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The Asian Film Awards are upon us again! The ceremony dedicated to celebrating the best films out of Asia is up to its 13th edition. This year, the AFA will present awards in 16 categories as well as four special prizes: the Lifetime Achievement Award to Korean director Lee Chang Dong, the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award to Japanese actor Yakusho Koji, the Next Generation Award to Korean singer-actor Kim Jae Joong, and the Top-Grossing Asian Film of the Year Award. The 13th Asian Film Awards will be held at Hong Kong's TVB City on March 17, 2019. Below is a quick primer of this year's nominated films! Burning (Korea) Nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Newcomer, Best... [read more]
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The below rankings are based on sales of Chinese books on YesAsia.com from January 1 to December 31, 2018. TOP 10 CHINESE BOOKS Yi Shu just keeps on writing, and her readers also keep on reading. The popular and prolific Hong Kong author's novels and prose occupied half of the 2018 top ten Hong Kong bestsellers. Bolstered by the buzz of his hit TV show, TVB actor and action choreographer-turned-celebrity chef Steve Lee claimed the third and fourth spots with his cookbooks. For Taiwan, the latest book by famous TV host Kevin Tsai came in first. Books by Chang Man Chuan, Jeff Chang and Peter Su were also well-received. HONG KONG BOOKS Yi Shu Yi Shu Steve Lee Steve Lee Genie 1. 好好好 2.... [read more]
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The below rankings are based on sales of television releases on YesAsia.com from January 1 to December 31, 2018. TOP 10 TV DRAMAS (OVERALL) 1. Goblin 2. Eternal Love 3. While You Were Sleeping 4. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo 5. Suspicious Partner 6. 1% of Anything 7. Legend of Fuyao 8. My Sassy Girl 9. Lost Love in Times 10. Live Up to Your Name, Dr. Heo KOREAN TV BESTSELLERS Continuing its popularity from 2017, Goblin grabbed the top spot as the best-selling TV drama of 2018. Two other 2017 Hallyu dramas, Startling By Each Step remake Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and fantasy romance The Legend of the Blue Sea, stayed in the top ten for another year. Lee Jong Suk and Suzy's romantic... [read more]
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Korean group EXO's fourth album The War topped our Chinese album chart for the second consecutive year! They also ranked after legendary Hong Kong singers Leslie Cheung, Jacky Cheung and Alan Tam on the best-selling male artists ranking of 2018. Tribute album The World Sings Danny Chan and the original soundtrack of Meteor Garden found their ways to the top three highest-selling albums. Cantopop singers are all over our bestseller charts. Rising singers AGA and Gin Lee both have best-selling albums, and Gin rose to #4 among female artists. Famous singers like Hacken Lee, Sammi Cheng, Miriam Yeung, Hins Cheung, Lowell Lo, Joey Yung and the late Teresa Teng and Anita Mui guarded their spots... [read more]
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For 2018, we've split the J-pop music charts into releases by Japanese and Korean artists to provide more detailed rankings. EXO became our top-selling artist in Japanese music for the first time thanks to the strong sales of Countdown, the best-selling Japanese album of the year. Twice claimed the top two singles of 2018 and the #5 album. Other big K-pop names like BTS, SHINee, Monsta X, GOT7 and BLACKPINK continued to rank high. BTS, in particular, is the second highest-selling artist with an album, a single and three concerts charting in the top ten. Seventeen, NCT 127, Red Velvet, Dreamcatcher, GFriend, Mamamoo and EXID all made their Japan debuts in 2018 and shook up the top... [read more]
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Once again, world sensation BTS dominated the top spots of our best-selling K-pop album and video charts of 2018 with Love Yourself 'Tear', Love Yourself: 'Answer' and three video releases! The group handily came in first as the top-selling artist of the year. National girl group Twice also kept their #1 position among female artists and re-entered the DVD/Blu-ray chart with the Twiceland Concert. EXO, the second highest-selling artist, guarded their perennial spot in the top ten with Don't Mess Up My Tempo and Love Shot as well as The ElyXiOn in Seoul. Poet | Artist brought the late Jong Hyun his first best-selling album, and he ranked third among all artists as a soloist. His group SHINee... [read more]
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The below rankings are based on sales of movie releases on YesAsia.com from January 1 to December 31, 2018. TOP 10 MOVIES (OVERALL) 1. Manhunt 2. Chasing the Dragon 3. A Taxi Driver 4. Legend of the Demon Cat 5. Real 6. The Brink 7. Monkey King 3 8. Paradox 9. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds 10. Brotherhood of Blades II BEST-SELLING CHINESE MOVIES Hong Kong action still holds a special place among Asian cinema fans. Manhunt, John Woo's highly anticipated return to the action genre, is our best-selling film of 2018. With its superstar team-up of Donnie Yen and Andy Lau, Hong Kong crime action drama Chasing the Dragon follows closely behind in second place. Zhang Jin vehicle The Brink,... [read more]
