‘Aloners’ Review: A Contemporary Korean Woman Navigates Loss in Self-Imposed Isolation

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some 18 film industry guilds and trade associations are calling for urgent structural reform of the Busan International Film Festival. They point out that this year’s edition of the festival is looming less than 100 days away. The festival’s management has made a succession of management missteps in recent weeks, including one that resulted in an official apology. At the beginning of May, a decision to split the festival’s senior management in two by creating a new position for Cho Jongkook, was followed by consternation among guilds and the resignation of festival director Huh Moonyoung.

The viability of South Korea’s KBS is under threat due to government plans to alter its funding mechanism, according a public service media advocacy group.

AleXa has spoken out on the hate she has received has a half-Korean K-pop idol.In a recent livestream, as archived by fans on TikTok, AleXa opened up about being called the “White girl idol”. The singer also touched on how she feels she is treated differently from other half-Korean K-pop idols such as SEVENTEEN‘s Vernon, former MOMOLAND member Nancy and ex-I.O.I singer Jeon Somi.“Is it because I’m American that people choose to treat me differently and that I didn’t grow up in Korea?” AleXa said during the livestream.

During a three-day visit to Seoul, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streamer is fairly compensating producers and nurturing new talent, after calls from some local lawmakers and industry figures for more profit-sharing with creators. 

committed to invest US$2.5billion on new South Korean TV shows and films.“[Korean content] is very often unpredictable and catches the American audience by surprise,” Sarandos said at the event, per Variety. “I think what’s brilliant is to see film, unscripted and series all grow according to the interests of our Korean audience.”He added that “great stories can come from anywhere and be loved anywhere [and] nowhere has this proven more true than here in Korea”, per Yonhap News Agency.Over the past two years, Netflix has released a number of hit Korean series and films, from the global phenomenon Squid Game, to the thrilling revenge series The Glory, to the reality TV series Single’s Inferno.Sarandos added that 60 per cent of all Netflix subscribers have watched at least one Korean title, while viewership of Korean content is up sixfold over the past half decade.During the event, the Netflix co-CEO also spoke about how the company is looking to use its US$2.5billion investment plan to “grow the industry” in Korea.

Rebecca Souw There’s more to Korean TV than a greenlit second season of “Squid Game” and Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, shed new light on what’s making the “Korean wave” worthy of large-scale commitment. After meeting with leading helmer Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy” and upcoming series “War and Revolt”) and 100 film students a day earlier, Sarandos on Wednesday held a public forum at Seoul’s Four Seasons Hotel on the future of Korean content. The abundant glad-handing follows a public commitment made in April to spend $2.5 billion on original Korean content over the next four years. “[Korean content] is very often unpredictable and catches the American audience by surprise,” said Sarandos at the event. “I think what’s brilliant is to see film, unscripted and series all grow according to the interests of our Korean audience.”

Korean opera singer Choi Sung-bong, who has died at the age of 33. Korean Police believe he apparently died by suicide, according to the Yonhap news agency. Having shot to fame on Korea’s Got Talent, he went on to establish a successful singing career which made him famous in his homeland and beyond.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief C CGV, a company that is one of the world’s top ten cinema exhibitors and is also a major cinema technology developer, is to raise close to $800 million in order to shore up its finances after a devastating COVID era. The company operates the largest cinema chain in its native South Korea and has significant numbers of screens in Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and mainland China, with smaller operations in Myanmar and the U.S. It also owns CJ 4DPlex, which developed the technology for films to be augmented with practical effects, including motion-seats, wind, strobe-lights, simulated-snow, and scents. In addition, its ScreenX system provides screenings that use the side walls of an auditorium to create a 270-degree sensory experience.

Paramount+ crime-thriller Bargain, Prime Video’s absurdist comedy I’m a Virgo and Greek infertility dramedy Babython were among the awards series winners at last week’s Seriencamp in Germany.

Naman Ramachandran Paramount+ and Tving‘s Korean series “Bargain” has won the critics’ choice award at the Serien Camp Festival in Cologne. In April, “Bargain” became the first-ever Korean series to win best screenplay at the Canneseries Festival in France. The series stars actors Jun Jong-seo (“Money Heist: Korea”) and Jin Seon-kyu (“Extreme Job”) and is an adaptation of director Lee Chung-hyun’s 2015 short film of the same name. Director Jun Woo-sung, who was part of the production team of the short, picked up the story and developed it into a six-part series. “Bargain” revolves around a group of strangers who gather at a remote motel with ulterior motives – seeking to bargain. Unlike the original film, the series follows the characters after an unexpected earthquake traps them inside the building. With no one to trust, they must find a way to survive.

