[Herald Interview] Pianist Kevin Kenner explores humor in classical music

Pianist Kevin Kenner believes humor can improve people’s lives, even more than aspirin. Kenner, who is in South Korea for his second solo recital in the country, titled “Humoresque,” will perform at the Seoul Arts Center on Thursday and at the U-Square Culture Center in Gwangju on Friday. The California-born pianist won the top prize at the 1990 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The same year, he also won a medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competitio

July 10, 2019

Marcos Morau to unveil new work in Seoul

Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau will introduce his new work July 19-20 at the Seoul Arts Center.The latest contemporary dance piece by the young artistic director of La Veronal is produced in collaboration with the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, led by Ahn Sang-soo. In the piece, titled “Ssang Ssang,” Morau combines his dance company’s style with elements of traditional Korean culture.For example, Morau uses gat, Korean traditional hats made of bamboo and horseh

July 10, 2019

Actor arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting, molesting his agency's employees

Actor Kang Ji-hwan has been arrested without a warrant on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman and molesting another, both employees of his agency, police said Wednesday.The Gwangju Police Station took the 41-year-old actor into custody at his residence in the city of Gwangju, just south of Seoul, around 10:50 p.m. Tuesday.  Kang was suspected of sexually abusing the women while they were sleeping in a room of his house following a drinking session with them. The three of them were drin

July 10, 2019

[Herald Review] What’s ahead for ‘Arthdal Chronicles’?

Though the tvN drama series “Arthdal Chronicles” has left viewers with many questions to ponder, one thing is for sure. It hopes do better in the final third of its 18-episode run. Two-thirds of the series has aired so far, leaving six episodes for fans to look forward to. Those episodes will air in September, after the new drama “Hotel Del Luna” finishes its run. The unusual schedule gave rise to rumors that tvN might be thinking of extending the drama for a second seaso

July 9, 2019

Big Hit, Netmarble team up on new music-streaming platform

Big Hit Entertainment, the mastermind behind global sensation BTS, and the nation’s No. 1 mobile game developer, Netmarble, have joined hands to launch a brand-new music-streaming platform, multiple sources said Tuesday.Even though the new platform may not be solely dedicated to BTS, sources say, the septet is highly likely to release some new songs exclusively for the platform. “The two firms have started development work as a venture project. The platform is targeting global users

July 9, 2019

BTS becomes highest-charting foreign artist in Japan with new Japanese single

Super group BTS topped Japan's Oricon weekly singles chart this week with its latest Japanese single "Lights/Boy With Luv," garnering the highest weekly score for any foreign artist in the Japanese music market, the band's management agency said Tuesday.The three-track single, dropped in Japan on July 3, earned some 621,000 sales points to finish atop the Oricon weekly singles chart for the week of July 1-7, according to Big Hit Entertainment.   It was the most points a singl

July 9, 2019

Pianist Son Yeol-eum to make BBC Proms debut

Pianist Son Yeol-eum is set to make her BBC Proms debut later this month. Son is to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Omer Meir Wellber on July 23 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. BBC Proms, hosted by the British public service broadcaster, is an eight-week summer music festival founded in 1895. Orchestral concerts mainly take place at the Royal Albert Hall, while chamber music concerts take place at Cadogan Ha

July 8, 2019

[Herald Interview] Bucheon film fest winner presents personal mental horror

Shotgun blasts rip through the tranquil scene of a coffeehouse to open “Daniel Isn’t Real,” a psychological horror film that recently debuted at the genre-focused Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. The portrayal is horrific in its intensity and brevity, cutting away quickly and returning moments later with police tape up and haphazard sheets unable to contain the crimson carnage draining down the floor. From the other side of the tape, an 8-year-old Luke who has jus

July 7, 2019

BIGBANG's T.O.P released from military service

T.O.P of South Korean boy band BIGBANG was released Saturday from his alternative military service, which had turns and twists due to a marijuana conviction. BIGBANG's main rapper, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, started his two-year mandatory military service as a conscripted police officer in February 2017. But the 32-year-old was kicked out of the police four months later after he was discovered to have smoked marijuana multiple times in 2016.  In July 2017, T.O.P was found guilty of

July 7, 2019

Boy band Pentagon kicks off world tour

Boy band Pentagon has kicked off a world concert tour, bringing it to 23 cities across the globe, its management agency said Friday.The world tour, named “Prism,” kicked off with its inaugural concert in Seoul in April and will take the band on a journey to perform in 23 cities in Asia, the United States, Europe and South America from August to December.  The list of destinations includes Santiago, Milan, Lisbon, Berlin, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo in addition to major U.S. cities,

