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Veteran K-drama actor Choi Jung-woo, known for ‘Doctor Stranger' and ‘Master's Sun', dies at 68

Veteran K-drama actor Choi Jung-woo, known for ‘Doctor Stranger' and ‘Master's Sun', dies at 68

Yahoo28-05-2025
SEOUL, May 28 — Veteran South Korean actor Choi Jung-woo died yesterday morning at the age of 68.
His agency, Bless Entertainment, confirmed his death the same day but did not disclose the cause.
Yonhap News Agency reported that Choi had been battling depression and panic disorder.
Bless Entertainment said, 'Choi Jung-woo passed away on the morning of May 27. Please pray for the deceased's final journey.'
A funeral altar has been set up at Gimpo Woori Hospital.
The funeral will take place at 10am tomorrow, and Choi will be laid to rest at Suwon Yeonhwa Park.
Born in February 1957, Choi began his acting career in 1975 with the stage play The Life of an Actor, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
His work spanned nearly five decades, with roles in films such as Two Cops (1996) and Project Silence (2023).
Choi was known for portraying dignified characters in dramas including The Tale of Lady Ok (2024), A Place in the Sun (2018), Alice (2020) and Quiz of God (2010).
He also appeared in Doctor Stranger (2014) and Master's Sun (2013), where he played the secretary to So Ji-sub's character.
His final project was the KBS2 drama Who Is She, which aired its last episode in January this year.
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Korean Adult Services: Culture, Controversy, and Change
Korean Adult Services: Culture, Controversy, and Change

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Korean Adult Services: Culture, Controversy, and Change

The adult entertainment industry in South Korea, often referred to by the Japanese term '韓国 風俗' (Kankoku fūzoku), is a complex, multifaceted world that exists beneath the surface of the country's modern image. Though technically illegal under South Korean law, various forms of adult services continue to operate discreetly and, at times, openly, under the protection of social tolerance, legal gray areas, and evolving business models. For outsiders, the term 韓国 風俗 may conjure images of neon-lit streets and red-light districts, but in reality, it spans a much broader and more nuanced spectrum—from high-end escort services and massage parlors to hostess clubs and hidden online networks. This article explores the cultural roots, legal battles, changing forms, and ongoing controversies surrounding the Korean adult entertainment industry. The term '韓国 風俗' combines the word for 'Korea' (韓国) with 'fūzoku,' a Japanese word that originally meant customs or manners, but which has come to imply the sex industry in modern usage. While not commonly used by Koreans themselves, this phrase is popular among Japanese and foreign audiences looking to understand or participate in South Korea's adult services. It encompasses a wide array of experiences, including sexual services, companionship, flirtation-based entertainment, and more. In Korea, these services are often subtly packaged under labels such as 'anma' (massage), 'room salon,' 'kiss bang' (kiss room), or even seemingly unrelated businesses like karaoke lounges and spas. The use of euphemisms and coded language is central to how 韓国 風俗 survives in a society where prostitution is illegal yet widespread. 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Breaking Down the Bloody Ending of Netflix's Wall to Wall
Breaking Down the Bloody Ending of Netflix's Wall to Wall

