Lee Yong: Last News

Busan International Film Festival. It has been a struggle for Asian film festivals and rights markets to return to normal as conservative governments and reticent populations warily and belatedly embraced reduced quarantine periods, the end of mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing. But Wednesday night’s hosts were at pains to stress that this year’s 27th BIFF is operating at full capacity. “I can’t tell you how emotional I am tonight,” said Lee Yong-kwan co-founder of the festival and now its chairman.

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has confirmed Jung Hanseok will be its new festival director.

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) is lining up Korean Cinema programmer Jung Hanseok for its new festival director role, though the selection process isn’t yet complete.

Agents of Mystery, starring aespa‘s Karina. Read on for everything you need to know about the show’s plot, cast, premiere date and more.According to a press release by Netflix, the series will follow “six personalities [as they] find themselves as agents transported to secretive sites to investigate cases and complete missions with their combined intellect.

K-pop girl group aespa have released their own version of Bobby Helms’ classic holiday song, ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.Today (November 24), the quartet unveiled a lyric video for their remake of the iconic 1957 Christmas song. aespa’s version of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ features a hip-hop-inspired beat, as well as a brand-new rap verse.“Ring ring ring, jingle bell rock / Play like a spell I won’t tell, jingle bell talk / So giddy up, giddy up / Turn it up fast till we burn up / We ain’t ever gonna stop, jingle bell rock,” Giselle and Winter rap on the second verse.SM Entertainment first announced the song via a press release earlier this week, describing it as a “catchy and hip” reinterpretation of the classic track, with the girl group’s “unique vocals and rap” setting it aside from the original ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.aespa’s ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ comes just two weeks after they released their fourth mini-album ‘Drama’.

TWICE have dropped a remix album titled ‘The Remixes’, featuring seven re-arranged versions of some of their hit songs, alongside several new collaborations.The new record, which dropped on streaming services earlier today (November 22), includes new English versions of ‘Alcohol-Free’ and ‘Cry For Me’, as well as an electronic dance pop remix of ‘Moonlight Sunrise’ with DJ Jonas Blue, which first dropped as a pre-release for ‘The Remixes’ last week.TWICE also joined forces with pop-rock band Boys Like Girls on a refreshed version of ‘I Can’t Stop Me’, and collaborated with DJs Ian Asher, Carneyval and Lee Hae-sol on remixes of the songs ‘The Feels’, ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘More & More’, respectively. Listen to the record below.In other K-pop news, aespa’s Karina has joined the cast of an upcoming reality series from Netflix titled Agents of Mystery. She is set to star alongside former Girls’ Day member and actress Lee Hye-ri, actors Kim Do-hoon and Lee Yong-jin, comedian Lee Eun-ji and singer John Park.While an official premiere date for the series has yet to be announced, Netflix announced that the show will be produced by Jeong Jong-yeon, who previously helmed the viral Netflix reality show The Devil’s Plan, which premiered earlier this year.Meanwhile, Prime Video has released the first trailer for its upcoming original K-drama series My Man is Cupid, starring Mask Girl‘s Nana and Daily Dose of Sunshine‘s Jang Dong-yoon.

aespa member Karina has been announced as part of the cast for Netflix’s upcoming original Korean reality show Agents of Mystery. The streaming service announced the cast of Agents of Mystery earlier today (November 22) through its official Netflix K-Content account on X (formerly known as Twitter).

My Man is Cupid, starring Mask Girl‘s Nana and Daily Dose of Sunshine‘s Jang Dong-yoon.The series revolves around Chun Sang-hyuk (played by Jang Dong-yoon), a cupid who has been stuck on Earth for 500 years after losing his wings. He starts off as a stoic being unable to get over his first love, but things quickly change when he accidentally shoots himself with one of his arrows.He somehow crosses paths with Oh Baek-ryun (Nana), a veterinarian who is incredibly sought after for her beauty.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “I hope we can communicate and reconcile again,” said Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon on the opening night of the South Korean city’s film festival. With so much of the dialogue in opening drama “Because I Hate Korea” discussing Korean societal rigidities, group loyalties, long working hours and poor pay (which cause the protagonist to emigrate to laid-back New Zealand), it is easy to forget that many of these characteristics are what may have saved this year’s Busan International FIlm Festival from going off the rails.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has been through a fair amount of drama this year. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief An investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a former director of the Busan International Film Festival has not reached a conclusion, several months after it began, the festival said on Tuesday. The festival has said that it is urging former director Huh Moonyoung to cooperate with an external investigator. The festival held its annual lineup presentation on Tuesday in an online format, announcing the bulk of its film selections, juries, anticipated guests, honorary prize-winners and technical arrangements such as screening venues and ticketing. As part of the presentation, current management again apologized for several months of turmoil, which it admitted had scared off sponsors and caused its operating budget to shrink. The turmoil began in May when the festival appointed Cho Jongkook, a close friend of chairman Lee Yong-kwan, to a power-sharing position with festival director Huh Moonyoung. That move was opposed by certain Korean industry guilds, which threatened to boycott the festival in support of Huh.

