BTS' 'Idol' ranks 81st on Billboard Hot 100

K-pop phenomenon BTS' new song "Idol" placed 81st on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week, slipping 70 spots from a week earlier.It is the second straight week that the song's digital version featuring Nicki Minaj has appeared on the main chart since the song debuted in the 11th spot last week, according to the chart for the week of Sept. 15.The song's umbrella album, "Love Yourself: Answer," ranked eighth on the main Billboard 200 chart for the week, also coming down from a week earlie

Sept. 12, 2018

[Graphic News] George Clooney is highest paid actor

　George Clooney topped an annual list of the world’s highest-paid actors, mainly due to the sale of his tequila company. 　The 57-year-old earned an estimated $239 million between June 2017 and June 2018, the highest earnings of his 35-year career in film and television, according to Forbes. 　Clooney sold the Casamigos tequila company he co-founded to British spirits company Diageo in June 2017. He has not starred in a Hollywood movie since the 2016 crime thriller “Money Monster.” 　His on-and off

Sept. 11, 2018

Berry Good to perform without Sehyung after foot injury

Berry Good has decided to continue promotions for its new album as a five-piece act after bandmate Sehyung injured her foot last week. Sehyung injured herself while getting out of a vehicle during the DMC Festival. On Saturday, she took to social media to promise fans she would return soon. The originally six-piece group was quick to reorganize itself as it is in the midst of TV promotions for its album “Free Travel.” An official image of Berry Good. (JTG Entertainment)JTG Entertainment said the

Sept. 11, 2018

‘Aim High in Creation!’ looks at artistic passion in hermit kingdom

Before its recent pursuit of diplomacy, North Korea had appeared hostile to other countries, from its sworn enemy of “capitalist Americans” to its southern neighbor. “Whenever a film is made about North Korea, three stories are allowed: It (North Korea) is a land of gulags and starvation, it is an evil brainwashing empire where the citizens have no control, or it is a backward state and a member of the axis of evil,” said Anna Broinowski, the documentary filmmaker who directed “Aim High in Creat

Sept. 11, 2018

Sunmi edges out Girls’ Generation in chart battles

After swapping positions back and forth, Sunmi came out on top at last in the latest weekly charts, fending off competition from Girls’ Generation.Sunmi’s new single “Siren” secured the top spot on last week’s singles chart on multiple streaming services like Bugs, Melon and Mnet during the week ending Sunday.Last week saw one of the hardest fought chart battles in K-pop history, with Sunmi, formerly of girl group Wonder Girls, releasing her new single “Siren” on Tuesday and Girls’ Generation’s

Sept. 11, 2018

S.M. poised to launch Vietnamese unit

S.M. Entertainment plans to make inroads into Vietnam by widening the scope of its global business.CEO Han Se-min announced Tuesday that the company is preparing to establish a corporate branch in Vietnam, at a Korea-Vietnam business seminar in Hanoi, Vietnam.  (Yonhap)Founder and executive producer Lee Soo-man also attended the event as a keynote speaker.“We have previously announced our plans to search for talented youths in Vietnam and create NCT-V, a subunit of NCT,” Lee said in his keynote

Sept. 11, 2018

Mentor and mentee reunite for duo recital

Violinist Chung Kyung-wha and pianist Cho Seong-jin will hold a duo concert at the Seoul Arts Center on Wednesday, part of a nationwide tour that started Sept. 1.The tour marks the first time in six years that the two classical music virtuosos have performed together. The last time, in 2012, Cho was a high school senior. Violinist Chung Kyung-wha and pianist Cho Seong-jin speak during a press conference at Seoul Arts Center on Monday. (Yonhap)“I remember it was in Jinju around six years ago, whe

Sept. 10, 2018

Wassup Man offers rare glimpse of JYP, S.M. headquarters

Popular YouTuber Wassup Man offered a rare glimpse of the headquarters of major entertainment agencies JYP Entertainment and S.M. Entertainment in a recent video.The video featuring the Korean-American YouTuber’s visit to JYP and S.M.’s headquarters had been watched over 3 million times as of Monday afternoon. (Wassup Man's YouTube)The rapper and YouTuber, whose name is Park Joon-hyung, first headed to JYP’s new headquarters in Seoul. The agency is behind successful K-pop groups like Twice and G

Sept. 10, 2018

G-Dragon’s ‘Who You?’ tops 100m views

G-Dragon hit another milestone with the music video for “Who You?” as it topped 100 million views on YouTube on Monday. (YG Entertainment)The leader of Big Bang released his second solo EP’s title track in September 2013. The music video was considered special, as more than 1,000 fans participated in its filming by recording G-Dragon performing inside a large glass box and themselves watching the performance from outside. The video showed G-Dragon and the fans from different angles, as multiple

Sept. 10, 2018

Big Bang’s Seungri stars in Netflix sitcom ‘YG FSO’

Major talent agency YG Entertainment and streaming service Netflix announced Monday their co-produced sitcom series “YG Future Strategy Office” is to be released on Oct. 5. The eight-episode series will center on Seungri of Big Bang, who has been in the spotlight alone since all of his bandmates enlisted in the military earlier this year. He has appeared on many entertainment shows lately. “YG Future Strategy Office” (YG Entertainment)Seungri will star as the head of YG’s future strategy office,

