Popular tvN period comedy drama “Mr. Queen” will receive “administrative guidance” for controversial scenes in the drama, the subcommittee of Korea Communications Standards Commission announced Wednesday. “Mr. Queen,” which revolves around a present day playboy who enters the body of Queen Cheorin of Joseon, has been enjoying steady popularity since the airing of the first episode. It reached a 13.2 percent viewership rating for the most recent episode on S

Actors Jeon Do-yeon and Ryu Jun-yeol will star in the upcoming JTBC drama “Disqualified as a Human,” according to JTBC on Thursday. The two actors have not starred in television dramas in the last five years, focusing instead on films. Jeon’s last outing on the small screen was in tvN’s “The Good Wife” in 2016, while Ryu’s last TV drama role was in MBC’s “Lucky Romance” in 2016. Jeon will play the role of ghostwriter Bu-jung while Ry

CJ ENM on Friday announced that Hyun Bin will join the sequel of the Korean comedy-action film “Confidential Assignment” and play North Korean agent Lim Cheol-ryeong again. Released in January 2017, the original “Confidential Assignment” was a movie about an inter-Korean secret police mission. The film at the time garnered more than 7.81 million viewers. Hyun Bin’s character Lim in the previous film was dispatched to South Korea to capture his superior Cha Ki-se

Two talent management agency executives have been sentenced to fines on charges of rigging votes on a popular K-pop audition program in which their trainees were competing, judicial sources said Friday. According to the sources, the Seoul Central District Court has slapped Kim Kwang-soo, the founder and chief production director of MBK Entertainment, with a fine of 10 million won ($9,090) on account of business obstruction. Another man surnamed Park, the CEO of Pocketdol Studio, which is a sub

Soul (US) Opened Jan. 20 Animation Directed by Pete Docter Joe Gardner, a middle school music teacher, dreams of becoming a jazz musician. One day, Joe auditions for the band of jazz legend Dorothea Williams. Impressed with Joe’s piano playing, Dorothea offers him a chance to perform later that night. As Joe heads off to prepare for the show, he falls down a manhole and ends up in the “Great Before.”  Iamhere (France) Opened Jan. 14 Drama Directed by Eric Lartigau Ste

South Korean online gaming giant NCSOFT Corp. said Thursday that it will launch its K-pop fan platform globally next week. The platform, named Universe, will be simultaneously available on Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices on Jan. 28, NCSOFT said. Universe allows users to enjoy different K-pop content on mobile devices through the gaming firm's latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology. More than 4 million K-pop fans around the world have already pre-registered in 188 countries, N

Rookie K-pop act TREASURE is set to release its first full album in Japan in March, officially debuting in the Asian country, its agency said Thursday. "The First Step: TREASURE Effect," set to drop on March 31, is a Japanese version of the band's debut full album and carries 13 tracks sung in Japanese, according to YG Entertainment. Apart from the 12 songs included in the Korean version of the album, it also includes "Beautiful," the band's first song sung only in Japanese

The Netflix original mystery entertainment series “Busted!” will return with its third and final season on Friday, with cast members from both the first and second seasons coming together. “Busted!” was the first Netflix original Korean entertainment show on the platform when it was first released in 2018. The show is a hybrid of a reality television show and a crime drama as celebrities who appear on the show are given certain acting roles while having to solve mysteri

Internet giant‘s acquisition of web novel platform a part of move to become global entertainment company

Korea’s recent third wave of COVID-19 had local ballet troupes cancel the iconic “Nutcracker” performances in December, for the first time in many years. Though the virus pandemic dealt a serious blow last year, ballet companies are gearing up for a rebound this year for fans awaiting a new beginning in 2021. The highlight of this year’s seven offerings by The Korea National Ballet is “Jewels,” slated for Oct. 20-24 at the Seoul Arts Center. It will mark th

The 42nd Blue Dragon Film Awards, which were postponed last year due to the spread of COVID-19, will be held on Feb. 9, the awards’ organizers said Tuesday. The awards ceremony, one of the most prestigious film events here, was to have been held on Dec. 11 but it was postponed indefinitely due to the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in late 2020. “The Man Standing Next” has been nominated for 10 awards, followed by “Deliver Us from Evil” for eight awards,

Baekhyun, the lead singer of K-pop boy group EXO, will release his first solo album in Japan this week, his agency said Tuesday. His first Japanese EP, titled "BAEKHYUN," is set to hit Japan on Wednesday, according to SM Entertainment. It is his first time to release a Japanese album as a solo artist since his debut in 2015. The main track of the love-themed album will be "Get You Alone," which was first performed during his first solo concert held on Jan. 3 and pre-releas