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Actress Kim Do-yeon turned a handprinting ceremony for the 47th Blue Dragon Film Awards into a quietly cinematic moment. Wearing a sculptural high-neck blouse, she held up her gold-framed handprint and handwritten signature on November 3. The event took place at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Seoul, where past award winners leave their handprints as an official record of the Korean film year. The Blue Dragon Film Awards are one of South Korea's most prestigious film ceremonies. A Look Built on Structure and Restraint Kim chose a silky, beige-toned high-neck blouse topped with an original art print, creating a silhouette that felt both structured and elegant. She paired it with a sleek low bun that let her front hairline fall naturally, minimalist ring earrings, and calm brown and nude makeup. The result emphasized an urbane, unconventional look. During the photo session, she lifted the antique gold frame holding her handprint and neat signature with composure. From her calm, deep g...

A well-known real estate instructor in South Korea has been arrested and referred to prosecutors on suspicion of running a Ponzi scheme that took in about 12.5 billion won from 126 victims. Police in Bundang, a city in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul, say he used his fame as an investment expert to lure people in. How the Alleged Scheme Worked Bundang Police Station sent the suspect, a man in his 50s surnamed Ahn, to prosecutors in custody. He faces charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and violations of the Act on the Regulation of Conducting Fund-Raising Business Without Permission, which targets unlicensed deposit-taking schemes. Police say that from January 2019 to July this year, Ahn ran a private fund he set up himself. He promised investors both their principal and high returns through real estate auction investments, and collected roughly 125 billion won from 126 people. Investigators concluded that the operation was a classic Ponz...

Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2027 men's pre-collection puts an orange vest, a yellow rain jacket and a thick blue puffer side by side. Designed by men's creative director Pharrell Williams under the theme 'Whatever the Weather,' it blends rainwear, workwear, sportswear and tailoring. A Wardrobe Built for Travel Heavy padding and rain jackets appear in a warm-season collection because the clothes are designed around movement. Temperatures and rainfall differ by region, and days and nights can feel very different, so the outerwear range is wider than a typical light summer lineup. The idea ties back to the house's roots in 19th-century travel trunks. Workwear from the 1980s inspired the Monogram Reporter, which combines coated canvas, brown suede and leather. It appears on a reversible orange vest, a blue nylon puffer with debossed Monogram leather shoulder panels, and denim workwear. The yellow slicker, inspired by fishermen's raincoats, is made in glossy ca...

Actors Son Suk-ku and Park Bo-young are teaming up for the first time in 'Be with You', a new fantasy romantic comedy from director Kang Hyeong-cheol. The production team confirmed the lead cast and announced that filming began on Oct. 31. A Couple Who Must Kiss Every Day to See Tomorrow The film follows a mysterious married couple with a unique rule: they must kiss every day to live to see the next one. During a cruise trip, an unexpected separation sets off a chain of events. The story blends a time-loop premise, a theme that continues to draw steady demand in the Korean content market, with a marital love story. Son plays Ji-kyeong, a husband left alone in a foreign land during the cruise. He struggles to get back to his wife in what the production describes as a touching, down-on-his-luck role, and the part gives the actor a chance to show new everyday-life acting. Park plays Oh-seong, the wife who stays on the cruise ship and does everything she can to reunite with her hus...

Painter Kwon Yong-seop, who lives in Pocheon, a city in Gyeonggi Province north of Seoul, has received two notable commendations in quick succession. He was honored by the Governor of Gyeonggi Province on October 17, followed by the Chairperson of the Seoul Metropolitan Council on October 22. The awards recognize his work in presenting Korean culture and beauty to the world and turning the nature and history of Pocheon into art. A Brush That Crosses Borders and Communities The Gyeonggi governor's commendation praised his exhibitions at home and abroad, which raised the profile of the province's arts scene, and his efforts to highlight local history and culture through subjects such as Sanjeong Lake and the Pocheon grave of the painter Sojeong Byeon Gwan-sik. The Seoul council chairperson's commendation reflects his long effort to join environment and art. He took part in campaigns to revive Seoul's Cheonggyecheon stream and the Los Angeles River, and his paintings of Ch...