Sept. 10, 2018

Red Velvet kicks off ‘Red Mare’ world tour in Thailand

Red Velvet successfully kicked off its “Red Mare” world tour series in Thailand, drawing about 5,000 concertgoers. The sold-out concert titled “Red Velvet 2nd Concert [REDMARE] in BANGKOK,” which marked the act’s first performance in Thailand, was held on Saturday at Thunder Dome in Bangkok.  (S.M. Entertainment)In 2 1/2 hours, the group performed a total of 22 songs including “Happiness,” “Ice Cream Cake,” “Dumb Dumb,” “Russian Roulette,” “Rookie,” “Red Flavor,” “Bad Boy,” as well as its recent

Sept. 10, 2018

Roy Kim unveils title of new single

Roy Kim has unveiled that the title of his new single will be “Let’s Stop,” or “Uri Geuman Haja” in Korean.The singer broke the news through a video dubbed “Message from Roy” late Sunday on his Instagram, which shows a photo album on a phone screen before a video of him talking plays and the title “Let’s Stop” appears in a text message.The date on the phone screen indicates 6 p.m. on Sept. 18, which is the day his new single is slated for release. (Stone Music Entertainment)The singer-songwriter

Sept. 10, 2018

Big Bang attracts 10m YouTube subscribers

K-pop boy band Big Bang now has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube, qualifying for the Diamond Play Button.The group had 10.006 million subscribers as of early Monday, joining the likes of BTS and Black Pink, who preceded the quintet in reaching the milestone.The group will be given the Diamond Play Button trophy as the video platform congratulates those reaching 10 million subscribers with a Diamond Creator Award.(YouTube)The Silver Play Button is given to YouTubers with over 100,000 subscr

Sept. 10, 2018

Ellie Goulding wows Seoul fans for 90 minutes

British singer Ellie Goulding wowed fans at her very first concert in Seoul on Thursday night, promising new music is on the way.The singer-songwriter powered through a hit-packed set of 17 songs, including “On My Mind,” “Lights” and “Burn,” filling Olympic Hall with her strong stage presence.During the 90-minute show, the singer also had some good news for her fans.Ellie Goulding during her first Seoul concert at Olympic Hall on Thursday night. (Live Nation)“I promise I’ll give you guys some ne

Sept. 7, 2018

BTS releases video for ‘Idol’ featuring Nicki Minaj

K-pop boy band BTS has unveiled a music video with US rap star Nicki Minaj.The video of “Idol” was released via the group’s official YouTube channel on Friday. The version featuring Nicki Minaj is not on the group’s album but is available as a special digital track released online. (Youtube)The video for the new version of the song shows Minaj rapping while her lyrics appear on the background in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. BTS’ label Big Hit Entertainment said, “It was Nicki Minaj’s idea to wr

Sept. 7, 2018

[Trending] Veteran actor Im put over W10b into children's park

A theme park run by veteran actor Im Chae-moo went viral on social media Thursday, the day after Im appeared on the MBC talk show “Radio Star” and recalled the park’s early days. The 69-year-old actor opened Doori Land in 1991 and decided a week after its launch to open it to the public for free. Im encountered a father who was hesitant to enter the park, he said on Wednesday’s show, because he couldn’t afford the admission fees for his family. (MBC)“I immediately gathered the executives and ask

Sept. 6, 2018

Orson Welles film, drama about NK defectors highlight BIFF

Netflix original films by master auteurs and a drama about a North Korean defector and the restoration of her broken family are some of the highlights of the upcoming Busan International Film Festival from Oct. 4-13.“The Other Side of the Wind” by Orson Welles, “Roma” by Alfonso Cuaron, and “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by the Coen brothers will be screened at the upcoming festival.Welles’ mockumentary will be featured in the newly created Busan classic section of BIFF, which features 13 classi

Sept. 6, 2018

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Searching(US)Opened Aug.29Drama, Mystery, Thriller Directed by Aneesh Chaganty After David Kim’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. Thirty-seven hours later and without a single lead, David (John Cho) decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. High Society(Korea)Opened Aug.29DramaDirected by Byun HyukA respected university professor Jang Tae-jun (Park Hae-

Sept. 6, 2018

BTS to appear on ‘America’s Got Talent’

BTS will appear on next week’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.”The group, which is currently in the US for concerts in Los Angeles this week, will perform on NBC’s popular talent show on Wednesday.The official Twitter account of “America’s Got Talent” confirmed the news on Wednesday morning.(AGT's Twitter account)“Screaming! BTS is blessing the AGT stage next Wednesday. Retweet if you are freaking out about #BTSonAGT!” read the tweet, which had been liked over 193,000 times as of Wednesday.Mod

Sept. 6, 2018

Clip of Seungri and ex-SMAP members goes viral

A humorous video clip in which Big Bang’s Seungri talks in Japanese and a Japanese celebrity speaks in Korean is going viral on Twitter Japan.(Twitter)The post shows a clip from a live Japanese broadcast featuring Seungri and ex-SMAP members. Seungri is seen conversing with former SMAP members in Japanese, while Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, better known as Chonan Gang in Korean, sticks to speaking in Korean.“A Japanese star talking to a Korean star talking in Japanese,” wrote a Twitter user.SMAP was one o

Sept. 5, 2018