2023 Culture Top 10 News

In 2023, Korea witnessed a tumultuous year in its entertainment and culture scenes. A drug scandal sent shock waves through the industry, ensnaring luminaries like Yoo Ah-in, G-Dragon and Lee Sun-kyun,

━ 1. Lee Sun-kyun dies by suicide, drug scandal sweeps entertainment scene

Actor Lee Sun-kyun arrives at an office of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency in Incheon on Dec. 23 for the third round of questioning on suspicions of drug use. [NEWS1]

In the latest development of Korea's biggest drug scandal that swept through the local entertainment scene this year, actor Lee Sun-kyun reportedly died by suicide in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Wednesday. He was 48 years old.

Lee had been undergoing police questioning on suspicions of drug use, based on a detailed testimony from a woman who claimed that he took illegal drugs with her at her house. He initially denied the allegations, and drug tests of his body hair came back negative.

Lee was best known for his role in the 2020 Oscar-winning film "Parasite."

Separately, actor Yoo Ah-in was indicted without detention on Oct. 19 over his alleged use of seven different types of drugs, including marijuana, propofol, ketamine and cocaine.

The first hearing was held on Dec. 12, during which Yoo's attorney admitted that he had smoked marijuana but denied most other allegations of illegal drug use. The second hearing will take place on Jan. 23.

Meanwhile, singer G-Dragon of boy band Big Bang was cleared of all related charges on Dec. 18, and he said that he will establish a foundation to combat drug addiction next year, named JusPeace.

━ 2. Bye for now, BTS says

All seven members of BTS are now serving their military services. The above photograph was taken on Dec. 11, on the day of members Jimin and Jungkook's enlistment. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BTS bid a short farewell to fans as all seven members are now fulfilling their military services.

Six members — J-Hope, Suga, RM, V, Jimin and Jungkook — began their services this year, following the oldest member Jin who began his service in December last year and is expected to finish in June next year.

Each member released their own solo music before starting their duties, and each broke records. BTS celebrated its 10th anniversary as a band this year and held the BTS Festa 2023 across the capital city in collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

All seven members are expected to return by June 2025, as promised by the band’s agency HYBE when it announced last year that members would start fulfilling their duties.

Members hinted in a livestream on Dec. 5 before starting their services that they left many gifts for fans to enjoy. Member Jimin released his solo single "Closer Than This" on Dec. 22.

━ 3. Blackpink 'fourever'

Girl group Blackpink [YG ENTRTAINMENT]

It was a hurrah moment for YG Entertainment and fan club Blink when all four members of girl group Blackpink agreed to renew their contracts with the agency on Dec. 6.

The news came months after keeping silent since August, when the girl group’s contract would have expired.

Blackpink debuted on Aug. 8, 2016, as YG Entertainment's second girl group, after 2NE1. It shot to the top of the charts with its meteoric debut track "Whistle" (2016) and has been sitting on the throne as the queens of K-pop ever since.

The girl group promised a new album and world tour, though the dates of the album and tour are being discussed, according to YG Entertainment.

Member Jennie recently announced that she started her own company named Odd Atelier with her mother in November and will "start [her] journey" there in 2024.

The other three members' contracts for individual activities are still in talks.

━ 4. Cupid's roller coaster ride

Fifty Fifty debuted as a quartet but now only has one remaining member, Keena, second from right. [ATTRAKT]

Fifty Fifty was perhaps one of the hottest acts of 2023, for better or for worse.

Fifty Fifty debuted on Nov. 18 last year as a quartet and shot to the top of the charts this year when its dance track “Cupid” went viral online. It became the fastest K-pop girl group to land its song on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Things suddenly took an unexpected turn when the four members filed for an injunction against their agency Attrakt, claiming that the company mistreated them and refused to share the income with the members.

The court sided with the agency rather than the members, and three members were kicked out of the agency and the group — with the exception of Keena, who returned to the agency after apologizing to the CEO.

Fifty Fifty is now a one-woman band with Keena as the sole remaining member.

━ 5. Streaming services up the ante with hit shows

Actor Song Hye-kyo as Moon Dong-eun in ″The Glory″ Part 2 [NETFLIX]

Leading streaming service providers Netflix and Disney+ each had massively popular original series this year, including “The Glory” and “Moving.”

Netflix's “The Glory,” starring Song Hye-kyo as a victim of school bullying who seeks revenge on her perpetrators, ranked among the top 10 non-English television shows of all time on the streaming platform at No. 5, with 436.9 million hours watched within the first 28 days of its release.

“Moving” similarly became the most watched Korean original series on Disney+ ever, and was called “the next breakout hit from Asia after ‘Squid Game’” by outlets such as Variety. A story about a group of superheroes who trudge through ordinary life, “Moving” contributed to increasing the usage time of Disney+ in Korea by 145 percent.

