[Today’s K-pop] TXT to kick off world tour in May

Tomorrow X Together will host its third international tour starting May, announced label Big Hit Music on Monday. The five-piece act will begin the tour, “Act : Promise,” with a three-day concert in Seoul from May 3 to May 5. All live shows will be broadcast online as well. The rest of the tour itinerary will be announced soon, added the firm. Meanwhile, the band will unveil its sixth EP “minisode 3: Tomorrow” on April 1 and will have a showcase in Seoul on the same day.

March 11, 2024

Fourth installment of ‘The Roundup’ returns with familiar ally, riveting new villains

South Korea’s mega-hit crime action franchise “The Roundup” will return next month with its fourth installment, “The Roundup: Punishment,” just 11 months after the third one. The movie, this time, will see the reappearance of an old character as well as the addition of two new, stronger villains. “I’m just full of gratitude to be able to create the fourth in this action crime franchise, which I came up with the idea for while brainstorming 11 years ago i

March 11, 2024

Super Junior-D&E to release new album

Super Junior-D&E, a subunit of Super Junior, will return with its fifth mini-album. The upcoming album, “606,” will be released on March 26. Before the subunit's comeback, three concept photos, a tracklist, a pre-release song and music video teasers will be released one by one. The release marks the duo's first new album in two years and four months. Its first full-length album, "Countdown" was released in 2021. It is also the first album to be released by the

March 11, 2024

Rock band Sanullim's music to regain life in Europe

Legendary Korean rock trio Sanullim's songs, which marked a big milestone in the Korean music scene, will be officially released in Europe as four separate LPs. The rerelease project started when Guerssen Records, a record label group based in Spain, requested licenses for a rerelease. The four Sanullim LPs are rereleases of the first album, "Already Now," second album "Spread Silk on My Heart," third album "My Heart (My Soul Is a Wasteland)" and the compilatio

March 11, 2024

[Herald Review] IU sets off on first world tour, 'H.E.R'

IU’s voice rippled through the KSPO Dome on Sunday as the lights dimmed to open the singer-songwriter’s final Seoul concert of her first world tour, "H.E.R.," which took place in the capital on March 2-3 and March 9-10. Reminiscent of dandelion spores, IU appeared from the ceiling wearing a glittering headset and slowly descended toward the stage, silently surrounded by her audience. When she landed on the stage to perform “Holssi,” meaning spore in Korean, the

March 11, 2024

[Herald Interview] Pianist Lang Lang celebrates French music, female composers in latest album

In bringing to life a long-envisioned French project, celebrated pianist Lang Lang stumbled upon a wealth of intriguing discoveries, spanning from the works of five female French composers to even the world of Taekwondo, a Korean martial art. He said he wanted to do a French project for a long time, but it wasn't until he encountered Saint-Saens' Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22, “which is underrated despite its excellence,” that he decided to mak

March 11, 2024

'Oppenheimer' crowned best picture at an Academy Awards shadowed by war

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Oppenheimer,” a solemn three-hour biopic that became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned best picture at a 96th Academy Awards that doubled as a coronation for Christopher Nolan. After passing over arguably Hollywood’s foremost big-screen auteur for years, the Oscars made up for lost time by heaping seven awards on Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, including best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Down

March 11, 2024

TikTok-Universal Music Group dispute: an opportunity for rookies?

Universal Music Group, one of the largest global music publishing companies, has pulled music created by its artists and songwriters from TikTok beginning February, as their licensing agreement had expired. This move comes in an effort by UMG to help its artists and songwriters attain fair compensation from TikTok. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how l

March 10, 2024

Korean veteran actors to make streaming service debuts in 2024

A slew of South Korean veteran actors will be making their debuts on streaming services this year, amid a widespread shift of viewership toward online video platforms. According to Disney+, veteran actor Song Kang-ho, who starred in a slew of hit films such as "The Host," "Snowpiercer," and "Parasite," will be making his first streaming service, as well as drama series debut, via Disney+ original "Uncle Samsik." Set in the 1960s, Korea, "Uncle Samsi

March 10, 2024

Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra visits Korea on 10-day tour

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the oldest symphony orchestra in the US, is returning to South Korea for the first time since 2015 in a tour of three cities. The HRO, comprising Harvard students and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1808. The 110-member ensemble led by music director and conductor Federico Cortese will perform music by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Bernstein, making three stops across the country -- Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul on March 13, Moak Hall in Jeonju, Nort

March 10, 2024

[Herald Review] Slowdive captivates Korean fans with hypnotic performance

British shoegaze star band Slowdive presented absorbing hours to Korean fans with its first stand-alone concert in Seoul, Saturday. About 2,000 audience members gathered at the Myunghwa Live Hall, in west Seoul, to enjoy Slowdive's sold-out concert. The performance was held in a free, festive mood, with a small snack bar next to the venue entrance which sold beer and simple snacks. Slowdive, a representative band of the shoegaze genre, was formed by Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell in 1989.

