Public broadcaster KBS announced that Jimin of K-pop superstar group BTS is scheduled to star in its Thursday night variety show, “Beat Coin,” in an episode set to air on March 30. “Jimin said he liked to watch ‘Beat Coin’ even before starring in our show. The cast were surprised to see Jimin at the shooting site as well. Everyone always gives everything to entertain the viewers, but I think the viewers can have high expectations for our upcoming part with Jimin,&

Television March 22, 2023

Local streaming service Wavve announced Tuesday that it will join hands with Eric Beck, the German screenwriter behind Paramount’s neo-Western American drama series “Yellowstone,” to produce an original historical drama series based on true events during the Korean War of 1950-1953. The 10-part series with the working title “Combat Correspondent” will center around the story of American reporter Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966), the first woman to receive the Pulitzer

Television March 22, 2023

Terrestrial broadcaster MBC announced that its upcoming audition program “Fantasy Boys,” set to premiere on March 30, will also be available in 12 different Asian countries via video streaming platforms. While the platform Abema will stream “Fantasy Boys” in Japan, viewers in many Southeast Asian countries, including Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam will be able to watch the show through Chinese streamer iQiyi. In Korea, it will be strea

Television March 21, 2023

Pop legend Cho Yong-pil, who is widely known as “Gawang” -- the king of singing or pop music in Korean -- will hold a solo concert in Seoul on May 13, the concert’s organizer announced Tuesday. Titled “2023 Cho Yong-pil & the Great Birth Concert,” the concert is set to be held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium inside the Olympics sports complex in Jamsil, southern Seoul. The Great Birth is a band that has worked with Cho at his concerts since 1979. This is Cho'

Performance March 21, 2023

Content production company Studio LuluLala (SLL) confirmed that its whodunnit variety series, “Crime Scene,” will be making a return after six years. SLL, a subsidiary of cable channel JTBC formerly known as JTBC Studios, announced Monday that it is in talks with Tving -- an online streaming service provider run by entertainment giant CJ ENM -- to produce a fourth season, titled “Crime Scene Returns.” The show is a mystery variety program featuring celebrities and TV pers

Television March 20, 2023

Kakao Entertainment announced on Monday that it blocked over 15,000 illegally distributed webtoons and shut down major pirate webtoon platforms in Indonesia in 2022. Webtoons are digital comics that are read by scrolling down one's screen, mainly on readers’ smartphones. Kakao Entertainment’s Protecting the Contents of Kakao Entertainment, known as P.Cok for short, Kakao Entertainment's global webtoon division team, said that it reported and blocked the distribution of 15,6

Books March 20, 2023

While some actors who play villain roles ask viewers to sympathize with their characters, insisting that villains might also turn out to be likable in the end, Lim Ji-yeon requests viewers of “The Glory” to have no mercy on her character, Park Yeon-jin. “I wanted Yeon-jin to be hated by all ‘The Glory’ fans. I hoped for her not to be tolerated nor understood, not even for a moment. Even I, who played Yeon-jin in the series, could not forgive her,” Lim told The

Television March 19, 2023

It was not so long ago that girls were largely absent from school playgrounds in Korea. From soccer fields to basketball courts, while the boys played in sports games, the few girls that were spotted, most took on the roles as cheerleaders or worked as team managers. That was not the case at the Seoul National University gymnasium on a recent Thursday, where a team of women basketball players zipped across the court, practicing dribbles and crossovers, smiles never leaving their faces. Kwon Hee-

People March 18, 2023

Pinnacle Land Spring Flower Festival The Pinnacle Land Spring Flower Festival is scheduled to take place at Pinnacle Land, a botanical garden in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, starting March 24. The event runs through May 30. The botanical garden will present some 50,000 tulips and narcissus plants, allowing visitors to enjoy a fragrant spring atmosphere. The second edition of Pinnacle Land Spring Flower Festival also puts on a firework display at 8 p.m. on Saturdays. The event is open to p

Travel March 17, 2023

Tving, the South Korean online streaming service provider run by entertainment giant CJ ENM, on Wednesday announced that Vietnamese content production company Red Carpet and TV channel HTV7 acquired the Vietnamese rights for its variety show “Zero Sum Game,” which marks the beginning of their partnership with the streamer. The 12-part unscripted show presents 10 participants who seek the highest prize money possible by maintaining their first total body weight, measured in the firs

Television March 16, 2023

Though celebrities who have been accused of school bullying do not have to face deadly consequences as presented in Netflix’s revenge-soaked hit series, “The Glory,” their past deeds are nonetheless considered unforgivable. Former K-pop boy band BLACK6IX member Kim Hyun-jae withdrew from JTBC’s latest audition project, “Peak Time,” which features already-debuted artists who have fallen short of building a successful career and gives them a second chance to bec

Television March 15, 2023

Local religious cult Baby Garden has filed for an injunction against the streaming of two episodes of Netflix’s documentary series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal,” featuring its leader Kim Ki-soon. The eight-part documentary series presents four Korean religious cult leaders -- Jeong Myeong-seok of Christian Gospel Mission, better known as Jesus Morning Star (JMS); Park Soon-ja of Odaeyang Church; Kim Ki-soon of Baby Garden; and Lee Jae-rock of Manmin Central Church -- wh

Television March 14, 2023

Tving, entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM’s subscription-based streaming platform, is scheduled to release its first sports documentary series, “Our Game: LG Twins,” on March 30, in time for the opening of the baseball season on April 1. The documentary features LG Twins, one of the most beloved professional Korean baseball teams, and its 2022 KBO season. The series, encompassing almost 2,500 hours of footage, documents the baseball players’ journey in seeking to once again

Television March 13, 2023

A majority of Koreans and foreigners believe that Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, is likely to continue riding the tide of globalization for a long time to come, according to a recent Corea Image Communication Institute survey aimed at probing people's views on popular topics. The CICI’s multiple-choice survey, titled “AI, ChatGPT and Hallyu,” involved 471 participants -- 257 Koreans and 214 foreigners who either visited or resided in Korea. More than 60 percent of the parti

Culture March 13, 2023

HWASEONG, Gyeonggi Province -- Although the weather still feels cold for early March, impatient flower lovers head to Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province to look for the first signs of spring. Some 50 kilometers southwest of Seoul, Hwaseong Botanical Garden welcomes visitors with more than 580 species of plants growing on the Korean Peninsula. Outside the garden, trees and flowers have yet to bloom and the dry, crinkled brown leaves are a reminder of the last snap of winter. But inside the walls of a la

Travel March 11, 2023