City Seoul Showbiz Latest News and Updates

South Korean arts and culture organizations, artists and filmmakers, including Bong Joon-ho, have joined together to call for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of actor Lee Sun-kyun. Lee, whose credits include Bong’s Oscar winning Parasite, died last month in an apparent suicide at the age of 48.

K-pop girl group FIFTY FIFTY has expressed her plans to continue releasing music through the group.In a press release earlier this week per The Korea Times, Keena shared that she is “gearing up to share more love, hoping we can walk this path together in the future.” The rapper is currently the only remaining member of the group following a dispute between its former members and label Attrakt last year.The label previously announced in November 2023 that it plans to add new members to FIFTY FIFTY, and for the group to continue as a four-member act. Keena echoed this sentiment in her statement, saying: “Once again, I’m preparing to entertain and demonstrate my hard work with FIFTY FIFTY’s songs.”Attrakt also reportedly expressed its intention once again to search for new members for FIFTY FIFTY, adding that “this opportunity has been made possible by Keena’s return [to the agency].”The rapper had notably co-written some of the group’s past songs, including their debut single ‘Higher’ and the Korean version of their Tiktok viral hit ‘Cupid’.The girl group first debuted in November 2022 with the line-up of members Saena, Sio, Keena and Aran.

ASTRO‘s Cha Eun-woo is working on his debut solo record, Fantagio Music has confirmed.On January 9, SpoTV News reported that Cha Eun-woo is preparing to release his first solo album in the first half of 2024. Fantagio later confirmed the news via Star1, adding that the ASTRO member aims to unveil songs from the upcoming project at this solo fan concert this February.“Cha Eun-woo is preparing his first solo album with the goal of releasing it in the first half of 2024,” the K-pop agency said, as translated by Soompi.

Gyeongseong Creature starring Han So-hee and Park Seo-joon, will air this year.Today (January 8), Netflix announced that season two of Gyeongseong Creature will premiere sometime in 2024. It comes just days after the streaming service release part two of the first season on January 5.According to a press release, the second season of Gyeongseong Creature will be set in modern-day Seoul, 78 years after the events first season.

NewJeans, ENHYPEN, aespa and more.The 31st Hanteo Music Awards, which will celebrate the best of K-pop in 2023, is set to take place on February 17 and February 18 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.A total of 50 acts have been nominated for Artist of the Year, including the likes of girl groups NewJeans, (G)I-DLE and aespa, as well as boyband SEVENTEEN, SHINee and ENHYPEN. The criteria for this award will be based on a mix of the Hanteo Global score (50 per cent), global voting score (20 per cent) and judging score (30 per cent)Meanwhile, 10 boyband are up for Rookie of the Year (Male), including KOZ Entertainment’s BOYNEXTDOOR, SM Entertainment newcomers RIIZE and Boys Planet winners ZEROBASEONE.Six girl group have been nominated for Rookie of the Year (Female).

GOT7 singer BamBam has spoken out about the technical difficulties he faced during his performance at the 2024 Seoul Music Awards, saying he will “never go to award shows again”.This year’s Seoul Music Awards were held yesterday (January 2) at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium, during which prizes were presented to winners and special performances were staged. The ceremony was also streamed live for global audiences to watch.As part of the performing line-up, GOT7 member BamBam took to the stage for a special mash-up of his solo singles ‘Pandora’, ‘Sour & Sweet’ and ‘Ribbon’.

