Conductor Chung Myung-whun and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra opened Seoul’s newest classical music venue last Friday with a rousing concert.Part of the Lotte Group’s CSR efforts, the Lotte Concert Hall is the first new classical venue to open in Seoul since the state-run Seoul Arts Center opened 28 years ago. The opening concert program consisted of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 Op. 72a; “Le Chant des Enfants des Etoiles (The Song of the Children of the Stars),” a new piece composed by S

Child actress Lee Na-yoon eats pasta in an empty classroom, using bread to scoop up leftover sauce after her last forkful. On a rainy day, model Lee Jini devours a bowl of steamed beef at a cafe, humming to herself. Singer Kim Hyun-chul finds himself outdoors next to a babbling stream, gulping down hot noodles while murmuring, “This has been cooked really well.” Celebrities do little else but eat in the new eating reality show “Quiet Dining,” which began airing on July 29 on cable channel O’live

As befits the girl group’s name, the members of Cosmic Girls are featured dancing on an extraterrestrial planet and being dropped from space onto earth in the music video for “Secret,” the title track of the group’s second EP.　The Korean-Chinese girl group, created by Korea’s Starship Entertainment and China’s Yuehua Entertainment, held a showcase for the release of its new album Wednesday in Seoul. The group performed onstage “MoMoMo,” the title track of its 2016 debut EP “Would You Like,” “Sec

"Sober Stick Figure: A Memoir”By Amber Tozer(Running Press, $24)Comedian Amber Tozer is 39 years old. She is funny, profane and drop-dead honest. A recovering alcoholic, Tozer walked away from drinking eight years ago, and now she has written a book about it.I picked up “Sober Stick Figure: A Memoir” (Running Press, $24) because alcoholism has run in my family, and because of recent news about the prevalence of binge drinking among young people.“Sober Stick Figure” might be the funniest book abo

“The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” By Amy Schumer(Gallery Books)Amy Schumer is a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, thanks to her Emmy-winning TV series, “Inside Amy Schumer,” and feature film box-office smash “Trainwreck.” A comedian, actress, writer, producer and director, Schumer is on her way to adding “best-selling author” to her list of achievements with her new book, “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.”Schumer is a talented storyteller. She’s known for standing in a spotlight

Star Trek tells a story about integration and “infinite diversity” that resonates in today’s world more than ever, according to the actors of “Star Trek Beyond,” the latest installation in the science-fiction film franchise set for local release Thursday.Cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin discussed the film’s core values at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday. “It’s a franchise with all the hallmarks of a summer blockbuster but also has a lot of heart,

Glittering costumes and colorful streaks of hair have become the trademark of K-pop singers, who are now known as much for their flashy visuals as for their hypnotic music. In the hypercompetitive world of K-pop, recent releases have been toying with niche concepts in an effort to stand out from the increasingly crowded market.Boy band VIXX chose to take the supernatural horror route for its single “Fantasy” from the group’s fourth album “Hades” released last Friday. The song’s music video featu

Haley Bonar“Impossible Dream” (GNDWIRE/Thirty Tigers)Haley Bonar’s songs on “Impossible Dream” are both personal and universal, stories with an indie film ambience detailed enough to fill a larger screen.Born in Canada, raised in South Dakota and now living in St. Paul, Minnesota, the 33-year-old turned it up a notch on her previous album, 2014’s “Last War,” and this one continues in a similar vein -- gliding power-pop that‘s much more in-your-ear than in-your-face.The cinematic textures are enh

Tunnel(Korea)Opened Aug. 10Drama. Directed by Kim Sung-hoonA tunnel collapses on top of car salesman Jung-soo (Ha Jung-woo) on his way home. Trapped inside, surrounded by concrete, and with only two bottles of water, a birthday cake and cell phone in his possession, Jung-soo begins his fight for survival.Take Off 2(Korea)Opened Aug. 10Drama. Directed by Kim Jong-hyeonA crew of women from diverse backgrounds gather to form the national ice hockey team. Ji-won (Soo Ae), the only former hockey play

Perhaps not every quirky true story needs a biopic starring Meryl Streep, as evidenced by Stephen Frears' bizarre “Florence Foster Jenkins,” the story of a wealthy older woman who launched an amateur singing career in the 1940s, despite her distinct lack of talent. It’s a film that dares you to give it a bad review, simply so it can turn around and call you a bully who picks on the people who try. It invites you to giggle at Florence’s horrible singing and then promptly scolds you for laughing,