In South Korea's 2025 Community Health Survey, 69.0% of adults in Seoul met the walking-practice standard, compared with just 37.6% in Gangwon Province. The gap shows that how much people move depends heavily on the place they live. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) ran the survey across 258 districts nationwide, covering 231,615 adults. A Wide Gap Between Regions The walking-practice rate measures the share of people who walked at least 30 minutes a day on five or more days in the past week. Seoul rose from 68.0% in 2024 to 69.0% in 2025, while Gangwon fell from 39.6% to 37.6%. The gap remained even after the figures were adjusted for differences in age and gender among regional populations. Across all districts, the median walking rate was 49.2%, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous year. The rate of moderate-or-higher-intensity physical activity stood at only 26.0%. Jeju recorded the highest rate for that category at 38.9%, while Daegu had the lowest...

The Financial Stability Board (FSB), the international body that coordinates financial regulation among major economies, finalized 12 principles on October 15, 2026 to guide how financial firms adopt artificial intelligence. The principles cover everything from board-level oversight to performance validation, human supervision, cybersecurity and reliance on outside technology vendors. What the 12 Principles Ask of Banks The FSB released a draft in June and received about 160 comments before finalizing the report. Boards and senior management must make sure AI strategy fits the firm's business model and risk appetite, and decisions and responsibilities must be documented. Banks are asked to assess purpose and risk before deployment, keep measuring performance in live operation, manage data quality and security, and be able to explain AI judgments. Human oversight should match each system's risk, autonomy and complexity rather than treating every output the same way. Dependence o...

Actor Eom Ki-joon stepped onto the stage as Emperor Norton I in the original Korean musical 'Majesty!', first with a comic grin and then with a quiet, thoughtful gaze. At a press call on October 30, he showed how one weathered uniform can carry both laughter and loneliness. The event took place at the NOL Theater Woori Card Hall in Daehakro, Seoul's well-known theater district, where cast and creative team presented key scenes and answered questions. A Costume, Two Faces Eom first appeared in a large black hat topped with a feather and a uniform with gold epaulettes. With a bushy beard, a mustache curled up on both sides, a wide-open mouth and a forward-leaning posture, he captured the comic spirit of a man who declared himself emperor. Then he removed the hat. With tousled dark hair, a worn white shirt and the same dark coat, he looked noticeably calmer. His head tilted slightly, his eyes fixed on something in the distance, and his lips pressed together. The exaggerated ex...

Adults who use an electronic device every night before bed sleep an average of 7.6 minutes less on weekdays, and they are 33% more likely to report poor sleep quality. The finding comes from a study of 122,058 American adults published in March 2025 in the journal JAMA Network Open. As phones and computers have settled deep into daily life, screen time that runs right up to bedtime has become an important variable in sleep health. The Sofa, the Screen and the Endless Feed For many people, unwinding after work means sitting on the sofa, watching short videos, checking social media posts or reading news online. It is an easy habit. The device is already in hand, it takes no preparation, and new content never stops arriving. Even while the body rests, the time spent looking at a screen can stretch late into the night. A public art installation in Paris poked fun at exactly this lifestyle. Titled Homo Scrollus Canapus, it stood in the La Villette district for two days beginning October 9. ...

Korean companies put 196.879 billion won (about 1,969 hundred million won) into arts and culture in 2025, down 7.4% from the year before, even as more firms and more projects took part. In India, a law requires large companies to spend on social causes, yet arts and culture receive only a small slice of that money. Two Ways of Funding the Arts In Korea, 728 companies backed the arts in 2025, a 24% rise, and the number of supported projects climbed 28.5% to 2,392. Even so, total giving fell for the first time in three years. Korean companies and corporate foundations decide on their own whether to support the arts and how much to give, while the government encourages them through tax benefits, certification schemes and matching funds. India takes a different route. Under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rules, companies above a certain size must spend at least 2% of their average net profit from the previous three fiscal years on social causes. Companies then choose projects fr...

Balenciaga's 2026 ski wear comes with sleeves that balloon outward and wide pants that cover the top of the boots. Designed by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the collection blends functional cold-weather gear with the house's signature oversized silhouette. When Ski Gear Moves Into the City Thick padding hides the waistline, and a voluminous fur hat changes the scale of the face and the proportions of the whole figure. Clothing once meant to protect body heat and aid movement on the mountain is now stretching into everyday city wear, and the shape of winter clothing is changing with it. The lineup includes a high-collar parka, a reversible blouson, a cropped puffer and snow pants. Denim, knitwear and a tracksuit round out the range. The pieces keep the warmth and wind protection a ski resort demands while widening what winter clothing can look like in daily life. The campaign, shot by photographer Adam Peter Johnson, skips the snowy mountains and chooses a classical inte...