Time​ Magazine

time2 days ago

  • Time​ Magazine

Breaking Down the Bloody Ending of Netflix's Wall to Wall

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Jin-ho is seeking revenge against Jeon Eun-hwa (Yeom Hye-ran), a former prosecutor who used her power to kill a story Jin-ho was working on about the poor construction of the apartment complex. Now, she lives in the building's luxurious penthouse apartment with her husband. When Woo-sung first comes to Eun-hwa with the problem of the inter-apartment noise, she convinces him to drop it by bribing him with an envelope of money and invoking a false sense of class solidarity. Eun-hwa is motivated to keep the noise complaints quiet because she has secretly been buying up most of the complex's apartments. She has inside information that the GTX commuter rail will be coming to the neighborhood, which would drive up property values. Meanwhile, Jin-ho has moved into the building with the sole purpose of bringing Eun-hwa down. His plan? To put together a video exposé that reveals her corruption. Jin-ho rigs the entire complex so that he can observe, film, and control every unit. He begins to interview the complex's residents, and casts Woo-sung, the owner and resident of Apartment 1401, as the central antagonist in his story, seeing him as 'the epitome of pain suffered by today's young people.' Jin-ho doesn't care if the details of the exposé are true, as long as the end result is Eun-hwa's downfall. First, Jin-ho frames Woo-sung for the apartment noises by planting an 'inter-floor revenge speaker' in his apartment. He pays the renters living in 1301, the apartment below Woo-sung, to pretend their neighbor has assaulted them. Because Woo-sung is held by the police, he misses the window to cash in on a 'pump-and-dump' crypto scheme that would pay off his debt. Woo-sung sold his apartment in order to free up cash for the scheme, and now he has nothing. Woo-sung plans to die by suicide, but Jin-ho stops him, claiming he wants to help him. 'We wasted a sh-t ton of time fighting each other when it was some other jerks,' Jin-ho tells Woo-sung, revealing that Eun-hwa was the buyer who took advantage of Woo-sung's desperate apartment sale. How does Wall to Wall end? Woo-sung thinks he has finally found a friend in Jin-ho. However, when he realizes that the mobile phone running the revenge speaker planted in his apartment is connected to Jin-ho's Wi-Fi, he gets suspicious. He finds Jin-ho's wall plastered with information about everyone living in the complex, and sees all of the video footage he has collected. While hiding in Jin-ho's apartment, Woo-sung also witnesses him kill his neighbor from Apartment 1301. When Jin-ho catches Woo-sung, he plans to kill Woo-sung as well, and pin the murder on him. However, Woo-sung convinces Jin-ho to let him take a more active role in the revenge scheme. Together, the two men go up to Eun-hwa's penthouse apartment, dragging Apartment 1301's dead body with them. Jin-ho is desperate to find the ledger proving the former prosecutor's corruption, and Woo-sung is just desperate. In the bloody conflict that breaks out, Jin-ho kills Eun-hwa's husband but gets a kitchen knife to the gut in the process. Eun-hwa tries to convince Woo-sung to finish off Jin-ho. 'I'll take care of everything, so trust me,' she tells Woo-sung. Before Woo-sung can do it, Jin-ho seemingly dies. Now that she no longer needs him, Eun-hwa turns on Woo-sung and tells him how she really feels: 'You indecisive piece of sh-t. This is why people live in nice neighborhoods. This place is swarming with scum.' She cockily points out the dirty ledger hidden within a nearby stack of magazines, and raises a golf club to kill Woo-sung. But Jin-ho rises up from his apparently faked death. He chokes Eun-hwa to death while Woo-sung watches, choosing not to try to help Eun-hwa. As Jin-ho bleeds out, he tells Woo-sung to take the ledger. Even if he dies, he wants Eun-hwa to be held accountable. 'Stop telling me what to do, you motherf-ckers,' Woo-sung tells Jin-ho. He puts the ledger and the papers that prove he signed away his apartment into the oven, then turns up the gas to the line Jin-ho already cut. Woo-sung is limping out of the apartment complex when the penthouse explodes, taking all of the evidence of both Eun-hwa and Jin-ho's crimes with it. Woo-sung falls to the ground, imagining the entire building crumbling in fiery destruction. What does the ending of Wall to Wall mean? When Woo-sung wakes up, he is in the hospital and his mother is by his side. She takes him home to the countryside, to the aging, seaside village of Namhae. The rural community offers Woo-sung a place to rest and the space to do so. His mother may not have much, but she has a home that is notably not an apartment complex. Red peppers dry in the sun on her rooftop, and it is quiet. Still, Woo-sung chooses to return to Seoul. As he stands in a suit in his empty apartment, he hears inter-apartment noise, and begins to laugh to himself. Jin-ho and Eun-hwa may be dead, but the noise of the apartment goes on because it is the noise of modern humanity, squished together. The viewer is left with a question: Would you choose to live in the apartment, a symbol of middle class, modern life, for the chance to build wealth—even if it drives you insane? Or would you choose to return to the simpler, more traditional life of the countryside, where it is quiet, but there is no hope for class ascension? Before Eun-hwa died, she told Woo-sung: 'Noise between floors is a human problem. Why blame the building?' The movie is asking if the kind of conflict that arises from modern living in a 'developed' country like South Korea is inherent to humanity, or if it is a result of a system like capitalism. Wall to Wall lets the viewer answer this question for herself, though Woo-sung's return to his apartment suggests that Kim believes that there is an inherent human ambition or greed that keeps us pushing for more.

