Kpop, Cpop, Jpop and Vpop News

TVXQ Tops Japanese Oricon Chart

Popular male vocal group TVXQ recently reached the top of the Japanese Oricon Chart.

The group’s 22nd single “Beautiful You” ranked number one on the Oricon daily chart the day it was released on April 23. The song also ranked number one on the May 5 weekly chart.

With “Beautiful You” topping the Japanese Oricon Chart, TVXQ has become the first Asian group to do so in the 24 years and five months since “Love is Over,” sung by a Taiwanese female artist, topped the chart in December, 1983.

TVXQ is currently on a nationwide tour in Japan, performing in a total of 17 concerts in front of 150,000 fans. The grand finale of TVXQ’s “TVXQ 3rd Live Tour 2008-T” will take place at the Super Arena in Saitama on May 6.

Asian and even European fans are expected to flock to the final performance which will be held over Japan’s long weekend.

Korean Drama to be Aired in Iraq

Korean drama “My Name is Kim Samsoon” will be aired in the Arbil region of Iraq, where Korean troops are stationed. The Korean Broadcasting Institute said that it will provide the drama to Iraq’s Kurdistan TV, the largest Kurdish satellite broadcasting station in northern Iraq.

According to the KBI, “Sad Love Story” recorded an amazing viewer rating when it was shown in Iraq last July. In the wake of the Korean drama’s huge popularity, the Kurdistan TV asked the KBI for another Korean TV series. “Sad Love Story” posted 70% ratings and after the drama ended, a park in Arbil was named after the main female character of the show.

The Iraqi TV stations reported that the local Kurdish community quickly warmed up to the Korean people and began to show interest in the Korean history and culture after “Sad Love Story” was aired. “My Name is Kim Samsoon” will be aired in June, following a dubbing job in Kurdish.

In the meantime, a Lebanese TV stations has been airing “Sad Love Story” since March. Korea’s engineering unit has been deployed to Lebanon as part of the UN peacekeeping mission.Credits kbs.co.kr

Eru Starts Military Duty

Hot ballad singer Eru (real name Jo Seong-hyeon) entered the boot camp to start his mandatory military service. He was born in New York, but gave up his U.S. citizenship to serve his motherland.

Eru began his military duty at a boot camp in Nonsan, Gyeonggi Province Thursday afternoon. He was greeted by many of his fans at the gate of the training camp. Eru said that he will try to fulfill his duty as a Korean citizen and complete his service as quietly as he can without much media attention.

Eru debuted in 2005 and has produced a number of hits, such as “Handkerchief,” “Black Glasses,” and “White Snow.” Eru and his father Tae Jin-ah (real name Jo Bang-heon), Korea’s top traditional pop singer, are known to be very close, as demonstrated by the fact Tae personally drove Eru to the boot camp to see him off. Eru will stay there for four weeks to receive basic training and then be assigned to public service duty.Credits kbs.co.kr

“Crossing” Moves U.S. Audience to Tears

A screening of “Crossing,” a South Korean film based on true accounts of North Korean defectors, was held at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The audience included House International Relations Committee specialists Dennis Halpin and Doug Anderson, Peter Beck, executive director of the U.S Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Kim Sung-min, a former North Korean refugee and head of Free North Korea Radio, and 100 foreign journalists.

The film is about a North Korean father who crosses the border to China in search of food, leaving his ailing wife and 11-year-old son behind. After reaching South Korea, he desperately tries to bring his family out of North Korea, but his wife dies from malnutrition and his young son perishes in the Mongolian desert.

Several audience members reportedly broke in tears at the sad plight of this desperate North Korean father and the horrendous state of human rights violation in the North. Dennis Halpin called it a “masterpiece” that showed the tragedy of North Korean residents to the world just like “The Diary of Anne Frank” did for the Nazi Germany. Peter Beck called it the best film ever made on the subject of North Korean defectors.

Directed by Kim Tae-gyun and starring South Korean film star Cha In-pyo, “Crossing” will be released in theaters on June 5th.

Credits kbs.co.kr

28th Annual General Public Film Hundred Flower Award

The 28th Annual General Public Film Hundred Flower Award
(the 15th Annual China Golden Rooster Hundred Flower Film Festival) two
nights ago took place in Hangzhou.  Mainland film ZHANG SIDE was the big
winner with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, which went to
Mainland actor Wu Jun.  Best Actress went to A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES (TIN
HA MO CHAK)’s Rene Lau Yeuk Ying.  A Hong Kong actor won for the first
time as Nicholas Tse Ting Fung received Best Supporting Actor with NEW
POLICE STORY (SUN GAING CHAT GOO SI).  Yuen Qiu won Best Supporting
Actress with KUNG FU HUSTLE (GONG FU) and Sun Li won Best New Actor Award
with FEARLESS (FOK YUEN GAP).
Ting Fung came purely to support the Golden Rooster Hundred
Flower Award.  Because his co-stars Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse Ting
Fung could not attend, he came to accept awards for them and never
expected that he would win.
He was honored to win an award.  This time the competition was
strong and the jury had 99 members.  He only could thank the jury for
giving him a chance.  He never thought about becoming Jackie Chan’s
successor and did not mind whether his next goal was Best Actor.  In the
end in a movie each actor can be the lead.
A Hangzhou publication held an online poll.  Ting Fung left Andy
Lau Tak Wa and Jackie Chan in the dust as My Favorite Actor.  At the same
time he and Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi were selected as “The Most Popular
Husband and Wife Team”.  He honestly said that many directors have
approached them, but he did not want the focus of the film to be on them
and was afraid that the paparazzi would hinder the production.  After
winning the award he still has not called his old lady when Pak Chi
called.  He expressed that he had to rush back to work in Hong Kong and
could not celebrate.  As for his wife’s pregnancy rumor, he only said,
“No, she only had too much to eat.  I won’t consider it until my body
recovers.  Earlier I was hurt all over from a movie, now I need to rest
more.”