Kim Jae-joong calls out stalker fans: “Let’s put an end to this”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hollywood fantasy film “Wonka” held strongly at the top of the South Korean box office on a weekend boosted by the Lunar New Year holidays. But Hollywood spy comedy “Argylle” opened disappointingly in seventh position. Korea allocates three days of public holiday to the Lunar New Year and took them this time from Friday to Sunday.

ENHYPEN has been arrested for allegedly misusing a boarding pass to entering the transit area of Singapore’s Changi Airport in order to meet the band.A 25-year-old woman was arrested on January 22 after she allegedly misused a boarding pass in order to gain access to the airport’s transit area in an attempt to meet K-pop ENHYPEN, per local news outlet The Straits Times. The group were departing from Changi Airport after performing in Singapore on January 20 and 21, as part of their ongoing world tour.Local police told The Straits Times that she was arrested in violation of Singapore’s Infrastructure Protection Act 2017, which bars people from entering protected places in the airport with no intention of leaving the country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Citizen of a Kind,” a comedy-drama about a woman who takes matters into her own hands after becoming the victim of a scam, fulfilled its promise from an earlier week of previews. “Citizen” topped the South Korean box office on its opening weekend, accounting for a more than 40% market share.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Whenever Denis Villeneuve decides it’s time to make a third “Dune” movie, Zendaya is ready to reprise her role of Chani. During a cast interview with Fandango ahead of “Dune: Part Two” opening in theaters, Zendaya said returning for a potential “Dune Messiah” movie is a no brainer. Villeneuve has already stated publicly that his dream is to make a third “Dune” film — he confirmed in December that a script for the project is almost finished.

Noah Centineo has officially embarked on another dangerous adventure as Owen Hendricks in The Recruit, and the cast has been unveiled.

Netflix has rounded out its recurring cast for Season 2 of The Recruit, which has begun production in Vancouver. Filming will also take place in Seoul, South Korea on the series from Alexi Hawley.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iconic Hollywood musical film “La La Land” is to re-release (again) in South Korean theaters from Wednesday. Distributed by Pancinema, it will play at the country’s Imax cinemas for a one-week limited run with tickets costing upwards of KRW15,000 ($11.25) for adults. The film was directed by Damien Chazelle and stars Ryan Gosling (newly Oscar-nominated for his role as Ken in “Barbie”) and Emma Stone, and holds the box office record for movie musicals with global box office of $470 million. It recently re-released in cinemas in China in time for the Christmas peak season.

(G)I-DLE‘s new single ‘Wife’ from broadcast on the network due to “sexually explicit” lyrics.The announcement was made earlier today (January 24), after KBS had conducted a review of the song’s eligibility for national broadcast after it was released on January 22. According to Yonhap News Agency, (G)I-DLE’s ‘Wife’ contained “many metaphorical lyrics with sexual nuances”, however neither the outlet nor broadcaster outlined specific details.KBS also announced that (G)I-DLE’s upcoming song ‘Rollie’, which will be released on Friday (January 29) alongside their album ‘[2]’, has also been banned from broadcast due to product placement in its lyrics.

Apartment 404, starring BLACKPINK‘s Jennie. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series.On December 20, 2023, tvN announced the cast of Apartment 404 in a video uploaded on its official YouTube channel.The series will notably star Jennie of K-pop girl group BLACKPINK.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Time traveling-fantasy-adventure movie “Alienoid 2” was a comfortable winner at the South Korea box office over the weekend. But with few fresh films on release the cinema-going market slowed. “Alienoid 2” earned $2.06 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was down by 42% compared with its opening session a week earlier and leaves it with a total of $7.96 million after 12 days on release. The first instalment of “Alienoid” was one of the biggest flops of 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sound of Freedom,” the indie action-drama film that earned some $184 million at the North American box office, has set a significant theatrical release in South Korea. Angel Studios, the crowd-funded Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the film, initially set up direct-to-theater releases for the film’s first international outings in the U.K., Australia and Latin America. In Korea, rights have been licensed in conventional fashion by the N.E.W. – Contents Panda group, which plans to give the picture a release from Feb. 21, 2024.

The thriller premiered its first season in December 2022 and was renewed for another season in early 2023.

