Pianist Cho Seong-jin released a new album “Im Abendrot” -- meaning “at sunset” -- on Friday with German baritone Matthias Goerne, according to Universal Music‘s classical music label Deutsche Grammophon. The new album contains songs composed by three German composers of the Romantic era --Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Hans Erich Pfitzner (1869-1949), and Richard Strauss (1864-1949). “It’s almost impossible to describe the experience of explor

The South Korean box office jumped nearly 78 percent in March from a year earlier on the back of the strong performance of Oscar-nominated "Minari," data showed Friday. The number of moviegoers reached 3.26 million last month, up 77.5 percent from 1.83 million tallied in the same month last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the film industry at its early stage, according to the data compiled by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). From a month earlier, the March figure gained 4.7 perc

Seobok (Korea) Opened April 15 Science fiction Directed by Lee Yong-joo Ki-hun (Gong Yoo) is a former intelligence agent. One day, he receives his last mission from the director of the intelligence agency (Cho Woo-jin), to move Seo-bok (Park Bo-gum) -- the first-ever human clone, who possesses the secret to eternal life -- to a safe location. Seo-bok has never known life outside of the laboratory and was raised by Lim Se-eun (Jang Young-nam). Nobody (US) Opened April 7 Comedy Directed by Ilya

Yoon Jisung talked about how happy he was to be back with his fans at an online media showcase for his second EP, “Temperature of Love,” Thursday. 　 “My heart was aflutter working on the music,” he confided. “I wanted to come out with good songs for my fans, especially since it has been 2 1/2 years.” Throughout it all, he was eager to share his music. 　 “Recording was harder than I thought. It had been a while since I’d sung and it felt awkward ge

Many local movies since last year have decided to skip theaters to release on Netflix due to the spread of COVID-19, which has kept moviegoers away from theaters. “Night in Paradise”also took this path, being released in 190 countries through Netflix on April 9. Five days after its release, lead actor Eom Tae-goo said he is curious about the response from global viewers, during a joint media interview held via Zoom on Wednesday. “To me, it is amazing that the movie is bein

The music video for the 2019 BTS hit "Boy With Luv (Feat. Halsey)" has earned more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube in another milestone for the K-pop dynamo. "Boy With Luv," the main track for the seven-piece act's sixth EP "Map of the Soul: Persona," hit 1.2 billion views at 9:48 a.m. on Thursday, according to Big Hit Music, the group's agency. The upbeat track, featuring American singer-songwriter Halsey, debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's main singles chart and

  BTS ranked the highest on Oricon’s weekly streaming chart with “Film Out,” according to the latest tally that came out on Wednesday.  The band’s newest Japanese single amassed over 11.67 million streams last week, becoming its second song with more than 10 million weekly streaming on the chart after last year’s “Dynamite.” This is the first time ever a male artist had two songs with over 10 million weekly streams, according to the Japanese t

A traditional Korean outfit that Jimin of BTS wore in a performance will be up for auction, with the bidding price beginning at 5 million won ($4,476), a local auction house said Wednesday. Jimin appeared in the "hanbok," traditional Korean attire, designed by Kim Rieul in the K-pop act's opening stage for "BTS Week" special on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" that aired in September. Clad in dark hues of hanbok, the seven-piece act wowed fans with a

LG Arts Center to show works from past festivals

Controversy surrounding actor Seo Yea-ji has continued to mount, as more allegations of bullying have surfaced, despite denials from her agency in an official statement. An alleged staffer that used to work with the actress posted on an online portal early Wednesday morning that Seo had regularly mistreated her staff members in her agency, Gold Medalist. “As a staff member going around in the same car with her for several years, verbal abuse was nothing. She smoked in the car, so I suff

South Korean singer-actor Jung Yong-hwa will release a Chinese EP, which includes songs he worked on with Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin and Moroccan-Dutch DJ R3hab, his agency said Wednesday. Titled "Stay in Touch," the four-track album is set for release on June 22, the 31-year-old singer's birthday, according to FNC Entertainment. Ahead of the release, Jung will first drop the single "Checkmake" (R3hab Remix) on Friday. FNC explained R3hab worked on an EDM version

When actor Gong Yoo first read the script for his upcoming film “Seobok,” he felt like it was asking him a question. “I felt like it was asking me ‘So, what is the purpose of your life?’,” Gong Yoo told local reporters during a joint media interview Tuesday via Zoom. “I could not give an answer to that question. This experience stunned and interested me.” He explained that he decided to perform for “Seobok” because it was not only wri