Reports showed that original series from streaming services do especially well in Korea.

━ 6. Scribbling on the royal palace walls

The walls of Yeongchumun Gate, the west entrance of Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, is vandalized with spray paint on Saturday. Two teen suspects were caught on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The historic Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul was vandalized with spray paint graffiti in mid-December, and not just once: The next night, yet another fresh batch of graffiti appeared on the walls.

The Cultural Heritage Administration immediately began a restoration project that would take up to a few weeks, and the Seoul Jongno Police Station got to work tracking down the suspects by analyzing security camera footage.

The police are now investigating the culprits: two males, one 17 and one in his 20s, who both admitted to the crime on separate days. The teenager, who is responsible for the first graffiti, claimed that somebody had offered to pay him to spray-paint the address of illegal streaming websites, while the man in his 20s said he had “wanted attention” for the second.

The police are now trying to identify the person who had given the order to the teenager. The Gyeongbok Palace walls are set to return to normal on Jan. 4.

━ 7. Fiction books find global acclaim

Cheon Myeong-kwan made the shortlist for this year's International Booker Awards with his book "Whale" in April. [YONHAP]

Cheon Myeong-kwan's "Whale" in April made the shortlist for this year's International Booker Awards. It was published in 2004 and translated into English by Kim Chi-young in 2022. A sprawling 20th-century epic that follows the lives of three females from the Korean countryside, the Booker Prize praised it as “a fiction that brims with surprises and wicked humor."

Han Kang's "I Do Not Bid Farewell" in November won the prestigious French literary prize Prix Medicis étranger. It is the first time a Korean author has been awarded this accolade. The book was published in 2021 and translated to French by Choi Kyung-ran and Pierre Bisiou earlier this year. It is about love, life and grief surrounding the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising, told in the voices of three women.

━ 8. Jikji sees spotlight after half a century in hiding

Jikji inside a showcase at the BnF, or the National Library of France in Paris, for the first time in 50 years in April. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

Jikji, the oldest known dated text printed with movable metal type, went on public display for the first time in half a century in Paris this year.

It was displayed from April to July at the National Library of France (BnF)’s exhibition on the history of printing technology. Jikji is a book containing the essentials of Zen Buddhism, printed at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju in 1377. It predates Europe’s earliest substantial book printed using metal type, the Gutenberg Bible, by 78 years.

Jikji had been hidden among unsorted old documents at the BnF storage until Park Byeong-seon, the late Korean librarian and historian who worked at the BnF from 1967 to 1980, discovered the book in 1972. Unesco in 2001 acknowledged it as the oldest known document to have been printed using metal movable type.

━ 9. Luxury brands secure their spot in Korea

Models walk down Geunjeongjeon's haenggak, a roofed corridor, for the latest Gucci Cruise 2024 collection show on May 16. [GUCCI]

European luxury fashion houses not only appointed a plethora of Korean celebrities as their promotional ambassadors, but they also held notable events in Korea throughout the year.

In late May, Italian luxury fashion house Gucci, with approval from the Cultural Heritage Administration, launched its Gucci Cruise 2024 collection at Gyeongbok Palace’s Geunjeongjeon courtyard. The event was star-studded with guests like NewJeans’ Hanni, Lee Jung-jae and Elizabeth Olsen, and Korean model Sora Choi strutted down the runway.

Louis Vuitton in April also held its first Korean fashion show at Some Sevit, the artificial floating islands in southern Seoul, for its 2023 Pre-fall collection.

In the fine dining sector, the French luxury brand held two pop-up restaurants at its flagship store Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul in Gangnam District, southern Seoul: Iyoki at Louis Vuitton and Woori Louis Vuitton.

Global luxury jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels held an exhibition at D Museum in eastern Seoul in November, showcasing its priceless jewelry collections. Back in January it had also held another exhibition at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul.

━ 10. Two films in the 10 million club

“12.12: The Day” surpassed a million dollars in revenue in the North American market, becoming the biggest Korean film hit in North America this year. [YONHAP]

Two Korean works made it to the 10 million ticket sales mark this year — “The Roundup: No Way Out” and “12.12: The Day.”

“The Roundup: No Way Out,” the third installment in the action franchise led by Don Lee, made the breakthrough on July 1, 32 days after its release. “12.12: The Day,” a historical film about the Dec. 12, 1979, coup d’état, achieved the feat on Christmas Eve, 33 days after its release.

“The Roundup: No Way Out” was generally expected to hit the 10 million mark as both the first and second films in the franchise — “The Outlaws” (2017) and “The Roundup” (2022) — easily surpassed the milestone before, but “12.12: The Day” selling over 10 million tickets gave rise to new hope for the Korean film industry, which many believe to be in a rut as of late.

BY CULTURE DESK [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]