As they swept through airports while making their ambitious, risky new movie, “Cloud Atlas,” directors Andy and Lana Wachowski got used to answering a surprisingly tough question from customs officials.“They’d say, ‘What’s your movie about?’” said Andy. “It’s about the sum of human experience. They always look up and go, ‘Oh, really ...’”“Our target audience is customs officials,” whispered Lana.Actually, their target audience is grown-ups.The Wachowski siblings made “Cloud Atlas” together with

Latest volume in a series on Korean culture explores the country’s rich filmmaking historyKorea’s Culture Ministry published an English-language book about Korean cinema and its industry, as the newest addition to its “K-series,” a book series featuring Korean culture.The book, titled “K-Movie: The World’s Spotlight on Korean Film,” features Korea’s film industry today, relationship between hallyu and Korean films, prominent directors and actors, as well as notable film festivals held in the cou

Earlier this year, author Karen E. Quinones Miller found out that Walmart wouldn’t be carrying her semiautobiographical book on its shelves. The reason? There were concerns that the book’s title, “An Angry-Ass Black Woman,” might offend some of the retail giant’s customers.Given Walmart’s reach, a lot of authors would have picked a new title and maybe rejiggered things for the sake of book sales.Not Miller.Her decision wouldn’t surprise anybody who knows Miller ― or anybody who’s actually read h

We SinnersBy Hanna Pylvainen (Henry Holt)Hanna Pylvainen’s debut novel, “We Sinners,” is remarkably funny for a book about a deeply religious family grappling with loss of faith.Pylvainen tells the story _ in alternating chapters from the point of view of the parents and several of the nine children ― of the Midwestern Rovaniemi family, members of a Finnish sect of Lutheranism called Laestadianism.They live in a house too small to fit them all and get around in a vehicle so “mortifying to drive”

East Asian Capitalism: Diversity, Continuity, and ChangeEdited by Andrew Walter and Xiaoke Zhang(Oxford)Two scholars recently compiled a collection of academic papers about East Asian capitalism and its evolving patterns against the backdrop of regional and global market integration and periodic economic crises since the 1980s.The volume consists of a total of 12 writings on a variety of issues regarding capitalism in the region, focusing on China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines,

So Ji-sub talks about having few friends, being drawn to loner charactersIt’s hard to imagine actor So Ji-sub empathizing with Seoul’s urban professionals, while living the life of a celebrity. His environment has been red carpets and film premieres, not an office where everyone wears suits and does long hours.“Many think I wouldn’t understand what it is like,” So says in an interview with The Korea Herald. The actor recently starred as an exhausted white-collar worker in his film “A Company Man

National Ballet of China to stage Zhang Yimou’s ‘Raise the Red Lantern’China’s leading ballet troupe the National Ballet of China will be in Korea this week to stage its original ballet “Raise the Red Lantern,” directed by the country’s best-known filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The production is based on Zhang’s famous 1991 film of the same title, which starred actress Gong Li as a young woman who becomes one of the concubines of a wealthy man during China’s Warlord Era. Zhang reworked this masterpiece

So Ji-sub returns as a professional killer in his latest action flickHe seems like yet another urban professional in Korea who has no life outside of his work. The 30-something is one of the most trusted employees at his work, and always gets things done right. But when he tries to quit his job, he faces a series of ordeals that tests his courage and fortitude. Director Im Sang-yoon’s feature debut “A Company Man” shows the extremes of Korea’s office politics, and the mundane lives of urban prof

Popular author Gong Ji-young, who is also known for her social activism, has published an anthology chronicling her 25-year literary career. The book, titled “To love is to be hurt,” consists of a total of 365 excerpts from Gong’s previous novels and essays.“The book is my own celebration of my career,” Gong told reporters during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. “I chose a total of 365 entries, as one year consists of 365 days. I thought it’d be nice for my readers to read one entry a day.”G

Literary forums featuring modern Korean literature will be held in Spain and France, according to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea). The upcoming events in Europe follow LTI Korea’s two-day session forum held in the U.S. last week.The state-run organization kicked off its literary tour on Friday, holding its first sessions in Washington, D.C. Poet Oh Se-young and novelists Oh Jung-hee and Lee Hye-kyung attended the event, which was held at the Korean Cultural Center in Wa

