Park Chan-wook describes his ability as “more than perfect.” Actress Mia Wasikowska said working with him was so “easy and seamless.”Of the many who worked behind the camera for Park Chan-wook’s Hollywood debut “Stoker,”  one of its co-producers and interpreter Jeong Won-jo is the one who witnessed the English-language film’s production from the very beginning to the end. Throughout the project, he was the famed director’s “all-around aide-de-camp”; all of Park’s directions were delivered to the

Keri Russell’s “comeback year” has the feel of a reinvention, a re-branding of the dainty young lovely who burst on the scene with “Felicity” back in the last century. But as different as her flinty mom in the new film “Dark Skies” might seem, as dangerous and “out there” as her Born Again Bolshevik sleeper spy is in TV’s “The Americans,” she refuses to label her return to public view a career makeover.“The great think about disappearing is that people forget about you a little bit,” Russell say

What a conversation it was.The Book of Job. Hippos. The road life. The writer’s life (which, more and more these days, is the road life). Philly. Iowa. Rutgers. Bryn Mawr. Florida. Kafka. Dorothy Day. George Saunders (more on him later). Sharing an apartment with your sister. A bumper-car arcade of ideas and language.Such is an hour of talk with writer Karen Russell, sitting around her apartment near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sparkling notion-eruptions and prismed, faceted phrases. Her 201

PhantomBy Jo Nesbø(Knopf)I once suggested that some Nordic crime novels are Jackie Collins or Harold Robbins with enough mildly leftist musing thrown in to make readers feel intellectually respectable. One reply to that comment put it this way:“It’s why I think ‘Downton Abbey’ does so well in this country, too. It’s basically an absurdly trashy soap opera, a notch or two down from the magnificent ‘Days of Our Lives,’ but because it’s on PBS and they’re speaking with English accents, it’s somehow

Nora Guthrie had put off reading her late father Woody Guthrie’s recently unearthed novel, “House of Earth,” even after she’d agreed for it to be published. Having devoted much of 2012 to preparing events and projects surrounding the centennial of the singer-songwriter-artist’s birth, she said, she wanted to read the book at her leisure, when it wouldn’t feel like “work.”So it wasn’t until last fall that she started in on the manuscript’s pages and soon reached the lengthy, graphic sex scene in

Following the successful press premiere of famed local director Park Chan-wook’s Hollywood debut “Stoker,” the film’s leading actress Mia Wasikowska made a meaningful first visit to Park’s home country.“It’s something we talked about since our first meeting,” the Australian actress said during a press conference promoting the film in Seoul on Thursday. “Director Park told me when the film is finally made and being released, I should come to Korea. And I always said I’d love to. So it’s exciting

The popular terms “eomchinddal” and “eomchina” have become a syndrome in the last few years, indicating the “perfect people who have it all” by the Korean standard. Literally translated as “my mother’s friend’s daughter (or son),” they refer not only to a son or a daughter-in-law, but also to the ideal child: An eomchinddal is good looking, a graduate of a top Korean or U.S. college, holds a high-paying job, and on top of everything else, is also popular. Some well-known real-life eomchinddal in

Memories and dreams undoubtedly have been famed director Hong Sang-soo’s favorite subjects in his work. His latest film “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon,” unveiled to the press Tuesday, turned out to be no exception in regards to its subject matter. In many ways, the movie, which deals with a young woman’s troubled relationship with her married teacher, is a typical Hong Sang-soo film; it again includes the pathetic male artist who gives ridiculous post break-up rhetoric; boasts Hong’s signature repeti

After taking a nearly decade-long break from cinema, Arnold Schwarzenegger is making a comeback to the local silver screen in an action flick directed by Korean director Kim Jee-woon.“You always as an actor try to choose a project that you think could be popular not only in America but in all over the world,” said the famed Austrian-American actor during a press conference promoting his film “The Last Stand” in Seoul on Wednesday. “You want a story that is understood by everybody. I think ‘The L

Most filmgoers in the world would agree that Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan is multi-talented. He knows how to sing, direct and write film scripts on top of being a stunt performer.His latest film, “Chinese Zodiac,” will convince anyone with doubts about Chan’s abilities. It’s an action film about looted Chinese artifacts, written, co-produced, directed by and starring Chan, which has grossed over $135 million at the Chinese box office since last year. “It took me seven years to make this film,” sa

