THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
HOROSCOPES
Because the stars
know things we don't
PAGE 5
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Today is a 7
Mercury enters Sagittarius (until
12/24) you see (and can articulate)
a broader perspective. Share it in
person, via email or social media,
and get the word out in bold letters.
Get extra efficient. Pack everything
you do with passion.
It's time for adventure time. Try something new, or explore areas you normally avoid to discover something you didn't know about yourself. Set long-range educational goals over the next two days.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Today is an 8
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Today is a 7
Today is a 7 For three weeks with Mercury in Sagittarius, communication with your partner is more direct and easy. Rely on others. Choose participation over isolation. Expand your bankroll. Shared holdings increase in value. Luxuriate privately or with someone special.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) Today is on 8
For the next three weeks, expand your sphere of understanding. Let yourself get persuaded to participate. Your work becomes more interesting. Weigh pros and cons. Figure out what your heart wants and study it with a passion.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today is a 9
For the next three weeks, you're even smarter than usual, and especially good with words: Get disciplined (especially today and tomorrow) about your health, diet and exercise. You can afford to invest in your vitality, and this includes rest.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Today is a 7
For the next three weeks, improve things at home, especially through communication. Stay out of somebody else's battle. Focus on household renovation and get on the best quality. Stop carefully, and ensure the team's aligned before committing. Play with it!
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Today is a B
Today is a 6
For the next three weeks with Mercury in Sagittarius, reconsider assumptions. You're especially bright, witty and persuasive. Stand up to a critic. More study will be required. Increase your family's comfort. Temptations are alluring and love blossoms.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Today is a 7
It could get easier to spend over the next three weeks, so think before handing over that card. Get only what you need and go for the best quality. You may be able to borrow and share resources.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Today in a 9
Today's a
As probing questions to deepen your studies, which expand through communication over the next three weeks. The action is behind the scenes. Enjoy new developments. Turn down a public for a private engagement. Question authority.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Today is a 9
For the next three weeks, realizing dreams go easier. It's a philosophical phase, and what you learn could have volatile moments. A female brings beauty into your home. Overbuild. Imagine, but don't venture too far yet. Set priorities.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Today is a 6
For th. next three weeks, consider all possibilities and discuss them. Group participation gets powerful results. Confer with others and discover views that ring true. Plan carefully. Have what you want deliver- and delegate roles and tasks.
CROSSWORD
today is a 7
For three weeks, what you say impacts your career directly. Answers lead to new questions. Your assets are gaining value. Consider it a three-week testing phase. Don't deplete resources and keep the faith; it's a winning combination.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Today is a 7
ACROSS
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4, 2013
1 Doctrines
5 Inst. of learning
8 Catch sight of
12 You, old-style
13 Sigma follower
14 Citi Field fore-runner
15 Descent in dignity
17 Hen pen
18 Connection
19 Royal headgear
21 Droop
22 Flock
23 Letterman's employer
26 Once around
28 Rock
31 Aahs' mates
33 Vim and vigor
35 Bat a gnat
36 Sac
38 Joan of —
Fallon's employer
41 Walked (on)
43 "American Cousin"
45 So far
47 Drunk
51 Forehead
52 Loss of self-control
54 Stitched
55 Work with
56 Great Lake
57 Shetland, for one
58 Spinning stat
59 Dinner for Dobbin
1 Need to scratch
2 "Scram!"
3 Note to self
4 Looks for
5 Makeshift
6 Crow's comment
7 Intuitive feeling
8 Stags' lacks
9 Confrontation
10 Lowly worker
11 Shrill barks
16 Two-way
20 Scale members
23 Officer
DOWN
24 Greet the villain
25 Factory closing
27 Shell game need
29 Apprehend
30 Handy pc. of Latin
32 Overly thin
34 Difficulty
37 Stolen
39 Fringe group
42 Object (to)
44 Wild West show
45 Recipe meas.
46 Sandwich cookie
48 1/3 of a WWII movie title
49 Foolish sort
50 Change for a five
53 Kreskin's claim
PARIS — French authorities have filed preliminary charges against Bob Dylan over a 2012 interview in which he is quoted comparing Croatians to Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
Bob Dylan charged in France for 'inciting hate'
INTERNATIONAL
The charges of "public insult and inciting hate" were filed against the musician in mid-November, Paris prosecutor's office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuire said Tuesday.
They stem from a lawsuit by a Croatian community group in France over remarks in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine in September 2012.
Speaking about race relations in the United States, Dylan was quoted as saying: "If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the
A lawyer for the Croatian group, Ivan Jurasinovic, said it is not seeking monetary damages but wants Dylan, "a singer who is liked and respected in Croatia, to present an apology to the Croatian people."
Serbs can sense Croatian blood."