Netflix's new psychological thriller movie is a twist-filled pressure cooker with an ending you won't see coming
Netflix's new psychological thriller movie is a twist-filled pressure cooker with an ending you won't see coming

Tom's Guide

time3 days ago

  • Tom's Guide

Netflix's new psychological thriller movie is a twist-filled pressure cooker with an ending you won't see coming

How much you'll get out of Netflix's new Korean thriller 'Wall to Wall' depends on your tolerance for slow-burning tension in the most mundane of settings. The movie follows an office worker who finally buys his dream apartment, only to discover that the real nightmare isn't outside but within the building itself. Strange, persistent noises from neighbors above and below begin to chip away at his sanity. If the idea of neighborly torment and creeping psychological dread in close quarters sounds like your kind of thriller, 'Wall to Wall' might just hook you in. It's actually refreshing to watch a thriller that doesn't rely on the supernatural. Instead, it leans into the claustrophobia of urban living. Thin walls, cramped spaces, and suffocating silence all become weapons in a slow-burning psychological war. The movie's real strength lies in turning all-too-familiar frustrations, like noisy neighbors, financial strain, and apartment life stress, into a gripping exploration of mental unraveling and social isolation. Now that 'Wall to Wall' is streaming on Netflix, here's everything to know about this slow-burn thriller and why it stands out in the increasingly crowded world of psychological suspense. 'Wall to Wall' follows Woo-sung (Kang Ha-neul), a diligent office worker who finally achieves his dream of buying a modest apartment in a bustling South Korean city. To afford it, he drains his savings, takes on loans, and even sells his family's garlic farm. But the joy of homeownership quickly fades as Woo-sung becomes tormented by mysterious, incessant noises from his neighbors above and below. Desperate to find peace, Woo-sung allies with his upstairs neighbor Jin-ho (Seo Hyun-woo), while the building's apartment representative, Eun-hwa (Yeom Hye-ran), tries to keep the fragile community calm. As the noise worsens, the relationships between neighbors unravel, revealing hidden fears and suspicions. You wouldn't be wrong in assuming that 'Wall to Wall' is all about the experience of living with disrespectful neighbors, based on the premise alone. Even though the central idea is about a man being tormented by loud noises every night, this thriller aims to shed light on real-world issues in South Korea, particularly around housing and mental health. At its core is the claustrophobia of cramped apartment living, a reality for much of the country's population, where 84-square-meter units are the norm and housing costs continue to soar. Hence why the movie is actually called '84 Square Meters' in its native country. Woo-sung is desperate enough to use all of his savings, and even sell his mother's farm to get an apartment. 'Wall to Wall' zeroes in on the mental toll of inter-floor noise, a surprisingly common source of tension in Korean apartment blocks. As Woo-sung's dream of homeownership begins to fall apart, the story also shows the crushing financial pressures tied to property ownership and the illusion of upward mobility. Of course, this type of psychological warfare wouldn't be nearly as effective without Ha-neul's incredible performance. Known for playing Kang Dae-ho in 'Squid Game,' I already expected him to bring a commanding presence to this thriller, and he absolutely delivers. In every scene, you can see his frustration building without the need for much dialogue. Director Kim Tae-joon also knows exactly how to portray that kind of psychological torment. Most of the movie is set in darkness, since Woo-sung refuses to turn on the lights to save on electricity. The same goes for water as dishes pile up, empty bottles clutter the floor, and he even reuses the same bathwater for days. He's constantly sweating and sleeping on the hard floor, with all of it tied to his financial struggles. The first half of 'Wall to Wall' is especially effective at building tension. I found myself genuinely frustrated on Woo-sung's behalf once the noise started and neighbors began randomly blaming him. It's a tense, well-executed setup, and one that kept me watching, if only to figure out what was really going on inside that apartment complex. Unfortunately, the second half of the movie has less impact. There are plenty of twists thrown in to keep things engaging, and they're definitely compelling, but this claustrophobic thriller strays a bit too far from what makes it … well, claustrophobic. Director Tae-joon shifts into action territory, and while those scenes add intensity, they feel somewhat out of place. It's understandable why the movie leans into action in the third act (since many viewers may prefer that over the slow-burn unraveling of Woo-sung's mental state), but I actually found that quieter tension far more effective. I would've preferred the movie to stay focused on Woo-sung's spiraling paranoia and the way the noises became increasingly unbearable. That said, the ending is undeniably wild, and I'm sure many viewers will be surprised by how things unfold. I just wish it had a more satisfying conclusion and stuck to one genre. As it stands, it falls into the same trap as many modern thrillers: doing too much with a concept that was already strong on its own. You can stream 'Wall to Wall' on Netflix now, and it's well worth checking out if you're after something that has plenty of tension and a uniquely grounded sense of unease. It's not a perfect psychological thriller, but it adds a fresh layer by focusing on a fear that feels incredibly real, including what happens when your home no longer feels safe. The performances, especially from Ha-neul, carry much of the emotional weight, and the movie's cinematography does a great job making the apartment space feel both intimate and threatening. While the final act may not stick the landing for everyone, the journey there is gripping enough to make it a compelling watch. For those who appreciate slow-building psychological tension with a socially conscious edge, 'Wall to Wall' might just burrow under your skin in all the right ways. Stream "Wall to Wall" on Netflix.

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