After 'Culinary Class Wars' craze, its bake-off version comes out — and it's much worse

Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" swept South Korea last year with its high-drama face-offs between chefs, pairing visually striking dishes with the deeply personal philosophies of its contestants. More than an entertainment show, the series captured hearts and quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Riding that momentum, and with the second season of "Culinary Class Wars" wrapping in January, broadcasters have rushed to capitalize on the food survival boom. Among the wave of new entrants, Kor

Ryoo Seung-wan's spy thriller gets louder, not sharper, in 'Humint'

Few directors in Korea can reliably put butts in seats the way Ryoo Seung-wan can. The man built his career on a particular brand of kinetic mayhem — gritty bare-knuckle brawls, pulpy genre instincts, and just enough political edge to keep the adrenaline running hot. His "Veteran" cop saga remains his commercial peak with 13.4 million admissions for the 2015 original and another 7.5 million for the 2024 sequel. Even the lighter fare, like the crowd-pleasing smuggling romp "Smugglers," tends to o

Le Sserafim’s encore Seoul show — tightly choreographed to the last beat

Le Sserafim wrapped up its first world tour, “Easy Crazy Hot,” with a sold-out encore concert in Seoul on Sunday, closing a run that spanned 31 shows across 20 cities. Held at Jamsil Indoor Stadium, the final performance drew a near-capacity crowd, excluding limited-view seats. The tour, which began in Incheon in April last year, marked nearly a full year on the road for the group. Despite the demanding schedule, the members powered through a three-hour set featuring 26 songs, including original

A tour's poignant finale for Chung Myung-whun — and Lim Yunchan's fans

On Sunday afternoon at the Seoul Arts Center, the Staatskapelle Dresden, an orchestra with a 478-year history, together with maestro Chung Myung-whun and star pianist Lim Yunchan, brought the curtain down on their five-performance tour of Korea. Before the concert began, a series of solemn announcements urged audience members to switch off their mobile phones completely. "Audiences are the third player," one announcement said over the loudspeakers. The message was reinforced on the first page of

'Number One' squanders Choi Woo-shik's homecoming

Everyone knows actor Choi Woo-shik from the Oscar-sweeping sensation "Parasite." His Ki-woo was the crafty son who hatched the scheme, the one whose poker-faced ambition kept the grift rolling even as things began to fall apart. But every success story has to start somewhere. The actor had cut his teeth in smaller productions long before he blew up globally, and indie heads here will tell you the 2014 film "Set Me Free" was his true breakthrough. Directed by first-time director Kim Tae-yong (not

NCT's Taeyong declares return to K-pop in explosive post-military comeback concert

Returning from military service in December, NCT’s Taeyong wasted no time reminding fans exactly who he is — a trailblazing soloist, a magnetic performer and a creative mind behind the NCT universe. Held Saturday and Sunday at Ticket Link Live Arena in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, “TY Track — Remastered” marked Taeyong’s first solo concert in two years. Building on his 2024 solo debut concert, the remastered edition expanded the show’s scale with newly arranged music and seven unreleased tracks —

Sejong Center flips the script: audience takes the stage

At the Grand Theater of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Gwanghwamun — the country’s largest performance venue with 3,022 seats spanning three tiers — the audience typically watches from their seats in the dark. On Sunday and Monday, the center inverted this dynamic with "Reading & Listening Stage." Instead of filling the auditorium, participants were invited to sit on the stage itself. Facing the cavernous, empty hall where thousands of eyes usually stare back, they experienced the

Giveon brings R&B vibes to city of K-pop

American R&B singer-songwriter Giveon brought his signature baritone and raw vulnerability to Myunghwa Live Hall in Seoul on Sunday, launching the Asia leg of his "Dear Beloved" global tour. Giveon's Seoul debut was a 90-minute confession soaked in heartbreak, vulnerability and slow-burning R&B grooves that resonated deeply with the sold-out crowd, with an audience of some 1,700 filling the venue. One of the night's most memorable moments came during the performance of "Heartbreak Anniversary" —

Daesung of Big Bang kicks off 2026 with powerful vocals, witty charm

Big Bang’s Daesung brought his nine-month "Daesung 2025 Asia Tour: D's Wave" to a heartfelt close over the weekend with the finale at Ticket Link Live Arena in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul. The tour, spanning 11 cities across the continent, concluded with three back-to-back shows from Friday to Sunday, with the Friday performance tacked on due to high demand. The rare solo concert saw fans fill the arena waving Big Bang’s iconic yellow crown light stick — the "VIP Bong" — alongside Daesung’s own of

G-Dragon wraps up Ubermensch tour in Seoul, teases Big Bang concert in 2026

G-Dragon concluded eight months on the road with “G-Dragon 2025 World Tour Ubermensch in Seoul: Encore” at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Sunday, marking the end of his 39-show world tour that spanned 17 cities across Asia, North America and Europe. Around 54,000 fans attended the artist’s encore performance, waving G-Dragon’s official light stick, the Daisy Bong, as well as Big Bang’s VIP Bong, as they welcomed his grand finale. Opening with “Power,” G-Dragon quickly got the crowd on their feet,

If ‘Life of Pi’ isn’t a musical, why is it listed as one in Korea?

In a world overflowing with digital technology, the stage production of "Life of Pi" utilizes world-class lighting, video and stage design. Yet, what truly stuns the audience is the analog art of puppetry. The puppet-operating ensemble, though fully visible, works in perfect unison to generate the magic of breathing life into puppets that include a tiger, an elephant, a monkey, a giraffe and more. However, what is far less impressive is the attempt to distance the production from its true genre:

Lim Yunchan dazzles in Seoul, but his tour reveals Korean market under strain

Star pianist Lim Yunchan performed with the Orchestra of Fondazione Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia last week, marking the Italian ensemble’s first visit to Korea in eight years and its debut here under conductor Daniel Harding. Curiously, despite featuring one of Korea’s most celebrated musicians, the orchestra’s official tour schedule listed only a single public concert despite arriving after multiple engagements a total of nine concerts in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. This raised an inev

'The Nonsense' is a study in unsettling ironies

If the enduring popularity of the classic crime thriller through an age of diminished attention spans lies in its promise of closure — the reassurance that the world can be sorted into guilty and innocent, the satisfaction of an order restored — then "The Nonsense" might be a hard sell. Director Lee Je-hui's debut feature, which made its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October, will confound those seeking tidy resolutions with its cryptic tale, one that complicates

'Endangered Love' sets Lee Chan-hyuk apart in a trend-obsessed K-pop music scene

In South Korea's highly saturated music scene, similar tunes and repetitive hooks dominate the mainstream, and a song's popularity is often measured by the size of its singer's fandom. Lee Chan-hyuk of indie pop band AKMU took a different approach. Many K-pop releases tend to place heavy emphasis on photo concepts and universe storylines. But the 29-year-old's second album "Eros," released in July, delves into the emotional void and inner turmoil that follow the loss of another person. It extend

'Hallan' takes Jeju's largely forgotten massacre to the screen

Jeju Island draws millions of tourists each year. They come for the cherry blossoms and volcanic beaches, the UNESCO-designated heritage sites and swanky honeymoon resorts. What most visitors don't know is that the island's soil holds the remains of over 30,000 people killed between 1947 and 1954 — by some estimates, roughly 10 percent of the island's population at the time. The Jeju 4.3 Incident — the term used to describe this period of violence — started as an uprising against plans to hold s