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Our editors' picks for the ten best Japanese albums of 2018! [ALEXANDROS] - SLEEPLESS IN BROOKLYN You don't have to be Sleepless in Brooklyn to grasp the restless in the city vibe of [Alexandros]'s album. Recalling early oughties emo and pop punk, the band rocks and chills out to mellow alternative numbers like Arpeggio and Last Minute that express the feeling of being lost and lonely, and yearning for something more. Bleach theme songs Mosquito Bite and Milk liven things up with harder beats, throwback rock chords and knowingly catchy lyrics from the teen rebellion lexicon. The hidden gem of the album though has to be the deceptively chirpy Fish Tacos Party with its mundane truth-spitting... [read more]
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Our editors' picks for the ten best Korean albums of 2018! BTS - LOVE YOURSELF 'TEAR' 2018 marks the year that BTS made history and opened a brand new chapter of K-pop. Back in May, the global sensation hit the stage of the Billboard Music Awards with the groovy emo smash hit Fake Love, and that's only the beginning of what Love Yourself: Tear has to offer. V's sentimental R&B solo Singularity serves as the first song to kick off the whole album, which includes the 90s hip-hop style 134340, the urban trap and R&B song Love Maze, the upbeat So What, the Jung Kook-penned Magic Shop and the swingy Airplane pt.2, a sequel to Airplane from J-Hope's mixtape. Produced by the renowned Steve Aoki,... [read more]
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Our editors' picks for the best Chinese albums of 2018! CHEER CHEN - SOFA SEA Cheer Chen shares her insight on solitude through ten self-composed indie pop plugs in her first album in five years. The sentimental "Imperfect Rainbow" conveys the emotions of being unable to let go of a relationship. The song captures the mixed feelings of hoping the other person is well yet realizing that something is missing since parting ways: "Without you, I am an imperfect rainbow that lost its most important color." Besides her signature soulful ballads, the Taiwan singer-songwriter also heals souls with the swingy "Loser," rockish "Chameleon" and "Hurt." "Impressionism" owns a slightly uplifting melody... [read more]
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We wrap up our TV picks with our editors' picks for the best Korean dramas of 2018! Come and Hug Me Mystery melodrama Come and Hug Me shares the painful yet mellow love tale between Gil Nak Won (Jin Ki Joo) and Yoon Na Moo (Jang Ki Yong) over a span of 12 years. Nak Won, whose name means "paradise" in Korean, brings joy and happiness to the suffering Na Moo. Na Moo also acts much like his name which means "tree" – he would do anything to protect Nak Won, which makes her feel safe whenever they are together. However, Nak Won's parents are later murdered by Na Moo's father (Heo Joon Ho), a serial killer who never got caught. Nine years later, Na Moo becomes a passionate police officer, and... [read more]
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Our editors' picks for the ten best Japanese dramas of 2018! anone Writer Sakamoto Yuji and director Mizuta Nobuo, whose past collaborations include Mother and Woman, team up again for the human drama anone. Legendary actress Tanaka Yuko plays an elderly widow who discovers counterfeits in her late husband's printing factory. Because of the fake bills, she crosses paths with other desperate strangers who are in need of money and company, including Hirose Suzu as a stubborn solitary girl who has no ties, home or place in society. Though the characters meet each other through an absurd series of money grabs and attempted extortion, they end up forming a warm and supportive makeshift family –... [read more]
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Our editors' picks for the top ten Chinese dramas of 2018! Ashes of Love In recent years, the prolific period fantasy genre has consistently produced China's biggest hits, even if the quality of said offerings is wildly inconsistent. Among the many contenders, this year’s most addictive blend of magic, mythology and heart-fluttering romance belongs to Ashes of Love. Based on Dian Xian's novel, the drama is about the tempestuous romance between the powerful and devoted Fire God, son of the Heavenly Emperor, and a bumbling grape sprite who is actually a flower fairy whose ability to love has been sealed away. Naturally, the twist-filled story includes battles with the demon world,... [read more]
