Since “Confidential Assignment 2: International" is Korean top star Hyun Bin’s first film that he is presenting to the public since he exchanged nuptials with Son Ye-jin, lots of questions about their newlywed life were posed during a group interview with local reporters on Thursday via Zoom. While trying to keep most of their personal life private -- he feels being married and becoming a father do not seem to have much impact on his career yet -- Hyun Bin said he did a

    NCT 127 will mark the release of fourth full album with a showcase in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province on Sept. 16, announced label SM Entertainment on Friday. At the event “Faster,” the band will put on a series of performances including those for “2 Baddies,” titular track from the upcoming LP, and “Kick It,” one of its hits. It will be broadcast live as well via Beyond Live. The LP comes about 11 months since “Favorite,” reissue of th

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, has long been a global phenomenon around the globe. Amid the continued success of Korean content and the never-ending growing popularity of K-pop, the local entertainment industry has offered an exciting content strategy to meet the Hallyu fans' demand. The content business lead of Hybe, the K-pop powerhouse behind boy band BTS, believes that producing K-pop artist-driven content has largely contributed to enlarging global fandoms, as well as the spread of Korean cult

Le Sserafim is preparing for a new album due in the fall, according to a local media report Thursday. Agency Source Music confirmed the group is getting ready to for a return to the scene following the report, but did not provide any specifics. It will be the first album since the group reorganized into a quintet. Kim Garam left in July after her school bullying rumors stirred up controversy. The group debuted amid much hype in May and largely lived up to the anticipation. The band’s debu

  Veteran filmmaker Kwak Kyung-taek, best known for directing 2001 box-office hit “Friend,” has taken on new challenges in his new audio movie, “Far East.” “There were challenges that I did not expect. For instance, I had to make sure that the voice of actors who play minor roles do not sound similar to main cast members,” Kwak said in an online press conference Thursday. Also, in action scenes it was not easy directing actors to control their breath i

Voices of concern are mounting over a megasized BTS concert in Busan, as problems stemming from an influx of concertgoers remain unresolved ahead of the event’s launch in October. On Oct. 15, under the title "BTS ‘Yet to Come’ in Busan," the K-pop septet will hold a concert in Gijang-gun of Busan as part of an effort to support the coastal city in its bid to host the 2030 World Expo. The seven members of BTS are honorary ambassadors of the 2030 Busan World Expo. Th

Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform, has rebranded its flagship Korean hip-hop playlist “K-Hip-Hop+82” to “KrOWN,” the company said Wednesday. K-Hip-Hop +82 was first launched in April 2017 as Spotify’s first-ever editorial playlist focusing on South Korea’s East-meets-West music. The playlist on the platform presents the latest and most famous Korean hip-hop tracks on the playlist. The word is a coined term combining “Korea,&r

    Key of SHINee landed atop the iTunes top albums chart in 23 regions with his second solo studio album. The LP “Gasoline” consists of 11 tracks including the titular track, which compares the explosive power of fuel to Key making his own way without hesitation, to an addictive hip-hop beat. The veteran idol wrote the words himself. The LP is his first solo work since first EP “Bad Love” that ranked No. 1 on iTunes top albums chart in 32 regions. His firs

Members of the Directors Guild of Korea on Wednesday gathered at the National Assembly Members' Office Building to talk about why the current Copyright Act should be revised for fair remuneration of filmmakers’ work and Korean movies' further global success. The event was jointly hosted by the DGK and Yoo Jung-ju, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea. At the beginning of the meeting, director Park Chan-wook, who is currently in Los Angeles, joined via videoconference to show his su

TOKYO -- Under the starry, lofty dome of Japan’s largest concert venue, it was made crystal clear during a concert that ran over four hours with a whopping 41-song setlist: SM Entertainment, one of Korea’s largest entertainment agencies, has not only successfully recaptured the spirit of its early heydays, but also embodied the pinnacle of collective power made possible by bringing together various music genres. The label’s joint label concert, dubbed "SMTown Live 2022 :

Broadcast Worldwide 2022, an annual event showcasing South Korean content and insights to the broadcast industry around the world, kicked off its three-day run at Art Hall 1 and 2 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Jung-gu, Seoul. With its two previous events held in online, BCWW was excited to welcome the industry insiders and visitors. Wednesday’s opening day event began with a session on the power and future of K-contents, featuring Lee Sang-baek, CEO of Astory, the production company behind

With the ambition to localize K-pop, NCT 127 has successfully carved its musical path with ‘no easy’ sounds

As The Walt Disney Company celebrates 100 years, pianist Lang Lang is set to release “The Disney Book,” which contains 27 songs from the entertainment giant’s iconic films. 　Speaking to Korean reporters on Tuesday in an online interview, Lang Lang said the project took him several years as he and his production team tried to make sure the new arrangement would be on par with the music of great composers like Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and so on. 　“I always w

Surviving the cutthroat K-pop industry is a daunting challenge for any group. It has been about nine months since rookie girl group Ive began its musical career, and the six-piece act not only surviving, but thriving in the K-pop scene. According to Aug. 22-28 data from local album sales tracker Hanteo Chart published Monday, Ive sold 924,363 copies of its third single "After Like" in the first week of its release. While first-week sales tallies usually indicate the size and loyalty

Blackpink’s single “Pink Venom” hit Billboard’s Hot 100 at No. 22, according to the publication on Monday in the US.  This is the highest spot for a K-pop female act, although the group’s collaboration with Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream,” ranked No. 13 on the chart in 2020. The previous record holder was Blackpink’s “How You Like That” at No. 33. “Pink Venom” is the pre-release from the quartet’s upcoming second stu