Baeksang Arts Awards to return with streaming contents

The 58th Baeksang Arts Awards is set to kick off on Friday at the Kintex exhibition hall in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. Honoring outstanding domestic entertainment productions in television, film and theater between April 12 last year and March 31 this year, the awards ceremony returns to fans and spectators face-to-face at the country’s largest convention center. The Friday event is considered the biggest awards ceremony since the government’s lifting of most pandemic-related regul

May 6, 2022

[Today’s K-pop] WJSN to host concert in June

   　 WJSN will host a standalone concert in June for the first time in over three years, said agency Starship Entertainment on Friday. 　 The concert will be held in Seoul on June 11-12 and is titled “Wonderland.” 　 The 10-member act debuted in 2016 with “MoMoMo.” It originally planned to hold the concert “Obliviate” in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its previous concert was “Secret Box” from 2019. 　 “

May 6, 2022

Two Korean female directors in 20s win top prizes at Jeonju IFF

Canadian nature documentary “Geographies of Solitude” has won the Grand Prize in the international competition section at this year’s Jeonju International Film Festival. The feature debut by Jacquelyn Mills was among the 20 winners announced by the 23rd Jeonju IFF organizing committee Thursday. The festival comes to an end Saturday after a 10-day run. “Geographies of Solitude” is about Zoe Lucas, an environmentalist who has been cataloging the flora and fauna of

May 6, 2022

[Herald Interview] An old soul with a new style: 16-year-old Park Hyeon-jin draws on his youth to deliver kaleidoscope of emotions

Wearing black from head to toe, Park Hyeon-jin’s first impression was different from that of the energizing songs he’s known for. But in person, his chic, aloof appearance gives way, becoming bright and animated as he speaks about his music and trying to touch people’s emotions with his tunes, where words alone can’t. The 16-year-old is a new face on hip-hop label H1ghr Music’s roster, but despite his age he has been in and out of the public eye since winning s

May 6, 2022

[Newsmaker] Fans and film industry send prayers to actor Kang Soo-youn

Korean movie stars, directors and fans are praying for Kang Soo-youn’s recovery after the veteran actor was taken to a hospital with cardiac arrest on Thursday. According to a Gangnam Severance Hospital official, the actor remains unconscious while detailed information is yet to be announced. Director Yeon Sang-ho, who is scheduled to make his Netflix return with Kang in an upcoming sci-fi film “Jung_E,” was shocked to hear about the actor. “I was really surprised when

May 6, 2022

'Doctor Strange 2' dominates S. Korean box office on Children's Day

Hollywood blockbuster "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" garnered a 2 1/2-year high of over 1 million moviegoers on Children's Day, data showed Friday. Marvel Studios' latest superhero movie drew 1.06 million viewers on Thursday alone, accounting for 82.5 percent of the day's total ticket sales at local theaters, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. It is the first time that a flick has topped the 1 million mark in attendance on one day since Nov. 30, 2019, wh

May 6, 2022

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

I Want to See Your Parent’s Face (Korea) Opened April 27 Drama Directed by Kim Ji-hoon An eighth grade boy, who attends a prestigious middle school, dies by suicide and leaves a note with the names of the four students who bullied him. The parents of the four students are summoned to the school. In the process of finding out what happened to the boy who died, the parents of the alleged offenders team up and try to prevent the truth from being revealed.  Toxic (Korea) Opened Ap

May 6, 2022

Actress Kang Soo-youn taken to hospital with cardiac arrest

South Korean actress Kang Soo-youn has been taken to hospital with cardiac arrest, according to local reports on Thursday. Citing the police and emergency authorities, local reports said she was found with cardiac arrest at around 5 p.m. in Gangnam and given cardiopulmonary resuscitation while being taken to a nearby hospital. Born in 1966, Kang became the first Korean actor to receive an award at a major international film festival as she was honored with the best actress award at the 1987 V

May 5, 2022

Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival returns to the stage

Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will be held in person this summer as the country takes steps to return to normalcy after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rock festival will be held from Aug. 5 to 7, with performances from some 50 musicians and collectives from home and abroad at Songdo Moonlight Festival Park in Incheon. While the music festival mainly covers rock and electronic music, musicians who perform other genres such as alternative pop bands, indie bands and K-pop

May 5, 2022

BTS to release compilation album in June

K-pop sensation BTS will release a new compilation album that includes three new tracks next month, its agency said Thursday. "Proof" is set to be released June 10, Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement through the group's Weverse page. The three-CD album will be BTS' first official release since "Butter," its second English single, in July last year, which sold nearly 2 million copies in its first week of release. The new album will celebrate the septet's ninth anniversa