Under a vast turquoise sky, two elongated figures stand side by side, one red and one black, while a rider crosses the distant plain. Kyrgyz painter Yuristanbek Shygaev's 1990 oil painting 'Travelers' blends Central Asian landscape, human movement and traditional symbols into a single space. A Landscape Layered With Symbols The canvas measures 140 by 175 centimeters and is held by the artist. Its upper half is a calm, wide sky, with a small yellow form hovering at the center. Below it, an ochre and green earth stretches out, with two peaks rising in the background, one rounded and gentle, the other thinner and taller. Their vertical lines echo the stretched bodies of the two central figures. The red figure has a textured surface of gray and black flecks, while the black figure is simpler and more angular. Between them runs a narrow band of bright green and yellow that sharpens their boundary. To the left, a small horseman in red-brown and teal moves across the distance, a q...

Walking 15 minutes a day for a full week adds up to 105 minutes, which falls short of the 150 minutes of weekly aerobic activity the World Health Organization recommends for adults. Still, for someone who barely moved before, that daily walk is a real step up in health-promoting activity. Movement Is Not Only About Workouts How much you move across the whole day matters, not just how long a single exercise session lasts. Short walks that break up long stretches of sitting are one simple way to build that total. In October 2026, an installation called 'Homo Scrollus Canapus' appeared at La Villette in Paris. It recreated a modern person using electronic devices on a sofa at life size. Glass cases styled like natural history museum specimens held human figures staying in the same posture while staring at screens. The exhibit was a satirical take on a daily life in which the need to move has shrunk. A global survey presented alongside the exhibit found that adults in 31 countries,...

A four-week expert course on overseas Korean policy opened on October 29 at Korea University's Asiatic Research Institute in Seoul. Under the theme 'Finding the Path for Korea's Future Among Its Diaspora,' the program is organized by the Together Multicultural Network and runs both online and offline. A Packed Classroom From Day One Interest was strong from the first session. The in-person classroom ran short of seats as participants arrived from across the country, and many more joined online. The turnout suggests that diaspora policy is no longer seen as a narrow matter of diplomacy or overseas support, but as a national issue touching population, the economy, culture and social cohesion. Shin Sang-rok, chair of the Together Multicultural Network, said the policy is not merely about supporting ethnic Koreans abroad. He described it as a future national strategy that protects the history and identity of Koreans rooted around the world while helping the homeland and dia...

At the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, traditional weavers worked their looms, painters drew on cloth and potters carved patterns into vessels while visitors watched. Called Swadesh, the craft program was run by the Reliance Foundation, and it linked appreciation of Indian handcraft directly to the income of the people who make it. From Exhibition to Income The NMACC opened in Mumbai on March 31, 2023. Visitors at Swadesh could follow each step of the making process, speak with the artisans directly, and buy or order finished works on the spot. The program was first planned to run for three days. As visitor interest and orders kept coming, the exhibition period was extended, and an extended run was announced on May 29, 2023. All proceeds from orders taken by the artisans during the event went to the makers themselves. In this way, the program tied the experience of viewing craft to the economic activity of its creators. The driving force behind Swadesh is Nita Amb...

A transparent glass display appeared in central Paris, showing a human figure slumped on a sofa and staring at a screen. Labeled 'Homo Scrollus Canapus,' it presents modern sedentary life as if it were a natural history exhibit. A Museum Exhibit for the Couch The installation stood in front of the Grande Halle de La Villette, a landmark venue in northern Paris, for two days starting October 9, 2026. Sports brand ASICS created it to mark World Mental Health Day, turning the habit of sitting on a sofa and swiping through content into a made-up species. The display borrows the language of a science museum. Visitors found an information panel styled like a specimen label, along with a documentary-style audio commentary describing the creature's habits. What makes the piece striking is how ordinary it is. The figure does nothing dramatic. It watches videos, checks messages on a phone and flicks through online content, again and again. There is no threat to survival and no visibl...

