A crisis more than a century ago involved U.S. aims to assert military supremacy, a hard-partying dictator and frictions among the great powers.

When American studios wouldn’t back his film about a laid-off manager committing gruesome murders, the director returned to Korea. Now he has a hit on his hands.

A new study suggests that distressed borrowers using a simpler bankruptcy process are succeeding — and that more people like them should try.