From left mime Yoo Jin-kyu, actor Ha Jeong-woo, designer Jung Wook-jun, singer GDragon of Big Bang, baseball coach Kim Kyung-moon, movie director Kim Ji-woon, novelist Lee Oi-soo, and chief executive of the aA Design Museum Kim Myung-han, the eight recipients of the A-Awards for the most successful men of the year given by men's fashion magazine Arena and Audi Korea. The award ceremony will be held in Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul next Tuesday. /Courtesy of Audi Korea ...| More
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Princess Ji-woo is back. Choi Ji-woo, referred to as "Princess Ji-woo" by her Japanese fans and a famous hallyu star with her tall, model-like figure and innocent looks, is returning to the small screen with SBS drama "Celebrity's Sweetheart".
Choi, who has been acting for 14 years, will play, not surprisingly, beautiful actress Lee Marie, who falls for a poor yet smart ghostwriter, played by fellow actor Yoo Ji-tae.
The press conference, which was held last week, was full of not only reporters, but also overseas fans hands with flowers and presents for the 33-year-old actress and fellow actors.
"I was inspired by the movie `Notting Hill'. My goal was to offer a full gift set of `melo' (melodramas)", said Boo Seong-cheol, the producer.
Indeed, the short clip of the drama showed the perfect tools for a perfect Korean melodrama: a beautiful, yet lonely top actress, a poor but talented writer-to-be, a rich chaebol heir and even a nosy tabloi...| More
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The buzz word in this year's musical trend was"movical", referring to the combination of movies and musicals.
The boom in re-creating the cinematic arts on the musical stage cashes in on the success of hit films such as "Radio Star" and "The Harmonium in My Memory". Yet such musicals could be boring if they simply follow the same storyline of the film.
However, a new musical, "200 Pounds Beauty", based on the 2006 film of the same title, simply took the worries away by distinctively reinterpreting the original work.
The musical, starring singer-turned-actress Bada, better known as Choi Seong-hee, and actress Yoon Gong-joo, who both portray Kang Han-byeol, and actor Song Chang-ee, who takes the role of Han Sang-jun, opened Thursday at Chung Art Hall in Seoul.
The musical effectively condensed the story of the film version into an intensive comical show, with diverse musical elements and reinterpreted characters.
It is a typical scene during winter when Korean women get together to make kimchi for the season and chat.
The annual event seems natural for Koreans and passes unnoticed, but an American playwright infuses dramatic elements into it and weaves it into a cheerful story.
American playwright Will Kern wrote the script of new play, "Mother and Tigers", which will be on stage from Dec. 16-31 at Seoul Arts Center, based on his interviews with numerous Korean women over the last two years.
Through true stories since 2006, the play mixes fiction and fact. He said he was inspired by a Korean woman who had memories of her mother from when she was an infant.
"It was really a good story. I thought maybe other women would have good stories too. I started to collect the stories for this play because I had an idea of writing a play that was a series of monologues ― along the lines of something like the `Vagina Monologues'", Kern said in an interv...| More
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Seoul is traditionally the center of expat activity, but this year Daegu has pitched in with some exhibitions of its own.
In September, Club:That turned its upper floors into a gallery for the second of a two-part event hosting work by more than 60 expats and Koreans.
"It was a great turn out", said Scott Fusion, who runs Club:That and founded Blank Canvas Entertainment. "In four days, we had about 1,000 people walk through and at the closing party there were about 300 people out to celebrate art in Daegu".
The show was a joint project between Blank Canvas, and Eddie Pye, Daegu representative of expat artist network 3c World (http://www.3cworld.com).
But it might not have been the event it was if an Englishman in Bucheon hadn't had trouble finding a camera.
Last July Peter Orange was looking to make a short film here, but he needed to find crew and equipment. A journalist helped him gatecrash the Bucheon Fantastic Film Festival, but he found the local film industry excep...| More
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A member of the five-piece K-Pop group M-Street was found dead in a basement recording studio at an officetel in the Dogok-dong of southern Seoul.