March 10, 2024

Occult thriller 'Exhuma' tops 7m in admissions

The supernatural flick "Exhuma" has extended its strong box-office performance, topping 7 million in admissions, its distributor said Saturday. Released Feb. 22, the film topped 1 million admissions on its third day of release and hit the new milestone Friday, according to Showbox. Starring Choi Min-sik and Kim Go-eun, the movie follows two shamans, a feng shui expert and a mortician, who team up to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious events plaguing a wealthy U.S.-based fa

March 9, 2024

Golden Wave concert to visit Taiwan

Popular K-pop singers are due to perform in Taiwan next month, with the Golden Wave K-pop concert taking place at Kaohsiung National Stadium on April 13. Girls groups such as (G)I-dle, Nmixx, and StayC and boy bands such as Seventeen subunit BSS, Boynextdoor, Enhypen, Zerobaseone and &Team are participating in the concert in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung, according to Studio JAMM, a Korea-based cultural content company. Rising actor Choo Young-Woo, who appeared in TV dramas "Oas

March 9, 2024

Celebrity monk returns to TV after uproar over his wealth, lifestyle

A star Buddhist monk, who saw his following plunge amid an uproar over what critics said was self-indulgence that betrayed the monk’s preaching, has returned as a TV show host after some three years out of the public eye. In the first episode of the weekly show “A Cafe Where Mind Finds Rest,” which aired Monday, the Ven. Haemin began the 42-minute episode by saying he “repents for not living up to the standards expected of a monk.” “Your words will be my teach

March 8, 2024

Dystopian musical 'The Origin of Evil by Darwin Young' returns for 4th run

The Seoul Performing Arts Company kicks off the fourth season of its original production, "The Origin of Evil by Darwin Young," on Friday. Adapted from the novel by late writer Park Ji-ri, the play is set in a meticulously segregated society based on caste, spanning from the privileged first district, where residents have to adhere to strict standards of behavior to maintain their status, to the slum-like ninth district, where an uprising was suppressed 60 years earlier. The musical pl

March 8, 2024

[Herald Review] 'Bea' challenges perspectives on life, death

In a vibrant dress, Bea (a nickname for Beatrice) dances joyfully to Madonna's "Ray of Light" and then, addressing the recently arrived Ray, implores him to write a letter on her behalf. She says, "I want to die." Ray and Bea's mother, Katherine, are taken aback, with Katherine painfully choosing to ignore the letter. The scene is part of stage drama "Bea," which kicked off its run on Feb. 17 at the LG Art Center in Gangseo-gu, western Seoul. Contrary to t

March 8, 2024

‘Exhuma’ leads local box offices, more K-occult films coming later this year

“Exhuma,” directed by acclaimed "master of K-occult" Jang Jae-hyun, continues its strong performance at the box office, likely to surpass 7 million total viewers this weekend -- the third weekend since the movie’s release on Feb. 22. According to Korean Film Council data, “Exhuma” accumulated a total of 6.7 million ticket sales as of Friday. The movie, which cost 1.4 billion won ($1 million) to produce, reached the breakeven point of 3.3 million ticket sal

March 8, 2024

Just one K-blockbuster helmed by female filmmaker in 2023: data

Of the 35 Korean blockbuster films that opened last year, just one film was directed by a female filmmaker, according to data. Korean Film Council data showed that director Yim Soon-rye of the action drama flick "The Point Men" was the only female filmmaker to have directed a movie with a budget of more than 3 billion won. Representing 2.7 percent of the 35 blockbusters, the figure is the lowest since KOFIC began gathering data in 2017. There was no female cinematographer for any Korea

March 8, 2024

'Indie musicians in need of government aid': report

There are 3,168 indie musician groups (7,545 individual indie musicians) in Korea as of February, according to a report by Xindie Lounge on Friday. Xindie Lounge is organization that helps promote indie music and is operated by the Record Label Industry Association of Korea. Musicians who have held at least two in-person shows were included in the survey. Most of the indie musicians, 2,806 groups, were based in Seoul. “The number of indie musicians continues to grow but they face difficult

March 8, 2024

Rapper Swings returns with LP ‘Upgrade V’

Rapper Swings released “Upgrade V,” his first studio album in four years, on Friday. His fifth LP carries 17 tracks led by the title track “Work,” composed by Swings. “I wanted to make a song that is perfect to tune into when working out at the gym, a song that will give you a boost of energy when lifting weights,” Swings said on MBC’s variety show “Point of Omniscient Interfere” on March 2. Swings took 16 years to come up with the tracks for

March 8, 2024