The Korea Times

Rare monster film 'Monstrum' to hit theaters

Cast members of film “Monstrum” pose during a press conference for the preview of the film in Seoul, Sept. 3. / Courtesy of Lotte EntertainmentBy Park Jin-haiThe unidentified mysterious creature that haunted the royal palace of Joseon in 1527 has been brought to life in the forthcoming horror film “Monstrum.”The film, inspired by a historical account in “The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty” which stated the monster looked like a Sapsal dog and was as big as a foal, has been created as an imaginary monster on the big screen in the rare horror film since Bong Joon-ho's 2006 box-office hit “The Host.” “Monstrum,” starring veteran actor Kim Myung-min and K-pop singer-turned actress Lee Hye-ri, tells the story of a group of people who hunt down the man-eating, plague-spreading monster. Rumor has it that it kills people cruelly on mountainsides or contaminates them with a deadly disease; and the public's horror reaches King Jeoungjong. The king, who believes the rumor was created by an ambitious high official who aims to overthrow hi

Sep 11, 2018By Park Jin-hai

Rare monster film 'Monstrum' to hit theaters

Shows & Dramas

'The Guest' explores exorcism, supernatural power

Second from left, actor Kim Dong-wook, actress Jung Eun-chae and actor Kim Jae wook pose with other cast members of OCN's upcoming mystery thriller “The Guest” during a press conference at Amoris Hall in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of OCNBy Park Jin-haiOCN, a cable movie channel leading in genre experiments, brings exorcism and Shamanism to the local drama market, currently crowded with courtroom dramas and crime thrillers. The upcoming mystery thriller “The Guest,” directed by Kim Hong-sun who created the spine-chilling crime thriller “Voice” last year, tells the story of a psychic, a priest and a detective who join together to fight unusual crimes committed by supernatural powers. Various social ills, ranging from the widening gap between the haves and have-nots to hatred and bullying at workplaces, lead to heinous crimes when people are possessed by demons. “We see many hate crimes these days and I wanted to give a different perspective to these crimes through drama,” said Kim during a press conference at Amoris Hall in Yeongdeungpo-

Sep 7, 2018By Park Jin-hai

'The Guest' explores exorcism, supernatural power

Companies

DongA One put under workout program

By Park Jin-haiLee Hi-sangDongA One Group chairmanDongA One Group, a mid-tier business group focused on making flour, has been struggling to stay afloat over the past few months under snowballing debt.The group has incurred huge losses from Chairman Lee Hi-sang’s “reckless venture” into wine-making, an imported car dealership and other non-core businesses.Hit hard by its worsening bottom line, the group’s non-guaranteed bond credit rating has plummeted to the lowest C grade, the Korea Investors Service (KIS) said Thursday.The grade is given to companies that have the highest risk of debt default and have no ability to repay the principal.“Its rating has slipped to C from CC, which reflects its creditors’ recent decision to place it under a workout program,” said a KIS official. The Korea Development Bank and other creditors decided to put the company under a creditor-managed workout program Tuesday.  The flour and animal feed manufacturer, led by Chairman Lee Hi-sang, has been snowed under with debt after excessive business exp

Dec 31, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Daewoo E&C seeks to sell shopping mall near Yongsan Station

An artist’s rendering of Yongsan Prugio Summit is seen in this file photo, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Daewoo E&CBy Park Jin-haiDaewoo Engineering & Construction said Thursday it is seeking to Yongsan Summit Square, a shopping mall in Yongsan, Seoul.The three-story mall with 139 shops is located within the high-rise residential complex Yongsan Prugio Summit that the company has constructed in front of Yongsan Station.Of the 139 shops, 118 will be up for sale.The company says the mall, seated at the heart of a commercial area with I Park Mall and E-mart in the vicinity, will be made into a tourist attraction. Recently the world’s largest duty-free shop run by a joint venture between Hyundai Development and Hotel Shilla with 27,400 square meters of land opened within the I Park Mall. Also, a K-pop concert hall that can house 2,000 spectators and a tourist center, are scheduled to be built behind the mall.“We expect more and more people to gather in the Yongsan Station area as the Yongsan Summit Square will be a popular foreign tourist spot. Connected with th

Dec 30, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Shipbuilders closely chased by Chinese rivals

A Samsung Heavy Industries’ vessel being launched at a port in Geoje Island, South Geongsang Province, in this 2013 file photo. Together with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the big three local builders have been troubled with losses and decreasing orders. / YonhapBy Park Jin-haiTroubled local shipbuilders have let their Chinese rivals break their long dominance for the first time.A Chinese shipbuilder emerged as the world's fifth largest player by order backlog in November, data showed Tuesday, posing a threat to Korean shipyards which had been dominating the top five list for years.The data compiled by Clarkson Research Services showed that Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding had an order backlog of 3.03 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) as of the end of November, overtaking Hyundai Mipo Dockyard’s place, which slipped to sixth place at 2.84 million CGTs.An order backlog is an order that has not yet been fulfilled and is a barometer of a shipbuilder’s future growth.Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) rank

Dec 30, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Hanwha distributes Braille calendars

