[K-enter] ILLIT performs at "ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2025," first for K-pop girl group

Bella, we will kick off with K-pop news, happening at a festival in Japan?

Girl group ILLIT will appear at Japan's largest music festival "ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2025" a first for a K-pop girl group. According to ILLIT's agency, BELIFT LAB, the group has been listed in the first line-up of the "ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2025" that will be held at Soga Sports Park in Chiba City in September. ILLIT will appear on the second day of the festival, September 14th.

The "ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL" is one of Japan's four major rock festivals and attracted a total of 275-thousand people last year. Previously, CNBLUE and ENHYPEN have appeared as Korean artists at the festival.

Meanwhile, ILLIT will meet domestic fans at their fan concert in Seoul on June 7th and 8th. Then, they will continue with their fan concert for the first time in Japan on August 10th and 11th in Yokohama and September 3rd and 4th in Osaka.

Exciting news for ILLIT fans in Japan. Now, let's move on from K-pop to K-drama.

We talked about the upcoming Disney+ series "Nine Puzzles" a few weeks ago on our show.

I heard they held a press conference. Were some more pieces of the puzzle put together there?

On Wednesday, a press conference for "Nine Puzzles" was held in Dongdaemun, Seoul, where director Yoon Jong-bin and main actors Son Suk-ku, Kim Da-mi, Kim Sung-kyun, and Hyeon Bong-sik attended.

The new series is a mystery thriller that delves into the secrets of a serial murder case that restarted with mysterious puzzle pieces. Ina is a profiler and the sole witness of an unsolved case from 10 years ago, and Han-sam is a detective who suspects Ina is behind the murder.

Director Yoon introduced the series as a mystery drama at its core, and said that he tried to aim its visual works on the boundary of reality and unreality. The two main actors Son Suk-ku and Kim Da-mi also described the series as unique and odd.

The 11-part series is set to premiere exclusively on Disney+ next Wednesday with the release of its first six episodes.

Speaking of Korean OTT series, we have another one coming up, but this one on Netflix?

Yes, another Korean original Netflix series is coming! This time it's a noir action series, "Mercy for None." The new series is already receiving great attention as it is actor So Ji-sub's first action project in 13 years.

"Mercy for None" is based on the popular webtoon series of the same title and portrays the story of Gijun, a former underworld figure who left the scene after cutting off his Achilles tendon, but returning after 11 years to find out the truth behind the death of his younger brother Giseok.

Along with So ji-sub, Heo Jun-ho, Gong Myoung, and Choo Young-Woo will also star in the series.

"Mercy for None" will be released on Netflix in a total of 8 episodes on June 6th.

Thank you Bella for today's stories. There's definitely lots to watch in the next few weeks.

Now, if you don't want to be stuck in front of the monitor too much and are looking for maybe more active culture activities, you might find some ideas from Ari, who has the latest culture related issues at hand. Ari, take it away!