Actor-turned-director Cho Jin-woong’s short film “Ryuk-sa: A Teaser” has been invited to two film festivals in North America, the Fantasia Film Festival and New York Asian Film Festival, according to his agency Saram Entertainment. The Fantasia Film Festival will run from Aug. 5-25 in Montreal, and the 2021 New York Asian Film Festival will take place Aug. 6-22. Both festivals will be hybrid online-offline events. Cho’s 17-minute short film aims to deliver a message t

Film July 24, 2021

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday announced that it had made some changes to the translation guidelines for kimchi, which were published in July 2020. The new guidelines state that kimchi’s proper Chinese translation is “xin qi.” The ministry deleted a part that said “pao cai” -- a pickled vegetable dish eaten in China -- is an acceptable translation for kimchi, as it is the name that is already widely used in China. The amendments came aft

Culture July 23, 2021

The Korean Cultural Center in Paris on Thursday announced that it has kicked off the special exhibition “Korea: Cubically Imagined,” displaying diverse types of immersive content including one that allows the viewer to look through the houses from the Oscar-winning “Parasite” film. The virtual reality content at the exhibition will show the opulent home of the rich Park family and halfway underground home of the struggling Kim family from “Parasite.” &ldquo

Culture July 23, 2021

The Korean Film Council will hold the 2021 ASEAN-ROK Film Workshop Series on Wednesday from 3-6 p.m. to strengthen the network between the movie industries of ASEAN countries and Korea. The workshop will be live streamed on KOFIC’s official YouTube channel. This year’s theme of the workshop is “Discovering a sustainable film exchange and cooperation model between Korea and ASEAN in the post-corona era.” The event will be divided into two parts -- forum and masterclass.

Film July 23, 2021

The Boss Baby: Family Business (US) Opened July 21 Animation Directed by Tom McGrath Ted, the legendary boss of Baby Corp., is a successful grownup CEO. His nephew Tina, who everyone thought was an ordinary baby, turns out to be a secret agent at Baby Corp. Tina turns Ted and his brother Tim back into a baby for 48 hours to complete a mission to save the world. The Medium (US) Opened July 14 Thriller Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun A documentary team follows Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), a sha

Film July 23, 2021

As Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases hit a fresh high of over 1,700 on Wednesday, the organizer of the 17th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival announced that it was considering turning most of the events online. The international music festival is set to begin Aug. 12 in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province and run until Aug. 17. “If the current virus situation does not continue and the government decides to loosen the social distancing rule to Level 1 or 2, we wil

Film July 21, 2021

Members of the press look at the 19th century “Ten-panel Folding Screen with the Ten Longevity Symbols” during a press preview of the exhibition “A Great Cultural Legacy: Masterpieces from the Bequest of the Late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee” at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

Arts & Design July 20, 2021

  The title “A Great Cultural Legacy: Masterpieces from the Bequest of the Late Samsung Chairman Lee, Kun-hee” is befitting of the massive trove on display at the National Museum of Korea which opens to the public Wednesday. The collection by the late business tycoon appears to show he had much appetite for amassing art as he had for growing his conglomerate group. “We selected items that have artistic and historic value for this exhibition,” NMK curator Lee So

Arts & Design July 20, 2021

“Guimoon: The Lightless Door,” directed by Shim Deok-geun, is the first Korean film to be simultaneously created in three different versions: 2D, Screen X and 4DX. “I tried to make the audiences feel that they are not watching a movie in the theater. I wanted to bring them to the training center in the movie,” the director said during an online press conference held Monday. Although his goal was not easy to accomplish, he said it was made possible by using Screen X te

Film July 19, 2021

The Korean music industry is on alert as a growing number of singers have tested positive for the coronavirus amid an ongoing fourth wave of infections. Lee Min-hyuk of K-pop boy band BTOB was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, the band’s agency Cube Entertainment on Saturday. After Lee found out that his vocal coach tested positive for the coronavirus, he took two polymerase chain reaction tests and the results came out negative for both. However, he started showing symptoms on Fr

Performance July 18, 2021

Veteran actor Hwang Jung-min returned to the big screen playing himself in the upcoming movie “Hostage: Missing Celebrity” directed by Pil Gam-seong. Hwang said he did not feel pressured playing the character based off his own life. “I actually enjoyed it. I thought that the audiences would take the situation in the film as being more real,” Hwang said during an online press conference held on Thursday. The actor added that it was interesting to read about his own kid

Film July 17, 2021

The Medium (US) Opened July 14 Thriller Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun A documentary team follows Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), a shaman living in a mountain village in Thailand. After Nim’s sister Noi (Sirani Yankittikan) refused to become the designated shaman years ago, she succeeded in the role instead. One day, Nim finds out that her niece Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) has developed some strange symptoms. Black Widow (US) Opened July 7 Action Directed by Cate Shortland Following the e

Film July 16, 2021

Classical music is not often a popular choice nowadays among the younger generation, but Korean classical music YouTube channels are hoping to shatter the stereotype of being boring for the general public. From using variety show and vlog formats to doing covers, a growing number of YouTubers are creating diverse, fun and easy content while using classical music-related elements. “Towmoo” is one of the leading classical music YouTube channels that focuses on creating entertaining

Performance July 14, 2021

The 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is screening extended reality (XR) content through its program “Beyond Reality” at Incheon Airport. The program kicked off on July 1 as part of the 25th BIFAN and will continue until Sunday. XR is an umbrella term that is used to indicate all different kinds of real-and-virtual combined environments, encompassing augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual reality. “XR content are works that are difficult to describe

Film July 12, 2021

Global mobile video platform TikTok on Thursday announced that 10 TikTok-style short films will be screened at the 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, which kicked off Thursday and runs through July 18. The short movies will be screened during BIFAN’s “Vertical Short Film Special Screening: 25” program on Sunday, following their release on the global video platform on Friday. TikTok added that the films are edited to be three minutes long and in a vertical f

Film July 10, 2021