North Korea Showbiz Latest News and Updates

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 Rights to the second season of Irish crime drama series “Hidden Assets” have been licensed by DCD Rights. Buyers include the BBC for the U.K., SBS and Stan for Australia, TV4 for Sweden and TV2 for Norway. The 12-part series is produced by Saffron Moon, Facet4Media & Potemkino for RTE, Super Channel & Acorn TV, and was written by Peter McKenna (Kin, Red Rock), Morna Regan, Mary Fox and Marthy Thornton.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief CJ ENM (Hong Kong), a channels and content distributor that is part of the Korean CJ ENM conglomerate, has picked up pay-TV rights in parts of Asia to a handful of Korean series that were co-financed by streaming platform Tving and Paramount+. The deal was struck with Paramount Global Content Distribution. The productions are part of a global strategic partnership between CJ ENM and Paramount Global that was announced in December 2021. The deal was announced on the eve of the Asian TV Forum (ATF), which kicks off next week in Singapore. The series debut first on Tving in Korea and on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s two largest streaming services, Tving and Wave, are in advanced merger talks, according to Korean financial news media. The move appears intended to strengthen the home-grown platforms, which currently trail streaming market leader Netflix. The Korean Economic Daily reported Wednesday that CJ ENM, the largest shareholder in TVing, and SK Square, the biggest backer of Wavve, could strike an agreement as early as next week.

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.

Death’s Game, starring Seo In-guk and Park So-dam. Here’s everything you need to know about the new Korean series.Based on a Naver webtoon of the same name, Death’s Game will follow a young man named Choi Yi-jae (Seo In-guk), who tries to take his life after losing his savings in a bitcoin scam.However, Yi-jae’s indifference towards dying offends Death (Parasite’s Park So-dam), and she decides to punish him with a game: Yi-jae has to experience 12 lives and deaths before he is sent to hell.However, Yi-jae learns that he will be able to live on if he manages to evade death in any of the 12 lives.

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

Single’s Inferno.Single’s Inferno follows a group of singles as they live together on a remote island dubbed Inferno, where they try to find love while keeping their personal details hidden from one other.The only way to make it off the island and get themselves to Paradise, which is characterised by luxurious hotel suites, is to find romance by pairing themselves with another contestant.The new trailer for the popular reality dating show’s new season previews a number of the contestants, including one that the panel of emcees describe as “look[ing] like [BLACKPINK‘s] Jennie”.Season 3 of Single’s Inferno will also see season 2 contestant Kim Jin-young – better known as DEX – joining the show as the fifth member of its panel of emcees.DEX will join the reality show’s four original hosts: TV personality Hong Jin-kyung, Island actress Lee Da-hee, Super Junior member Kyuhyun and former Phantom member Hanhae.The third season of Single’s Inferno will premiere December 12 exclusively on Netflix. The number of episodes that the new season will feature is currently unknown.The first season of the reality series debuted in December 2021 and ran for eight episodes.

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

A reality version of Netflix’s Korean thriller hit Squid Game has been hailed as “the most gripping reality TV since The Traitors” - yet scored a shockingly low score with critics on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

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’.

OK! has put together a comprehensive guide to the shopping event with answers to common questions like when is Black Friday 2023? As we embrace the cold season and temperatures are finally dropping, maintaining the hydration and well-being of our skin should be at the top of our list, and no other beauty trend focuses on skin barrier health and high levels of hydration like the Korean beauty-inspired 'glass skin'.This trend has been going viral on TikTok for quite some time now and all it revolves around is upping the level of your skin's hydration to the maximum in order to create a glossy, dewy finish that will make you look gorgeous, while at the same time taking care of your skin barrier repairing where necessary and ensuring that moisture is effectively locked in. Korean beauty-inspired routines have been popular for a minute and if there is one product that TikTokers swear by for achieving glass-looking skin is the COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, now £12 here, which is currently 45% off in a great Black Friday deal.

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.

