Red Velvet’s Joy and Choo Young-woo to lead new romance K-drama ‘Accidental Country Diary’

Parasite star and this year’s Cannes Best Actor winner Song Kang-ho has been confirmed for his first-ever Korean drama role of his 32-year career.On August 30, production company Slingshot Studio announced that Song has accepted a role in its upcoming K-drama series titled Uncle Sam Shik.The upcoming role will mark the critically acclaimed actor’s first-ever K-drama role of his acting career, which first began in 1990. Song spent the first six years of his career starring in theatre productions before making his film debut in 1996 with The Day a Pig Fell into the Well.According to Asia Gyeongje, the upcoming 10-episode series will follow the “bromance” between a pair of longtime friends, Sam Shik and Kim San, who survived South Korea’s turbulent 1960s period together.Uncle Sam Shik will be directed by Shin Yeon-shik, whom Song recently worked with on upcoming films One Win and Cobweb, which are currently in post-production.Best known for his roles in the films Thirst, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer and Parasite, the 55-year-old became the first South Korean male actor to win the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his recent drama film, Broker.The film, directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda and also starring K-pop idol IU, received a 12-minute standing ovation after its premiere screening at the festival earlier this year.“Winning an award from such a prestigious festival as Cannes is a great and happy moment, an unforgettable turning point of my life,” said Song during a recent interview.However, the actor added: “I have won the award, but that itself cannot become the purpose.

Netflix and tvN have unveiled a new trailer for the upcoming South Korean TV adaptation of Little Women.Set to premiere this weekend, the new K-drama series follows three sisters, In-ju (Yumi’s Cells star Kim Go-eun), In-kyeong (100 Days My Prince’s Nam Ji-hyun) and In-hye (All Of Us Are Dead’s Park Ji-hu), who grew up in poverty. As the story progresses, the trio will go against one of the nation’s wealthiest families.The newly released trailer offers a glimpse into the lives of each sister: In-hye, the youngest, is a student at a prestigious arts high school, but cannot afford the same luxuries her peers enjoy.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Intra-Korean espionage actioner “Hunt” claimed a third weekend as the top film at the South Korea box office, while “Bullet Train” managed only a fourth-place opening. “Hunt,” directed by and starring “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, earned a lowly $2.91 million in its third weekend of release. The figure was a 48% weekend-on-weekend decline and saw the film’s market share decline to 33%, down from 47% the previous weekend. “Hunt” now has a cumulative of $28.7 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing film of the year to date and the third biggest Korean title.

Weki Meki member Choi Yoo-jung is preparing to make her official debut as a soloist.Today (August 23), South Korean news outlet EDaily reported that the idol is currently in the “final stages” of preparations for her official solo debut. While further details such as its release date and format have not been officially announced, Choi’s debut record is reportedly due out in September.The Weki Meki singer’s upcoming solo release comes after a string of collaborations and K-drama soundtrack contributions in recent years, the latest being her digital single ‘UH-RA’, a collaboration with rapper Ahn Byung-woong that arrived earlier this month.Choi also featured on the B-side ‘Lazy’ from Fantagio Music labelmates ASTRO’s subunit JinJin and Rocky’s debut mini-album ‘Restore’ in January.In 2021, she appeared on the track ‘It Wasn’t Me’ in SM Entertainment record producer and DJ Raiden’s first mini-album ‘Love Right Back’, which included features from NCT’s Taeil and Xiaojun, (G)I-DLE’s Miyeon and rapper pH-1, among others.Choi first rose to fame in 2016, after appearing on the first season of Produce 101.

Our Beloved Summer, Parasite) and Son Suk-ku (Our Liberation Notes, D.P) are set to star in Netflix’s upcoming South Korean thriller series Murder DIEary.On August 19, Netflix Korea confirmed that Choi and Son would be leading the cast of its upcoming drama adaption of the hit thriller webtoon of the same name by NOMABI.Choi will star as its lead character, Lee Tang, a college student-turned-killer. He learns that all his victims had been criminals themselves, leading him to believe he has an innate urge to sense and eliminate evildoers.Investigating the killings is Gang Nan-gam (played by Son), a police detective said to have “animal-like instincts”.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Hunt,” the period political thriller directed by “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, held top spot at the South Korea box office for the second weekend. “Nope” was the highest opener, landing in third spot.“Hunt,” made $5.68 million over the weekend, down 35% compared with its opening score a week earlier.

Good Job, starring Girls’ Generation’s Yuri, has been released.Good Job is a new mystery series that chronicles a romance between rich businessman Eun Sun-woo (Jung Il-woo), who leads a second life as a detective, and Don Se-ra (Yuri), a woman who has “super vision”.The new teaser released by South Korean streaming platform ENA introduces us to the series’ main characters. The confident Sun-woo leads his double life, but in comes Se-ra, who declares: “You can deceive ghosts but you can’t deceive my eyes.” The teaser showcases her ability to zoom in on things from afar with just her eyes, which is met with shock from Sun-woo, who asks her: “Are you some kind of eagle? Ostrich? Or are you a human telescope?”The clip also introduces side characters Yang Jin-mo (Eum Moon-suk), Sun-woo’s long-time best friend, who is the only person who knows about both of his occupations.

