U.S. music magazine Billboard released its list of the “10 Best K-pop Albums of 2015” last Wednesday, giving the top spot to “Reboot,” from the Wonder Girls.The top 10 list showed a mixed bag of established idol groups, including Wonder Girls, 2PM and TVXQ, and newcomers such as Red Velvet, BTS and Seventeen.The chart only included full-length albums, rarities in the current Korean music market that is flooded with singles and EPs, and gave credit to artists who crafted records in 2015 based on

Performance Jan. 3, 2016

Two SM Entertainment artists, Victoria of f(x) and EXO’s Lay, were named among the top 10 artists on Chinese social media network Weibo in 2015. They were the only artists based in Korea to make the top 10.According to Weibo, Lay came in at No. 5 with 90.5 million followers while Victoria came in at No. 10 with over 75 million. Victoria was also the only female star in the top 10.Lay and Victoria are currently supported in their promotions in China by SM Entertainment through a local “workshop”

Performance Jan. 3, 2016

Twenty-five-year-old actress Go A-ra has spent over a decade in the public eye, starting with the teen TV drama “Sharp” in 2003. Despite her more than 12 years in the industry and her fame, Go has a relatively short filmography: seven TV shows and six films. Although Go has recently appeared on a number of television shows, most memorably hit drama “Reply 1994,” she had been away from the big screen for four years when she returned in December with Kim Dai-seung‘s romance period piece “The Magic

Film Jan. 3, 2016

EXO member Chen will be joining composer and pianist Steve Barakatt on stage during his upcoming Seoul concert with the Herald Philharmonic Orchestra, according to UNICEF, Chen’s agency SM Entertainment and concert promoter Rainbow Bridge Story on Sunday.Chen will be performing John Lennon‘s song “Imagine” to the accompaniment of Barakatt, showing his support for UNICEF‘s work providing aid to vulnerable children around the world. Steve Barakatt is currently serving as a UNICEF Ambassador.Steve

Performance Dec. 30, 2015

Ten stars, each with different individual strengths in creativity, math or games, lock themselves in a room eight stories underground for JTBC‘s new entertainment program “Code.”The show is an adaptation of popular “escape room” games that began online with versions like “Doors & Rooms” and “The Mansion,” and eventually grew into physical off-line versions. In the games, players are required to find clues in anything from paintings on the walls to bar codes on the backs of books to help them unl

Television Dec. 29, 2015

The director’s cut of the hit webtoon-turned drama film “Inside Men” is set to be released at the end of the year with 50 additional minutes of footage, bringing the running time to three hours. The added footage to the story -- which follows a deeply corrupt triangular conspiracy involving politics, corporate interests and the media -- focuses mainly on providing personal histories and context for the complex relationships between the main characters. Baek Yoon-sik (left) and Lee Byung-hun star

Film Dec. 28, 2015

Broadcaster SBS’ long-awaited year-end music festival “Gayo Daejeon” was a huge disappointment for fans after sound, camera work and captioning mishaps put a damper on the all-star performances.The most noticeable mistakes were in sound coordination. The sound volume of the artists’ tracks and microphones continued to fluctuate, with recorded tracks frequently drowning out the artists’ voices. At times, the microphones did not function at all, cutting out the vocals for EXO’s performance of “Cal

Television Dec. 28, 2015

This has not been a kind year for romance movies at the Korean box office. There is not a single romance film -- Korean or foreign -- that has made it to the top 20 box-office hits. In fact, “The Beauty Inside,” the star-studded high-profile romance film of the year, came in at No. 30. Kim Dai-seung’s new period feature “The Magician” hopes to change this trend at the very end of the year with spectacular visuals, a story that follows the typical tormented love narrative, with two fail-proof tee

Film Dec. 24, 2015

It’s unusual to see a pop artist in Korea who speaks about her music with as much confidence and assurance as Suran. Actually, there is a lot about Suran that is surprising. There’s her unusual voice, which was shaped in the underground jazz scene and now has the dreamlike future-pop feel of Lim Kim, Jung In or Jinsil of Mad Soul Child. There’s the fact that as soon as she appeared in the mainstream music scene, she worked as a songwriter, producer and featured artist with hip-hop steady sellers

Performance Dec. 22, 2015

This Christmas, big screens in Korea will bring two animated films that will put a child-like spark back in the hearts of grown-ups -- “The Peanuts Movie” based on the classic comic strip by Charles M. Schulz and “The Little Prince,” an English-language French film based on the 1943 masterpiece by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. While remaining true to the classic works that inspired them, both films catapult the stories’ visuals into the 21st century.  Still from "The Peanuts Movie" (20th Century Fox

Film Dec. 21, 2015

The seventh episode of Star Wars -- “The Force Awakens” -- will certainly appeal to audiences who have never seen, but only heard or watched bits and pieces of, the previous space movie series on TV or on video-sharing sites such as YouTube. For those who grew up watching the sci-fi epic on the big screen or reading books of the Star Wars expanded universe, “The Force Awakens” will bring back childhood memories. But it could fall short of the pent-up hype following Disney's takeover of Lucasfilm

Film Dec. 17, 2015