A black cloth blankets the floor, and from an old wooden chair, leafless branches reach upward. Behind it hangs a circular painting where black meets silver, an installation by Korean artist Limhana (LIMHANA) titled 'Replenish'. It was shown from October 21 to 27 at Gallery 2 of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, as part of the selected young artists exhibition of the 21st Gwanghwamun International Art Festival 2026. Memory, Matter and Space Sixty-one artists, Limhana among them, were chosen for this year's Asian contemporary young artists showcase. Limhana linked 'Replenish' with the forms of 'Tree of Thoughts' and 'Wanting Not to Be Seen, Unable Not to Be Seen' to stage how an inner self worn down by memory, emotion and relationships slowly regains its balance. In the circular painting, deep black sits alongside layered silver matière. Black stands for tolerance and embrace, while the silver rises in swirling, overlapping textures ...

YEEZY and designer Mowalola have added black and tan colorways to their 'KITTY' underwear collection. The pieces cut back on fabric to reveal the waist and hips, and they widen the criteria for choosing underwear to include skin tone, body shape and the silhouettes people usually wear. Two Silhouettes, Two Colors The drop includes the KS-01 Kitty Short at $40 and the KP-01 Kitty Panty at $30, both now in black and tan. Mowalola Ogunlesi, a Nigerian-British designer and former design director at Yeezy Gap, is known for designs that play with body curves and exposure. KITTY follows that approach, favoring fabric coverage, cutting and a close fit over decoration. Color works differently on different skin. Tan can read as softer or more contrasted depending on how its brightness compares with the wearer's skin, and so-called nude shades do not suit everyone equally. Black separates the outline of the garment on any skin tone and makes the cuts look sharp. Shape matters too. The...

What would it look like if you could see the moment you sink deep into your favorite song? Art toy artist CH.75, whose real name is Kim Cheol-ho, answers with tiny explorers in worn-out diving suits. His world, SONIC OCEAN, is a sea made of sound and sound waves, inspired by old radios, cassette players and chunky mechanical devices. A Deep-Sea World Built From Sound CH.75 says SONIC OCEAN is a mysterious sea somewhere in distant space, home to mechanical life forms that live around an energy called the 'Sound Core.' The Skimako divers are one series among them. They collect the echoes of music and emotion drifting in from Earth and refine them into Sound Cores, which serve as their life source. Peeling paint and rusted metal textures make each figure look as if it has been exploring the depths for a very long time. The artist loves retro futurism, steampunk and cassette futurism, and he always listens to music while he works. Losing track of time in that flow felt like diving ...

A festival built around gimbap, Korea's seaweed rice rolls found at nearly every corner, has topped a survey of festivals domestic travelers most want to visit. The Gimcheon Gimbap Festival drew 11.5% of mentions, far ahead of the Boryeong Mud Festival at 2.6%. The result comes from the Domestic Travel Trend Report 2026 by market research firm Embrain's Open Survey, which polled 2,000 Koreans aged 20 to 69 between September 29 and October 8. Among 763 respondents who named a festival they want to visit, Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival (2.5%), Seoul World Fireworks Festival (2.1%), Jinhae Gunhangje cherry blossom festival (2.0%), Busan Fireworks Festival (1.8%) and Gumi Ramen Festival (1.7%) followed. The figure reflects open-ended mentions, not actual visitor numbers. From a Pun to 150,000 Visitors The festival began when younger people linked the city name Gimcheon to Gimbap Heaven, a popular gimbap chain. Gimcheon, a city in North Gyeongsang Province, held its first festival i...

Korean director Lee Chang-dong's new film 'Possible Love' has been nominated in three categories at the 36th Gotham Awards, a major American independent film awards ceremony. The nominations were announced on the 28th, and lead actress Jeon Do-yeon is now widely seen as an early contender in the Oscar race. Three Nominations, a Crowded Field 'Possible Love' is up for Outstanding International Feature, Best Screenplay and Outstanding Lead Performance. Lee and writer Oh Jeong-mi were named together for the screenplay, which they co-wrote, while Jeon was nominated for lead performance. She will compete with acclaimed names such as Julianne Moore for 'The Debut' and Gillian Anderson for 'What Happened at Miasma Camp'. The Best Feature award is limited to American productions with American participation, so the film was not eligible there. In the international category, the film faces Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 'Suddenly the Illness Worsens' and Sand...