I don’t know if the big budget A-lister prestige K-dramas are still a sure bet after last year saw a few do less than stellar. The biggest disappointment is probably political thriller Polaris (The Tempest) with Jeon Ji Hyun and Kang Dong Won, and production is still going forward with The Koreans a remake of the US series The Americans. … Continue reading →
This sounds like both a prestige project and a potential big budget blockbuster type K-drama. K-ent is reporting that top stars Jeon Ji Hyun and Lee Byung Hun are in talks to headline the K-drama The Koreans, adapted from the hit US show The Americans. It will follow a married couple of North Korean spies living in South Korea, like … Continue reading →
It’s the end of Squid Game, or is it? You’ll have to watch to find out as Squid Game 3 premiered this Friday on Netflix to wrap up the internationally popular K-drama. SG3 is really part 2 to Squid Game 2 rather than a standalone season, and the 6-month gap between the two may have played a part in how … Continue reading →
China isn’t the only country releasing on-the-shelf projects recently, South Korea in late March released the K-movie The Match. It was supposed to be a tentpole and prestige production with two top actors in veteran Lee Byung Hun and a younger generation award winning star Yoo Ah In in an onscreen Go Match showdown between mentor and hot shot. The … Continue reading →
Filming is reportedly starting for Squid Game 2 this summer with an eye towards a 2024 release on Netflix. At Tudum, the platform’s promo event this weekend, Netflix confirmed that the original four big stars Lee Jung Jae, Gong Yoo, Lee Byung Hun, and Wi Ha Joon will all be returning, and joining them are additional top stars Im Shi … Continue reading →
The second season of global hit Squid Game has been in talks since the first season premiered in 2021 and now it’s actually heading into production this summer 2023. The latest news is that Im Shi Wan is joining the games, no word on the character or potential season 2 storyline. Returning for sure is male lead Lee Jung Jae … Continue reading →
Some agencies wax and wane in strength but Lee Byung Hun‘s own agency BH Entertainment since it’s launch has been a powerhouse. He’s gotten top actors and actresses and kept them, many of the stars remain loyal and for good reason. Despite having stars who ostensibly ought to be competing with one another for the same type of roles, the … Continue reading →
This Friday’s Baeksang Awards in Seoul was probably a night of little to no surprises (just one big one) and a lot of satisfied winner picks. The Park Eun Bin and Song Hye Kyo race for Best Actress ended with the former taking home the Drama Daesang for Extraordinary Attorney Woo becoming the youngest individual winner for the top prize … Continue reading →
I don’t know what kind of (bad) luck for the Netflix movie The Match to be now stuck in this frustrating position. The period movie chronicling an epic Go match between veteran Lee Byung Hun and youth prodigy Yoo Ah In was actually filmed at the end of 2020 and wrapped in early 2021 but in the two years since … Continue reading →
So calling it the colloquial term tax evasion obviously inputs concerted wrongdoing, but calling it tax underpayment or additional owed taxes feels like just an ooopsie oversight. I don’t know if what happened here to embroil top Korean stars is the former or latter but this week the announcement of a government investigation into a large group of rich and … Continue reading →
2022 was a pretty good year for K-dramas but I didn’t pay as much attention to the box office. It was fully business as usual in South Korea with the audiences being able to go to the theater and no occupancy limitations. There are a bunch of big names coming in with high profile movies in 2023 and there was … Continue reading →
Soooooo many memes work with this running joke about how poorly (selected) the South Korean stars look at red carpet events ranging from awards to festivals. It’s like they go out of their way to be beyond boring or intentionally fugly. The 2022 Asia Star Awards held at the Busan International Film Festival was like an episode of Project Runway … Continue reading →
Oh wow, this is such an important story for many reasons. The first is, thank you Lee Byung Hun! The top actor has been revealed as a key person that helped save Kim Woo Bin‘s life. The actor was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer in 2017 and the diagnosis came after Lee Byung Hun urged Kim Woo Bin to go see … Continue reading →
