Wolmi Sea Train, a monorail connecting the island of Wolmido to Incheon, celebrated one month of operations Friday. The monorail sold 37,365 tickets in the first month of its existence, according to Incheon Transit Corporation. It added that the number of people using nearby Incheon Station had jumped 25 percent. Enterprises at Wolmido have been launching promotional products related to the Wol...

As 2019 slips away, it’s clear that comedy and Hollywood blockbusters have dominated South Korea’s box office this year. Four films -- two domestic and two Hollywood blockbusters -- have broken the 10 million ticket sales mark this year. “Extreme Job” became the second most successful film in Korean box office history with 16.2 million and the top-selling comedy, while “Avengers: Endgame” became...

Chrysanthemum Exhibition of the Garden of Morning Calm Visitors to the Chrysanthemum Exhibition can enjoy the blazing fall foliage of nearby Chungnyeongsan and the golden waves created by the pine trees, as well as the myriad fully bloomed chrysanthemums covering just about every corner of the 330,000-square-meter outdoor garden. The festival runs through Nov. 24 and is open to visitors of all ...

Weathering with You (Japan) Opened Oct. 30 Animation Directed by Shinkai Makoto The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo) runs away from his island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina (Nana Mori) on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderf...

Kensington Hotel & Resort, which opened its 23rd branch up in the mountains of Seoraksan last week, has mostly adopted a strategy of acquiring existing brands and remodeling them instead of building from scratch. This has both pros and cons, but it does result in diversity in terms of the look and features of each hotel and resort under its umbrella. Kensington Resort Seorak Valley, the newest e...

Korean director Park Chang-wook on Tuesday received the Film and Beyond award at the Geneva International Film Festival, commended for his works including “The Handmaiden,” which will be screened at the festival until Sunday. The award was given to the director in recognition of Park’s body of work to the field of cinema, at the 25th annual event at the Swiss city from Nov.1-10. “This is an awa...

The 45th Seoul Independent Film Festival touted “shift” as the slogan for this year’s event, stressing important changes in the film scene, such as the growing contributions of female filmmakers. “Since last year, the working environments of female filmmakers have improved greatly, as did the demand for their work. I expect such changes to affect the Korean film industry as a whole,” said festiv...

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the award for best filmmaker at the 23rd Hollywood Film Awards on Sunday. During the annual event in Beverly Hills, California, Bong was commended for his recent film “Parasite,” for which he won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year. This year’s Hollywood winners also include Charlize Theron, who took home the career achievement award; Anto...

Technology may spearhead the progress of mankind, but with so many around the world mesmerized by Walt Disney, who can underestimate the power of the mouse? The ASEAN-ROK Culture Innovation Summit, a forum to discuss and celebrate cultural contents as a driving force for growth, are set to be held later this month on the sidelines of the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit in Busan. The host nation ...

Lee Young-ae is not the most prolific of actresses, but she has left lasting impressions with memorable characters in her few works, such as “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (2005), “One Fine Spring Day” (2001) and “Joint Security Area” (2000) “I expect and want this (film) to be a turning point (in my career) as much as ‘Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’ had been,” Lee said at a press conference for up...

Terminator: Dark Fate (US) Opened Oct. 30 Action, Sci-fi Directed by Tim Miller More than two decades have passed since Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) prevented Judgment Day. Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) is living a simple life in Mexico City when a highly advanced and deadly new Terminator -- a Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) -- travels back through time to hunt and kill her. Dani must join forces with G...

Chrysanthemum Exhibition of the Garden of Morning Calm Visitors to the chrysanthemum festival can enjoy the blazing fall foliage of nearby Chungnyeongsan and the golden waves created by the pine trees, as well as the myriad fully bloomed chrysanthemums covering just about every corner of the 330,000-square-meter outdoor garden. The festival runs through Nov. 24 and is open to visitors of all ag...

When “Aida” landed in Korea in 2005, musicals were not as popular as they are now, talent not as abundant and licensed local productions of hit Broadway shows not as big a business. Fourteen years, 732 performances and 730,000 audience members later, anticipation for the musical’s final run -- to kick off Nov. 13 at Blue Square Interpark Hall in central Seoul -- is running high. It runs through ...

“The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful” is flamboyant, preposterous and exaggerated, taking viewers on a wild ride. Directed by Lee Khan and starring Kwon Sang-woo, the sequel to the “The Divine Move” (2014) -- about high-stakes gambling via the game of Go -- has an obvious premise and plot as well as one-dimensional characters. But it manages to provide fun and action. The film starts by tracing the...

There is a certain risk in making a movie based on a true story: The creator takes sides and ends up having an agenda. When the audience is on board with the idea, it’s great. Otherwise, it becomes a problem. “Black Money” is a movie that has a clear purpose and a message to get across, which is to raise awareness about the ongoing multibillion-dollar investor-state dispute between the South Kor...