The Korea Herald

Actor Lee Jong-suk signs with YG

Actor Lee Jong-suk has signed an exclusive contract with YG Entertainment, the agency announced Tuesday.　Lee started his own agency earlier this year after leaving his previous agency Wellmade Yedang in December. Lee decided to join the agency for more systematic support to his acting career, said the agency.　Lee adds to YG Entertainment’s impressive assembly of actors, including A-list actors Gang Dong-won and Cha Seung-won as well as actress Kim Hee-ae.Actor Lee Jong-suk (YG Entertainment)　Lee

TelevisionMay 10, 2016

Culture Station 284 presents multi-arts show

The former Seoul Station building, Culture Station Seoul 284, is hosting a multi-arts festival that might prompt passengers to stop by briefly, or stay longer before catching their trains. 　The arts show “Peach Blossom: Hopeful Flower of Utopia,” organized by the Korea Craft and Design Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, brings together 27 individual artists and teams from seven countries to present interactive arts project that attempt to “stimulate the six senses of vi

PerformanceMay 10, 2016

Culture Station 284 presents multi-arts show

Indie bookstores rise for seventh straight year

NEW YORK (AP) -- Independent bookselling remains on a roll.　The American Booksellers Association has grown for the seventh consecutive year, the trade group’s CEO, Oren Teicher, told the Associated Press during a recent interview. Core membership increased to 1,775, up by 63 over the previous year and by more than 300 since 2009. And with many stores opening additional outlets, the number of individual locations rose to 2,311, compared with 2,227 at this time in 2015 and just 1,651 in 2009.　With

BooksMay 10, 2016

Kong Hyo-jin’s outfits up for charity auction

Actress Kong Hyo-jin is doing her part to support children in need in celebration of the month of family.　Kong, known as a trendy fashion leader, has put up her clothes and bags for a charity auction run by fashion brand Vincis, the star’s agency Management Soop said Monday.　The auction features outfits Kong wore while shooting commercials for Vincis’ 2016 spring-summer collection. The fashion brand planned the auction as part of its 2016 Share Your Love event. Actress Kong Hyo-jin (Management

TelevisionMay 10, 2016

Kong Hyo-jin’s outfits up for charity auction

Bosch paintings draw record crowds on 500th anniversary

THE HAGUE (AFP) -- An unprecedented exhibition of bizarre and nightmarish works by Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch has drawn record crowds, organizers said Monday, half a millennium after they were painted.　“Hieronymus Bosch -- Visions of Genius” wrapped up Sunday in the southern Dutch town of Den Bosch with more than 421,000 people visiting over the last three months.　“It was easily the best visited exhibition in the almost 180-year history of the Noordbrabants Museum,” the museum said in a state

PerformanceMay 10, 2016

Marble Rodin sculpture fetches record price at NY auction

NEW YORK (AP) -- A rare marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin sold for a record $20.4 million at Sotheby’s sale of impressionist and modern art.　Rodin’s “Eternal Springtime” was created out of a single block of marble in 1901-1903. It features a floral motif base of two lovers in a passionate embrace and is believed to be the fifth in a series of 10 known carvings of the subject that Rodin created in marble. Rodin’s “Eternal Springtime” is viewed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby’s, in N

PerformanceMay 10, 2016

Marble Rodin sculpture fetches record price at NY auction

At an upscale department store near the Wangfujing shopping street in Beijing, a 21-year-old university student Zhang Yang was browsing an aisle featuring South Korean cosmetics brands. "I want to look like Song Hye-kyo from 'Descendants of the Sun,'" Zhang said with a grin, referring to the heroine of the popular Korean TV drama. To help make her dream at least a temporary reality, the store provides Zhang with free makeup lessons with a wall-sized poster of the Korean TV drama greeting custome

TelevisionMay 10, 2016

After 'Produce 101' success, Mnet to launch boy band survival show

A cable TV network said Monday it will start a boy band equivalent of the survival reality TV series "Produce 101" that has developed quite a cult following over just two and a half months.Forty-nine contestants overcame 220-to-1 odds of becoming part of the upcoming show "Boys 24," Mnet, the network owned by entertainment company CJ E&M, said. In each episode, they will compete in units, unlike other audition programs where contestants have been judged solely on individual merit."'Boys 24' stan

TelevisionMay 9, 2016

Egyptologists differ on Tut tomb ‘hidden chambers’

CAIRO (AFP) -- Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said on Sunday new technology is needed to determine whether Tutankhamun's tomb contains hidden chambers which a British archaeologist believes may hide Queen Nefertiti’s remains.　Anani spoke to archaeologists and reporters at a conference in Cairo dedicated to King Tutankhamun and his world-famous golden funerary mask.　The mood at Sunday’s conference was skeptical months after former minister Mamduh Damati said the secret chambers pro

CultureMay 9, 2016

Egyptologists differ on Tut tomb ‘hidden chambers’

Film fest, Busan appoint new BIFF chairman

The organizers of the Busan International Film Festival and the Busan Metropolitan Government have reached a compromise for the time being and will cooperate to hold the 21st edition of Asia’s largest film festival this year, BIFF announced on Monday. 　BIFF and Busan have jointly appointed Kim Dong-ho, BIFF’s executive director from 1996 to 2010, as the festival’s new chairman, with the city government agreeing to open the post of BIFF chairman to nongovernment personnel. 　Previously, BIFF’s cha

FilmMay 9, 2016

Film fest, Busan appoint new BIFF chairman

Radiohead releases new album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ digitally