He said the Croatian community in France was upset by the remarks, but said he did not know why Croatians in Croatia or the United States, where Rolling Stone is based, have not filed similar suits. France, home to about 30,000 Croatians, has strict laws punishing hate speech and racist remarks.
Representatives for Dylan, who performs in France regularly, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U. S. singer-songwriter Bob Dylan performs on stage at "Les Vieilles Charrues" Festival in Carhaix, western France, on July 22, 2012.
SUDOKU
12/04
Difficulty Level ★★★
CRYPTOQUIP
RockChalkLiving
SEARCH DONT SETTLE
MOVIE REVIEW
'Oldboy': A Korean gem better left unmined
ahoskins@kansan.com
ANDREW HOSKINS
Doesn't the "Spike Lee" stamp count for anything anymore? If you're part of the dwindling number of moviegoers who still associate that name with any kind of cinematic substance, think again. Lee's new film, "Oldboy," is a remake of Chan-wook Park's gritty, stylish, well-composed Korean symphony of raw emotion.
Park's version went down in American underground-cult-film history and is doubtlessly an important piece in South Korea's film landscape. Lee's take is forced, unoriginal and needlessly disturbing. It spends most of its 104-minute running time inside the prison of the American mainstream plotline and phony cinematic devices, then finally explodes through those barriers only to find itself plummeting into the filth of soon-to-be forgotten American trash.
Let's take a closer look, shall we? Lee's version follows the same premise as Parks, down to several minuscule details. He even throws in a few Easter eggs from the Korean version, which is refreshing at first, but soon feels utterly disrespectful. The story follows Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin), a hopeless wannabe playboy and alcoholic ad salesman. Divorced and falling as a father, he is mysteriously kidnapped in the street one night during a drunken stupor.
He awakes to find himself locked in a dingy motel room, which he quickly learns is little more than a nicely decorated prison cell. Confused and alone, he spends the next 20 years trying to figure out where he is and who is holding him.
Early on in his imprisonment,
he learns his ex-wife has been
murdered and his 3-year-old
daughter has been adopted. Finally, after many desperate attempts at escaping and years of eating bland dumplings that were mysteriously shoved under the door, he is set free. With the un-enlisted help of love-striken-for-the-badboy Marie (Elizabeth Olsen), he sets out to find three things: who captured him, why he was held prisoner and the whereabouts of his now grown-up daughter. As more events unfold, he realizes his captor has laid out a grim path of suffering and painful truths he must follow before he can get his revenge.
Sounds like a great plot, right?
It is. But a great movie? Absolutely not. Lee's rotting soup of abhorrent sicko-violence, lack of humanitarian risk, failure to connect the dots between major plot elements and a grossly miscast villain leaves you feeling ill.
Sharlito Copley's role as the film's villain is a complete farce — it feels like he just showed up, read the lines, took the paycheck and went home. A vital part of the success of Park's version was witnessing the bipolar flips between his villain's emotional anguish and deadpan cruelty. We don't even get an ounce of that humanity with Copley's performance.
Olsen's role as the leading lady isn't terrible. She's believable and fun to watch. She doesn't deliver gold, however, and blends in with all the Kate Beckinsales, Emily Blunts and Jessica Biels of our world.
Brolin's performance is the fishing wire trying to reel in a whale. He's strong and convincing as always, but couldn't save this movie. He doesn't even compare, however, to Choi Min-sik, Park's leading man. Min-sik, named Oh Dae-su in the movie, owned the role on a rarely seen level. He was completely devoted to all of the physical, emotional and spiritual changes that occurred to
Oh Dae-su, Park brought it out, and that's partially why his movie is remembered and Lee's will be forgotten.
Draped over the beautifully intricate web of Park's metaphors, proverbial wisdom, raw vehemence and gritty fight sequences was this element: truth. The movie is electrifying — it leaves you wanting to karate-chop the nearest pedestrian, yet also to sit and meditate over the beautifully orchestrated madness you just witnessed. Park knows how to tell it like it is, and avoids the heinous crime of mass-audience-pleasing formulation. Park went all-out in all of the right places and knew exactly when to hold back everywhere else. Lee's version spits out choked dialogue, cheap story flow and overtly literal character development and plot elements.
Park's version serves up some of the worst and rawest negative human emotions naked on a silver platter, and it's incredibly moving. Lee's version serves cheap, plastic leftovers.
Park's "Oldboy" came out in 2003; it's sad that 10 years later Hollywood resorts to recycling the afterbirth of classic cult films in a hopeless attempt to revive America's deadbeat mainstream movie industry. Lee now finds himself on the fast track to "M. Night Shyamalanism," stuck between the waning success of his films and an even bleaker future after his latest flop.
FILMDISTRICT