What To Watch. Today we recommend a mix of new releases and newly available titles, from movies and shows, all available to stream on the most popular platforms.What to Watch: The 7 most anticipated shows of 2024What to Watch: 7 movies and shows to stream this week - Jan 12“Love on the Spectrum” premieres its second season on January 19. The reality dating series follows various people on the spectrum who are on the look for love, with the producers pairing them with possible prospects as well as providing them with the necessary tools to form romantic relationships.

Single’s Inferno co-producer Kim Jae-won has revealed that controversial season three contestant Lee Gwan-hee originally applied for season two.Netflix’s popular reality dating show Single’s Inferno recently wrapped up its third season last Tuesday (January 11) with its final two episodes, which saw the 12 contestants make their final choices and pair up in order to leave the island of Inferno.Kim Jae-won and Kim Jung-hyun, the producers of Single’s Inferno, recently spoke to The Korea Times about the third season of the show and controversial contestant Lee Gwan-hee, revealing that they originally planned for him to appear on season two instead.“Lee applied for Season two and when we interviewed him, he was a genuine, straightforward and confident man,” Kim Jae-won said. “So we definitely wanted to cast him”.However, according to the producer, the professional basketballer’s training schedule didn’t work out with the production timeline for season two, so they had to “give up” on casting him the first time around.Meanwhile, Kim Jung-hyun spoke about how Lee was “the most honest character” on the latest season and had “showed everything about himself” during his appearance.

Cignature has addressed plans for its future with member Belle set to join the upcoming girl group, UNIS.Earlier this week, Belle won a spot on the upcoming K-pop girl group UNIS after ranking eighth on the South Korean reality TV singing competition, Universe Ticket. The group are expected to be active for two-and-a-half years.In response to her spot in the new group, her agency C9 Entertainment has addressed the future of Cignature, saying that the act have been “reorganised into a 6-member system” for the duration of Belle’s tenure in UNIS, as translated by Soompi.“They released their fourth mini-album in August 2023, achieving their best performance since debut, while diversifying individual activities for each member,” the agency added.

The stars of the upcoming spy movie Argylle stepped out for their first major red carpet premiere this week!

Jang Wonyoung of K-pop girl group IVE has reportedly won a lawsuit against controversial YouTuber Sojang.Today (January 17), Wonyoung’s agency Starship Entertainment released an statement with an update on its lawsuit against South Korean YouTuber Sojang (known only as Mr Park, per Law Times) over his alleged circulation of false information about the company’s artists.“Through the continuous circulation of false information, Sojang committed grave defamation, and they not only hindered with the agency’s business but also caused serious pain to artists and fans,” the agency said, as translated by Soompi. Starship also shared that the criminal charges filed against Sojang were recently forwarded from the police to the prosecution, and that legal proceedings concerning that matter were ongoing.Additionally, two civil lawsuits have been filed against the YouTuber for defamation, one by Starship Entertainment and one by Jang Wonyoung herself.

Single’s Inferno say they are consideration making a spin-off to the popular South Korean reality dating TV show.Netflix’s popular reality dating show Single’s Inferno recently wrapped up its third season last week with its final two episodes, which saw the 12 contestants make their final choices and pair up in order to leave the island of Inferno.In an interview with The Korea Herald, series creators Kim Jae-won and Kim Jung-hyun spoke about the success of Single’s Inferno and the possibility of spin-offs with contestants from different seasons of the show.“Just imagining [season two contestant] Dex and [season three contestant] Lee Gwan-hee appearing together is already interesting,” Kim Jae-won said. “With such option in mind, we are considering various options – including the idea that the possibility of spin-offs would be fun.”The producer also touched on how the recently finished third season managed to beat the viewing data from the first two.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sci-fi fantasy comedy “Alienoid 2” opened on top of the South Korean box office with $3.57 million on a weekend that otherwise saw five animation titles and a political documentary in the top ten. The big-budget, time-traveling “Alienoid 2” earned $3.57 million between Friday and Sunday with a market share of 39% and $4.77 million over its opening five days, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Imax reports that some $370,000 of the film’s total was earned from 24 Imax screens. The film was made as a two-parter.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Prime Video Southeast Asia is cutting its originals team in Singapore and moving to a “leaner operating model,” as part of the globe wave of redundancies announced earlier this week.