The fictional realm of “Dramaworld” very consciously parades out every K-drama cliche: It weaves in trademark tropes such as the immaculate, not-lived-in homes, ferocious kimchi slaps, excessive product placement, overbearing mother-in-laws and, of course, the male lead who, though an heir to vast wealth forges his own path as a restaurateur.The lead character is Park Joon, played by British-Korean actor Sean Dulake. There are two women fighting for this ideal man’s affections: gold-digging rest

The Daesan Foundation, dedicated to supporting and promoting Korean literature, has announced the recipients of this year’s Grants for the Translation, Research and Publication of Korean Literary Works, providing funds for 13 works of Korean literature to be translated into 10 languages.The works selected include those by emerging authors such as Hwang Jung-eun’s novel “Let Me Continue” (unofficial translation), the winner of last year’s Daesan Literary Award. Hwang’s novel about the relationshi

Competing at the 11th Seoul International Drama Awards are a wide array of pieces from around the globe, from the renowned British detective thriller “Sherlock” series starring actor Benedict Cumberbatch to Korea’s quaint family drama “Reply 1988,” set in late 1980s Seoul. This year’s selections are more realistic, as opposed to fantastical, said actor Yoo Dong-geun, a Grand Prize judge, at a press conference for the awards Wednesday at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club.“A lot of TV movies

In the early 1990s, Robert McKee had a revelation that would change the course of his career and influence the lives of tens of thousands of other writers. At the time, he’d written “Abraham,” a four-hour biblical miniseries, for TNT and had sold several unproduced screenplays.“I looked at ‘Abraham’ and thought, ‘I’m a good writer, but I will never be Ingmar Bergman,’” McKee said. “The creative explosion is not happening. It’s professional, it’s actable, it’s entertaining. But I want to be the b

"The Inseparables"By Stuart Nadler Little, Brown and Co. (352 pages, $27)The best fiction illuminates life’s realities, and Stuart Nadler spotlights the fact that we all skate on a very thin edge between joy and sorrow, respectability and shame, life and death.Or, as Henrietta tells her granddaughter, Lydia, in “The Inseparables,” you can be sitting next to a window in a restaurant having a perfectly nice lunch and, “A bird could come through the window right at this instant and impale you.”One

According to K-pop group Big Bang, the past decade has been a whirlwind of training, recording, performing and creating. Now, the band members say, they’re able to see the bigger picture. “How to develop our style in the future is one of the biggest things on my mind right now,” said G-Dragon at a press conference celebrating the group’s 10-year anniversary in northeastern Seoul Thursday. “It’s not just about music anymore. I want to do something that can support all the people in Korea and the

“Three-Martini Lunch” By Suzanne RindellPutnam (512 pages, $27)“Nobody ever became a writer by just wanting to be one.” This terse advice by F. Scott Fitzgerald sets the scene for a compelling exploration of New York City’s Greenwich Village scene in the late 1950s, when beatniks, berets and big ideas gravitated to jazz clubs, and women and minorities could begin to voice ambition without feeling outright derision. (There was derision, but more politic.)Three ambitious young people intersect: Ed

When Son Ye-jin was a young girl, she would be gripped by fear each time a new school year came around. 　“I used to be very shy. I hated going to a new classroom and having to make new friends, meet new teachers and adjust to a new environment,” the actress said at a group interview at a cafe in Seoul Wednesday. 　Son, 34, has come a long way from those days: She is a prolific performer with 19 films under her belt since debuting in 2000 and widely known for romantic roles in films such as “The C

“North Korea and the World”By Walter C. Clemens Jr.University Press of Kentucky (443 pages, $39.95)North Korea and its succession of unfathomable, belligerent totalitarian dictators have long presented some of the most difficult challenges to world diplomacy. In his book “North Korea and the World,” published July 22, international policy expert Walter C. Clemens Jr. poses the question, “Can, should, and must we negotiate with a regime we regard as evil?”Clemens, an associate at the Harvard Uni

There’s a great scene in Jessi Klein’s new book, in which she is backstage at the Emmy Awards last year with her just-won statue -- and her breast pump.“On a professional level, it felt really good,” she said of the win for her work as head writer on the Comedy Central sketch series, “Inside Amy Schumer.”“But for a variety of reasons, last year was one of the hardest years of my life,” she said, alluding to marital strife. “I spent a lot of time suffering and the Emmy did absolutely zero.“There’