May 5, 2022

[Today’s K-pop] Stray Kids extends stay on Billboard 200 to 6th week

Stray Kids added another week to its streak on Billboard 200 as EP “Oddinary” ranked No. 126 on the chart for the week of May 7. 　 The EP from March debuted on the chart as No. 1, and the eight-piece act became the third K-pop artist to top it following BTS and SuperM. The EP has reigned on the publication’s world albums chart for six consecutive weeks. The album generated 100 million streams on Spotify as of last month and the music video for main track “Maniac”

May 4, 2022

Traditional Korean musicians protest potential new music curriculum

A total of 12 Intangible Cultural Heritage Masters and dozens of educators gathered Wednesday in southeast Seoul to protest a newly proposed school curriculum, calling it a “massacre of gugak.” Gugak refers to Korean traditional music in Korean. Led by Lee Young-hee, 83, Intangible Cultural Heritage Master of Gayageum Sanjo and Byeongchang, the group condemned an ongoing research project led by the Ministry of Education to revamp school music curriculum. “We have devoted

May 4, 2022

[Herald Interview] Woongsan dreams of reviving ‘golden days of jazz’ in Korea

Jazz was first introduced to Korea when the country’s first jazz act, Korean Jazz Band, began performing in 1926. The first-generation Korean jazz musicians learned the music from the US Eighth Army band, which was assigned to the country to provide music in support of the thousands of US service members stationed in the country in the 1950s. Although jazz has existed in Korea for a little under a century, it remains a niche genre, especially compared to more mainstream forms of music, li

May 4, 2022

39th Busan International Short Film Festival wraps up

The 39th Busan International Short Film Festival, which was held in person for the first time in three years, closed Monday at the Busan Cinema Center with Mehrdad Hassani’s ”Adjustment“ winning the International Competition prize and the Korean Competition prize going to “Nowhere Else” directed by Lee Kyeong-won. “At this year’s film festival, which was held at the beginning of a process to return to normal, we realized the value of watching a movie

May 4, 2022

Netflix’s ‘The Sound of Magic’ talks about childhood innocence, dreams

For director Kim Sung-youn, 46, of Netflix’s “The Sound of Magic,” adapting a renowned fantasy webtoon was a long-awaited project. “I have been talking with the webtoon ‘The Sound of Magic’ author Ha Il-kwon for almost 8 years. It took some time to solve some problems like copyright issues, but I am excited to showcase the fantasy series to the viewers at last,” Kim said during an online press conference Tuesday. The director said that some adjustmen

May 4, 2022

Performing arts scene sees sharp rise in revenue after lifting of distancing rules

The South Korean performing arts scene has experienced a sharp rise in revenue thanks to the lifting of nearly all social distancing rules, like gathering limits, about two weeks ago, industry data showed Wednesday. The combined revenue of 2,051 theatrical plays, musicals, classical concerts and other performances reached 17.3 billion won ($13.7 million) from April 18 to Sunday, according to the data by the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System. The numbers more than trebled from 3

May 4, 2022

iKON’s new album a ‘Flashback’ of its past, present and future

K-pop boy band iKON returned in over a year with its fourth EP “Flashback” on Tuesday, setting forth on their post-COVID-19 journey to meet fans in person. The six-piece act from K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment is comprised of members Song, Jay, Ju-ne, Chan, Bobby and DK. The band conducted a press showcase on Tuesday morning ahead of the album’s release at 6 p.m. that day. “I think it’s our first time holding a press conference since 2018, and we feel sort of

May 3, 2022

[Today’s K-pop] Le Sserafim tops iTunes chart in 13 regions with debut album

Le Sserafim landed atop the iTunes top albums chart in 13 regions with its debut EP “Fearless,” according to agency Source Music on Monday. 　 The EP was among the top 10 on the chart in five countries. 　 The titular track was No. 1 on the iTunes top songs chart in two regions, as was the track “Blue Flame” in Peru. Members Chaewon and Yoonjin participated in writing the lyrics for the latter. 　 All tracks from the EP entered LINE Music’s real-time chart in Japan o

May 3, 2022

Korean National Symphony Orchestra announces changes commensurate with its new name

From introducing forgotten female composers to crossing over beyond classical music into K-culture, the Korean National Symphony Orchestra unveiled plans to impress its name on the minds of music lovers at home and abroad. The orchestra’s artistic director David Reiland introduced various artistic plans and initiatives to reporters during a press conference at Seoul Arts Center on Tuesday. Reiland plans to help discover forgotten female composers, a continuation of a project with Franc

May 3, 2022

Korean animation “Tae-il-i’ to compete at Annecy International Animated Film Festival

The Korean animated film “Tae-il-i” will compete in the Contrechamp section at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the town of Annecy, France. The Contrechamp Award is dedicated to feature-length animated films. The film depicts the life of Jeon Tae-il, an emblematic figure of the Korean garment manufacturing sector labor movement. He immolated himself in 1970 at age 22, to protest the brutal working conditions at factories, especially for female workers. Jeon

May 3, 2022