Mao’s last dancer (Australia)Opening April 28Drama. Directed by Bruce Beresford. A drama based on an autobiography by Li Cunxin. Eleven-year-old Li (Chi Cao) from a poor Chinese village is taken to Beijing by Madame Mao’s cultural delegate to study ballet. A few years later, Li is invited to perform with the Houston Ballet by its director. As the first Asian to be invited, Li soon becomes a star o

LOS ANGELES ― As far as tightly wound actresses go, Reese Witherspoon tops the list. She insists upon a strict sense of order in her life. Her production company is called Type A, a moniker her latest costar, Robert Pattinson, says fits her strong sense of self perfectly. And even when she appears to be having a spontaneous moment, lamenting that her well-orchestrated career built around an avoida

LOS ANGELES ― Hoping to transform one of its few successful film series into a top-tier global franchise, Universal Pictures has refueled “Fast and Furious” with an international backdrop, a bigger production budget and a new genre.Audiences will witness the results of that strategy Friday when “Fast Five” debuts as the first of Hollywood’s summer season releases. The movie abandons the world of i

Book looks at Rivera and rest of Yankees bullpenBullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees by Charley Rosen(Harper, $25.99)Forgive New York Yankees fans if they get nervous when one of the team’s relievers takes the mound. The 41-year-old lights-out closer, Mariano Rivera, appears to defy time with every cutter he throws for a strike. F

“The Uncoupling” is best-selling author Meg Wolitzer’s ninth novel, in which she brings her signature brand of humor and insight to the topic of the changing nature of female desire over time.When a new drama teacher in a suburban high school puts on a production of “Lysistrata” (the classic Aristophanes play in which the women of Greece go on a sex strike against men until a war ends), the women

Ever since Vanity Fair put her on its January 2010 cover in what looked like a Wonder Woman costume, Tina Fey has seemed in danger of falling for the very canard she has spent a career satirizing: that a woman can “have it all” if she’s willing to lose 20 pounds, show her breasts and regularly remind everyone that, although she writes and stars in an Emmy-winning TV show, she is still essentially

JYJ has filed a lawsuit in Japan against their management company AVEX Entertainment for interfering with their attempt to hold a charity concert.JYJ, a boyband formed by former TVXQ members Kim Jae-joong, Kim Jun-su, and Park Yoo-chun after they filed a lawsuit against SM Entertainment for unjust contract, had planned a charity concert to aid earthquake-affected areas in Japan. However, the conce

Seo Tai-ji’s digital music sales have quadrupled since his marriage and divorce with actor Lee Ji-ah became public last week. “Records from main music sites including Melon, Bugs, and Dosirak, show that file downloads for Seo’s music have increased tremendously, nearly fourfold compared to the past,” Gaon Chart, the country’s most authoritative music chart, said. “However, official data with every

LOS ANGELES ― I’d almost forgotten what an unabashed liberal Sidney Lumet had been until I read an essay by New York Post critic Kyle Smith, an unabashed conservative who has little good to say about Lumet’s signature work, seeing it as emblematic of the weak-kneed moral relativism of lefty do-gooders. Taking apart Lumet’s “12 Angry Men,” Smith dubs it an “ur-myth of liberal fantasy,” saying “one

Norwegian Wood Opening April 21Drama. Directed by Tran Anh Hung. Upon hearing the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood,” a Japanese businessman reminisces about the intense romance of his university days in Tokyo, set against the turbulent student riots of the late 1960s. Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), an aloof university student at the time, had lost Kizuki -- his best friend in high school -- after

LOS ANGELES ― When Max Winkler set out to make a movie, he made one thing clear: He didn’t want any help from his Hollywood veteran father, no matter how tempting the prospect.Editing his directorial debut, “Ceremony,” out of his boyhood bedroom put Winkler mighty close to Dad ― Henry Winkler, still remembered best as the Fonz from “Happy Days.”“I would walk down the hall and I would have a spring

Styron’s youngest daughter pens revealing memoirReading My Father: A MemoirBy Alexandra Styron(Scribner, $25)A decade after the publication of his last, lavishly acclaimed novel, “Sophie’s Choice,” William Styron wrote about his epic struggle with incapacitating depression.It was, as his youngest daughter, Alexandra, writes in a compelling new memoir, before Kay Jamison, Andrew Sullivan or other f

Award-winning investigative journalist Jonathan Franklin’s book, “33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners,” is the result of rare but hard-earned access and smart sensitivity to the men who underwent this incredible ordeal.“Some curtains ought never to be pulled back; others deserve to be ripped down,” he tells 20 Questions. Franklin travels throughout Lati

LOS ANGELES ― It’s telling that the title of Marcia Clark’s murder-mystery debut is smaller than her name on the novel’s cover. Clark is best known as the lead prosecutor in the media circus known as the O.J. Simpson murder trial. She’s less recognized as an author, even though her 1998 book about the case, “Without a Doubt,” spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.Co-writing a book

“The Journals of Musan” will be shown with English subtitles at Cinecode Sonje in Samcheong-dong this week. A scene from “The Journals of Musan” (JINJIN Pictures)“The Journals of Musan” is director Park Jung-bum’s debut feature, about a North Korean defector Jeon Seung-chul (Park Jung-bum) who originally came to South Korea to live a better life, but finds it difficult to be happy with his defecto

The short film “Ghost,” directed by Lee Jung-Jin (a.k.a. Ma Dahci), has been selected for the Short Film Competition of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. “Ghost” is a 10-minute thriller about a criminal hiding in an empty house in a deserted town where gentrification has been discontinued.  “Ghost” by Lee Jung-jinThe Short Film Competition is an official competition category that highlights young tal

Popular television actor Hyun Bin has been ordered to serve on a frontline island. The actor, famous for recent appearance in hit television drama “Secret Garden,” joined the Marines last month for the mandatory military service.  Actor Hyun Bin in uniform from an official Marine Corps blog. (Yonhap News)Able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve 20 months in the military, and Hyun’s decis