Gyeongseong Creature, Mask Girl, A Time Called You, Song of the Bandits, Doona!, Celebrity and Daily Dose of Sunshine.Netflix’s new video also previews the upcoming second seasons of hit K-dramas D.P and Sweet Home In addition, the clip also highlights the original Korean films Ballerina and Believer 2.All nine K-dramas and two films were previously announced by Netflix back in January 2023, when the streaming platform unveiled its slate of upcoming Korean dramas and movies set to premiere this year.Notably missing from the new preview are K-drama Goodbye Earth and feature film The Match, both of which had previously been slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2023. The two Netflix original properties star Yoo Ah-in of Hellbound fame.However, Yoo has since been dropped from Hellbound, following a police investigation in South Korea for illegal drug use.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Swiss-based, Chinese-owned Infront Sports & Media would handle broadcast right sales in much of Asia for the next series of Summer and Winter games. The deal covers 22 territories including Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – but not China, Japan or South Korea, and runs 2026-2032. That means it will cover the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Summer games. The 2030 Winter Olympics, which have yet to be allocated a host, and all Youth Olympic Games during this period will also be covered.

A New Wave of K-Cinema: Korean Women Directors,” The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is hoping to change that. Across the month of June, the Los Angeles museum is showing 10 contemporary Korean films made by women that “explore the complexities of diverse conditions, including the trauma of domestic violence, investigations into gender and class politics, humanity’s relation to nature and the environment, and love and friendship.” Hyesung ii, who organized “A New Wave of K-Cinema,” told TheWrap it is a series she has had in mind since she began working at the museum.

Jessica Kiang Over the course of his first three features — “Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season” and this year’s “Drift” — Singaporean director Anthony Chen has developed a signature style. It is a graceful, lucid classicism, a mode that in its straightforward sincerity is not fashionable in our abrasive moment, but can yield significant satisfactions. That is certainly true of his second film of 2023, “The Breaking Ice,” which describes, in a trio of perfectly judged  performances, the burgeoning, momentous and yet fleeting connection between three differently lonely people — a love triangle with rounded, snowdrift corners. Yu Jing-Pin’s lovely photography contrasts wintry wides and warm close-ups, as writer-director Chen carves out three characters against the frozen landscapes of Yanji, a small Chinese town in shouting distance of the North Korean border. This is the current home of Nana (Zhou Dongyu, “Better Days”) an unfulfilled bus-tour guide who switches on her ready smile for her passengers — and switches it off just as quickly when she turns away to massage her cold, cramping feet.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Killing Romance,” one of the most creative Korean films of the past year, has been set as the opening night title for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival. The deliberately multi-genre picture tells the tale of a beautiful movie star with dubious acting skills (portrayed by Le Ha-nee) who suddenly quits the industry and retires to newly-married life that turns out to be anything but bliss. When she decides to return to acting she teams up with a fan and an absurd plot to kill her absurdly rich husband. The film is directed by Lee Won-suk who previously attended the NYAFF with his first film, “How to Use Guys With Secret Tips,” in 2013 and returned with his second feature, the big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor, which earned the audience award at NYAFF in 2015.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Physical: 100 will return for a second season.Physical: 100 is a survival show where a hundred men and women with well-developed physiques compete in various challenges to determine the one contestant with the “perfect” physique. The first season debuted in January 2023 and became Netflix’s first unscripted show to top the streamer’s list of most-popular non-English TV programs.In a press release today (June 14), Netflix confirmed that Physical: 100 has been renewed for a second season and will feature a new group of 100 contestants.

Physical: 100, which made history earlier this year by becoming the first unscripted show to top Netflix’s weekly ranking for non-English TV programs, has been picked up for a second season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Physical 100,” the first unscripted Korean show to top Netflix’s non-English global charts, is being given a second season. The show falls between a talent contest and a survival competition with 100 contestants, including Olympians, professional fighters, bodybuilders and former soldiers, through a series of quests to challenge their strength, endurance, agility, balance and willpower, and to develop the perfect physique. Controversially it mixed men and women and amateurs and professionals. The show incorporated a plaster cast of each contestant’s torso. This was destroyed with a sledgehammer when they were eliminated.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul Metropolitan Police on Tuesday raided the offices of Korea’s three leading multiplex cinema operators and three film distributors. “The six entities are accused of obstructing the business of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) by falsely counting the audience numbers for Korean films,” a spokesman for the police is reported to have told Korean media, according to the semi-official Yonhap news agency. The raids were conducted by the force’s anti-corruption and public crime investigation team. Local media named the companies visited by the police on Tuesday as cinema chains CJ CGV, Megabox and Lotte Cinema, and distributors Showbox, Lotte Entertainment and Kidari.