Globally renowned filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 thriller “The Host” will reopen in a 4K remastered version in France on March 8. Prior to the release of the new version, director Bong will attend a masterclass event and meet with audiences on Feb. 26 and 27 in France, according to industry sources. The event will take place at Le Grand Rex theater in Paris on Feb. 26 and at Institut Lumiere in Lyon on Feb. 27. Director Bong will meet with the audience in Paris on Feb. 26 with T

K-pop diva BoA will celebrate her 20th debut anniversary with fans by holding a concert in March. “BoA 20th Anniversary Live – THE BoA: Musicality,” her solo concert, will be held for two days from March 11 to 12 at the Olympic Hall in the Olympic Park in Jamsil, Seoul, according to SM Entertainment. This comes four years after the artist’s last solo concert in 2019 “#mood in SEOUL.” BoA, also known as the queen of performance, is expected to show powerful per

The rift between SM Entertainment and its founder Lee Soo-man continues to deepen as Lee called out the process of making Kakao the company's second-largest shareholder an “act of illegality.” On Tuesday, SM Entertainment and South Korean tech giant Kakao announced a partnership that involved Kakao acquiring a 9.05 percent stake in the K-pop powerhouse. The share acquisition amounts to more than 217 billion won ($173.12 million). The partnership was a trilateral deal between SM

Two companies seek synergy in global business

Seventeen’s three-piece unit BSS sold over 478,000 copies of its first single on the first day of release. This tops the first-week sales record for an album from a K-pop band subunit, according to agency Pledis Entertainment on Tuesday. Single “Second Wind” -- from Seungkwan, Dogyeom and Hoshi -- came out Monday, about five years since their digital single “Just Do It.” Lead track “Fighting” from the three-track album landed atop iTunes top songs chart

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of pansori being registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, four pansori singers -- three foreign singers and their teacher Min Hye-sung -- performed at Seoul Namsan Gugakdang on Saturday. Min, a certified trainer of pansori, National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 5, has been holding a month-long pansori workshop each year at Korean Cultural Centers across Europe since 2007. On the stage with Min on Saturday were her students Anna Yates-Lu from Ger

Jang Ho-gi, the man behind global streamer Netflix’s latest reality competition “Physical: 100,” said he wants to scour the world to find a contestant in top physical shape. “Though our show sought to find the fittest among 100 contestants of different gender, race and age, deciding the proportion of foreign-born contestants was difficult. Defining a foreign-born contestant itself was complicated as well,” Jang said in a press conference held at Community House Ma

Actor Song Joong-ki will appear as North Korean defector Loh Ki-wan in a new Netflix film titled “My Name is Loh Kiwan,” the global streaming service said in unveiling the cast for the film Tuesday. The film will depict Loh's struggles in Belgium as a new settler and his encounter with Mari (Choi Sung-eun) who has grown despondent about life and love. Song will play a North Korean defector for the first time in his 15-year career. He has shown great versatility in his filmograph

Since his debut in 2013, actor Lee Dong-hwi has played indispensable roles in TV dramas and films, including 2015 TVN series “Reply 1988” and 2019 comedy film “Extreme Job." From his short cameo appearance in director Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Broker” to Disney+ hit series “Big Bet,” Lee has impressed audiences with his witty but down-to-earth acting. In director Hyung Seul-woo’s feature film debut, “Maybe We Broke Up,” Lee plays J

K-pop legend Super Junior is in Latin America for its world tour “Super Show 9: Road.” The Latin American leg of its world tour begins on Tuesday in Santiago, Chile and will be followed by gigs in Brazil, Peru and Mexico. Super Junior’s ninth world tour began in July last year in Seoul, followed by performances in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Manila. This world tour comes for the first time in three years. It has also been five years since th

Prosecutors have summarily indicted a former foreign ministry employee on charges of attempting to sell BTS member Jungkook's lost hat online for 10 million won ($7,950), legal sources said Tuesday. The former government employee, whose identity has been withheld, allegedly shared a photo of the bucket hat on an online flea market, claiming the K-pop superstar had left it at the ministry building in Seoul when he visited to apply for a passport. The seller further said he had acquired the o

Baekhyun of EXO went live on the band’s YouTube channel Monday evening, a day after he completed his military service. He will chat with fans and share episodes from when he shot his own vlogs. He served his duty as a social service agent from May 2021 and was discharged Sunday. He uploaded a handwritten letter addressed to his fans last month, thanking them for not forgetting him and promising them that he is ready to give it his all. With Baekhyun back, the band is likely to make a full