In northern Finland, where early fall sees the last of the midnight sun, Canada Goose ambassador Greg Hsu leaves a familiar, faster pace of life behind and rediscovers the luxury of stillness.
Oct 13Rosé will perform at LACMA's Art+Film Gala
Oct 10YG wouldn't license BLACKPINK's music for 'Always Lalisa'
Oct 10i-dle's Soyeon wins Music Core with 'I'm gonna TOESA'
Oct 2BTS’s Arirang tour just crossed $500M. No pop group had done that before
Oct 2Stray Kids sat out the Grammys. The Academy kept its Asian pop category anyway
Sep 27Inside the K-pop star machine: where the stars come from and how they get bigThe Rituals
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Goldscene Pulse
Stories worth following, a finished watch queue, and culture dates worth saving.
Streaming, cinema, dramas, comfort watches, and our favorite titles.
Joko Anwar's Ghost in the Cell leads Indonesia's Citra nominations with 12 categories. Wregas Bhanuteja's Para Perasuk and Ryan Adriandhy's Na Willa follow with nine. The ceremony is November 20 in Jakarta.
Image: CaseyJNewell (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Eddie Cahyono's Ibuku, starring Christine Hakim, has premiered in Busan competition. She plays a Javanese widow trying to reach a daughter on death row in Saudi Arabia. The festival runs through October 15.
Image: D.W. Fisher-Freberg (CC BY-SA 3.0)
This weekend's finished queue: all 10 episodes of Take Charge of My Heart are on Netflix, and 100 Days of Deception starts Saturday in the tvN slot Four Hands just left. Watch two episodes of the new one, then stop.
Image: Netflix
Michelle Yeoh accepted BIFF's Asian Filmmaker of the Year award on October 6, her first Busan carpet since The Lady in 2011. The next morning she talked about playing 70 in It's My Time, and about wanting to work with Lee Chang-dong.
Image: BIFF / Screen Daily
New names, second leads, breakout faces, and the people we have our eyes on, personally.
October's Soft Power Index: Michelle Yeoh's Busan prize, Indonesia's Citra ballot and Ibuku premiere, Rosé's LACMA booking, and the BLACKPINK songs YG would not license for Always Lalisa.
Image: Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Bae Hyun-sung plays the son who returns wrong in Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost, out in Korea October 21 after TIFF and Busan. It is his first feature lead, and the casting started with one Hellbound episode.
Image: CJ ENM
Hsu Kuang-han left Nantou substitute service in August 2025 and walked straight into Measure in Love, a Cheng Wei-hao crime series, and a Taipei Golden Disc mic. Japan just got the romance under a new title. The Marvel rumor can wait.
Image: Play大明星 (CC BY 3.0)
Sarnia-raised, Toronto-based actor-director Shreya Patel is MISAFF’s 2026 Rising Star. She hosts a symposium chat with Transplant lead Hamza Haq on October 1 as the Mississauga festival runs through October 4.
Image: Shreya Patel
Where luxury, beauty, fashion, entertainment, and Asian soft power meet the commercial calendar. For readers who follow campaigns and ambassadorships and want to understand how commercial centers of gravity are shifting.
ILLIT's Wonhee attended Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais on October 5, her first Paris Chanel seat after the house's Métiers d'Art show in Seoul last May. Fans call her a Chanel princess. Chanel has not named her an ambassador.
Image: Chanel / Belift Lab
Utah Korean American founders put microwave tteokbokki into about 300 Targets in nine months. Getting the shelf was the sprint. Staying there is the test.
Image: Pil Oh / Korean Bros
Tory Burch’s Dark Cocoa Ella Hand-Crocheted Popcorn Stitch Bucket Bag is $350, 100 percent abaca, made in the Philippines, and named on-page as crafted with social enterprise LIKHÂ after about 2.5 years of sampling.
Image: LIKHÂ
Jo Malone London and Mumbai couturier Arpita Mehta return for a second Diwali season with A Little Light, A Little Delight: three mirrorwork bags, bottle charms, and a scarf tie, offered with fragrance purchases.
Image: Courtesy of Jo Malone London
What to queue before Monday pretends it has plans.
This weekend's finished queue: all 10 episodes of Take Charge of My Heart are on Netflix, and 100 Days of Deception starts Saturday in the tvN slot Four Hands just left. Watch two episodes of the new one, then stop.
Image: Netflix
This weekend’s finished queue: Four Hands, Two Sonatas episodes 11 and 12 on Netflix, the new Tamil series #Love if you want a closed six-episode binge, then Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle for one long movie night.