Many would expect to see the good guy and the bad guy ― or the innocent victim and the killer ― in a murder flick, but writer-director Park Myung-rang’s original feature debut breaks all the rules: it is only about the bad guys, all unspeakably bad, with their own excuses and problems.Titled “An Ethics Lesson,” the film deals with the murder of a college student in her apartment. While being an engaging drama about murder, the film also presents an original analysis on anger, violence and ethics

Theater“The Woman in the House”: Local playwright Lee Nan-young is staging her new work, “The Woman in the House,” which deals with female victims of domestic violence. The play begins with a middle-aged woman about to go on a trip with her only grandson. Her daughter-in-law helps her prepare for the trip, and their ordinary conversation eventually reveals dark secrets of their past and the present. “The Woman in the House” runs from Feb. 15-24 at Daehangno Batangol Theater in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul

There’s a tempting change of life/ change of pace subtext in the books and the movies made from the books of Nicholas Sparks. Things move slower, take on a gentler “beach novel” tempo. And that can be appealing, even to a Hollywood star married to a pop star.“You know, I think about that, from time to time,” says Josh Duhamel, star of “Transformers” movies and a string of romantic comedies, husband to Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. “What would it be like, to just chuck everything for a while? I

Tickets sold out in just five minutes for pop group Shinhwa’s upcoming concert scheduled for March 16 and 17, according to their agency Shinhwa Company.The upcoming concert has been organized in celebration of the 15th anniversary of their debut. The six-member group, one of the early “idol” bands in the country, debuted in 1998 and enjoyed much popularity along with G.O.D., Fly to the Sky, H.O.T. and S.E.S. Tickets for the concert, about 25,000 of them, were sold out just five minutes after bei

Today’s Incheon International Airport boasts great size and spacious duty-free shops, but things were quite different just 40-some years ago. Local reporter Lee Hwang’s latest book, “Airport Reportage,” chronicles the history of local airports, from the very first one on Yeouido, Seoul, to the one in Incheon today. Throughout his 40-year career as a journalist, Lee covered events that took place in airports, witnessing countless historic moments. Lee joined local daily Hankook Ilbo in 1970 and

It seems that his first foray into Hollywood wasn’t so easy for famed director Kim Jee-woon.“Hollywood may not be so great for (Korean) filmmakers,” said the director, after the press premiere of his Hollywood debut “The Last Stand” in Seoul on Wednesday.Kim, best known for his 2003 horror “A Tale of Two Sisters” and 2010 thriller “I Saw the Devil,” is back with a $30-million English-language film featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead.  Directing the action flick in the U.S. was “lonely” a

Yoo, a former vice culture minister and the current dean of Hallyu Graduate School at the Catholic University of Korea, has been named as the new culture minister. He received his bachelor’s degree in commerce and trade from Seoul National University, and a Ph.D in public administration from Hanyang University. Yoo became a public official in 1978 and served a number of positions in the nation’s cultural sector, including the secretary-general of Korea National University of Arts, and deputy sec

Celebrated writer-director Ryu Seung-wan’s latest blockbuster “The Berlin File” topped 5 million viewers in just 14 days, official data showed Tuesday.Starring Ha Jeong-woo, Gianna Jun (Jun Ji-hyun), and Ryu Seung-beom, the spy thriller tells the story of a North Korean agent (played by Ha) in Berlin who is betrayed by his home country when a clandestine arms deal goes awry and is exposed. He tries to escape the German city with his wife (played by Jun), who works as a German-Korean translator a

Popular actress Park Si-yeon is being investigated for the illegal use of the drug propofol, a type of anesthetic, after three other actresses were investigated on the same charge last month. The drug is classified as a psychotropic medicine in Korea.According to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, Park has been using the drug for non-medical purposes at a number of dermatology and plastic surgery clinics in Cheongdam-dong in southern Seoul. Actresses Lee Seung-yeon, Jang Mi-in-ae, and Hyun Young w

The Korea National Ballet is opening this year’s season with Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” featuring its star principals Kim Ji-young, Lee Dong-hun, and Spain’s Compania Nacional de Danza’s principal ballerina Kim Seh-yun in the lead.The troupe is presenting a version created by French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot of Monte Carlo Ballet Theater. The local troupe first premiered Maillot’s “Romeo and Juliet” in 2000, and had two separate runs in 2002 and 2011, respectively. The tr