In an apparent suicide by hanging, the body of Lee Seo-hyeon, 29, was discovered by the owner of the recording studio at approximately 4:15 p.m. Monday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police are currently investigating and analyzing the letter he left behind.
According to police, the distressed letter contained his grievances over his stalled career in the music industry and asked for forgiveness from God and family.
There were no traces of visitors to the studio other than Lee leading to the conclusion that the death was caused by suicide.
Lee was the leader of M-Street. The group debuted in 2004 and has subsequently released two albums. ...| More
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Epik High frontman Tablo is holding a "book concert" at the KT&G SangSang Madang in Hongdae, Dec. 9. The concert is being held to celebrate the success of Tablo's first published collection of short stories, "Pieces of You".
Sixty fans will be invited to the concert, where they will have the chance to ask questions and talk with Tablo about the book. There will also be performances by indie bands Sogyumo Acacia Band and Lucite Tokki during the concert.
"Pieces of You" topped bestseller lists in Korea, selling around 50,000 copies in just one week after it was released Nov. 4. It features 10 short stories that Tablo wrote while living in the United States from 1998 to 2001.
28-year-old Tablo, who studied English and creative writing at Stanford University in California, originally wrote the stories in English. However, they were translated into Korean and published as a book. There are reportedly plans to publish the original English v...| More
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A phenomenal Korean star in Japan, Bae Yong-joon is the highest paid actor in Korea, raking in 250 million won ($171,600) per episode, an unusual release of the details of actors' payrolls showed this week.
A seminar on Korean television drama took place on Monday in Mok-dong, Seoul, hosted by the association of Korean television drama production directors to tell the difficulty in footing production costs.
Broadcasting stations and production companies have been raising concerns about costly payments to stars in recent years. They contend the payments create serious difficulties in financing television programs.
At the event, details of the payments for popular actors and actresses during the last two years were revealed by professor Kim Jin-woong of Sun Moon University.
Bae Yong-joon was found the most expensive star of all while he starred in the autumn hit of 2007, "The Legend". The number, however, is an approximation, as Bae was paid in a form of splitting profits be...| More
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Many people talk about world-renowned international film festivals, such as Cannes, Venice or Berlin, where newly released films from around the world are premiered. Serious film fans also turn to their eyes to the Pusan International Film Festival, which has won international acclaim. Now it is the "Gwangju International Film Festival" that moviegoers must take seriously.
The "2008 8th Gwangju International Film Festival", or GIFF2008 for short, will kick off in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do (South Jeolla Province) on Thursday, Dec. 4 for a five-day run. It is a non-competitive film festival that does not premiere new films, but rather introduces up-and-coming film directors' movies, alongside old Korean and foreign classics that are still etched deep in fans' hearts.
The film festival, which will screen about 40 full-length and short films, will be organized by the Organizing Committee of the 2008 Gwangju International Film Festival under the joint sponsorship of the Korean Film Counci...| More
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Two mega dramas of cinematic proportions are taking over weekday nights on SBS.
Though both promise to deliver, at best, a saccharine dose of romance and melodrama, great fodder for one and top stars for the other forecast a successful winter for the major broadcasting channel.
Starting tonight, the long-awaited and aptly titled "Terroir" brings the magical world of wine to audiences. Headed by the talented film/television actor Kim Joo-hyeok and his beautiful co-star "Jumong" actress Han Hye-jin, this drama - arguably Korea's first dramatic series on wine - hopes to lure viewers in with lush scenes of France and the intoxicating combination of wine and romance.
Responses to the upcoming drama, however, have been mixed.
"Since this is a drama on wine, I hope that its content does not twist the truth in regards to its topic", one viewer wrote on the show's official bulletin board. "I am saying this because I am worried that a lot of snobs will come out of the woodwork after ...| More
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