Former WINNER member Nam Tae-hyun booked for drunk driving in Seoul

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Bad Kids,” a hit series from Chinese streamer iQiyi, is to be remade as a Japanese feature film “Gold Boy.” The 12-episode gritty crime thriller depicts the troubles that arise after three children accidentally film a murder. The series was previously licensed to Japanese pay-TV group Wowow.

Rebecca Souw One of the leading actors of his generation, Korea’s Choi Min-sik is tackling his first TV role in some 25 years, with Disney+ crime drama series “Big Bet.” Choi says the gamble was a challenge, but ultimately worth the risk. While he has notched up iconic cinema roles in “Oldboy” “Shiri,” “I Saw the Devil,” Luc Besson’s “Lucy” and all-time Korean box office record holder “Roaring Currents,” Choi’s last significant TV role was in dark comedy “The Moon of Seoul” (aka “Seoul ui Dal”) in the 20th century’s pre-streaming era. Choi says that the changes in the TV industry are palpable and mostly for the better.

HYBE Labels subsidiary ADOR, home to K-pop girl group NewJeans, have opened online auditions for a potential new boyband.Today (March 28), ADOR unveiled several posters and videos on social media and YouTube announcing its ‘The Real Hype Boys’ audition. The label will be accepting online auditions on ador.world from now until 1pm KST on April 14.An unnamed male trainee as well as the members of NewJeans feature in the promotional video for the auditions, which details the online application period and host countries where in-person auditions will take place.Per ADOR’s guidelines, the auditions are open to boys born between 2004-2012.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation film “Suzume” made just shy of $50 million on its opening weekend in mainland Chinese theaters. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, shows “Suzume” grabbing the top spot at the box office with $49.6 million (RMB342 million) between Friday and Sunday. That is the biggest opening score by any film this year outside of the Chinese New Year holiday week in late January. The next best is “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” which opened with $19.4 million in mid-February. Directed by Shinkai Makoto, “Suzume” was a hit in Japan where it was released late last year and has remained on screens for a $105 million total. It played in February at the Berlin Film Festival, where it came away largely empty-handed, but has subsequently performed strongly in the Asian territories where it has released. (In South Korea, where it is now the second highest grossing film released in 2023, its third weekend is its strongest to date.)

Just weeks after bandmate j-hope made UK Official Chart history, BTS star Jimin scores the group's biggest solo success to date.

HYBE, home to K-pop superstars BTS, is set to sell off its entire stake in SM Entertainment.Today (March 24), HYBE announced that it would accept a tender offer by South Korean internet giant Kakao and sell its 15.8 per cent stake in K-pop agency SM Entertainment, as reported by Reuters.HYBE’s share of SM Entertainment is worth about ₩564billion (roughly US$437million), based on Kakao’s March 7 tender offer to buy up to 35 per cent of SM Entertainment for ₩150,000 per share.According to Reuters, the planned sale of SM Entertainment shares by HYBE would net the K-pop giant a profit of around US$87 million, which is roughly 25 per cent higher than the price the company originally paid for the shares.Following the announcement, shares of both Kakao and SM Entertainment companies went up about half a per cent, as of 1:30pm KST.

CRAVITY have announced the dates for the North American leg of their upcoming ‘Masterpiece’ world tour.The Starship Entertainment group will start the North American leg of their world tour at Webster Hall in New York on June 16, before heading to Chicago’s Copernicus Center on June 18. CRAVITY will also play a show in the US territory of Puerto Rico on May 20, before heading back stateside with concerts in Atlanta and Dallas, before wrapping things up in Los Angeles.Aside from the US leg, CRAVITY’s ‘Masterpiece’ world tour will also see the boyband perform two shows each in the Japanese cities of Osaka and Yokohama.

TWICE have announced six new shows in North America and Australia for their upcoming ‘Ready To Be’ world tour.Today (March 23), the popular K-pop girl group announced on Twitter that they are adding two new shows to the Australian legs of their ‘Ready To Be’ tour. They include a second Sydney show on May 2, as well as a follow-up Melbourne concert on May 7.As for the North American leg of TWICE’s upcoming world tour, it will see the addition of four new stops – three in the US and one in Canada.

Sunmi and rapper BE’O have released their new single, ‘Lights Out’.The new collaboration was produced by EL Capitxn, who previously worked on ‘That That’ by PSY and BTS’ Suga, as well as IU‘s ‘Eight’ with Suga. Meanwhile, the accompanying music video, filmed at the Soongsil University located in Seoul, was directed by Kim Sae-myung, known for his work with Dynamic Duo, Zion.T and more.The clip, which features a retro-looking filter, stars Sunmi as a model at a photoshoot.

In the age of social media-centered video content creation, who was the first to do it? Many millennial or Gen Z-ers may say it all started when Jawed Karim uploaded “Me at the zoo” on Youtube in 2005, but the father of video art is actually Korean artist Nam June Paik, who predicted a future in which “everybody will have his own TV channel.”  READ MORE: ‘Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV’ Review [Sundance] Paik was born in Seoul, Korea, but found himself in Germany as an adult to pursue his interest in avant-garde music, composition, and performance.

