[K-enter] "Mickey 17" actors visit Korea for press conference

Time for some K-entertainment news with Bella Kim.

Bella, today we start off with a story on an upcoming movie?

Yes, we are going to start off with the movie “Mickey 17.” The actors of “Mickey 17” visited Korea for the film’s press conference. On Thursday, actors Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, and Naomi Ackie gathered together, with director Bong Joon-ho, to attend the press conference for the movie “Mickey 17” at Megabox COEX in Seoul.

Based on Edward Ashton’s novel “Mickey7,” the new movie tells the story of Mickey, an expendable sent on dangerous missions.

“Mickey 17” comes six years after Bong Joon-ho’s big hit, “Parasite,” which won global praise including Academy Awards.

One of the cast, Ruffalo, said during the press conference, “I’m honored to be here with Bong Joon-ho, who is one of the greatest living directors today, and to be able to work with him in this cast.”

Another actor in the movie, Ackie, who plays Mickey’s girlfriend, said she enjoyed being able to portray her character in a liberating way in the film.

Korean-American actor Yeun, who plays Mickey’s friend Timo, found his role very intriguing. He also had a great experience working with Bong for the second time, as he also starred in the director’s 2017 movie “Okja.” He said that the beauty of director Bong is that he appreciates and loves the character and the actor as they are in the moment that they are.

“Mickey 17” is set to premiere in Korea on February 28th, followed by its North American release on March 7th.

Moving onto our next topic for today, K-pop. What do you have for us Bella?

Virtual idol group PLAVE proved their global power by successfully entering the Billboard Global 200 chart. According to Billboard, the song “Dash” from their mini-album “Caligo Pt.1,” entered the Billboard Global 200 at No.195.

The Billboard Global Chart is a chart that compiles rankings based on online streaming and digital sales in more than 200 countries around the world, including the United States.

PLAVE became the very first virtual idol group to hit the chart.

On the day of their mini-album release, they topped domestic music site, Melon, and the number of monthly listeners on Spotify doubled in two weeks, showing their popularity both in Korea and globally.

PLAVE’s third mini-album “Caligo Part 1” comes five months after their digital single “Pump Up the Volume!”

And lastly, we move back to the topic of movies. We have another movie that’s coming out soon?

That’s right. I don’t know if you’ve noticed Soa, but recently, we've seen many K-pop artists’ concerts being made into films. Well, we have another concert film that’s coming out.

ZEROBASEONE’s first world tour concert has been made into a film and will premiere in theaters on March 12th, exclusively at CGV. The title of the film is “ZEROBASEONE THE FIRST TOUR IN CINEMAS,” titled after their world tour.

According to their agency, WakeOne Entertainment, their first concert film will include live performances, along with scenes from backstage and interviews with the members.

The trailer of the film shows lively scenes from their world tour concert in Seoul at KSPO Dome.

ZEROBASESONE performed in eight cities in Asia last year for their first world tour, “2024 ZEROBASEONE THE FIRST TOUR ,” which gathered 140-thousand attendees.

Thank you Bella for today’s stories.