News Analysis India

Tag: South Korean

  • Two held for harassing Korean woman on Mumbai street

    By PTI

    The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested two men for allegedly molesting and stalking a South Korean woman YouTuber on a street in the city, an official said. A video surfaced on Wednesday showing the woman being sexually harassed by a young man in Khar area of Mumbai.

    A Twitter handle which had shared the video claimed the woman was from South Korea and was livestreaming in suburban Khar when the incident took place around 8 pm on Tuesday. The video showed a young man coming very close to her and trying to pull her by holding her hand even when she protested.

    As the woman began to walk away from the spot, the man again appeared on a motorbike with a friend, offering her a lift while she told him in broken English that she did not want it.

    The police took notice of the incident on their own after receiving the video on their Twitter handle, an official from Khar police station said. They registered an FIR and started a probe into the incident.

    Last night on stream, there was a guy who harassed me. I tried my best not to escalate the situation and leave because he was with his friend. And some people said that it was initiated by me being too friendly and engaging the conversation. Makes me think again about streaming. https://t.co/QQvXbOVp9F
    — Mhyochi in

    The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested two men for allegedly molesting and stalking a South Korean woman YouTuber on a street in the city, an official said. A video surfaced on Wednesday showing the woman being sexually harassed by a young man in Khar area of Mumbai.

    A Twitter handle which had shared the video claimed the woman was from South Korea and was livestreaming in suburban Khar when the incident took place around 8 pm on Tuesday. The video showed a young man coming very close to her and trying to pull her by holding her hand even when she protested.

    As the woman began to walk away from the spot, the man again appeared on a motorbike with a friend, offering her a lift while she told him in broken English that she did not want it.

    The police took notice of the incident on their own after receiving the video on their Twitter handle, an official from Khar police station said. They registered an FIR and started a probe into the incident.

    Last night on stream, there was a guy who harassed me. I tried my best not to escalate the situation and leave because he was with his friend. And some people said that it was initiated by me being too friendly and engaging the conversation. Makes me think again about streaming. https://t.co/QQvXbOVp9F
    — Mhyochi in

  • Netflix to expand ‘Squid Game’ universe with new reality series ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’

    The 10-episode competition series is a co-production between Studio Lambert (The Circle) and The Garden (24 Hours in A&E), part of ITV Studios, and it will be filmed in the UK.

  • India’s first K-pop artist Sriya: Honoured to represent country at global platform

    By PTI

    BHUBANESHWAR: After months of arduous training and auditions, 18-year-old Sriya Lenka has made history by becoming the fifth member of the popular South Korean band Blackswan, a dream come true feeling that the young artist describes as “priceless.”

    Lenka, who hails from the steel city of Rourkela in the Sundargarh district of western Odisha, was selected for the band last week alongside Gabriela Dalcin from Brazil.

    They both will join original band members Youngheun, Fatou, Judy and Leia. “I never imagined that my dream would come true so soon. It was so precious to be selected because that moment changed the course of my life. I feel so proud and honoured to represent my country on such a big global platform,” Lenka told PTI in a Zoom interview from Seoul.

    Lenka and Dalcin were selected for the band after participating in a six-month-long global audition process, which was announced by DR Music last year after band member Hyeme left the girl group.

    The duo never expected that they would get to be in the band together as there was only one spot initially. “At first, we only knew that it was only one spot, so we needed to work really hard,” Lenka said.

    She acknowledged that it was hard to compete with Dalcin as they became best friends. “We live together, we eat together and we practice together. She is like my family member because we only had each other at that time. ”

    ALSO READ: India’s first K-pop artist Sriya Lenka becomes member of the South Korean band Blackswan

    A trained dancer, Lenka was introduced to K-pop by a friend a few years ago and found herself getting intrigued by the choreography in the music videos. She was instantly hooked to K-pop’s “unique style” of singing and dancing.

    In 2020, when she saw K-pop record labels open online auditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she decided to give it a shot.

    “But I never imagined I would make it so big. Never expected that so many celebrities will post about me, I’ll become the most searched on Google in 24 hours and get covered by so many media organisations,” the young artist said.

    Lenka and Dalcin’s training started in December in Seoul, but staying away from friends and family in a different culture was not easy initially. A lot has changed in the months that followed.

    She now considers Gimbap, which is made of rice, vegetables and meat, rolled into a dried seaweed sheet, among her favourite dishes. Lenka is also struck by the K-drama fever and counts “Mr Queen”, a time-traveling historical drama, as one of her favourite shows.

    Becoming a K-pop member entails long training in every aspect and Lenka had to learn the Korean language, dance, sing, rap and develop strong core strengths.

    The singer said all this could only be possible because of the support of her family and her father, who was the first one to teach her acrobatics and dance.

    “He always used to tell me about my mistakes. He supported me a lot,” she said, adding that she misses her family and hopes to meet them soon.”  “My father always said that believe in your dreams and yourself because even if there are bad times, good times will come for sure,” Lenka said.

