the complex transition between fighting dictatorship and establishing democracy.Telling a story of Han Byeong-tae, a 12-year-old boy who moves to a rural town from Seoul, the novel shows wh

Complex, alluring thrillerKiller MoveBy Michael Marshall(William Morrow)Author Michael Marshall takes a common man and throws him a curveball in this paranoid thriller, “Killer Move.”Bill Moore craves something more than his job selling condos near the Florida Keys. Although happily married, his ambition to start his own business begins to make him a bit selfish and greedy. One morning he arrives

Strategy is everything for the French. That’s what Elaine Sciolino discovers in her book “La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life,” a look at why the food is so delicious, the perfumes so beguiling, the languid conversation of Paris cafes so intoxicating, the French so, well, French. It’s all part of a grand game of seduction, a word with a much more expansive definition in French. Rath

American urban economist visits Seoul for Korean publication of his bookThough convenient and efficient, city life isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Yet for American urban economist Edward Glaeser, cities are “the forges of human capital” and even “what make us more human.”“From Seoul to San Francisco to St. Petersburg, cities are more vibrant and productive than ever,” Glaeser told reporters during a

The 13th Seoul International Youth Film Festival to feature 141 films and diverse programsA special film festival dedicated to children and teenagers, with some 140 films from 37 different countries, will be held in Seoul next week.The 13th Seoul International Youth Film Festival will open on July 7 in several locations in Seoul, bringing both film screenings and educational opportunities for aspi

 

Celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year, Imperial Palace Hotel in southern Seoul aims to be an artistic and cultural space where its visitors can enjoy both convenient, up-to-date IT facilities and high-class services.With more than 400 suites as well as 13 restaurants and bars, it serves as a convenient business hotel in its European inspired, antique and elegant atmosphere.Every suite of the