Netflix has launched Squid Game: The Challenge, a new reality game show based on the hit Korean drama Squid Game.In the fictional series, players participated in challenges based on children’s games in a bid to take home a $4.56million cash prize. However, should they lose the games, the consequences were fatal.Squid Game: The Challenge takes that concept and pits 456 players against each other in a series of games inspired by the original show, as well as some new surprises.

My Man is Cupid, starring Mask Girl‘s Nana and Daily Dose of Sunshine‘s Jang Dong-yoon.The series revolves around Chun Sang-hyuk (played by Jang Dong-yoon), a cupid who has been stuck on Earth for 500 years after losing his wings. He starts off as a stoic being unable to get over his first love, but things quickly change when he accidentally shoots himself with one of his arrows.He somehow crosses paths with Oh Baek-ryun (Nana), a veterinarian who is incredibly sought after for her beauty.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief BTS, the biggest act in K-pop and one of the world’s hottest contemporary music acts, will be forced into hiatus through 2024 and much of 2025 after it was confirmed Wednesday that four band members — RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook — will imminently enlist in the Korean military. The four follow Jin, who enlisted in December last year, J-Hope (April) and Suga, who have already begun their mandatory military service. The news was announced by Big Hit Music via social media.

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

The Princess of Wales turned heads on Tuesday, 21 November as she sported an all-red ensemble at Horse Guards Parade complete with a statement hat. Kate, 41, attended a ceremonial welcome for The President and the First Lady of the Republic of Korea in London on Tuesday.

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. 

ABS-CBN Entertainment and regional streamer Viu are teaming on a Philippines remake of CJ ENM’s hit romcom series What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim. 

Stray Kids have scored their first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 with their new single, ‘LALALALA’.Today (November 21), Billboard confirmed Stray Kids’ new achievement in a tweet through its official Billboard Charts account. ‘LALALALA’ makes its debut on the Hot 100 at Number 90 this week.Notably, this makes Stray Kids the second-ever K-pop boyband to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, following BTS.

Thania Garcia Stray Kids returns to the peak of Billboard’s 200 albums chart with its eight-song mini album “Rock-Star.” It becomes the eight-member K-pop outfit’s second No. 1 album this year with the equivalent of 224,000 albums sold throughout the United States. “Rock-Star,” with lyrics in both English and Korean, is only the sixth mostly non-English album to have hit No.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Korean star Jung Woo-sung (“A Moment to Remember”) will star opposite Shin Hyun-been (“Hospital Playlist”) in “Tell Me That You Love Me,” an original series for Genie TV. The show is a remake of the hit Japanese series of the same name that first aired at Tokyo Broadcasting Systems linear channel in Japan some 28 years ago in 1995. The new show will upload to Genie’s own streaming service on Nov. 27 and the same day in Japan on Disney+.

ADOR, the label behind K-pop girl group NewJeans, has announced its new global auditions.On November 20, the HYBE Labels subsidiary shared a new poster announcing its auditions, which are open to applicants of all genders and nationalities between the ages of 2004 to 2011.The official audition site can be viewed here in English, Korean and Japanese. Per instructions on the website, applicants are required to submit a waist-up and full body shot, as well as a one-minute or longer video.Unlike its previous auditions, which allowed applicants to submit in categories of singing, rapping and dancing, or in a “free category” that includes acting, modelling and vlogging.

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.

Crush has made his debut appearance on ‘Tiny Desk Korea’.Crush made his first appearance on the international version of the iconic NPR series during the November 17 episode, opening his set with the song ‘New Day’. The track is a cut from his latest album ‘wonderego’, which he released last week.“To everyone who came to ‘Tiny Desk Korea’ today, I sincerely welcome you once again,” he said during an introduction portion of the set.

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.

BIBI and Latin pop artist Becky G have teamed up for a new single titled ‘Amigos’.The ‘Amigos’ visual features the duo taking a drive to a house party together, where they lounge by the pool, singing to the sensual new track. As the sun goes down, they take the party to a bonfire, dancing and driving figure-eights.The new song features Becky G singing in Spanish before BIBI joins in her native Korean.