Huh Yunjin of rookie K-pop girl group LE SSERAFIM is set to release her third solo song ‘피어나도록 (love you twice)’.On March 13 at Midnight KST, the 21-year-old idol surprised fans with a new animated teaser, announcing the upcoming release of ‘피어나도록 (love you twice)’, her third solo song. Its Korean title is a spin on LE SSERAFIM’s official fan club name ‘FEARNOT’ or ‘피어나’ in Korean (meaning ‘Bloom’), and translates to ‘Until It Blooms’.The teaser clip features art by South Korean animator and artist Ramdaram, and pictures a young girl admiring an idol through her phone screen.

BTS member J-hope has surprised fans with a solo medley version of the boyband’s hit singles ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Butter’.The K-pop idol recently made an appearance on Jay Park‘s new late-night talk show The Seasons – Jay Park’s Drive on South Korean television network KBS2. During his appearance, J-hope turned the show into his own mini-concert.J-hope kicked things off with a solo version of his Billboard Hot 100 hit ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’, which originally featured American singer Becky G.

BTS member J-Hope has just become the first member of the K-Pop supergroup to achieve a solo entry in the Official Singles Chart Top 40. 

Nam Tae-hyun, lead singer of South Korean band South Club, has issues an apology following his DUI incident.Earlier this week, Nam was booked by Seoul police booked for drunk driving in the Gangnam District. The singer’s breathalyser test, taken soon after the incident, had reportedly shown his blood alcohol level at around 0.114 per cent.

Suga of K-pop boyband BTS and soloist IU are reportedly set to reunite for yet another collaboration.Today (March 10), South Korean media outlet SpoTV News reported that the two K-pop idols are set to release a new song together. If true, it would be the duo’s second collaboration, following their 2020 song ‘eight’.Big Hit Music has since spoken out about the report in a statement to Sports Today, saying that it is currently “difficult to confirm” whether or not Suga and IU are working together on new music.Suga will be the first member of BTS to go on a solo world tour.

Naman Ramachandran After the triumph of Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” at the BAFTAs, Netflix has revealed a surge in viewership for non-English language titles. New Netflix data shows that in the U.K., viewing for non-English language stories has increased by 90% over the last three years. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is now Netflix’s fourth most popular non-English language film ever, with over 150 million hours viewed since its release on Oct. 14, 2022. It has been on Netflix’s global Top 10 Non-English Film list for 14 weeks and has reached the Top 10 Films in 91 countries, including Germany, the U.K., U.S., Australia, France, Mexico and South Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A court in Seoul on Friday blocked a proposed move to issue new shares in K-pop talent agency SM Entertainment to Korean tech giant Kakao Corp. and its Kakao Entertainment subsidiary. An injunction was sought by Lee Soo-man, one of the pioneers of the Korean contemporary music industry, but who is recently at the center of a storm of controversy. Lee, who has fallen out with his company’s current management team, announced at the beginning of February his plans to sell a 14.8% stake in SM to HYBE Corp., the firm behind hit group BTS and a rival to SM. It then emerged that SM’s management was proposing to issue new shares to the Kakao pair, giving them a 9.05% holding, and sign an exclusive distribution contract. The share stake would make Kakao the second biggest shareholder in the firm after HYBE and dilute its influence.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix and Korean public broadcaster MBC on Thursday defeated a court application for an injunction to stop the airing of their documentary “In The Name of God: A Holy Betrayal.” The 8-part series began airing from Friday (March 3). It is a Netflix Original, meaning that the streamer has global rights, including in Korea. The show examines “the chilling true stories of four Korean leaders claiming to be prophets [and] exposes the dark side of unquestioning belief.” Among its subjects is Christian Gospel Mission, also known as Providence, and also known as Jesus Morning Star, or JMS. It shares those initials with its controversial leader Jeong Myeong-seok (aka Jung Myung-seok) who is currently awaiting trial in Korea for sexually assaulting some of his female followers.

Ashnikko has announced their debut album ‘WEEDKILLER’ and shared details of a huge world tour for 2023 – find all the details below.The album will be released on June 2 via Parlophone, and will be available to pre-order from today (March 2) at 6pm GMT from here.“My bioluminescent heart is glowing. My post-apocalyptic fae world is here for you to journey into,” Ashnikko shared in a statement.

EXO will come together in April as a full group for a fan meeting to mark their 11th anniversary.The K-pop group announced Tuesday (February 28) that they would reunite for a two-night event at the KSPO Dome in Seoul on April 8 and 9 – the former event taking place 11 years to the day they debuted with the song ‘Mama’, released separately by sub-units EXO-K and EXO-M.Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai, Sehun, Suho and Xiumin will participate in the event, which is called 2023 EXO Fanmeeting “EXO’ Clock”. A fanclub pre-sale will begin on March 6, 8pm KST, while general sale begins March 8, 8pm KST.