July 5, 2019

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Spider-Man: Far From Home(US) Opened July 2Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Directed by Jon WattsPeter Parker (Tom Holland), aka Spider-Man, is unsure of himself and is torn between wanting a normal life as a high school student and wanting to shoulder his responsibilities as a superhero. Peter decides to use the school field trip to Europe to get close to Michelle “MJ” Jones (Zendaya), for whom he has developed affection, but troubles follow him, as well as a run-in with a mysterious super

July 5, 2019

Korean sitcom on multicultural families in Jeju exported to Vietnam

Korean sitcom “Haiphong Families,” which deals with the realities of multicultural families here, will soon be shown in Vietnam.Aired from May to October last year, the 20-episode sitcom by broadcaster KCTV Jeju was sold to Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, a state-operated company that is the second-largest entity in the country.  This marks the first time a program by a regional cable broadcaster in Korea is being exported to Vietnam, according to KCTV Jeju. The one-

July 4, 2019

WINNER stages seven-city tour in Japan

Four-piece K-pop boy band WINNER has started its sixth Japanese tour that will take it to seven cities, its management agency said Thursday.As the first leg of its "WINNER Japan Tour 2019," the group held a concert at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo on Wednesday, according to YG Entertainment. During the two-hour concert, WINNER performed 25 songs, including its latest number "Ah Yeah," "Really Really" and "Everyday.""We want to show our maturity on th

July 4, 2019

Disney live-action ‘Little Mermaid’ to star a black Ariel

R&B singer Halle Bailey is to play Ariel in a live-action version of “The Little Mermaid,” she said Wednesday, in a rare casting of a black actress as a Disney princess.Bailey, 19, who rose to fame under the wing of pop queen Beyonce, said it was a “dream come true” to play the lead role. She tweeted a cartoon image of the princess in which the traditionally red-headed Ariel has dark skin, brown eyes and black hair. Director Rob Marshall said Bailey had been cast afte

July 4, 2019

CJ ENM launches project to promote its child celebrities

CJ ENM said Wednesday it was seeking to develop the next generation of celebrities through its cartoon and anime channel Tooniverse, dubbed “Toonistar” proejct.The cable channel announced the key projects for the second half of 2019, including the upcoming broadcast of its new children’s anime series, during a press conference in Seoul.According to Tooniverse producer Park Yong-jin, Tooniverse has selected seven children through auditions on the basis of their acting, dancing a

July 3, 2019

Corporate giving: Eagon to perform popular classics with guests from Berlin Philharmonic Camerata

The annual Eagon concert tour will feature special guests from the Berlin Philharmonic Camerata this year. The concert series, now in its 30th year, will kick off in Seoul on Friday at the Lotte Concert Hall before moving on to the Seoul Arts Center and then to Incheon, Gwangju and Busan. The tour will wrap up in Daegu on July 11. This year, the organizers invited eight members of the Berlin Philharmonic Camerata, along with four other individual performers. Together, they have billed thems

July 3, 2019

'Spider-Man: Far From Home' opens in S. Korea with 674,000 admissions

The latest Marvel film "Spider-Man: Far From Home" earned a solid 674,000 views on its first day of release in South Korean cinemas, data showed Wednesday.The superhero flick dominated the daily box office charts on Tuesday, dethroning the long-time leading Disney live-action film "Aladdin" seen by about 72,000 people on the 49th day of its release, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. The figure 674,000 beats the 545,000 opening total for the 2017 film "S

July 3, 2019

[Herald Interview] Observing K-pop crossover from other side

While K-pop crossovers have been enjoying momentum, a columnist shared his opinion on the global phenomenon and its development from the perspective of an outsider looking in.Jeff Benjamin is a freelance columnist based in the US who writes about K-pop and other genres of music. He is passionately appreciated by “Army,” referring to the BTS fandom, for actively introducing the K-pop band to the larger Western public.  “I always grew up with this idea that music could be gr

July 2, 2019

[Herald Review] Good acting eclipsed by rookie directing in ‘The Culprit’

Both Song Sae-byeong and Yoo Sun are quality actors, but it has been quite some time since either of them benefited from a good script or decent directing. One more unfortunate example of this is the upcoming mystery thriller “The Culprit” by director Go Jung-wook, a jumbled pile of pretentious plots that are convoluted and confusing for all the wrong reasons. A twist for twist’s sake is never the right choice, a note that the director apparently didn’t get for his first

July 2, 2019

BTS' management company to move into new building

Big Hit Entertainment, the management agency for K-pop boy band BTS, said Tuesday it plans to move into a new 19-story office building in central Seoul next May in accordance with its business expansion plan.Big Hit and its affiliates will lease an entire building with 26 floors, including seven below ground, whose construction is to be completed in the Yongsan district by the end of this year, the company said."The office relocation has been planned in line with the company's rapid personn

July 2, 2019