Korean Film Guilds Call for Urgent Reform of Busan Festival

Manchester United fans have the opportunity to feature in a new Amazon Prime documentary showcasing the iconic Treble-winning season in 1999.

A councillor has called for calm after a day of disorder in Salford. The trouble, mainly in the Pendleton area, saw fireworks launched at a police station and a van - and a car set alight.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean star Park Eun-bin is confirmed to lead Netflix’s upcoming series “Castaway Diva,” set to premiere in late 2023. Park previously starred in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” the hit series that featured in Netflix’s non-English global top ten chart for 21 weeks and reached the top ten titles in 57 countries. In the new series, Park brings to life the character of Seo Mok-ha, an aspiring singer turned castaway who, after being stranded on a deserted island for 15 years, commences her journey to become a diva. Joining her are renowned actors Kim Hyo-jin, Chae Jong-hyeop, Cha Hak-yeon, and Kim Joo-hun. Kim Hyo-jin portrays a once-popular singer who is the idol of Seo and who seeks a new lease of life after encountering her fan from the island.

Jeremy Vine and Piers Morgan are among the high profile figures who have called for the unnamed presenter at the heart of the BBC scandal to come forward publicly for the good of his colleagues at the corporation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

British rock star Ozzy Osbourne announced Monday that he will not be performing in the Power Trip music festival in October because of health issues that have prevented him from taking the stage at times in recent years. Osbourne said his initial plan was to begin performing again in the summer of 2024, and he "optimistically moved forward" when he received the offer for Power Trip, but his health will keep him from making a return.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney+ has set an Aug. 9 upload date for Korean series “Moving” from webtoon pioneer Kang Full. The previously announced title forms part of a 20-component slate of films and series from East Asia that will release on the Disney-backed streaming platform in the second half of 2023 and through 2024.Also from Korea is “The Worst of Evil,” a detective series in which a rural policemen is brought to the big city to bring down a DJ dealing in a potent new drug. It stars Ji Changwook, “Squid Game” actor Wi Hajun and Lim Semi. Highlights from Japan include “Tokyo Revengers: Tenjiku Arc,” the latest instalments of a popular anime franchise, and the previously announced “Dragons of Wonderhatch,” a hybrid story set in both the “real world” and an anime land where dragons and humans coexist. The multi-dimensional story stars Nakajima Sena, Okudaira Daiken and Mackenyu.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan). Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week. The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Manta, one of the leading platforms for subscription-based digital comics, has unveiled plans to launch more than ten original cartoon series through the third quarter of 2023. The company, which is owned by Korea’s RIDI Corporation, launched in 2020 and has become the number one comics app on Google Play in certain territories including the U.S., Mexico and Spain.Webtoons are a made for mobile genre of comics, that have become yet another Asian entertainment category that is having fast-growing international success. Many webtoons offer vertical scrolling, opportunities for new creators and content that is immediately available in multiple languages.

Days after Vietnam banned Warner Bros’ upcoming Barbie due to a scene depicting a map of the South China Sea with the “nine-dash line” that is contested by its government, the Philippines is now weighing whether it will follow suit.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oh Seok-geun, head of the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan, has resigned. Oh’s exit follows the resignation earlier this week of Busan International Film Festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan and the earlier departure of festival director Huh Moonyoung. “I submitted my resignation to the BIFF. I decided this was the best choice I could make. I hope my decision will help solve the BIFF situation,” Oh told Variety. A spokesman for the festival confirmed that Oh had tendered his resignation and said that the organization will frame its response next week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Yong-kwan, one of the original founders of the Busan International Film Festival, says he is stepping down as the event’s chairman – this time with immediate effect. He says the move is intended to defuse a morass of factional infighting and political interference surrounding Asian’s most prominent film festival. A festival spokesman told Variety that the board of directors “has decided to persuade the chairperson to return. So, the resignation has not been accepted yet.”

Viewers of Love Island have called for Whitney Adebayo to win the series alone, after she came to blows with her current partner, Mehdi Edno.The couple had another fiery argument after Whitney, 25, expressed her disdain that Mehdi kissed four of the female Islanders in front of her during the Heart Rate challenge, which aired on Sunday night's episode. Following the challenge, when speaking to the group, Whitney turned to Mehdi and asked: "Why are you kissing everyone?" As Whitney and Mehdi caught up in private, Whitney said: "How can you not gauge emotional awareness? Every single boy kissed the one they are most interested in." Mehdi ended up storming off, as he angrily told her: "Whitney...

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival has apologized for its mishandling of the resignation of its executive director Huh Moon-young and related sexual harassment allegations. “We sincerely apologize over the sexual harassment case that occurred in the workplace,” BIFF said in a Korean-language statement on Thursday. (A festival spokesperson said that an English-language statement, along with an update, will be issued in the coming days.) Huh has publicly denied the allegations, though he has not replied to email and telephone requests for comment by Variety.

Kyle C. Olson With the Hollywood writers strike ongoing, there is much focus on fair pay. That fight is overshadowing another critical issue for the creative community: credit attribution. The recent uproar over the credit problems as HBO Max transition to Max highlighted the problem. But it only scratched the surface. Having worked on several high-profile productions lately, I’ve observed a worrying trend: studios increasingly tightening their grip on the awarding of credits, even when the contributions made are unquestionably significant. In the expansive universe of film and television, numerous unseen professionals toil behind the scenes, their collaborative efforts helping to craft captivating stories that awe audiences. Yet, surprisingly, many of these pivotal contributors find their names missing from the closing credits. This glaring oversight begs the question: why is it so difficult to adequately credit everyone involved in a production?

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief C CGV, a company that is one of the world’s top ten cinema exhibitors and is also a major cinema technology developer, is to raise close to $800 million in order to shore up its finances after a devastating COVID era. The company operates the largest cinema chain in its native South Korea and has significant numbers of screens in Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and mainland China, with smaller operations in Myanmar and the U.S. It also owns CJ 4DPlex, which developed the technology for films to be augmented with practical effects, including motion-seats, wind, strobe-lights, simulated-snow, and scents. In addition, its ScreenX system provides screenings that use the side walls of an auditorium to create a 270-degree sensory experience.

In honour of the 25th anniversary of Angela Bassett’s 1998 flick “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”, the actress, and director, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, compare the difference between filming sex scenes at the time to nowadays.

This Morning viewers have said they are ready to switch off as Holly Willoughby presented Monday's show with Dermot O'Leary.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Killing Romance,” one of the most creative Korean films of the past year, has been set as the opening night title for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival. The deliberately multi-genre picture tells the tale of a beautiful movie star with dubious acting skills (portrayed by Le Ha-nee) who suddenly quits the industry and retires to newly-married life that turns out to be anything but bliss. When she decides to return to acting she teams up with a fan and an absurd plot to kill her absurdly rich husband. The film is directed by Lee Won-suk who previously attended the NYAFF with his first film, “How to Use Guys With Secret Tips,” in 2013 and returned with his second feature, the big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor, which earned the audience award at NYAFF in 2015.

A campaigning charity today called for mandatory speed limits of 20mph on ALL roads near schools to reduce the number of child crash deaths.