In the third of five retrospective articles, we recall some of the entertainment stories that caught our eye in 2013.
Korean box office records were broken in 2013. Korean films accounted for 59.5 percent of box office takings, with the feel-good drama Miracle in Cell 7 gaining 12.8 million admissions.
The big new band to be “discovered” overseas was Crayon Pop, whose quirky piston dance “subverted sexy stereotypes.” They even made it into the pages of the Economist.
B.A.P topped the Billboard World Chart and broke new ground in Germany by being the first Korean group to be in the Top 10 in the German Asian Music Charts for a year.
Girls Generation won the inaugural YouTube award for best video.
Simon and Martina from Eat your Kimchi had a European tour to meet their fans.
British girl group Little Mix released a Korean version of their song.
One of the top viral videos of the year was a military parody of Les Misérables.
One of the leading K-pop fansites published inappropriate photos of Ailee, causing a backlash among more responsible netizens.
The early part of the year was taken up with stories of celebrities taking propofol.
Jang Yoon jung was said to be penniless after she left her mother in charge of her finances. Her family denied the allegations.
Comedian and film director Shim Hyung-rae filed for bankruptcy after the financial flop of his films D-War and The Last Godfather.
Psy reached the landmark of 3 billion YouTube views, but his Gentleman video was banned by KBS for abuse of public property. He appeared on a set of Korean stamps, at dinner with the President Obama, cracked some nuts during the Superbowl, but was booed by Italian fans awaiting their football cup final.
Cho Yong-pil showed you didn’t have to be a teenager to release a hit album, as he broke a 10-year recording hiatus at the age of 63 and was dubbed Singer of the Year.
Rain was caught bunking off military duty to see his girlfriend Kim Tae-hee and other singers were caught in a massage parlour while on duty. The Ministry of Defence scrapped the position of “entertainment soldiers” as a result.
Kim Hye-soo apologised for plagiarising her MA thesis on actor communication.
A Korean album cover from 1972 made the list of Worst Christmas Album Covers of All Time.