South Korean composer Shin Dong-hoon has won the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize, a prestigious award from the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, organizers announced on Monday. Shin, 37, is the first Asian winner and the sixth recipient of the prize, named after Italy’s legendary conductor Claudio Abbado, who also served as the artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic. The award is given to young composers with outstanding talents, but does not designate a specific date or

Supergroup BTS once again outran its own track record as the summery single "Butter" ranked No. 1 on the latest Billboard's main singles chart for the third straight week. "Butter" holds at No. 1 with 15.4 million US streams and 138,400 downloads sold in the week ending June 10. It also attracted 24.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 10 percent) in the week ending June 13," Billboard said Monday (US time) on its Twitter account. The result beats the seven

UP10TION held an online media showcase event Monday to introduce its second full album, “Connection.” 　 “We are returning after a long while and I was so excited and nervous that I couldn’t sleep well,” confided Kuhn. The band members poured a lot into the new album, he added. 　 The new LP is a spinoff from last year’s ninth EP, “Light Up,” and comes in two versions -- “Silhouette” and “Illuminate.” The former focuses on th

K-pop boy band EXO has added another album to its list of million-selling albums with the latest release "Don't Fight the Feeling," its management agency said Tuesday. The EP, released last week, has sold 1.09 million copies as of Sunday, becoming the nine-member group's sixth million-selling album, according to SM Entertainment. The group first earned a million-selling album record with its debut studio album "XOXO (Kiss & Hug)" in 2013. "Don't Fight the Feeling&

K-pop boy band Tomorrow X Together (TXT) saw its latest album land at fifth place on the Billboard main albums chart in its best record since debut. "South Korean pop quintet Tomorrow x Together notches its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as 'The Chaos Chapter: Freeze' debuts at No. 5 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned," the Billboard reported Sunday (local time). Album sales accounted for a majority of the total with 39,000, while the remaining units came from digital

Not all expectant mothers experience a “pregnancy glow,” says director Kim Hye-mi, who hopes to highlight the tumultuous journey some pregnant women go through in her animated horror film “Climbing.” “I wanted to show that pregnancy not only has bright sides to it but a dark side to it as well. And I wanted to show is that we don’t have to always view it only positively,” Kim said during a recent interview with The Korea Herald. “I wanted to focu

Walt Disney Korea on Monday announced that Marvel superhero film “Black Widow” will be released globally on July 7, in theaters and its streaming service Disney+. Movie fans have long been waiting for news of the film’s release, its trailer was unveiled in March 2020. The release date of the film has been delayed multiple times due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Popular Avengers character Natasha Romanoff, known as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) appears in the new film

At the far end of a long, spooky hallway, a girl with long hair in a school uniform is standing still. As the creepy atmosphere conquers the space, the girl swiftly moves toward the audience. The well-known scene comes from the first “Whispering Corridors” movie, which came out in 1998. The signature scene was re-created in the upcoming “Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming,” which marks a return to the series after 12 years. “As I was making the film, I mostly us

Local film distributors are protesting the Korean Film Council’s decision to deny art film status to “Assassins,” a documentary about Kim Jong-nam’s assassination. Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and half brother of the country’s current leader, Kim Jong-un, fell out of favor with the regime and began living in exile in 2003. Reports said Kim Jong-nam lived in Macao before his death. The film centers on the events that took

Park Sae-eun, 32, was named Etoile at the Paris Opera Ballet on Friday. She is the first Asian ballet dancer to obtain the title, which means star dancer, in the company’s 352-year history. The announcement was made after the “Romeo and Juliet” ballet performance began Thursday at the Bastille Opera in France. Park played Juliet alongside Paul Marque, who was designated star dancer in December. In 2011, she became an official member of the elite dance company in France an

The bandmates of Twice discussed their 10th EP, “Taste of Love,” upon its release Friday. 　 It had been eight months since the band’s previous album, “Eyes Wide Open.” 　 “This is an album that took us a long time to make and consequently, expectations for the promotion are high,” said Jeongyeon. As many of their fans are looking forward to seeing something new, they would like to repay their fans with a range of fresh performances, she added. 　 The k

BTS, the seven-piece act that has emerged as the world's biggest boy band, is set to hold a two-day fan event in line with its eighth debut anniversary, the group's agency said Friday. BTS 2021 Muster Sowoozoo, now in its fifth round, will take place through online streaming on Sunday and Monday, according to Hybe. It marks the first mass fan event of its kind since one held in 2019. To make up for the online streaming, Hybe said the event will take place at an outdoor stage so that fans can f

South Korean actor Song Kang-ho has been named a jury member of this year's Cannes Film Festival, industry sources said Friday. The "Parasite" star recently accepted an offer to join the competition jury of the 74th edition of the world's most prestigious film festival, according to the sources. The full list of the jurors led by American filmmaker Spike Lee will be announced next week. Song will be the fifth Korean to be a member of Cannes' jury, following director Shin Sang-ok in

R&B singer-songwriter forms rock band with longtime friends

The country’s annual festival of short films is back, after an announcement earlier this year that it would be discontinued. Defying the odds, the 20th Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival will run June 24 to June 30. Some changes have been made to the weeklong event, however, as the ongoing pandemic batters the film industry. This year’s festival will not have competition categories. Instead, the festival will screen 20 films that made a mark in the event’s two-decade history