GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province ― Singaporean filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong started their documentary “The Great North Korean Picture Show” in 2008 thinking the film would most likely be about the communist state’s film industry.The film, which had its Korean premiere last week at the ongoing DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival, turned out to be something more, if not entirely something else. A lot of it had to do with the limitations the filmmakers faced while shooting: They were

Director Huh Jung’s thriller “Hide and Seek” has been selected as the opener of the upcoming London Korean Film Festival, the film’s producer said.Organized annually by the Korean Cultural Centre UK, the London Korean Film Festival celebrates its eighth anniversary this year. The thriller, released in August, tells the story of Sung-woo, an established businessman who lives with his wife and two loving children in a luxurious apartment. He one day learns that his brother, whom he cut off contact

GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province ― In 2009, a group of pro-life doctors reported clinics and fellow physicians that performed illegal abortions. Under Korean law, abortions are illegal except under special circumstances, such as the unborn baby posing a serious health risk to the mother. The practice still remains widespread here, however, especially among young and unmarried women.The particular event in 2009 inspired filmmaker Jo Se-young to create a film about the issue, featuring women who agreed t

Seoul offers a number of places where one can learn to make coffee, using various machines and techniques. If you prefer a cup of latte over espresso, there are latte art classes available as well.Latte art is a method of preparing coffee by pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso that results in a pattern or design on the surface of the drink. Local coffee company Hollys Coffee ((02) 2188-7100) offers latte art classes at its Hollys Academy in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul.  The introducto

The first 10 volumes of Dalkey Archive Press and the Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s Korean literature series will be hitting U.S. bookstores on Nov. 16, the Korea-based translation institute announced Tuesday.  The series, titled “Library of Korean Literature,” consists of 25 works by Korea’s contemporary authors and those who lived through Korea’s colonial and postcolonial periods. The remaining 15 volumes in the series will be released next year.The 10 volumes to be published next

Why was Marie Colvin, who became one of Britain’s most celebrated war correspondents, in Homs, Syria, in February 2012? One thing’s for sure: She had not been invited. After the Syrian government closed its borders to journalists, intrepid reporters like Colvin and her colleague from Britain’s Sunday Times, photographer Paul Conroy, were forced to take extreme measures to cover the nation’s civil war.Colvin and Conroy’s epic journey from Beirut, involved minivans, pickup trucks, motorbikes, hear

Quiet DellBy Jayne Anne Phillips (Scribner)Jayne Anne Phillips grew up in West Virginia hearing about the infamous Quiet Dell murders of 1931, real-life killings of a widow and her three children at the hands of a con man she met through a lonely hearts club.Phillips learned about the grisly case from an unlikely source: her mother, who remembered as a child walking past the “murder garage” where Asta Eicher and her children ― 14, 12 and 9 ― died, the road nearby lined with cars of souvenir-seek

Dance “Chum, Chunhyang” and “Giselle”: The Korean National Ballet and the National Dance Company of Korea are presenting the romantic ballet “Giselle” and traditional Korean dance “Chum, Chunhyang” at the National Theater of Korea from Oct. 17 to 23. It is the first time that the two dances will be performed at the same venue, the National Theater of Korea, on alternate days. “Chum, Chunhyang” will be performed on Oct. 17, 19, 23, while “Giselle” will be staged on Oct. 18, 20, 22. For more infor

Now concluding his own trilogy, J.W. Rinzler provides the definitive history at the chronologically last movie in the “Star Wars” saga in “The Making of ‘Star Wars’: Return of the Jedi.”While “Jedi” is the final chapter in the six movies that make up “Star Wars,” it was actually released third, back in 1983, behind “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back.”“The Making of” shows that even getting it produced wasn’t a sure thing. Creator George Lucas and his team discussed making “Jedi” as they we

A House in the SkyBy Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett (Scribner)“Somalia was hardly a starter war zone,” concedes Amanda Lindhout, but that didn’t stop the freelance journalist from flying into this anarchic East African country in August 2008. Accompanying the 27-year-old Canadian novice ― who planned to file dispatches for the Red Deer Advocate, circulation 13,000 ― was a 37-year-old photographer from Australia, Nigel Brennan.“I’d like to say that I hesitated before heading into Somalia, but I

