Seo In-guk and Park So-dam to lead new fantasy K-drama ‘Death’s Game’

BTS's J-Hope will begin his mandatory military service in South Korea's army this Sunday. I doubt that many fans of the K-pop group are pleased about that, but on Friday they had a reason to be happy for him: he finally dropped "On The Street," a track featuring J.Cole, one of his biggest influences (he actually called Cole his "muse" when they met for the first time backstage at Lollapalooza).

For those who love South Korean cinema, Na Hong-jin‘s “The Wailing” was a special treat when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016: a rural police procedural with a touch of the macabre and supernatural. But that was almost seven years ago, so what has Na been up to lately? Well, the director has a new short called “Faith” he shot on the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, ready for its release after a press screening late last month.

Tamar Herman Last year, j-hope of BTS released the LP “Jack in the Box”and headlined Lollapalooza. It was the first drop from a member of the history-making group as BTS publicly announced that it would be transitioning temporarily from band releases to focusing on individual projects. With “Jack in the Box,” j-hope kicked off such a period of solo development with a dark, gritty exploration of his self and career. Now he’s back with a new single that further relays new facets of the much beloved K-pop star and his artistry, “on the street (with J. Cole).” A lo-fi hip-hop tune guided by a mesmerizing whistle melody performed by j-hope himself, “On the street (with J. Cole)” is a reflection of j-hope’s career and life thus far, looking towards the future while recalling the path he walked to get there, emphasizing his history as a street dancer prior to becoming a members of BTS. It arrives on the verge of j-hope taking a step out of the spotlight temporarily, soon enlisting in South Korea’s military, fulfilling the country’s mandatory draft service.   

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.

EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory has unveiled a slew of deals for German director Christian Petzold’s Berlin Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Afire.

Ok Taecyeon has signed a contract with US talent agency WME (William Morris Endeavour).On February 27, the 34-year-old idol-actor, best known for being a member of K-pop boyband 2PM and starring in the hit K-drama Vincenzo, shared via his South Korean agency 51K that he had signed with William Morris Endeavour for his US activities.“We are happy that Taecyeon, who has been expanding his reach as an actor thorough various projects including Vincenzo, Hansan: Rising Dragon, Blind, and more, signed a formal agent contract with WME, one of the representative agencies in the United States,” said 51K, per No Cut News, as translated by Soompi. “Please continue to cheer on Taecyeon’s activities in the future.”Taecyeon also shared: “I’m excited and happy to take on a new challenge.

BTS singer J-Hope is the latest member of the band to begin the process of enlisting for mandatory military service in South Korea.

J-Hope, a member of K-pop supergroup BTS, has cancelled his request to delay enlistment in Korea’s mandatory military service, according to the group’s agency Big Hit Music. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office. But the overall market continued to soften despite a slew of new release titles. Nationwide theatrical grosses totaled just $7.26 million. That made it the slowest box office weekend in over three months. “Quantumania” collected $2.0 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), and enjoyed a 27% market share. The second weekend increment lifted its 12-day total to $10.6 million. Long-running Japanese animation title, “The First Slam Dunk” earned $1.36 million in its eighth weekend on release. Since Jan. 4 it has accumulated $28.0 million.

Thania Garcia J-hope of BTS has become the second member of the K-pop group to begin his mandatory military service in South Korea. The 29-year-old singer had previously applied for an enlistment postponement but a new statement from Big Hit Music (the band’s label) explains that he has since pulled that request and will enlist in the military. “We would like to inform our fans that j-hope has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement,” said the note posted to Weverse, Hybe’s global fan community platform.

BTS‘ J-hope is set to release a new solo single, with ‘on the street’ coming later this week.The news was confirmed by Big Hit in a note published to fans on Weverse. The post also revealed that the single is set to drop on Friday (March 3) at 2pm Korean time.“J-hope wrote the track wrote the track to share his candid feelings towards his fans,” the post read.

BTS‘ J-hope has begun the process of enlisting for mandatory military service in South Korea.The singer had previously applied for an enlistment postponement, but a new note from label Big Hit has revealed that he has now terminated that request and will enlist for the military.In a note posted to fans on Weverse, Big Hit wrote: “We would like to inform our fans that j-hope has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement.”The statement added: “We ask you for your continued love and support for j-hope until he completes his military service and safely returns.“Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artist.”J-hope will become the second member of BTS to enlist for mandatory military service, following the enlistment of Jin in December of 2022.Men are usually required to enlist by the age of 28, though the Order of Cultural Merit awarded to BTS by former president Moon Jae-In in 2018 allows the seven members of the boyband to enlist at 30 instead.According to an October 17 statement from Big Hit Music, the remaining members of BTS will also carry out their military service according to their individual plans. It added that “both the company and the members of BTS are looking forward to reconvening as a group again around 2025 following their service commitment”.This suggests that some of BTS’ younger members may be enlisting sooner than expected, as Jimin and V are technically only required to enlist by 2025 and youngest member Jungkook by 2027.

