1. "Korea, Beyond the Blockbusters": Simon Abrams reports on the sixth annual New York Korean Film Festival for The Reeler.

["No one loves movies the way South Koreans do. To American audiences, it seems extraordinary for a new film to approach the figures of national box office record-holders like Star Wars or Spiderman. And yet since 1999, at least one film per year has breached the South Korea's all-time top-10 gross list. Successes in 2006 looked to make it a red-letter year as Bong Joon-ho's The Host, the current highest grossing film in ?South Korean history, led a handful of domestic blockbusters including Kim Yong-hwa's 200 Hundred Pounds Beauty (#9) and ?Lee Jun-ik's The King and the Clown (#2). However, according to an article from Hankyoreh, a noted South Korean ?newspaper, only about 13 of the 108 Korean films released last year enjoyed such returns, while Variety reports that the rate of exports this ?year has plummeted to two-thirds of last year's number."]

["A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival. The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it. "There's a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage," zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters."]

["Holy Beltway, Batman! Sen. Patrick Leahy has a part in the next Batman movie. "I don't wear tights," the Vermont Democrat said."]

["So, what are you thinking about as you read these pieces and consider these questions, these writers and their thoughts? The SLIFR Forum is open! And by the way, don't get me wrong-- I think Anton Ego is a hero."]

["I'm not against handheld styles as such, and even Late Tony Scott Rococo can have its virtues. Yet I find the style as practiced by Greengrass to be pretty incoherent and nowhere near as engaging as most critics claim. It just seems too easy. But then, I think that certain standards of filmmaking craftsmanship have pretty much vanished, and the run-and-gun trend is one more symptom of that. Given the praise heaped on The Bourne Ultimatum, however, things are unlikely to change. Next time you head to the movies, you might want to bring your Dramamine."]

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.