Once Upon A Small Town, starring Red Velvet’s Joy.The new visual gives us a glimpse into the greenery of Heedong Village, as the series’ two leads – veterinarian Han Ji-yool (Choo Young-woo) and policewoman Ahn Ja-young (Joy) – emerge from the trees and admire the produce.Each of the characters introduce themselves and their respective occupations, before they’re asked about their dating lives. While Ja-young tells the interviewer that she has no time for romance, Ji-yool tells them that he in fact has someone in mind, the clip including shots of him staring at Ja-young from afar.Based on a web novel of the same name by Park Ha-min, Once Upon A Small Town (whose title was previously reported as Accidental Country Diary) depicts a romance between a man from Seoul and a policewoman from the countryside.

Hunt will get a US theatrical release in December.On August 15, Deadline reported that film distributor Magnolia Pictures has acquired US rights to the South Korean film Hunt and is currently planning a December theatrical release.The spy-action film notably marks the directorial debut of veteran actor Lee Jung-jae, who gained significant international recognition for his role in Netflix’s 2021 hit series Squid Game. He also wrote the screenplay for Hunt, which is set in the ’80s at the height of South Korea’s military dictatorship.Lee also stars in the film alongside with Jung Woo-sung as intelligence agents tasked with hunting down a North Korean spy embedded in their agency.

EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures has snapped up domestic rights to Hunt, the feature directorial from Squid Game Emmy nominated star Lee Jung-jae, which made its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Midnight section.

Junny has unveiled his new single ‘Not About You’, the title track off his newly released album ‘blanc’.On August 12 at 6pm KST, the Korean-Canadian musician dropped the full-length record alongside an accompanying music video for ‘Not About You’, which features Junny and a love interest going through the highs and lows of a romantic relationship.“I ain’t talking about you / Are you still wishing that I’ll be / Writing about all of our memories? / This is the one and only time / I’ll be talking about you,” he croons in the chorus.Consisting of nine brand-new songs, Junny wrote and composed the ‘blanc’ album himself, while the songs ‘Not About You’, ‘Obvious’, ‘Mugshot’, ‘boyhood’ and ‘OH!!.’ credit him on arrangements. minGtion, a frequent Junny collaborator and a producer for NCT, Taeyeon and Red Velvet, also worked on a number of tracks on the record.‘blanc’ marks Junny’s first-ever full-length album since he debuted as a singer in 2017; prior to this, he had only ever released singles and mini-albums, with the most recent record being the two-part ‘Vivid’ series of mini-albums in 2019.The new record was also preceded by two pre-release singles: ‘Get Ya!’ and ‘Color Me’.

BLACKPINK are continuing the hype for their imminent new single, ‘Pink Venom’, sharing a series of posters evoking the character-centric teaser sheets for Hollywood blockbusters.All four members of the South Korean girl group – which consists of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa – have been given their own poster. Each one shows the respective member staring sensually into the camera while she poses, with an aesthetic overlay of cracked glass.The posters were shared on Twitter overnight, reconfirming that ‘Pink Venom’ will drop at 1pm KST (or 5am London time) on Friday August 19.Have a look at all four of the new posters below:The release of ‘Pink Venom’ was confirmed on Monday (August 8), when fans were given the option to pre-save it on Spotify and Apple Music.

Netflix has released a batch of first-look images for Season 5 of featuring The Karate Kid Part III star Sean Kanan returning to the ‘Miyagi-Verse’ as Mike Barnes, and Alicia Hannah-Kim’s debut as South Korean sensei, Kim Da-Eun.

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae has re-edited an international version of his upcoming directorial debut Hunt to suit a global audience.South Korean media outlet Yonhap News Agency reported on August 3 that Lee had revised several key lines and scenes in the film following its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in order to contextualise the film’s political setting for global audiences.An international version of Hunt will now see the addition of further elaboration of South Korean politics in the ’80s. “When writing the script of Hunt, I set younger generations in South Korea who learn about the era from history textbooks as the target audience.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLee Jung-jae, the Korean actor who has received an Emmy nomination for his role in Netflix hit series “Squid Game,” has re-edited “Hunt,” the film that marked his feature directorial debut. The new version will play at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.“Hunt,” a 1980s-set espionage thriller about rival agents from North and South Korea, had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

IZ*ONE member and soloist Choi Yena has released the music video for ‘Smartphone’, the title track of her sophomore mini-album of the same name.In the vibrant visual, Choi is a gamer who guides an avatar of herself through a playground filled with whimsical mascots, eventually stopping at a shooting game inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise.“Mix and match as you like / Airplane in my hands / No matter where you’re going or what you’re going to do, get connected / This star is too narrow to contain me,” Choi sings.Apart from the title track, ‘Smartphone’ includes four other songs – two of which credit Choi as lyrics co-writer. The idol is credited as one of the writers for B-sides ‘Make U Smile’ and ‘WithOrWithout’, as well as title track ‘Smartphone’.

EXCLUSIVE: North America is getting its latest free streaming service later this month. Mometu, which is marketing itself as a “hand curated” on-demand live streaming platform, will launch on August 19 and has secured free streaming rights to South Korean feature The Policeman’s Lineage.