‘The Novelist’s Film’ Review: Another Mischievous, Meandering Conversation on Life, Art and Drinking From Hong Sangsoo

The US version of the Eurovision Song Contest has secured some big-name contestants, with Michael Bolton, Macy Gray, Jewel and Sisqó all confirmed to be competing in the inaugural competition, which launches this month.

TWICE member Jihyo is set to contribute a song to the soundtrack of the ongoing coming-of-age K-drama Twenty Five Twenty One. Studio MaumC, the production company in charge of the Twenty Five Twenty One soundtrack, announced today (March 4) that the TWICE vocalist would be releasing a new ballad track titled ‘Stardust Love Song’ over the weekend on March 6, per Korea JoongAng Daily.Notably, ‘Stardust Love Song’ will be Jihyo’s first-ever solo song, as well as her first time contributing to a soundtrack of a TV series. Other musicians that have lent their voices to the soundtrack include NCT’s Taeil, BIBI, SEVENTEEN’s DK and more.A snippet of ‘Stardust Love Song’ had been teased during the most recent episode of Twenty Five Twenty One, which premiered on both South Korean cable network tvN and Netflix on February 27.Twenty Five Twenty One, which airs every Saturday and Sunday, tells the story of five characters as they navigate adulthood, romance and their dreams from 1998 to 2021.

aespa dominate the ceremony, with the quartet taking home the Rookie Of The Year award, as well as Song Of The Year and Best K-Pop song for ‘Next Level’. IU, meanwhile, bagged Best Pop Album for ‘Lilac’ and was one of the Best Pop Song awardees for ‘Nakka’, her collaboration with AKMU.In addition, BTS took home the Artist of the Year award for the third time in their career.

One for the record books! Squid Game swept the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards with wins in nearly every category it was nominated for on Sunday, February 27 — and in doing so, earned a place in Hollywood history.

Tonight’s ceremony is only the 28th for the SAG Awards, but in that time SAG has proven a key port in the Oscar storm in terms of seeing the Academy eventually come close to matching the acting choices of this guild, which has a massive 124,000 eligible voters — well beyond just actors but also television personalities in news and other jobs who also get to cast a ballot ever since the merger with AFTRA. That makes it all a little less predictable in terms of matching Oscar, as well as Emmy, but still the track record is impressive.

Variety, Yang discussed his vision for TVING – a streaming service backed by Korean media giant CJ ENM, search engine Naver and cable network JTBC – following a banner year of 60 per cent subscriber growth in 2021. The CEO also touched on the global growth of Korean content and how he plans on challenging Netflix, both at home and abroad.“It’s a game of capital,” Yang said of potential growth in the streaming space.

The first trailer for “Pachinko” has been released, offering a first look at the upcoming Apple TV+ adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s sprawling multigenerational saga chronicling how one family’s journey from Korea to America over the course of decades, told in three different languages: Korean, Japanese and English.

Love Is Blind, which has contestants get to know each other from “pods” without seeing each other or meeting in person. Couples get engaged, meet IRL, and then try to make it working the city they live in together. The hope is that, by the end, they'll get married.

They forgot her f–king birthday! Molly Ringwald lived out a scene from Sixteen Candles when her mother forgot her birthday.

Many of Hong Sang-soo’s films are structured around a woman’s solitary wanderings. The single ladies played by Kim Min-Hee in “On the Beach at Night Alone” or “The Woman Who Ran,” or Lee Hye-Young in “In Front of Your Face,” are free radicals, moving from encounter to encounter and disrupting the equilibrium of the people they meet, as meandering conversations reveal a friend’s dissatisfaction or a couple’s disagreement.

Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. rights to The Novelist’s Film, the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner from South Korean writer-director Hong Sangsoo, which recently made its world premiere at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival. The film is the third Silver Bear winner in as many years from Hong—who won Best Director for The Woman Who Ran in 2020 and Best Screenplay for Introduction in 2021—and will be the 11th of the director’s works released by Cinema Guild in the last seven years.

Here’s another walking-and-talking film from festival favorite Hong Sang-soo, encapsulating a sliver of Korean life with his customary elusive delicacy. Shot largely in creamy black and white, Berlin competition entry The Novelist’s Film centers on the meeting between two artists who, for different reasons, have simply stopped working.

All Of Us Are Dead has logged its third week atop Netflix’s Global Top 10 weekly viewership charts.Data from the streaming service shows that the zombie thriller K-drama series logged 113.2million hours viewed for the week of February 7 to 13. Notably, the show topped had the charts just three days after its premiere on January 28, logging 124.7million hours viewed for the week of January 24 to 30.Other K-dramas on the list include romance series Our Beloved Summer, which is currently ranked ninth on the list, with 11.9million hours viewed.

ViacomCBS unveiled a slew of new news Tuesday during an investor day presentation that followed the release of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings.

Tablo of South Korean hip-hop trio Epik High has voiced his appreciation for BTS and their leader RM.On the evening of Valentine’s Day (February 14), BTS’ leader RM shared several screenshots on Instagram Stories of himself listening to ‘Gray So Gray’ and ‘BRB’, two songs from Epik High’s new studio album, which dropped on the same day.“Oh they’re here..,” he captioned on a screenshot ‘Gray So Gray’, which is the lead single of the new record. In the Instagram Story, Rm also tagged the members of Epik High and featuring vocalist Younha.A fan soon posted a screenshot of RM’s Instagram Story on Twitter, which was later noticed by the Korean-Canadian musician.

It’s not only Pete Davidson who has to watch out if Kanye Wet rolls up to 30 Rock.

Naman Ramachandran Protagonist Pictures has closed multiple deals for several key territories on Sundance selection and Berlin Film Festival competition title “Call Jane.”Territories sold include DCM for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Umbrella Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand, Mis.label for Scandinavia, Eagle for Italy, Shaw for Singapore and Empire for South Africa.Directed by Phyllis Nagy, the Oscar nominated writer of “Carol,” the film stars Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara and Chris Messina. The film follows Joy (Banks), a traditional 1960s housewife who unexpectedly falls pregnant and finds the Janes, an underground abortion movement led by Virginia (Weaver).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAlmost two years since “Parasite” won a handful of Oscars, the impact of COVID has meant that the Korean theatrical sector has been largely unable to capitalize on the trickle-down effect of those wins. Its current malaise stands in contrast to the pandemic windfalls enjoyed by other parts of the Korean entertainment biz — think BTS, Blackpink, “Squid Game” and the latest streaming phenomenon “All of Us Are Dead.”The current year potentially holds great things for Korean film, with nearly all of the country’s top-name directors having completed works, but the prospect remains tantalizingly out of reach.And the longer the hard times continue, the less likely a return to the old normal becomes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe impact of COVID-19 was ingrained throughout the annual financial results of CJ ENM, the most diversified entertainment company in South Korea. Music gained ground, while film was lossmaking. Similarly, the group’s streaming business rapidly grew its top line, but its heavy investment costs kept the unit in the red.For the year to end of December 2021, CJ ENM recorded a 5% increase in sales, to KRW3.55 trillion ($2.97 billion), and a 9% increase in operating profit, at KRW297 billion ($248 million), it sais in a regulatory filing on Thursday.