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Radiohead’s ninth studio album “A Moon Shaped Pool” is now available to purchase on iTunes and Amazon and streaming on Tidal and Apple Music. The groundbreaking rock group released two songs, “Burn the Witch” and “Daydreaming,” online earlier in the week in a lead-up to the 11-track album’s release Sunday. 　Physical copies of the album can be preordered too, but won’t be available until June 17.　Radiohead begins a world tour on May 20 in The Netherlands. The band will visit Ne

PerformanceMay 9, 2016

Korea’s top five chefs head to NYC for W50B gala dinners

Hailed as the five best chefs in the country, Choi Hyun-seok of Elbon The Table, Jang Jin-mo of A&ND, Yim Jung-sik of Restaurant Jungsik, Tony Yoo of 24 Seasons and Kang Min-goo of Mingles will participate in the upcoming KoreaNYC Dinners event in New York City next month. 　Organized by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (W50B) association and local gourmet food magazine La Main, the culinary masters will partner with U.S.-based chefs Dan Barber and Carlo Mirarchi and take part in catering multiple

FoodMay 9, 2016

Korea’s top five chefs head to NYC for W50B gala dinners

Infinite’s Nam Woo-hyun drops first solo album

K-pop boy band Infinite’s Nam Woo-hyun released his first solo mini album “Write..” at midnight on Sunday, with the lead song “Nodding” ranking high on online music charts immediately after its release, according to the singer’s agency Woollim Entertainment. 　Other tracks of the mini album -- “Write..,” “Gravity,” “That Person,” “Scent,” and “Stand by Me” -- also ranked high on the music charts, according to the agency.　The mini album is Nam’s first solo album since the singer debuted as a membe

PerformanceMay 9, 2016

Infinite’s Nam Woo-hyun drops first solo album

Actor Song Joong-ki enjoys unrivaled popularity in Thailand

South Korean star actor Song Joong-ki enjoyed the highest level of popularity during his visit to Thailand among all Korean celebrities, his agency said Monday. The 30-year-old heartthrob visited Bangkok on Saturday to meet his Thai fans, according to Blossom Entertainment. About 4,000 local fans surged to Thunder Dome for the hero of the hit Korean television series "Descendants of the Sun." This is Song's first visit to Thailand in four years.Song entertained his fans with a variety of games a

TelevisionMay 9, 2016

Korean novelists to visit London

Korean novelists Cheon Myeong-gwan and Han Yu-joo will be discussing Korean society and literature in London from May 10-13.　The two writers will be participating in an event celebrating the spring issue of Asia Literary Review, a Hong Kong-based quarterly literary journal which aims to spread Asian literature in English-speaking countries.　The entire spring issue, published in April, is dedicated to introducing Korean literature, carrying translated excerpts from works by Korean novelists such

BooksMay 9, 2016

Christie’s kicks off art auction week with curated sale

NEW YORK (AP) -- The highly anticipated art auction season arrived Sunday with a specially curated sale that included a sculpture of a kneeling Hitler by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, which fetched a record price for the artist, and a ball suspended in a water tank by Jeff Koons.　Christie's “Bound to Fail” themed sale kicked off the weeklong New York auctions of modern, post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.　“Him,” Cattelan’s controversial sculpture of Hitler, appears as

PerformanceMay 9, 2016

Christie’s kicks off art auction week with curated sale

Art gives former station in U.S. capital new lease on life

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A quirky art installation featuring 650,000 plastic balls is breathing new life into a dingy and long-forgotten former underground trolley station in the heart of the U.S. capital.　Through June 1, the expanse below Washington’s bustling Dupont Circle is being transformed into a hands-on show where visitors young and old can get creative. 　“They invite you to build your own thing and to make it interactive,” said Holly Joseph, who came in from the suburbs to check it out and le

PerformanceMay 9, 2016

'The Wailing': Na Hong-jin's masterpiece thriller

"The Wailing," also known as "Goksung," is the first film from director Na Jong-jin since the 2010 crime thriller "The Yellow Sea."Na's long-delayed return to the film scene, which has its world premiere in South Korea later this week, is nothing less than a unique masterpiece thriller that hasn't been seen before.It heralds the birth of another giant in the Korean film industry after such renowned filmmakers as Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Ryu Seung-wan, Kim Jee-wun, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ki-duk

FilmMay 9, 2016

Kiha & The Faces to celebrate 8th anniversary

Korean rock band Kiha & The Faces will be holding a concert in celebration of the eighth anniversary of its debut, according to the band’s agency DURUDURU Amc.　The eighth anniversary concert will take place at the club Evans Lounge in Mapo-gu at 8 p.m. on May 10. The concert tickets, which became available on the band’s official website at 8 p.m. on Friday, sold out within two seconds, the agency said. Korean rock band Kiha & The Faces (DURUDURU Amc)　The band debuted in 2008 with the single albu

PerformanceMay 9, 2016

Kiha & The Faces to celebrate 8th anniversary

Busan film festival agrees to end dispute with sponsoring city

The Busan International Film Festival and its sponsoring city reached an understanding Monday to end their feud over the event's "artistic independence" to ensure that this year's event is a success.The two sides will appoint Kim Dong-ho, an honorary executive director of the festival, as the event's organizing committee chairman, and make necessary amendments to the festival's rules.Kim will replace Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo, who recently offered to resign as the festival's chief.The agreement

FilmMay 9, 2016