Hell, you try mushing the news into categories every day — sometimes it works, sometimes…not so much.

Kim Ki-tae in the Korea Times writes that all references to North Korea have been omitted from the Korean edition of "Stealth," including scenes showing the North Korean flag and map, a direct reference to the country by Sam Shepard’s character ("intentionally replaced…with a vague expression meaning ‘a country with no diplomatic
ties with the United States’"), and a few lines of Korean from soldiers chasing down Jessica Biel. Kim cites an anonymous source at Sony Pictures who says "It was done in order to avoid stirring up any unnecessary emotions
while the two Koreas are making efforts toward reconciliation."

Isn’t it cute that they worried? If the box office reception to the movie in Korea proves anything like the one it got here, Sony has stepped up to shield tens of people from its own inane ultra-aggro militarism. Heartwarming.

Mark Russell in the New York Times details the rise of the Seoul-based Real Fantastic Film Festival (aka RealFanta) from the ashes of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (aka PiFan) (and also still around, so the whole phoenix metaphor is a bit inappropriate). When the mayor of Puchon fired PiFan’s festival director Kim Hong Joon because, as according to his office, "it was displeased with PiFan’s emphasis on strange fare, which it described as inappropriate for families," Kim launched RealFanta as a rival festival that, with little money and no government support, still managed to pull in 60 films and 11,400 attendees.

Also in the New York Times, Alexandra A. Seno interviews Royston Tan, "the bad boy of Singapore film," director of "15" and the upcoming "4:30."

"All my relatives wanted me to do something else," Mr. Tan said. "They said, ‘Do something normal!’ I told them, ‘Give me three years to prove myself.’"

Now they are all glad they left him alone, he said. With the success of "15," Mr. Tan said, his parents have retired from their jobs working at food stalls.

And in the Japan Times, Mark Schilling reviews Nobuhiro Yamashita’s "Linda Linda Linda," about four schoolgirls in a band preparing for their school-festival. The film’s soundtrack was composed by ex-Smashing Pumpkin James Iha.

+ NK References Taken Out in ‘Stealth’ (Korea Times)
+ From the Ashes of a Korean Film Festival, a Competitor Is Born (NY Times)
+ On the Set With Singapore’s Not-So-Dangerous Bad Boy (NY Times)
+ A little ditty that stays in your head (Japan Times)