Korea’s Contents Panda Takes Bumper Cannes Slate Online

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA powerful opening by “Black Widow” lifted the South Korean box office to its biggest weekend this year. The Disney-Marvel title dominated proceedings with an 80% market share.The film launched in Korea on Wednesday and raced far ahead of the competition.

Cannes Film Festival in 2019, the veteran auteur voiced concern that the movie might be “too South Korean” for the audience. He needn’t have worried.

“Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho (“The Host,” “Snowpiercer”) is likely still walking on the clouds after a historical awards season, Most would be, after ultimately earning well-deserved Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Best Picture, and Best Director.

After years of growing one of the world’s strongest local entertainment industries with high quality product, a sophisticated audience and a box office that consistently ranks among the Top 5 international markets, South Korea seemed to suddenly burst into global consciousness with Bong Joon-ho’s smash 2019 hit Parasite.

Quickly becoming one of the greatest humanist filmmakers we have with the most superb eye for composition in cinema, South Korean director Kogonada delicately breaks your heart in the luminous and exquisitely crafted “After Yang.” If you have children (and or can acutely recall your childhood), you know that precise moment in time when your child starts to gently, curiously inquire about death—what happens to us when we die— and then begins to sadly grapple with the concept that all things die,

Minecraft has won over kids across the world but in South Korea it’s now adults-only.The popular creative sandbox game by Mojang, which is usually recommended for those aged 12 and over, has been hit with an age restriction.

Taeyong has joined Mnet’s upcoming TV dance competition Street Woman Fighter (a direct translation of its Korean title, ‘스트릿 우먼 파이터’) as a judge.South Korean news outlet SPOTV first reported earlier today (July 8) that the NCT member had landed a role as a judge on Street Woman Fighter, where eight all-female dance crews will compete to become South Korea’s number one team.According to the report, Taeyong was allegedly selected as a judge for his dance ability, as he is considered to be “one of

Louis Vuitton staged a “spin-off show” of its Fall 2021 menswear collection designed by Virgil Abloh in Seoul, featuring the brand’s house ambassadors BTS on Wednesday. The seven-member Korean boy band walked and modelled the collection in a short film by Abloh and South Korean director Jeon Go-woon, debuting 34 new looks.

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Red Velvet main vocalist Wendy has joined the cast for the upcoming revival of Saturday Night Live Korea.According to a report by South Korean news outlet Star News, Wendy will be joining the ranks of veteran comedians such as Shin Dong-yup, who is set to serve as the programme’s producer and host, along with Ahn Young-mi, Jung Sang-hoon and Kwon Hyuk-soo. Actress Cha Chung-hwa of tVN television series Mr.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe powerful appeal of K-pop is a major contributor to YouTube taking up position as the dominant streaming video platform in South Korea, a new study has found.

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.

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.

Cannes 2021 will make history, as for the first time the festival’s jury will be majority female.Among the jurists are actress-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, French actress-director Mélanie Laurent, French-Senegalese actor-director Mati Diop, Austrian director Jessica Hausner and French singer Mylene Farmer.Director Spike Lee will preside over the jury, which includes Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho, South Korea’s Song Kang-ho, and French actor Tahar Rahim.More to come…

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.