Black Pink will be taking its first step into the global music scene with a Japanese release, the group’s agency YG Entertainment said Wednesday. The K-pop quartet will be holding a showcase at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena on July 20. The showcase will be funded by Tokyo Girls Collection, a semiannual fashion festival launched in 2015 and Japan’s largest fashion event. The group will release an album in Japan on Aug. 9. The Japanese debut EP will include Black Pink’s hit tracks, including the re

Performance May 17, 2017

BTS’ seventh single “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” released in Japan on May 10, has topped the weekly Oricon Charts, Japan’s largest music chart.The album ranked No. 1 on the list with a total of 238,795 Oricon points.Having debuted in Japan in June 2014, BTS broke the mark of 200,000 points on the Oricon charts in the shortest amount of time ever, according to the boy band’s agency Big Hit Entertainment. BTS first topped the Oricon charts in June 2015 with its fourth Japanese single “For You.”  Prom

Performance May 16, 2017

Im Si-wan is among the few Korean entertainers who have completed their transition from K-pop singer into actor, but the 28-year-old is careful not to overestimate himself or his sensibilities.　The fact that his latest film, the upcoming crime flick “The Merciless (Bul Han Dang),” is set to screen at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival still feels surreal to him, the actor said in an interview at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Seoul last Thursday. 　“I’m not sure what to expect,” said Im, whose atten

Film May 14, 2017

Lee Min-ho was spotted heading to work for the first day of his mandatory military service at the Gangnam-gu Office in Seoul, Friday.  Lee Min-ho goes to Gangnam-gu Office for his first day of mandatory military service as a public service worker, Friday. (Yonhap) Lee Min-ho goes to Gangnam-gu Office for his first day of mandatory military service as a public service worker, Friday. (Yonhap)Lee’s management agency MYM Entertainment denied rumors claiming that the actor would get off work early.

Television May 12, 2017

Girl group EXID is embarking on it first Asia tour in June, its agency Banana Culture Entertainment announced Friday.EXID will kick off the tour with a Hong Kong concert on June 17, and proceed to Singapore and other countries, the agency said.The girl group has been rising in popularity throughout Asia. Its recent song “Night Rather Than Day” topped the Chinese YinYuetai charts, the iTunes KPOP charts, the Malaysia iTune KPOP chart and the Vietnamese iTunes charts upon its April release.  Promo

Performance May 12, 2017

Alien: Covenant(US)Opened May 9Sci-fi, thriller. Directed by Ridley ScottThe Covenant is a gigantic colony ship carrying thousands of colonists and embryos in hypersleep, bound for a new remote planet with a new energy source when members aboard (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) believe they have discovered a new, uncharted plot of paradise in space. There, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), a survivor of the previous Prometheus expedition. But the Utopian universe turns dark when alien for

Film May 12, 2017

Laura Poitras’ “Risk” is hardly the first feature film to take on Julian Assange, the elfin WikiLeaks mastermind who has spent the past decade exposing powerful secrets and cultivating his notoriety on the world stage. He has been addressed in several prior documentaries, notably Alex Gibney’s “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” and was even played by a platinum-haired Benedict Cumberbatch in the little-seen Hollywood drama “The Fifth Estate.”But Poitras, one of the most intrepid and inc

Film May 12, 2017

The promising young writer Katie Dippold, who wrote “The Heat” and “Ghostbusters,” strikes out with her third feature, “Snatched.” This mother-daughter kidnapping comedy starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn is a huge disappointment, and for Schumer, this is a low moment of a career that’s been peaking. As Emily, Schumer plays her characteristic problematic white girl character, a selfish, selfie-taking narcissist. But there’s no sharp satire to puncture that image, as some of the best work from

Film May 12, 2017

With healthy dining options being a big new trend, Seoulites have been looking to eateries that offer fresh salads to quell their appetite for delicious low calorie options. The following is a list of hip, healthy salad spots that have cropped up throughout Seoul recently.  What A Salad (Instagram) What A Salad (Instagram)What A SaladThe Itaewon store offers custom-made North American-style chopped salad. Diners can curate dishes of their liking from a rich assortment of some 40 different salad

Food May 11, 2017

“The Villainess” actress Kim Ok-bin said she felt a heavy sense of responsibility as the heroine of an action-filled film.“I felt like I had to do a good job in order for people to invest more in women-led action movies,” she said at a press conference for the film, ahead of its Cannes premiere, at CGV Wangsimni, Thursday.  Kim Ok-bin (left) and Shin Ka-kyun attend a press conference for “The Villainess” at CGV Wangsimni, Thursday. (Yonhap)In the film, which has been invited to the midnight scre

Film May 11, 2017

Seol Kyung-gu is an actor who possesses a “strange kind of charisma,” whose mere presence on camera evokes a sense of pathos, according to director Byun Sung-hyun of upcoming action flick “The Merciless (Bul Han Dang).”Having tackled a diverse array of roles and now in the 24th year of his career, Seol is a formidable figure in Korean cinema. But the actor will be the first to admit that his filmography by no means reflects a pristine track. There were periods when he fell into complacency, foll

Film May 10, 2017

The tvN drama “Signal” will begin airing in Japan next month, CJ E&M announced Tuesday.The hit thriller series, which achieved an average of 12.5 percent viewership, stars Lee Je-hoon, Cho Jin-woong and Kim Hye-soo. The series was praised here as a well-made TV drama with solid acting and a tightly-constructed plot.  (From left) Lee Je-hoon, Kim Hye-soo and Cho Jin-woong star in “Signal.” (CJ E&M)The Japanese arm of CJ E&M introduced “Signal” as an award-winning series that represents the recent

Television May 10, 2017

Actress Seong Hyeon-ah’s husband was found dead inside his car in Osan, Gyeonggi Province at around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday. The car, a Ssangyong Tivoli, was parked nearby the construction site of a studio apartment building. Burnt charcoal was discovered inside the locked car. The police suspect that some time has passed since his death judging from the decay of the body.Although no suicide note was found, police have concluded that the death was a suicide as evidence does not point to a killing.Seon

Television May 9, 2017

A black-and-white trailer and poster for Hong Sang-soo’s Cannes-bound film “The Day After” was revealed Tuesday. The film is another tale penned and directed by Hong, about love and misunderstanding featuring Kwon Hae-hyo, Cho Yun-hee and Kim Min-hee. Stills from “The Day After” (Finecut) Stills from “The Day After” (Finecut) Poster of “The Day After” (Finecut)Kwon plays married man Bong-wan who has been having an affair with a colleague at the publishing house where he works. The woman quits, a

Film May 9, 2017