NCT Dream win the ceremony’s Daesang (grand prize) for a second consecutive year, while BTS, SEVENTEEN, NewJeans and more took home various other prizes in numerous categories.SEVENTEEN bagged the trophy for Best Album with ‘FML’, a mini-album released in April 2023, while rookie girl group NewJeans went home with the award for Best Song for ‘OMG’, which released in January 2023.Meanwhile, K-pop titans BLACKPINK and BTS were each awarded the World Best Artist Award and World Trend Artist Award respectively, while Rookie of the Year went to two acts: RIIZE and ZEROBASEONE. Both boybands also took home two of the 18 Bonsangs (main prizes) given out that evening.Daesang (Grand Prize)NCT DreamBonsang (Main Prize) winners aespa (G)I-DLE IVE BTS’ Jimin BTS’ Jungkook Kang Daniel Lim Young-woong NCT Dream NewJeans NMIXX RIIZE SEVENTEEN STAYC Stray Kids Sunmi BTS’ V Young Tak ZEROBASEONEWorld Best Artist AwardBLACKPINKWorld Trend Artist AwardBTSRookie of the YearRIIZE ZEROBASEONEBest Performance of the YearBilllieFan Choice of the Year VOST Award EXO’s Baekhyun – ‘Hello’ from Dr. Romantic season threeBallad AwardDay6’s YoungKBand AwardXdinary HeroesTrot AwardYoung TakR&B/Hip-Hop AwardDynamic DuoDiscovery of the Year FIFTY FIFTYK-pop Special Award Sandara ParkGlobal Producer Award GOT7’s Mark Tuan, Youngjae and BamBamNew Wave Star AwardKISS OF LIFE PLAVE YujuY Global Special Awardn.SsignPopularity Award Kim Ho-joongBest Thai ArtistFourth Gemini NuNew Zee Pruk

Badland Hunters, starring Don Lee.Badland Hunters will follow Don Lee as Nam San, a hunter in a post-apocalyptic Seoul who has to navigate the treacherous wilderness of a world where chaos reigns supreme.Lee will be joined by actors Lee Hee-jun, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui and An Ji-hye. Meanwhile, Badland Hunters will be directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, who previously worked as the stunts director on films such as The Roundup: No Way Out, Jung_E and more.The teaser for the upcoming Netflix film previews the desolate yet captivating landscape of post-apocalyptic Seoul.

was found dead of an apparent suicide earlier this week, was remembered at a private funeral in South Korea on Friday. The service took place at Seoul National University Hospital’s funeral home.Lee’s actress wife, Jeon Hye-jin, appeared devastated as she cried while holding hands with her younger son, as her eldest carried a portrait of the late actor.Mourners took part in a procession at the service and also paid their respects by sticking memos on a wall. “Now please rest in peace,” one read.

Bill Granger's daughter has paid a touching tribute to the chef following his tragic death on Christmas Day aged just 54. The entrepreneur and restauranteur was the man behind Granger & Co in London and many other global chains around the world.

BLACKPINK‘s Lisa shared a festive cover of Britney Spears‘ ‘My Only Wish (This Year)’ to celebrate Christmas Eve.Lisa shared a black-and-white photo of herself to Instagram to break the news to fans about the Christmas treat they’d be receiving. “Christmas present for my BLINKS Have a wonderful holiday,” Lisa wrote.The cover is accompanied by a music video in which Lisa receives a small ribbon-wrapped note and single rose before she wanders the streets of Paris in a white fur-lined coat.

Acclaimed actor Lee Sun-kyun has sadly passed away at just 48. According to authorities in Seoul via a stateme

BOYNEXTDOOR has apologised following controversy around an incident involving a fan and the group’s bodyguards at an airport. A video had been circulating appearing to show one of the K-pop group’s security guards pushing a fan to the floor at Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport in China.

died from an apparent suicide, was reportedly dropped from a film project before his death.The 48-year-old was being investigated for his alleged drug use weeks prior to his passing and was apparently let go because of it, according to the Daily Mail.The South Korean star was set to appear in the drama “No Way Out,” a mystery thriller TV show about a contract killing of a man who was just released from prison after 13 years behind bars. The series was set to start shooting in October.

Yonhap news agency reported. The actor was reported missing earlier in the day. His manager told police that he had left home, leaving behind an apparent suicide note, the news outlet reported.His death comes amid an investigation into his alleged illegal drug use, which is strictly enforced in the Asian nation.Lee was questioned three times by police regarding the probe, including for a grueling 19 hours over the weekend.

Actor Lee Sun-kyun, star of the Oscar-winning movie Parasite has died, South Korea's emergency office has said.

Jordan Moreau Lee Sun-kyun, a South Korean actor who starred in the Oscars’ 2020 best picture winner “Parasite,” died Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press and the South Korean news agency Yonhap. He was 48. He was found dead in a car in a park in central Seoul, according to the AP.