Oh Seok-geun, director of Busan International Film Festival’s industry platform, Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), has resigned from his post, the latest in a string of resignations to rock the festival. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oh Seok-geun, head of the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan, has resigned. Oh’s exit follows the resignation earlier this week of Busan International Film Festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan and the earlier departure of festival director Huh Moonyoung. “I submitted my resignation to the BIFF. I decided this was the best choice I could make. I hope my decision will help solve the BIFF situation,” Oh told Variety. A spokesman for the festival confirmed that Oh had tendered his resignation and said that the organization will frame its response next week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Yong-kwan, one of the original founders of the Busan International Film Festival, says he is stepping down as the event’s chairman – this time with immediate effect. He says the move is intended to defuse a morass of factional infighting and political interference surrounding Asian’s most prominent film festival. A festival spokesman told Variety that the board of directors “has decided to persuade the chairperson to return. So, the resignation has not been accepted yet.”

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival has moved to resolve its ongoing management crisis by confirming that managing director Cho Jongkook has been dismissed and will be replaced by deputy director Kang Seung-ah. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some 18 film industry guilds and trade associations are calling for urgent structural reform of the Busan International Film Festival. They point out that this year’s edition of the festival is looming less than 100 days away. The festival’s management has made a succession of management missteps in recent weeks, including one that resulted in an official apology. At the beginning of May, a decision to split the festival’s senior management in two by creating a new position for Cho Jongkook, was followed by consternation among guilds and the resignation of festival director Huh Moonyoung.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival has apologized for its mishandling of the resignation of its executive director Huh Moon-young and related sexual harassment allegations. “We sincerely apologize over the sexual harassment case that occurred in the workplace,” BIFF said in a Korean-language statement on Thursday. (A festival spokesperson said that an English-language statement, along with an update, will be issued in the coming days.) Huh has publicly denied the allegations, though he has not replied to email and telephone requests for comment by Variety.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Nam Dong-chul will act as interim director of the Busan International Film Festival after a month of management turmoil, two high profile resignations and sexual harassment accusations levelled at festival director Huh Moon-young. Huh denies the allegations, but will not return to the festival. In early May, the festival announced the appointment of Cho Jong-kook, a close friend of festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan, as managing director, with responsibility for operations, administration and budgeting.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival, Asia’s biggest annual film event, may be headed for fresh turmoil following the announcement by festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan that he plans to resign. On Friday, the festival’s director Huh Moonyung announced his plan to resign and exit by the end of the month. The two high-level resignations follow the announcement a week ago that the festival would split the director’s job and appoint Cho Jongkook to the newly created position of managing director. “Festival director Huh Moonyung and chairperson Lee Yong-kwan have both announced their resignation, but neither have been processed yet,” a festival spokesperson confirmed to Variety.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema has unveiled its 85-title lineup for the edition that starts later this month (February 28 to March 7, 2023). Elements include a 10-film competition section, a 10-film documentary film section, a tribute to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; a thematic section “Asian Diaspora Cinema” offering a panorama of works by directors from Asian countries living in exile; and a Philippines cinema sidebar. Fiction films in competition include: Azerbaijan’s “Cold as Marble,” by Asif Rustamov; China’s “In Our Prime,” by Liu Yulin; Korea’s “A Letter from Kyoto,” by Kim Min-ju; India’s: “Behind Veils,” by Praveen Morshhale; Iran’s “No End,” by Nader Saievar; Mongolia’s “The Sales Girl,” by Sengedorj Janchivdorj; The Philippines’s “Feast,” by Brillante Mendoza; Singapore’s “#LookAtMe,” by Ken Kwek; and Vietnam’s “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Marcus Vu Manh Cuong. The president of the jury is Lee Yong-kwan, president of the Busan film festival.

Barunson E&A, the production company behind Oscar-winner Parasite, is set to officially launch its new international ventures at the upcoming American Film Market as it looks to expand into co-production, financing and sales.

BTS‘ exemption from military service by December.The announcement was made during tourism minister Park Bo-kyun’s attendance of the South Korean National Assembly’s parliamentary inspection of the administration yesterday (October 5), per Ten Asia. Park shared a timeline for the decision after People Power Party member Lee Yong-ho requested for him to “actively review the issue of BTS’s military service”, as translated by Soompi.“Member Jin’s enlistment is set to be sorted out by December, but the MCST will finalise our stance as soon as possible before then,” Park said in response.