Korean star IU (aka LEE Ji-eun), one of the biggest names in the country’s entertainment scene, has set her sights on the arthouse world after signing on to appear in Broker, the Korean language debut of acclaimed Japanese filmmaker KOREEDA Hirokazu. The singer-turned-actress joins a cast that already includes big names such as SONG Kang-ho, BAE Doo-na, and GANG Dong-won. Broker will concern sever...

Actors RYU Seung-ryong and PARK Hae-joon have joined forces on the upcoming comedy Jung’s Farm (working title). From first-time director KIM Ji-yeon, the film entered production on January 22. The actors are playing brothers who don’t act as though they’re particularly close, even though they raise cows together. RYOO was cast as the stern older brother Man-soo while PARK is playing the happy-go-l...

HYUN Bin, YOO Hae-jin and IM Yoon-a have all signed on to reunite in Confidential Assignment 2: International (translated title), the sequel to the hit 2017 action-comedy. Joining them in the franchise will be Daniel HENNEY and JIN Seon-kyu. Assuming the director’s role for this second outing is The Pirates (2014) helmer LEE Seok-hoon. The sequel will find Rim Chul-ryung (HYUN Bin) returning to So...

Korea’s film industry ended 2019 with a bang, as local disaster action-drama ASHFALL lorded over the charts at the tail end of a massive 12 months. It was a record-breaking year for the exhibition sector, which sold a record 226.68 million tickets, among several new box office benchmarks, while local films claimed a majority share for the ninth year in a row. This year’s total marked a 4.8% rise o...

With the entry of yet another feverishly anticipated Disney title, the box office rose 10% in mid-July with 2.97 million tickets sold over the past weekend. Hollywood continued to be extremely dominant as the local market share was pushed all the way down to 3%. Notably, Disney accounted for 77% of all sales with three of the top four films on the charts, although its subsidiary Marvel co-produced...

After months of local dominance Hollywood finally found a way to break through the ranks with Marvel’s latest tentpole Captain Marvel. Admissions were up 25% to 2.74 million while Hollywood controlled the charts with an 84% market share. Following a long dry spell for Hollywood, Captain Marvel rode in on a wave of anticipation and scored a large 2.26 million viewers (USD 18.09 million) weekend, wi...