The standout movie at Sundance this year, Celine Song’s indie hit Past Lives has touched the parts of the human heart not reached since Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy. Starring Greta Lee, it tells the story of Nora, a Korean-born playwright on the brink of breakout success in New York, who is taken by surprise when, out of the blue, her childhood sweetheart from Seoul, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), makes contact on social media. Will it lead to some light nostalgic fun? Or is there something deeper — Koreans call it inyeon, the idea that some things are meant to be — that makes them soulmates?

Australian chef and restaurateur Bill Granger has died surrounded by his family in London.The 54-year-old died “peacefully” in hospital on Christmas Day, according to a post shared on his Instagram account.The Granger & Co gounder was surrounded by his wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters - Edie, Inès and Bunny. An emotional post shared on social media said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Bill Granger announce he has passed away on 25th December at the age of 54.

Gyeongseong Creature.At a press event for Gyeongseong Creature, Park Seo-jun and his co-star Han So-hee shared several stories about their time filming for the new K-drama. The actor revealed that the first scene he shot was one of his character getting tortured, which made the shoot particularly challenging.“The day was cold, as I recall.

BLACKPINK have released a brand-new trailer for their upcoming virtual concert, ‘BLACKPINK: A VR Encore’.Released today (December 20), the trailer for ‘BLACKPINK: A VR Encore’ is set to the girl group’s hit 2018 song ‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’ and features footage from the special finale show of their ‘Born Pink’ world tour at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.“Filming our upcoming VR concert in the heart of Seoul has added an extra layer of magic to this project,” BLACKPINK said in a press release, per Billboard. “It’s where it all began for us, and being able to share this unique experience with our fans around the world feels incredibly special.”“It’s great to break down geographical barriers with The Diamond Bros and Meta, bringing back the memory of ‘BLACKPINK World Tour [Born Pink]’ finale straight into your home,” the quartet added.The 70-minute ‘BLACKPINK: A VR Encore’ concert special premieres in VR on December 26 at 5pm PT in Meta Horizon Worlds.

Caroline Brew editor Teo Yoo (“Past Lives,” “Love to Hate You”) has been cast as a series regular in Season 2 of Netflix‘s “The Recruit.” He will play a highly skilled South Korean NIS agent “with a subversive sense of humor and willing to go to any lengths to protect those he cares about,” according to the release. Per the official logline, Season 2 of “The Recruit” finds Noah Centineo‘s CIA lawyer, Owen Hendricks, “pulled into a life-threatening espionage situation in South Korea, only to realize that the bigger threat just might be coming from inside the Agency.” Yoo was recently nominated for the best lead performance Independent Spirit Award via his role in Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” starring opposite Greta Lee.

Teo Yoo (Past Lives, Love to Hate You) will join Noah Centineo in Season 2 of Netflix‘s The Recruit as a series regular.

WOODZ has compares his upcoming military enlistment to a “temporary memory loss” in a new interview.WOODZ recently dropped the single ‘Amnesia’, which will be his last new music release until the end of his upcoming military enlistment in January 2024. “Ending with [the release of ‘Amnesia’], I will be leaving for a moment and live a different life,” he said, per Korea JoongAng Daily.“But I will return [from the military] swiftly, just as if we all had a temporary memory loss,” the singer added.

EXCLUSIVE: CJ 4DPLEX and Europe’s Kinepolis Group are expanding their longstanding partnership to include 21 further ScreenX auditoriums across Europe and North America. The Kinepolis openings bring the cinema chain’s total of ScreenX screens to 26. This pact will give Kinepolis the largest ScreenX footprint in mainland Europe.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Static Waves, a Netherlands-based channels and content distribution company, has teamed with Korea’s Arirang TV to launch K-Wave, which they claim will be the world’s first free ad-supported television (FAST) channel dedicated to Korean popular music (K-pop). K-Wave will launch in January in the U.S. Europe and Asia via Zeasn, a platform which distributes to TCL, HiSense TV+ and Vestel brands of connected TVs pre-installed with Zeasn’s Whale OS. Its content will include: original series, live concerts, documentaries on K-pop stars, music and fashion trends, dance instruction videos and behind-the-scenes clips. To propel its Korean expansion, Static Waves has established a local business entity, Static Waves Korea, based in Seoul.