EXCLUSIVE: Following bidding wars in multiple territories, A24 has sold Past Lives, probably the year’s most critically acclaimed new film, to a raft of key territories.

Apple Studios has greenlit the new original drama series The Last Frontier from Jon Bokenkamp (The Blacklist) and Richard D’Ovidio (The Call) with Jason Clarke (Winning Time, Zero Dark Thirty ) set to lead.

(G)I-DLE‘s Minnie and Anne-Marie have joined forces on a new single titled ‘Expectations’, due out for release next month.The announcement was made earlier today (February 23) via both (G)I-DLE’s and Anne-Marie’s official Twitter pages, where a title and release date were revealed alongside what appears to be track art for the new song. ‘Expectations’ is set to be released on March 9 at 6pm KST / 9am GMT.It comes after reports from South Korean media last week (February 15) claiming that the two singers had recently wrapped up work on an upcoming collaborative single, which included the filming of its accompanying video treatment.

Tomorrow X Together (TXT) have shared their rendition of ‘Goodbye Now’ as part of the soundtrack for ongoing webtoon series Love Revolution.The song was officially released today (February 22) at 6pm KST in collaboration with Naver Webtoons, a South Korean platform hosting original webcomics. ‘Goodbye Now’ was originally released in the 1990s by South Korean music duo 015B, and has since become a staple in South Korea for graduations.TXT remade the song for Love Revolution as a tie-in to the comic series’ impending finale this April, which will see its main characters graduate from high school. “Goodbye doesn’t mean that we’re parting forever / It’s a promise that we’ll meet again / The times that we spent together are all left as memories now / We have to leave to find the path that we’ll embark on,” the five-piece croon on the chorus.TXT recently released the EP ‘The Name Chapter: Temptation’, led by title track ‘Sugar Rush Ride’.

IST Entertainment has confirmed that a new Apink mini-album will be released in April.The South Korean music label issued a statement to Sports Kyunghang earlier today (February 22) announcing that the five-piece are currently gearing up to release new music. Additional details about the new album, including a title and release window, have yet to be shared by IST.“Apink (Chorong, Yoon Bomi, Jung Eun Ji, Namjoo, Hayoung) is confirmed to release a new mini-album in April, and they will start comeback promotions,” the company announced, as translated by Soompi. Apink’s as-yet-untitled record will mark the band’s first music together in slightly over a year, their last project together being ‘HORN’, a special album released in February 2022 with the title track ‘Dilemma’.In a four-star review of the album, NME described ‘HORN’ as a “delicate expansion of Apink’s mature, adult sound as they slip back into their roles as emotionally perceptive lovers”, adding: “As the group near their 11th anniversary, ‘Horn’ could not have come at a better time – or in more grandiose fashion – letting the K-pop world know Apink are back and here to stay.”It will also mark Apink’s first music since the departure of member Naeun from the group several months following the release of ‘HORN’ last year.

TWICE have announced the ‘Ready To Be’ world tour with stops in South Korea, Australia, Japan and North America.The K-pop girl group will support their upcoming mini-album ‘Ready To Be’ by taking over arenas on the first part of their fifth world tour. It will kick off with two nights in Seoul in April before moving onto Sydney and Melbourne in Australia the following month.

MAMAMOO subunit MAMAMOO+ will make their comeback next month.On February 21, RBW Entertainment informed South Korean media outlet TV Report that the duo of MAMAMOO members Solar and Moonbyul are “preparing for a comeback with the goal of coming March”.Details including an exact release date, tracklist and album format have not been announced at the time of publishing.The forthcoming release will mark MAMAMOO+’s first comeback as a duo, and serve as the follow-up to their debut single ‘Better’ featuring rapper BIG Naughty last August. The pair are currently the first and only subunit that MAMAMOO has launched.Two months after MAMAMOO+’s debut, the quartet returned with their ‘Mic ON’ mini-album, their first group release in over a year.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Coming of age thriller “The Gymnasts,” one of the most recent titles from Europe’s public broadcaster partnership The Alliance, has been licensed to over 30 territories, London-based super indie All3Media International confirmed on Monday at the Berlinale Series Market.     Based on Ilaria Bernardini’s bestselling novel “Corpo Libero” (“The Girls Are Good”), the six-part series is produced by the Oscar-winning team at Indigo Film, behind “The Great Beauty,” in co-production with ZDF Neo’s German company Network Movie.  The series has been made in collaboration with Rai Fiction and Paramount+, and in association with All3Media International.