Hanwha Group employees stand behind a specially designed “calendar of love” Braille calendar. The company has distributed 50,000 copies to related organizations and individuals. / Courtesy of Hanwha GroupBy Park Jin-haiAs a part of its social responsibility program for the visually challenged, Hanwha Group has made 50,000 Braille calendars for 2016 and delivered them to related organizations, the company said Tuesday.The nation’s tenth largest conglomerate has been delivering the specially designed “calendar of love” since 2000.The campaign began with 5,000 copies of desk-top calendars after its chairman, Lee Seung-youn, read an e-mail from a blind person who pleaded for support for visually challenged people. The calendar has grown in size through getting greater responses from many organizations.“The campaign was intended so that all blind people can share the joy of greeting the New Year,” said a company official.Now, wall calendars have been added and distributed to the people in need.The calendars were made after a review of experts said

Dec 29, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Year 2016 will see more green, sport utility vehicles

Hyundai Motor Ioniq hybrid sedanBy Park Jin-haiIf the local auto industry saw its biggest domestic sales and the rise of compact SUVs in 2015, customers will likely see more environmentally friendly vehicles in 2016.Domestic vehicle sales reached a record 1.8 million this year, with imported carmakers taking another 23 percent jump in sales growth at 220,000.Compact SUVs, including Renault Samsung’s QM3, GM Korea’s Trax and Ssangyong’s Tivoli, have emerged as hot as ever, doubling the sales growth of such vehicles two years in a row.Hyundai Motor’s launch of its new luxury Genesis, aiming to compete against German luxury carmakers, has also made a big mark in the local car industry. However, the upcoming year will see a slimmer market, down 3 percent from this year, and it will be greener, with more SUVs. The five local automakers’ sales have been predicted to slip 4.6 percent to 1.47 million next year, but the imported automakers’ sales have been forecast to go up 7.7 percent to 280,000, according to the recently released Korea Automobil

Dec 29, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Dongwha boosts employees' English proficiency

Ahn Seong-jin, NIE (Newspaper in Education) Times Editor, gives a lector to Dongwha Enterprise employees, at the company’s headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on Nov. 26. / Courtesy of Dongwha EnterpriseBy Park Jin-haiDongwha Enterprise’s headquarters in Yeouido are packed with employees asking about “long forgotten” English grammar during a two-hour lecture.“The basic passive voice sentence is formed of the verb ‘to be’ and a ‘past particle,’” Ahn Seong-jin, NIE (Newspaper in Education) Times Editor, told the employees.Since August, more than 100 people have applied for the lecture series.Dongwha Group’s wood materials manufacturing unit has been striving to boost the English competence of its employees in order to nurture them as global talent. It has four overseas offices and factories in Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.“Our company provides able employees, regardless of age and rank, opportunities to work at our overseas offices,” said Dongwha Enterprise official Lee Ki-young.“Only a year

Dec 28, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Car imports outpace exports of minor three

By Park Jin-haiThough the Volkswagen scandal left a dent in the carmakers’ image this year, their sales figures have nonetheless grown stronger.As of November, the total worth of imported autos far exceeded exports of the three local automakers that rank behind Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, according to data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA), Monday.Korea imported $8.74 billion worth of automobiles, up 22 percent year-on-year during the first eleven months of this year.However, GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor altogether exported $7.61 billion worth of automobiles, down 8.2 percent, showing a $1.13 billion negative gap between them and the imports.It is the first time that the value of automobile imports has surpassed that of vehicles exported by the three companies.Due to the rising popularity of imported cars here, the gap has been substantially narrowing since 2013, according to KAMA. In 2013, the combined exports posted by the three automakers came to $10.8 billion, far outpacing the $5.5 billion of imported cars. But

Dec 28, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Hyundai Motor tapped non-Korean executives in annual reshuffle

By Park Jin-haiKim Hun-sooHyundai Motor vice presidentPark Gwang-sikKia Motors vice presidentManfred FitzgeraldHyundai executive directorLuc DonckerwolkeHyundai executive directorHyundai Motor Group (HMG) carried out its annual executive-level reshuffle on Monday, promoting a smaller-sized group of 368 officials on a more merit-based shakeup.That’s 15 percent fewer executives than were promoted a year earlier, signaling that the world’s fifth-largest carmaker is preparing for a dismal global economic outlook, rather than thinking of expansion.It promoted eight new vice presidents, including Hyundai Vice President Kim Hun-soo and Kia Vice President Park Kwang-sik, and promoted 29 executive directors and 81 directors.Notable was the tapping of global talents and elevation of R&D personnel.As the company announced earlier during the launch for the Genesis luxury brand, former Bentley styling chief Luc Donckerwolke has been appointed to the head of design for the Hyundai and Kia brands, succeeding Peter Schreyer. He led car design at Audi, Lamborghini and S

Dec 28, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Park Jin-hai

Read more

Rare monster film 'Monstrum' to hit theaters

'The Guest' explores exorcism, supernatural power

DongA One put under workout program

Daewoo E&C seeks to sell shopping mall near Yongsan Station

Shipbuilders closely chased by Chinese rivals

Hanwha distributes Braille calendars

Year 2016 will see more green, sport utility vehicles

Dongwha boosts employees' English proficiency

Car imports outpace exports of minor three

Hyundai Motor tapped non-Korean executives in annual reshuffle

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