  • South Korea’s Park Chan-wook wins best director award at Cannes for his  movie “Decision To Leave”

    By AFP

    CANNES: South Korean star film-maker Park Chan-wook on Saturday won the Cannes Film Festival’s best director award for his erotic crime movie “Decision To Leave”.

    Starring Chinese star Tang Wei and Korean actor Park Hae-il, “Decision To Leave” tells the story of a detective who, investigating a man’s fatal fall from a mountain, comes under the spell of the victim’s wife, whom he suspects of having caused her husband’s death.

    The detective story increasingly meshes with the mutual attraction engulfing the main characters, and the resulting erotic tension that is heightened by the constant proximity of death.

    “I’m not a romantic, but I’m very interested in the expression of emotions,” said Park in an interview with AFP when the film premiered at the festival.

    “Decision To Leave” was warmly received by Cannes audiences. The BBC called it a “cracking romantic thriller” and Screen said that “even without the extreme shock tactics of some of his earlier work, Park can craft a deeply satisfying and potentially commercial thriller”.

    The film’s mesmerising soundtrack includes the Adagietto in Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony, immortalised in the 1971 movie “Death In Venice” by Luchino Visconti.

    “I tried to find other classical pieces that could work, but this piece by Mahler was just ideal,” Park, 58, said. “And I thought, is there a law that says only Visconti gets to use this piece? No there isn’t, so I went ahead.”

    Park’s Cannes entry comes nearly two decades after his “Oldboy” which won the festival’s second-highest prize in 2004 and helped catapult South Korean cinema onto the global stage — years before “Parasite”, which won the 2019 Palme d’Or and best film at the 2020 Oscars.

    Park said the film drew inspiration from the methodical police work contained in the Swedish “Martin Beck” crime thriller books. “That’s what I wanted to represent in a movie,” he said.

  • BTS announces new album, to be out on June 10

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: South Korean music group BTS will release their new album on June 10, their management agency BigHit Music announced Sunday.

    The development of the new album comes as BTS complete their ‘Permission to Dance On Stage’ tour at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, US.

    BigHit Music took to Weverse, the global fan community forum, to share the news. “BTS will be back with another new album on June 10, 2022,” the agency said in a statement. Details on the new album will be provided in a separate notice at a later date, they added. “We look forward to your love and support for BTS’ new album,” BigHit said.

    The official BTS Twitter page also dropped an announcement teaser covering the journey of the band that started in 2013.

    The 50-second-long video flashed ‘WE ARE BULLETPROOF’ and ‘2022.6.10’ towards the end of the clip. Many members of the ARMY, the fan group of the Grammy-nominated band, took to social media and asked if the name of the new album was ‘WE ARE BULLETPROOF’.

    [공지] #BTS (+ENG/JPN/CHN)https://t.co/Pxb2rZbyCc pic.twitter.com/qkuPPA4cmx
    — BTS_official (@bts_bighit) April 17, 2022
    BTS released the song “We Are Bulletproof: Part 2” in 2013 and followed it up with “We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal”, as a continuation of the previous track.

    The septet, comprising RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook, released their last album ‘BE’ in December 2020. Post ‘BE’, BTS released two back-to-back English singles “Butter” and “Permission to Dance” in May and July 2021, respectively.

    They were nominated for the second time for the best pop duo/ group performance Grammy for “Butter”, but lost out to Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More”.

  • K-drama ‘Snowdrop’ actor Kim Mi-soo dies at 31

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: South Korean actor Kim Mi-soo, who featured in a supporting role in the currently on air K-drama “Snowdrop”, passed away on Wednesday. She was 31.

    Her agency Landscape Entertainment confirmed the news of the actor’s “sudden” death in a statement to Korean media outlet Star News. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.

    “Actress Kim Mi Soo suddenly passed away on January 5. The bereaved family is currently very heartbroken due to the sudden sad news,” Kim’s agency said.

    The agency also urged people to refrain from spreading rumours around the actor’s death.

    “We sincerely ask that you refrain from spreading rumors or speculative reports so that the bereaved family, who is in shock and full of sorrow, can remember the deceased,” the statement read.

    In “Snowdrop”, Kim played the role of Yeo Jung-min, one of the roommates of the series lead essayed by girl group Blackpink member Jisoo. The late actor also starred in 2021’s hit K-dramas like Netflix series “Hellbound” and “Yumi’s Cells” (Viki).

    Kim’s funeral will be held quietly behind closed doors according to the wishes of her family, the agency further said. “Please pray for her, and we send our deepest condolences once again to the deceased,” Landscape Entertainment concluded the statement.

    “Snowdrop” is currently embroiled in a controversy at home as several Korean netizens have accused the drama of distorting the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s in South Korea and glorifying the notorious Agency for National Security Planning.

    JTBC, the TV channel on which the show airs in South Korea, has repeatedly denied the claims, before announcing days ago that it will take legal action against individuals spreading “falsehoods” regarding the series.

    Also starring “Something in the Rain” star Jung Hae-in the lead role, “Snowdrop” is available for streaming on Disney Plus in selected regions.