Korea’s CJ ENM Signs Strategic Deal With Tokyo Broadcasting System

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocal film “Hard Hit” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office for the second week, keeping Hollywood holdovers and new release titles at bay.The Busan-set action thriller scored $2.07 million in its second weekend on release, according to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That was a drop of only 5% compared with its opening weekend.

Ahead of raising the curtain on its 74th edition on Tuesday (July 6), Cannes has made a late addition to its program in the form of Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda’s feature animation Belle.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLeading South Korean tech conglomerate Naver is to invest KRW40 billion ($352 million) in Tving, the streaming video platform spun off from CJ ENM.

SEOUL, South Korea -- The freshest faces among South Korean influencers are no longer the usual, 20-something celebrities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBusan-set chase thriller “Hard Hit” this weekend became the first local film to head the South Korean box office in more than a month.

Ed Sheeran has revealed he has written a song for the new BTS record.While speaking to Most Requested Live, Sheeran confirmed the new track after briefly discussing his previous collaboration with the record-smashing Korean group, ‘Make It Right’.“I’ve actually worked with BTS on their last record, and I’ve just written a song for their new record,” he said.

BTS‘ limited edition McDonald’s meal has resulted in a large increase in McNuggets sales in Korea, along with higher sales internationally.According to a report by South Korean news outlet The Fact, the BTS Meal has sold over 1.2million sets since its release on May 27.

Talk about anti-climactic!

Variety’s Music Mogul of the Year, is a whirlwind, with pop stars like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande relying on him for professional and personal guidance, a staff of 39 who look to him for leadership and an industry that banks on him for hit songs, TV shows and movies.

chronicled on Twitter by YouTuber Natsuki Tanaka, who had initially believed she was witnessing a real-life rescue in the city of Hachinohe off of Japan’s Northeast Coast, Kotaku reported.“While filming a fishing video, I thought a dead body floating in the water had washed up, but it was a blow-up doll,” Tanaka wrote about the strange scene, which occurred last week.The influencer — yes, she has more than 272,000 subscribers on YouTube — added that someone else had mistakenly phoned the

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefContents Panda, the sales arm of Next Entertainment World, has added comedy horror film “Oh My Ghost” to its burgeoning Cannes Market lineup. Only the company will not physically be in Cannes, and will concentrate on the pre-Cannes online version of the market instead.South Korea’s film production sector is bouncing back to life after a hiatus caused by multiple waves of the coronavirus had caused disruption.

CJ ENM has confirmed that the respective agencies of IZ*ONE members are discussing the possibility of reforming the girl group.On June 18, the team behind the Parallel Universe Project – which is a crowdfunded initiative by fans who wish to relaunch the girl group – noted in an update to backers that it had received “favorable” responses from the various agencies of former IZ*ONE members regarding a reunion of the K-pop act, as per Koreaboo.A day later, CJ ENM told South Korean news outlet Star

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“A Quiet Place Part II” topped the South Korean box office on its first official weekend of release. It made a considerably bigger splash than Disney-Pixar’s “Luca,” which dived into third place.The horror film scored $2.43 million over the weekend, having opened on Wednesday.

Gkids has acquired North American distribution rights to Belle, the latest animated film from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda and Japan’s Studio Chizu. A winter theatrical release is in the works for the pic, which represents a re-team of the distributor, Hosoda and Studio Chizo after 2018’s Mirai, which scored an Oscar nomination.

Naman Ramachandran French filmmaker Arthur Harari’s “Onoda – 10 000 Nights In The Jungle” will open the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes’ Official Selection. The film tells the story of soldier Hiroo Onoda who was sent to an island in the Philippines in 1944 to fight against the American forces.

It already saw off Donald Trump, now K-pop is threatening to cause the collapse of North Korea. Or so fears that nation’s leader Kim Jong-un, as South Korean pop music gains popularity in the country.Kim has called South Korean entertainment smuggled into North Korea via China a “vicious cancer”, according to the New York Times.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“F9” became the most-watched foreign film in South Korea since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic on another weekend where Hollywood and Japanese titles dominated the South Korean box office.The weekend box office chart was headed by “Cruella,” which held strong in its third frame and swapped places with newer “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.”“Cruella” scored $1.82 million according to data from Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s film tracking service,

SEOUL, South Korea -- Bringing her camera to a home for unwed mothers on South Korea’s Jeju island, Sun Hee Engelstoft anticipated an empowering story about young women keeping their babies.Instead, she ended up with a raw and unsettling documentary about how a deeply conservative sexual culture, loose birth registration laws and a largely privatized adoption system continue to pressure and shame single mothers into relinquishing their children for adoption.The shock and grief of mother-child