Red Velvet unveil teasers for first-ever Japanese studio album ‘Bloom’

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn the day before Thanksgiving 2021, Variety interviewed Michelle Zauner about her close friend Sasami and her new album “Squeeze” for our “Up Next” series — and since Zauner had just received two Grammy nominations two days before, we asked her about those as well, along with the success of her moving memoir about the death of her mother, “Crying in H Mart” and its forthcoming film, her songwriting process, and what might be coming next.We’d originally thought that we’d be publishing this article just a few weeks later, in advance of the Grammys Awards that were then scheduled for January 31, but the pandemic had other plans; the awards are now taking place this Sunday, April 3, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Regardless, Zauner’s comments on all of the above are relevant and a revealing look at her creative and craft processes and inspirations — and check out our “Up Next” video on Sasami here.

Japanese with updates from their country that bring the harsh realities of war closer to Japan.The Russian invasion of Ukraine began just after the duo, Sava Tkachov, 26, and his younger brother Yan, 20, celebrated the second anniversary of their YouTube debut with subscribers exceeding 2 million for their Sawayan Channel and Sawayan Games that Sava hosts.The first word of war came from their father, a business consultant who had returned to Kyiv two months ago just before Russian troops rolled in and has stayed since to help defend his country. The siblings’ YouTube content, which used to be full of pranks, jokes and action videos, has become more serious.Worried about their 53-year-old father and friends in Ukraine, the brothers in early March announced on their channel that they planned to volunteer as defenders too.

making a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's hair loss during the Oscars. Reports now suggest that Rock didn't know about Jada's alopecia.

Japanese Breakfast has shared a cover of Bon Iver‘s ‘Skinny Love’ as part of the Spotify Singles series, highlighting this year’s Best New Artist Grammy nominees. Listen to the track below.“We decided to record Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ because it felt like a very surprising cover for Japanese Breakfast,” Michelle Zauner said.

Doubling down on investment and expanding its offer in Japan, Prime Video has unveiled a slate of new Japanese originals including a reboot of iconic game show Takeshi’s Castle and a local adaptation of anthology series Modern Love. The streamer revealed the lineup at a showcase event in Tokyo today, where it also announced it will livestream the World Bantamweight title fight between Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire on June 7.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFlorence + the Machine are set to play an extended run of headline dates later this year, kicking off September 2 in Montreal with further stops including New York’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl and many more. One dollar from every ticket sold will benefit Choose Love to aid refugees worldwide.The group has assembled a formidable array of up-and-coming support acts at select dates on the tour: Arlo Parks, Sam Fender, King Princess, Yves Tumor, Japanese Breakfast and Wet Leg will join as support on select dates throughout the tour.

Florence + the Machine, the celebrated British pop act helmed by Florence Welsh, will tour across the United States later in 2022. Each show will be opened by one of the following acts: Japanese Breakfast, Yves Tumor, Arlo Parks, Wet Leg, Sam Fender, and King Princess.

Not surprisingly, the most celebrated film of the year took one of the most coveted Oscars in the world. No, this isn’t about “Power of the Dog” or the Best Picture race.

Shinji Aoyama, the Japanese film director, writer and composer known for the film “Eureka,” which won him two prizes at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, died March 21 in Tokyo after a battle with esophageal cancer, according to local reports. He was 57.Aoyama made waves in the international film community when he premiered “Eureka” at Cannes.

Netflix’s upcoming original South Korean film Yaksha: Ruthless Operations has arrived.The brand-new visual opens with a shot of the neon-lit Chinese city of Shenyang, as a voiceover briefs special inspector Ji-hoon (played by Squid Game‘s Park Hae-soo) for an assignment that requires him to shadow a secret black ops team.We then dive into the action-packed predicaments of the black ops team, led by Ji Kang-in (Sol Kyung-gu), also known as the Yaksha. The team butt heads with antagonist “D7” Ozawa (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), a Japanese spy disguised as a lobbyist who has a particularly bad history with the Yaksha.Also starring GOT7‘s Jinyoung (Yumi’s Cells), Yang Dong-geun (Lost), Lee El (Love And Leashes) and Song Jae-rim (Work Later, Drink Now), Yaksha: Ruthless Operations follows the team and their unwilling inspector in search of a high-ranking North Korean official who has gone missing.

A live-action feature adaptation of Voltron, co-written and to be directed by Red Notice‘s Rawson Marshall Thurber, has sparked a bidding war among both studios and streamers, Deadline can confirm.

Manori Ravindran International Editor“Dexter” and “The Blacklist” producer Daniel Cerone has boarded the U.K. adaptation of Japanese crime drama format “Connected,” Variety can reveal.The veteran producer is overseeing the U.K.

Lady Gaga is the lady of the night at the 2022 New York Film Critics Circle Awards!

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.From sound engineers and screenwriters to celebrity makeup artists and stylists, Variety’s new series “Ask an Insider” will ask top professionals within the entertainment industry to share their must-have essentials, for work… and for play. In this installment, Michelle Zauner, the lead singer and songwriter behind the indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, shares her love for the Fender electric guitars she plays on stage, as well as her other tour essentials.Japanese Breakfast’s third studio album “Jubilee,” as the name would suggest, is about joy — a thematic departure from Michelle Zauner’s distinctly somber, melancholic music that lends itself to an entirely new sonic landscape.

Japanese Breakfast‘s Michelle Zauner has joked about comparisons between a new Machine Gun Kelly album cover and her 2021 album, ‘Jubilee’.Kelly’s sixth studio album, ‘Mainstream Sellout’, was announced yesterday (March 14) with a track-list and album art being shared. Upon the reveal of the cover art, Rolling Stone drew a parallel between it and the cover of ‘Jubilee’ for its positioning and placement of coloured tomatoes.Zauner initially responded to the comparisons via Twitter, joking that she had stumbled into the “feud of the year” on account of them.

Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner has shared an update on the film adaptation of her 2021 memoir, Crying In H Mart.As announced in June last year, the musician is writing the screenplay for the film adaptation and the soundtrack under the moniker, Japanese Breakfast.Speaking to Consequence about her progress on the film, Zauner said: “So I actually just finished the first draft of the screenplay.“My producers really like it, so hopefully the revision process won’t be too brutal. And yeah, hopefully that will come out sometime in the next couple years.