A Company Man (Korea)Opened Oct. 11Action. Thriller. Directed by Lim Sang-yoon. Hyeong-do (So Ji-sub) is a professional killer. He works for an organization that disguises itself as an ordinary metal manufacturing company. He never makes a mistake, is loyal to his boss, and is always on top of things. He is one of the most trusted killers in the organization; he does not have a life outside his work, as he has no family to take care of, and has no friends to spend time with. One day, however, he

The physical requirements for the scene weren’t complicated. Bryan Cranston, who plays CIA manager Jack O’Donnell in director Ben Affleck’s hostage rescue drama “Argo,” had to walk from one office to another, and as laid out in a Los Angeles set late last year, a straight line ran from point A to point B.But before Cranston took a step, Affleck pulled the actor aside and redirected him.Iranian militants had just stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, and details about the 1979 takeover were muddled

BUSAN ― Afghan director Siddiq Barmak remembers watching helplessly as reel upon reel of film footage was taken outside and burned in the street after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.He also remembers the effort it took to save other films from destruction after the extremist forces marched into Kabul in 1996.Barmak and other Afghan filmmakers this week warned that efforts to save Afghanistan’s film history were being undermined by government inaction and concerns about security ahead of a

It is another disappointing year for Ko Un, one of the nation’s most acclaimed living poets.He has been regarded as a potential winner for the Nobel Prize in literature by local media since 2002.As of Thursday, Korea remains the only country in Northeast Asia without a Nobel laureate in literature. Japan’s Oe Kenzaburo won the award in 1994 and now China claims a laureate in literature with Wednesday’s win by Mo Yan.“Oe Kenzaburo and Haruki Murakami have been vocal about international issues and

Like a Day of Feast, By Ko Un, (Changbi Publishers) Five poets selected 240 works by renowned poet Ko Un, who has been writing poems for the last 55 years, for publication. The newly published collection, titled “Like a Day of Feast,” is a joint project by poets Lee Si-young, Kim Seung-hee, Ahn Do-hyun, Park Seong-woo and Ko Hyeong-ryeol. Seoul National University professor emeritus Baek Nak-cheong also participated in the selection process.The collection begins with “Tuberculosis,” which is the

The Warrior’s Heart, By Eric Greitens, (Houghton Mifflin)Eric Greitens came from the humblest of beginnings to become a Rhodes scholar, a national boxing champion, a PhD, a Navy SEAL, an Iraq war veteran, a humanitarian and a bestselling author from writing about his experiences.Now the 38-year-old is back with “The Warrior’s Heart,” a young-adult adaptation of his bestselling memoir for adults, “The Heart and the Fist,” that offers living proof of its tag line: Becoming a Man of Compassion and

Susan Straight lives mere blocks from where she was born in the Inland Empire town of Riverside. She says there are two types of people, those who stay and those who leave. Straight has always stayed.“All I am is a writer and a mom,” says Straight, the author of eight novels, divorced mother of three daughters and a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside.On a recent Monday afternoon, just a few days before the release of her latest novel, “Between Heaven and Here” (McSweeneys, $24), Strai

By Claire Lee Looking at her paintings is almost like watching a documentary about early 20th-century Korea. From a wedding feast in Korea’s countryside in 1921 to a picturesque night sky in Wonsan, Gangwon Province, British painter Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956)’s works exhibit her obvious attachment and understanding of Korean culture and its people. Some of her paintings, especially the portraits of the ordinary, are almost journalistic in nature, capturing the essence of her subjects. She drew

Lee Won-kuk Ballet showcases Korean-War tale ‘Eyes of Dawn’While Korea’s traditional folktales such as “Chunhyang” and “Simcheong” have been made into ballet pieces by major local troupes here, no company has tried to create an original repertoire featuring the nation’s turbulent modern history.Former Korean National Ballet dancer Lee Won-kuk’s upcoming project “Eyes of Dawn” aims to do exactly that, telling the story of three young souls who live through the Japanese colonial period as well as

O Muel’s ‘Jiseul’ portrays tragic historical event in exquisite black-and-white cinematographyBUSAN -- Director O Muel occupies a rare place in Korean cinema, being one of the very few filmmakers creating works about Jeju Island. All of his previous films were shot on his native Jeju, in Jeju dialect, featuring the lives of people living on the island.Two previous films, “Pong Ddol” (2010) and “Nostalgia” (2009) were rather humorous accounts of ordinary Jeju residents, from a flakey filmmaker to