How to enter ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Webtoons, the vertical-scrolling iteration of digital comics that emerged some twenty years ago in Korea, along with the smartphone, are now a global medium. But they are only at the beginning of their global journey, says Charlie Park, CEO of Kakao Entertainment-owned Tapas. Park was speaking Tuesday at the Asia Television Forum in Singapore in a session moderated by industry consultant Jimmy Kim. Park explained that the webtoon segment was for several years a niche fan-driven activity with few opportunities for monetization.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Political drama thriller “12.12: The Day” dominated the South Korean box office for a second weekend with a $13 million haul. Its second weekend outing topped its first session, when it earned $11.2 million, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). And the film (aka “Seoul Spring”) increased its share of the weekend’s total cinema market to a crushing 81%. Separately, ComScore calculated that the film’s single country receipts made it the seventh highest grossing film in the world over the weekend. After two weekends on release, “12.12: The Day” has garnered $34.2 million, making it already the sixth ranking film in Korea this year and the third biggest Korean-produced picture.

Naman Ramachandran Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing delivered an electrifying masterclass to a sold-out ballroom full of screaming fans at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands on Friday. The in-conversation event was part of the 34th Singapore International Film Festival where Fan is the recipient of this year’s Cinema Icon Award. The festival is screening three of Fan’s films, curated by her – the recent “Green Night,” “Buddha Mountain” and “Double Xposure” – and the star walked the red carpet on opening night, Nov.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Carmen,” “Foe,” “Limbo,” Australia’s Oscar contender “Shayda,” “Streets of Colour” and “The Royal Hotel” have received the six nominations for best feature film at this year’s Screen Producers Australia Awards. The SPA Awards will be held on Thursday, March 21, 2024, the final evening of the Screen Forever conference. In the documentary feature section, the nominations are “Flyaways,” “Harley & Katya,” “Living With Devils,” “ONEFOUR: Against All Odds,” “The Cape,” “The Giants,” “The Jewish Nazi?” and “The Platypus Garden.” Nominations for best telemovie or miniseries production are “While the Men Are Away,” “The Claremont Murders,” “Wellmania,” “The Messenger,” “Bad Behaviour” and “The Clearing.” “2023 was a year filled with a number of challenges for our industry, but the Australian screen sector continued to delight audiences globally with stories that share our unique culture and creativity,” said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.

Squid Game: The Challenge has become the most-watched show on the platform this week.This is according to data from Netflix’s official most-watched list, which tracks the platforms most popular content based on a metric called “views”, based on “the total hours viewed divided by the total runtime”. For the week of November 20 to 26 – also the show week of debut – Squid Game: The Challengelogged about 20.1million views.The unscripted survival series draws from the games depicted in Netflix hit 2021 K-drama series Squid Game.

Jeon Somi, ENHYPEN and many more.The first day of the 2023 MAMA Awards took place on November 28 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It featured K-pop acts such as Jeon Somi, ENHYPEN, Kep1er and more take to the stage with a line-up of special stages and collaborations and more.

Squid Game: The Challenge appears to have launched with a splash in the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Squid Game: The Challenge has piqued the interest of quite a few spectators.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean drama “12.12: The Day” brought life back to South Korean cinemas with a powerful $11 million opening weekend. Directed by Kim Sung-soo and starring the reliable Hwang Jung-min and Jung Woo-sung, the film recounts a nine-hour period in 1979 in which a military coup was attempted. It is understood to be based on real events, but with a fictional telling. It earned $11.2 million between Friday and Sunday accounting for four out of every five tickets sold in the country.

A Squid Game: The Challenge contestant has spilled the beans on the incredible amount of time it took to film the iconic game, Red Light, Green Light, in the new reality TV gameshow. The Netflix series is inspired by the smash-hit dystopian Korean series, Squid Game, and features the same nail-biting challenges but without the deadly outcomes.

SPOILER ALERT: This story features details from the first five episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge

Netflix this week launched a real-life version of its super-popular dystopian Korean drama, Squid Game. The new show, Squid Game: The Challenge, is streaming now and features hundreds of everyday people competing in games from the original series for a chance to win a life-changing multi-million dollar prize. Created by the same people who made The Traitors and Race Across the World, Studio Lambert, it follows 456 real players all vying for a whopping $4.56 million – the biggest cash prize in reality TV history, according to Netflix.

K-pop girl group aespa have released their own version of Bobby Helms’ classic holiday song, ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.Today (November 24), the quartet unveiled a lyric video for their remake of the iconic 1957 Christmas song. aespa’s version of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ features a hip-hop-inspired beat, as well as a brand-new rap verse.“Ring ring ring, jingle bell rock / Play like a spell I won’t tell, jingle bell talk / So giddy up, giddy up / Turn it up fast till we burn up / We ain’t ever gonna stop, jingle bell rock,” Giselle and Winter rap on the second verse.SM Entertainment first announced the song via a press release earlier this week, describing it as a “catchy and hip” reinterpretation of the classic track, with the girl group’s “unique vocals and rap” setting it aside from the original ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.aespa’s ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ comes just two weeks after they released their fourth mini-album ‘Drama’.

Gyeongseong Creature, starring Han So-hee and Park Seo-jun.Set in the spring of 1945, Gyeongseong Creature will follow several individuals in the city of Gyeongseong – which was the colonial name for Seoul city during the Japanese rule over Korea – as they go up against monstrous creatures born out of human greed.Park Seo-jun will play Jang Tae-sang, the wealthiest and most attractive man in the Bukchon district, who has a penchant for insider information. Meanwhile, Han So-hee will portray Yoon Chae-ok, a skilled todugun (bounty hunter and sleuth who tracks down the missing).The new trailer for Gyeongseong Creature opens with the tense first meeting between Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok, as we are introduced to the two character’s contrasting worlds.

aespa member Karina has been announced as part of the cast for Netflix’s upcoming original Korean reality show Agents of Mystery. The streaming service announced the cast of Agents of Mystery earlier today (November 22) through its official Netflix K-Content account on X (formerly known as Twitter).

mimiirose have announced their departure from agency YES IM Entertainment, but will continue releasing music under different management.In a statement released to South Korean news outlet SPOTV News yesterday (November 21), music label YES IM Entertainment said: “mimiirose will be leaving YES IM Entertainment and will continue promoting under a new agency”, as translated by Soompi. YES IM Entertainment also shared that the group’s contracts with the label had concluded after mutual discussion, and that they have now signed to a newly established agency.

The ladies of Blackpink were among the special guests at a state dinner at Buckingham Palace!

Disney+ has dropped a teaser trailer for BTS Monuments: Beyond The Star, an eight-part documentary series about the global K-pop superstars, as well as announcing a launch date of December 20. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Blackpink, the multinational female music act that is the biggest girl group in the Korean pop (K-pop) firmament, may finally be close to renewing its collective contract with YG Entertainment. The news was widely reported in Korea on Monday and comes after months of speculation that the four-piece act – Jisoo (real name Kim Ji-soo), Lisa (Lalisa Manobal), Jennie (Kim Jennie) and Rose (Roseanne Park) – would take their acts to another shop. Blackpink’s previous contracts with YG expired in August. The Munhwa Ilbo (or Culture Daily) publication Monday claimed an exclusive with the information that Blackpink will re-up with YG, but the four individuals will not renew their exclusive contracts with the agency.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mystery-horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” landed on top of the South Korean cinema box office. But fellow new release title “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs and Snakes” managed only a fourth placed start. “Five Nights” earned $1.78 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.