K-pop girl group ITZY have released a music video for their new song, ‘Born to Be’.‘Born to Be’ is a pre-release single for their second studio album of the same name, due out on January 8 alongside its lead single ‘Untouchable’. The new dance-focused music video for ‘Born to Be’ features Yeji, Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna as they perform intense choreography on fiery set with eye-popping 3D animation.“Born to be, born to be, wild and free oh, oh / No matter what they say, Imma say it louder / I do it my way, always hit it harder / Born to be, born to be, wild and free oh, oh,” the quartet sing on the chorus.In the lead-up to their ‘Born to Be’ album, the four ITZY members will be releasing music videos for their solo songs over the upcoming weeks along with another pre-release song, ‘Mr.

Demon Slayer won’t have to wait long for the release of its upcoming fourth season.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba season four will follow the Hashira Training Arc, the anime’s X (formerly Twitter) account confirmed last night (December 10), and is set to premiere in Japan in Spring next year with an hour-long episode. A concrete release date for the series has yet to be announced.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc TV series will be premiering in Spring 2024 with an Hour-Long Episode!#DemonSlayer pic.twitter.com/euEX9lv5ZI— Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (English) (@DemonSlayerUSA) December 10, 2023However, a number of Demon Slayer fans won’t have to wait until Spring to catch the first episode of the Hashira Training Arc as the upcoming Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Hashira Training world tour kicks off in February across select countries.The world tour will screen the final episode of season three (the Swordsmith Village arc) and the first episode of the Hashira Training arc in cinemas this February in 4K and IMAX.

WOODZ will be enlisting into the military in January 2024.On December 10, the K-pop singer wrote to fans informing them of his impending military enlistment. Under South Korean law, all able-bodied men are required to serve for at least 18 months.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fact-based political thriller “12.12: The Day” dominated the Korean box office for the third successive weekend and advanced its takings haul beyond $50 million. It was far ahead of “Napoleon,” which opened a disappointing third. The Kim Sung-soo-directed picture earned $11.4 million between Friday and Sunday, accounting for 75.8% of nationwide weekend cinema revenues, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). It has held up particularly strongly and dropped by only 12% in its third weekend.

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 brand-new trailer for Gyeongseong Creature previews the first, tense meeting between Tae-song and Chae-ok, as well as their initial visit to the mysterious Ongseong Hospital.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Something Special, the Seoul-based international format agency founded by format specialists Jin Woo Hwang (president and executive producer) and Kim In Soon (EVP & head of content) announce that ITV Studios has optioned the hit Korean celebrity format “Battle in the Box” for France, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The deal was unveiled on Wednewday, the first full day of the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. “Battle in the Box,” created by Korea’s NMedia and represented globally by Something Special, has previously seen deals announced with Fremantle for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.

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.

Lupita Nyong’o couldn’t let this day pass without a callback to one of her favorite colleagues.

SM Entertainment CEO Nikki Semin Han has established a brand-new music label, with plans to debut six new K-pop acts by 2028.According to an exclusive report by Variety, Han has teamed up with a group of former colleagues from SM Entertainment to launch Titan Content, a newly established music label based in the US. The agency described itself to Variety as “the world’s first premier multinational K-pop powerhouse music company”, with facilities in both Los Angeles and Seoul with the goal of breaking their upcoming roster of artists into the US music market.According to Variety, Titan Content is currently working on launching two K-pop girl groups, two boy groups, a male soloist and a female soloist by 2028.

Nam Woo-hyun of K-pop boyband INFINITE has opened up about his “rare” cancer diagnosis.Nam Woo-hyun revealed his gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) diagnosis during a new interview with The Korea Times, where he opened up about it being an “extremely rare form of cancer” and how it faced it.“In my case, the urgency of surgery was non-negotiable, so I quickly held my fan events and performances in January and February before undergoing surgery [in April],” the singer said, before revealing that “the scale [of the cancer] was more extensive than I had thought”.“After the surgery, I had to refrain from drinking water for almost three weeks and got a 20-centimeter scar on my stomach,” the INFINITE singer added. “I even had to attach a blood bag.”However, Nam Woo-hyun also touched on how his time in the hospital, in particular his interactions with the “caring” nurses, had inspired him “to recover, release new music and pursue my passion as a singer”.“I feel as if I were reborn after the surgery,” he said.