Image: tvN / CJ ENM
This weekend's finished queue: Four Hands, Two Sonatas episodes 1 and 2 on Netflix, Married Woman Killer episode 10 on Saturday, then Spooky in Love as a closed binge if you missed Sunday's finale.
Image: tvN / CJ ENM
This weekend’s finished queue: Spooky in Love episodes 5 and 6 on Netflix, Gong Hyo-jin’s Married Woman Killer episode 2 on MBC, then Wild Sing as the film binge if you want one closed story.
Image: tvN
Roundups, briefings, and the editorial columns that keep the culture feed moving.
October's Soft Power Index: Michelle Yeoh's Busan prize, Indonesia's Citra ballot and Ibuku premiere, Rosé's LACMA booking, and the BLACKPINK songs YG would not license for Always Lalisa.
Image: Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0)
This weekend's finished queue: all 10 episodes of Take Charge of My Heart are on Netflix, and 100 Days of Deception starts Saturday in the tvN slot Four Hands just left. Watch two episodes of the new one, then stop.
Image: Netflix
This weekend’s finished queue: Four Hands, Two Sonatas episodes 11 and 12 on Netflix, the new Tamil series #Love if you want a closed six-episode binge, then Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle for one long movie night.
Image: tvN / CJ ENM
KATSEYE is a six-member Los Angeles girl group formed by HYBE and Geffen through Dream Academy. The lineup is multinational. The training, fandom tools, and stage discipline still come from K-pop.
Image: Warmtoned (CC BY 4.0)
Evergreen profiles and background, not the daily news beat.
A profile of Choo Young-woo: the JYP scout offer he declined, the long audition dry spell, the Baeksang win for The Tale of Lady Ok, Netflix’s The Trauma Code, and Ahn Pan-seok’s final drama Between Steps.
Image: ENA
Thejavituo Rio, the Kohima-born director of Angh, won TIFF’s Platform Prize with a Konyak-language debut shot on 16mm in Nagaland, earning a festival route into the 2027 Oscar international race beside India’s official entry.
Image: Gabriel Hutchinson (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Half-Asian stars are filling American pop, sports, and fashion because the audience already looks like that. Gen Z is the last barely-white-majority generation. The kids behind them are decreasingly single-ethnicity.
Image: Bosideng
KATSEYE is a six-member Los Angeles girl group formed by HYBE and Geffen through Dream Academy. The lineup is multinational. The training, fandom tools, and stage discipline still come from K-pop.
Image: Warmtoned (CC BY 4.0)
Recurring ranked roundups and desk shortlists to bookmark.
Loved Madame in Saigon? Five Vietnamese films you can actually find next: Song Lang for Saigon stage world, The Third Wife for period power, Furie for action heat, The Scent of Green Papaya for the Oscar gateway, and Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell for Cannes slow cinema.
Image: Studio68 / Breaking Glass Pictures
Five Asian American directors who proved indie specificity can scale: Destin Daniel Cretton on Spider-Man opening day, Justin Lin, Chloé Zhao, Lee Isaac Chung, and Lulu Wang.
Image: Sony Pictures / Marvel Studios
Five Hong Kong films for the queue after Daniel Wu's Cold War 1994 return and NYAFF Best from the East: the prequel itself, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, Night King, We're Nothing at All, and Overheard.
Image: Well Go USA / Media Asia
Five starter Asian Canadian books by mood: a Korean diaspora spy novel, a Toronto nail-salon family comedy, a Filipino Canadian second-chance romance, a Calgary-born fantasy classic, and a Giller-winning short story collection.
Image: Silver Dovelet (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Premieres, festivals, drops, holidays, and cultural moments to discover.
Queens, New York
Queens Night Market runs Saturdays 4 p.m. to midnight through August 22, 2026 behind the New York Hall of Science, pauses for the U.S. Open, then returns September 19 through October 31.
Santa Anita Park and Alameda County Fairgrounds, California
The 626 Night Market organization says the market returns summer 2026 in Southern and Northern California, with stops at Santa Anita Park and the Alameda County Fairgrounds.
Image: mrsamisnow (CC BY 2.0)
Torrance, California
Donguri Republic, Studio Ghibli's official merchandise shop, opened its first U.S. pop-up June 23 at Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance with 400-plus licensed items through December 31, 2026.
Image: Studio Ghibli via VIZ Media
Mississauga, Ontario
IFFSA Toronto, billed as North America's largest South Asian film festival, runs October 8–18, 2026, with gala premieres at Cineplex Courtney Park in Mississauga and industry events in Brampton. Films are listed 18+.
Image: IFFSA Toronto
Everything else on the feed, newest first.
