NCT’s Taeyong to enlist for mandatory military service next month

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Women’s pro hoops are coming back to Amazon‘s Prime Video for at least two more years. Prime Video and the WNBA on Friday announced a rights renewal deal under which Prime Video will continue to be the exclusive U.S. streaming partner for a package of 21 games each season, including the Championship Game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Kep1er have been confirmed to be gearing up for their final album as a group, and are also currently in talks to extend their contracts.The K-pop girl group’s contracts as a temporary project are due to officially expire this year on July 3. This was a condition set by the survival show that formed Kep1er, Girls Planet 999, which stipulated that the winning line-up would embark on a two-and-a-half-year contract when the show concluded in October 2021.

Solo Leveling has arrived – check it out below.The new season was announced on Saturday (March 30) and it will be officially titled Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow.Based on the Korean web novel by Chugong, the series takes place in a realm of gifted hunters and monsters. In this world, weak hunter Sung Jinwoo is given extraordinary strength through a mysterious programme, which kickstarts a journey across the various dungeons to discover the true source of his power.The anime adaptation debuted in January this year, after having first been announced at Anime Expo 2022.

Disney+ tentpole Uncle Samsik will debut on May 15 on the platform globally, and on Hulu. The streamer also announced that Korean crime thriller Nine Puzzles will premiere exclusively on the platform in 2025.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Spooky Korean drama film “Exhuma” held on at the top of the local box off ice chart for the sixth consecutive weekend. It saw off challenges from significant newcomers “Troll Factory” and “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.” The Choi Min-sik-starring “Exhuma” dropped 32% week-on-week to record $3.08 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Jeff Benjamin Yoshiki’s involvement in philanthropy encompasses a diverse range of causes, with his family and upbringing being core influences. “I lost my father when I was young,” Yoshiki says. “He actually took his own life.

mimiirose are set to make their return to music under new management later this year.Today (March 26), K-pop agency Pocket7 Entertainment announced that all five original members of mimiirose have signed a new exclusive contract with the company. This comes months after the quintet left YES IM Entertainment, following fraud allegations against its CEO Im Chang jung.“We are glad to welcome mimiirose, a group with a very unique and original music style, as the first new family members under the company,” Pocket7 Entertainment said in a statement to Korea JoongAng Daily.

Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes has teamed up with Japanese horror manga artist Junji Ito for a new clothing collection.Sykes’ alternative apparel company Drop Dead is due to launch a range of shirts, hoodies, tops, jackets and accessories made in partnership with Ito at 7pm GMT this Friday (March 29).“Junji Ito is a genius. His style is only topped by his substance.

NCT Dream have released their brand-new mini-album ‘Dream( )scape’, which dropped alongside a music video for title track ‘Smoothie’.In the trippy music video for ‘Smoothie’, members of the boyband wield swords while slicing up giant fruits. Other scenes in the clip also feature various fruit-inspired visuals, alongside thrilling action scenes and more.“Smoothie Smoothie Smoothie, shake it all out and grind it / Smoothie Smoothie Smoothie, Smoothie Smoothie Smoothie / Dirty taste, take it,” the band rap on the new song’s chorus.‘Dream( )scape’ marks NCT Dream’s seventh mini-album and features six new tracks: ‘icantfeelanything’, ‘Smoothie’, ‘Box’, ‘Carat Cake’, ‘Unknown’ and ‘Breathing’.NCT Dream are set to embark on a world tour in support of their new mini-album.

ILLIT have dropped a teaser for the music video of their upcoming debut single, ‘Magnetic’.ILLIT’s label Belift Lab, a subsidiary of HYBE, shared the clip yesterday (March 21). The teaser is formatted vertically for mobile phone screens, and feature silhouettes of the ILLIT members performing the choreography to ‘Magnetic’.“This time I want you, you, you, you, like it’s magnetic / You, you, you, you, you, you, you, super attraction,” the new K-pop girl group sing on the song’s upbeat chorus.ILLIT – comprising Wonhee, Minju, Iroha, Moka and Yunah – were formed through the JTBC reality TV series R U Next?. The girl group will be the second K-pop act to debut under Belift Lab, following boyband ENHYPEN.The quintet will release their debut mini-album ‘Super Real Me’ on March 25.

Felix is getting some attention on social media.

Japanese director Takeshi Kitano has provided the artwork for the poster of the 2024 edition of Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight, running alongside the main festival from May 15 to 26.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Animation co-productions between Japanese media companies and their Asian counterparts were once few and far between, but in the past decade, with the rapid rise of animation industries in China and South Korea, the pace has picked up. Indeed, FilMart is playing host to an animation panel March 13 that explored the advantages of cross-border collaboration.

Jennifer Lopez has released a new version of ‘This Time Around’, featuring K-pop girl group (G)I-DLE.The new remix of ‘This Time Around’ doesn’t deviate far from the original track, but replaces the song’s original third verse for new lyrics written and performed by the Korean five-piece. The verse includes vocals from Soyeon, Minnie, Yuqi and Miyeon, with remaining member Shuhua currently on hiatus since February.“What is wrong? Our love-hate is bruised with false rumours / It’s not worth it, laugh it all out with heartbreak within gossip / I’m in your arms all night long / We laughed and cried when we were immature, bad love / Yeah you know, they’re sort of doing it the wrong way,” Soyeon and Minnie sing on the new verse.Notably, this alternate version of ‘This Time Around’ credits (G)I-DLE leader Soyeon as a co-composer and co-lyricist alongside others who were involved in the production of the original song, including Lopez herself.‘The Time Around’ originally appeared on Lopez’s latest studio album ‘This Is Me… Now’, which was released on February 16 alongside its accompanying film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, which is loosely based on Lopez’ love life with husband Ben Affleck.During her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in support of the releases, Lopez described the album as the culmination of her career.

It is no secret that weddings are expensive AF, whether for the person planning the ceremony or attending it. But this wedding going viral on Reddit is truly outrageous!

One of the world’s biggest news agencies has claimed that Kensington Palace is no longer a “trusted source” after the furor over Kate Middleton‘s doctored Mother’s Day image.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix chief Ted Sarandos has weighed in on artificial intelligence’s place in Hollywood.

Best Picture nominee “Past Lives,” wore a turtle pin to the 2024 Oscars in memory of his pet tortoise that died in August 2023. “OK, so my pet tortoise passed away last year and I had him for 10 years,” Yoo, 42, explained to a Variety reporter on the Los Angeles red carpet Sunday.In the video, the South Korean actor revealed that he named his reptile Momo after a children’s fantasy novel of the same name written by German author Michael Ende. The novel was published in 1973.Yoo, who was born in Germany, joked that his fan club back home named themselves “Momos” after the turtle.

Naman Ramachandran Korean action drama “A Shop For Killers” has become the most viewed local original on Disney+ in the Asia Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines) so far in 2024, the streamer has revealed. Set in contemporary Korea, the eight-part series follows college student Jeong Jian who dives for cover in her childhood home after a series of highly skilled assassins come after her.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-based anime distribution and licensing company Muse Communication has acquired Asian distribution rights for anime “Dan Da Dan,” it was revealed at Hong Kong rights market FilMart on Monday. Written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu, Japanese manga series “Dan Da Dan” was serialized in Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app and website from 2021. The anime series based on it is due to bow in October.