She has had an enjoyable string of best-sellers. Remember “Getting to Happy,” “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”? Remember “Mama”? Well, you won’t likely forget Terry McMillan’s “Who Asked You?” either.In its 383 pages, McMillan introduces us to Betty Jean Butler, the rock of an African-American family weighed down by race, gender issues, economic challenges and, yes, family secrets.Recently, she took some questions:Q: It’s been three years since your last book. Why did you

About 500 people filled the LG Convention Hall of Ewha Womans University in Seoul on Wednesday, excited to see British designer Gary Card and French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.The two designers met and spoke with young aspiring artists and designers, many of them university students majoring in fashion, as part of Herald Design Week, which kicked off on Monday. The venue was completely packed by the time the event’s host Julia Kang, the editor-in-chief of fashion magazine Elle’s Korean

Fall is rolling in fast in Seoul and Korea’s national dance troupes are presenting some of the most poignant love stories this month.The Korean National Ballet and the National Dance Company of Korea are presenting the romantic ballet “Giselle” and traditional Korean dance “Chum, Chunhyang” at the National Theater of Korea from Oct. 17 to 23.It is the first time that the two dances will be performed at the same venue on alternate days. This means the National Theater of Korea staff will be switc

Understanding the needs of the customers as well as the power of the soft industry are key factors to developing Korea into a design powerhouse, according to two leading Korean designers. Don Tae Lee, co-president of London-based strategic design consultancy tangerine direction & design, and Joon Oh!, the creative director of Amorepacific, a leading Korean chemical and cosmetics company, gave a duo-lecture, sharing their past and current innovative projects. Lee is known for redesigning British

How does one succeed in today’s complex and volatile world? IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown’s advice is: be Darwin rather than Newton.“What Newton’s laws of motion do is that they predict the future based on the understanding of the present,” Brown said during his lecture.“But the problem is it only works if the present is very, very simple. We can only use Newton’s laws to effectively predict the future of something if we are talking about two components, one thing hitting another thing. As soon as we hav

Born in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, in the late 1960s, London-based design expert Don Tae Lee grew up without electricity. “Whenever I tell my employees in England about my upbringing, they don’t believe me,” said the 45-year-old during the opening ceremony of the Herald Design Week held in Seoul on Monday.“And I, who grew up without lights at home, am now working for a foreign company. I somehow moved to England, somehow got myself to speak English, and somehow got myself hired at Tangerine. I

Robert Ramsey, director of the center of East Asian Studies at the University of Maryland, is to receive an Order of Cultural Merit from the Korean government, along with nine others who have contributed to the study and promotion of Hangeul, the Culture Ministry said Monday.Ramsey, 72, is known for his research into the Korean language. In 2011, he published “A History of the Korean Language,” the first history book on the subject ever written in English. The 2013 list of medal recipients also

Technically dazzling and emotionally gripping, “Gravity” is a space-age science fiction thriller grounded in something pretty close to reality.A space shuttle / space junk accident picture, Alfonso Cuaron’s movie gives us Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, space-walkers whose ship is wrecked, forcing them to face the ultimate human fear.No one wants to die alone. There is no place lonelier than the cold, silent and airless vacuum of space.Filmed in a stunning “How’d they DO that?” 3-D, we meet c

Filmmaker Im Kwon-taek announced Friday that his 102nd movie would be a film adaption of author Kim Hoon’s 2004 award-winning short story “Hwajang.” Actor Ahn Sung-ki, who previously starred in a total of six films by Im, has been cast in the leading role. Kim’s short story, which won the prestigious Yi Sang Literary Award in 2004, is about a middle-aged man who spends most of his life working for a cosmetics company, and his wife, who is dying of cancer. The devoted and patient husband also has

BUSAN― A Bhutanese film directed by a Buddhist monk, featuring India’s traditional dance and its spirituality, opened the 18th Busan International Film Festival in Busan on Thursday.Cohosted by veteran Korean actress Kang Soo-yeon and Hong Kong singer and actor Aaron Kwok, the festival’s opening ceremony was attended by some 4,000 guests, including renowned cineastes from home and abroad such as Japanese filmmaker Shinji Aoyama, French film critic and historian Charles Tesson, and Korean filmmak