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With the year drawing to a close soon, we've made our picks for the best movies released on video in 2018! SANWEI'S PICKS 1987: When the Day Comes The Attorney and The Taxi Driver depicted traumas and tragedies that lined Korea's rocky grassroots path to democracy. Jang Joon Hwan's 1987 brings the journey to its tipping point: the mass protests of 1987 that toppled the military dictatorship and led to the first direct presidential election. Key figures are referenced, including government officials, opposition leaders and the slain student activists remembered as martyrs of the June Struggle, but the ensemble drama does not focus on a singular name or event. Instead, the ambitiously... [read more]
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The below rankings are based on sales of movie, music and TV releases on YesAsia.com from January 1 to June 30, 2018. Sales of all editions and versions of the same title are summed up to determine the total sales and ranking of each title. BEST-SELLING K-POP RELEASES K-pop sensation BTS, last year's best-selling artist, conquers the top spot again with the Love Yourself 'Tear' album, which was released less than two months ago. SHINee's Jong Hyun comes in at #2 on the bestsellers chart with his posthumous album Poet | Artist, and his group's tenth anniversary release The Story of Light ranks sixth overall. EXO is again in the top ten, while subunit EXO-CBX and labelmate NCT break into the... [read more]
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Among the many Korean audition programs of recent years, Produce 101 is surely the most influential. Launched by TV channel Mnet in 2016, the K-pop survival show gathers 101 trainees from different agencies to compete for the chance to debut in a specially created idol group. After multiple rounds of performance challenges and viewer voting, a limited-time group is formed with the top contestants. The first season created the girl group I.O.I, and the even bigger second season in 2017 created the boy band Wanna One. Produce 101 has provided a springboard to stardom for new faces and a second chance for idols yet to hit it big. The franchise set off a trend of idol-making shows in Korea and... [read more]
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It's that time of the year again. Since 2007, Asian filmmakers have come together every March for the Asian Film Awards, a ceremony dedicated to celebrating the region's best films. This year, we're already up to the 12th edition, which will be held in Macau on March 17, 2018, at The Venetian Macao. Here's a breakdown of this year's nominated films! Angels Wear White (China) Nominations: Best Film, Best New Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Newcomer, Best Original Music At a seaside hotel, a young staffer (Vicky Chen) witnesses a man forcibly enter the room of two girls, but she keeps silent to the police and tries to make some money with her knowledge. Meanwhile, the victims' parents... [read more]
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The below rankings are based on sales of television releases on YesAsia.com from January 1 to December 31, 2017. TOP 10 TV DRAMAS (OVERALL) 1. Goblin 2. Eternal Love 3 (tie). Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo 3 (tie). Legend of the Blue Sea 5. Provocateur 6. Dead Wrong 7. Two Steps From Heaven 8. A Fist Within Four Walls 9. The K2 10. Inspector Gourmet KOREAN TV BESTSELLERS As one of the most-talked-about K-Drama hits of recent years, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, starring Gong Yoo as the Goblin, unsurprisingly takes the top spot as the best-selling drama of 2017. It's followed by two of the year's most star-studded and export-ready dramas: the Startling By Each Step remake Moon Lovers:... [read more]
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Without much surprise, EXO was still untouchable at the top of our best-selling C-pop album and artist charts in 2017. Member Lay climbed to third place with his second solo effort Lay 02 Sheep, while his first album Lose Control held firm at seven. Former member Lu Han's 2015 solo debut album Reloaded, which ranked second on the 2016 chart, again broke into top ten albums. Hong Kong diva Sammi Cheng came in fourth with her long-awaited Mandarin album Nude and seized the top spot on the concert bestsellers. Alan Tam and Eason Chan also ranked high with their Mandarin releases. While the album chart was occupied by Mandarin music, the DVD list was dominated by Cantopop singers including Joey... [read more]
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Global sensation BTS reigned over K-pop in 2017 with the album chart-topper Love Yourself 'Her' and You Never Walk Alone. The Bangtan boys effortlessly took our Best-selling Artist title with impressive sales of albums as well as video releases that dominated the top five spots on the DVD/Blu-ray chart. Twice came out on top among female artists and broke into top ten albums for the second straight year. EXO, the second biggest-selling artist of 2017, ranked second on the album chart with their fourth album The War, and has two releases in the top ten DVD/Blu-ray list. Labelmates Girls' Generation and Super Junior re-entered the album chart with the tenth anniversary record Holiday Night... [read more]
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