LACMA booked Rosé as the musical guest for its November 7 Art+Film Gala, honoring Vija Celmins and Denis Villeneuve. She has already attended the dinner twice.
Image: SWinxy (CC BY 4.0)
Sue Kim says YG would not license BLACKPINK's music or footage for Always Lalisa. The documentary opens in IMAX and theaters October 12, then on YouTube Premium later this year.
Image: Outhere505 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Jeon So-yeon won Show! Music Core on October 10 with I'm gonna TOESA, 6,670 points to BOYNEXTDOOR's 4,667. It is the song's third music-show win.
Image: K-POPIT (CC BY 3.0)
Ahn Pan-seok’s final drama, Between Steps, premieres Oct. 5 on ENA in Korea and on Disney+ and Hulu in the U.S., with Choo Young-woo and Kim So-hyun as robotics grad students figuring out how to fall in love.
Image: ENA
Apple TV dropped the trailer for Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook, an eight-episode food docuseries premiering November 6. Nora Lum tries to revive her family’s Flushing restaurant while admitting she cannot cook.
Image: Apple TV
Billboard Boxscore says BTS’s Arirang world tour has surpassed $500 million in ticket sales, the first pop group to hit that mark on one tour. About 40 shows remain, with a possible path toward $1 billion.
Image: Elwin594 (CC0)
JYP confirmed Stray Kids filed nothing for the 2027 Grammys, joining BTS after Harvey Mason Jr. said Best Asian Pop Music Performance will proceed. The group can still vote. Their music will not compete.
Image: K-POPIT (CC BY 4.0)
At Bloomberg Screentime, Ted Sarandos said the KPop Demon Hunters sequel will get a very broad theatrical release, the same four-quadrant lane as Narnia and Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory.
Image: Shelby Lee (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Well Go USA opens Wen Muye’s Once Upon a Time in the Middle East in U.S. and Canadian theaters October 9. Shen Teng leads the China summer hit about a Chinese chef whose restaurant becomes a wartime refuge.
Image: Well Go USA Entertainment
Celine Song’s Oscar-nominated debut still follows Nora and Hae Sung across 24 years between Seoul and New York. In late 2026 it is often a rent-or-buy in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Here is why it remains the right quiet night.
Image: Martin Kraft (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Song Hye-kyo’s school-violence revenge thriller still streams on Netflix in the U.S. and Canada. Here is why The Glory remains the sharp gateway after softer K-drama nights.
Image: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 (CC BY 3.0)
Montreal’s Matières Fécales staged The Ninety-Nine Percent at Place de la République with 99 models of color. The quieter receipt: Banaras label Tilfi handwove and embroidered saree textiles for the couture finale looks.
Image: Courtesy of Matières Fécales
IU and Park Bo-gum’s Jeju epic finished March 2025, topped TIME’s best K-dramas list, and is still streaming on Netflix in the U.S. and Canada. Here is why it remains the right long weekend start.
Image: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 (CC BY 3.0)
Sri Lankan-born Perth founder Rosh Kumarasinghe led makeup for Marco Rambaldi and Casa Preti at Milan Fashion Week, becoming the first South Asian Makeup Director reported on the official schedule while her vegan brand sponsored both shows.
Image: Beauty by Rosh
Private academies, years of trainee contracts, and survival shows. That is still how BTS, BLACKPINK, TWICE, and the HYBE groups after them reached a stage this size.
Image: Big Hit Music
Netflix's The Scandal opened at No. 7 among non-English shows. Korean viewers have been cooler on the eight-episode Joseon remake of Dangerous Liaisons. Here is who the weekend is for.
Image: Netflix
Two sold-out nights at Estadio GNP Seguros, Sept. 25-26. NEXZ plus Mexican openers RENEE and Andrés Obregón. Mexico's president named the show Thursday and floated a BTS 2027 return that HYBE has not confirmed.
Image: Live Nation
HYBE's new girl group TUIDE just got its first Billboard week: No. 1 on Emerging Artists, World Albums No. 3, Top Album Sales No. 8. The debut EP already cleared 112,000 first-week copies at home.
Image: ABD / The Korea Times
Bulgari named aespa's Ningning a brand ambassador on Sept. 21. The first pictures put her in Divas' Dream earrings and a Serpenti watch, months after she wore the house to the Met.
Image: Bulgari
Lee Chang-dong's first film in eight years opened in Korean theaters today after the Venice Silver Lion. A few North American screens follow Oct. 23. Netflix has the rest of the world Nov. 6.
Image: Joo Jae-bum / Netflix
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