[K-enter] EPEX hold solo concert in China, a first in 9 years for a K-pop group

Today we start off with some exciting news for K-pop fans in China.

Please fill us in Bella.

K-pop boy group EPEX is set to hold a solo concert in China next month, raising expectations that Beijing may be moving toward easing its tacit ban on South Korean entertainment.

EPEX’s agency, C9 Entertainment, announced on Tuesday that the group will perform in Fuzhou, China, on May 31st as part of their Asian tour that kicked off in Seoul last December.

EPEX’s concert would mark the first time in nine years that a K-pop group will stage a solo concert in China since 2016.

As some of you may know, back in 2016, China had placed an unofficial ban on Korean culture and products in retaliation to Korea’s deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, THAAD.

There have been signs of China warming up to Korea with K-pop singers opening small pop-up stores, fan meetings and concerts, but a full solo concert in a separate venue holds great significance for the two countries’ cultural diplomacy.

EPEX are currently on their Asia tour that began in Seoul last December. The next tour dates coming up are in Macau on May 3rd, and in Taiwan on May 24th.

We’ll keep an eye out as to how the two countries’ cultural diplomacy unfolds.

Let’s stay on the topic of K-pop. This time we have a girl group gaining tremendous love on YouTube?

The music video for FIFTY FIFTY’s latest release “Pookie” topped the Trending Videos list on YouTube on Wednesday. The new song was just released on Tuesday, so it’s impressive that this happened just within 24 hours.

The music video surpassed 3.6 million views, the last time I checked just before the show, and it looks like it will continue to soar.

FIFTY FIFTY’s third mini-album, “Day & Night,” released on Tuesday, is about five girls’ emotional journey to find their true identity as they face fear, confusion, and courage, breaking away from the world we live in. The new album features a total of six songs with double title tracks “Pookie” and “Midnight Special.”

The music video is definitely eye-catching, colorful and artistic too a perfect match to the catchy melody.

And for our last story, we are going to talk about a movie that has topped Korea’s box office?

We talked about ‘One Punch Man’ Ma Dong-seok’s new film “Holy Night: Demon Hunters” previously on our show. Well, it has topped the box office on its opening day on Wednesday, just before the upcoming long weekend here in Korea.

According to the Korea Box-office Information System, the new film claimed the top spot with over 117-thousand views on its opening day. This is very impressive as it got ahead of some big titles that are also currently out, such as “YADANG: THE SNITCH” and “THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE.”

“Holy Night” is an occult action film where the Holy Night team of dark fixers take on the forces of evil in a city plunged into chaos by a cult that worships evil.

Under director Lim Dae-hee, the film features Ma Dong-seok, Seo-hyun, and Lee Da-wit.

I’ll make sure to catch it during the long weekend. Thank you Bella for today’s stories.