K-Wave Splash

[Anchor Lead]

On today's Close Up, we start in France where the film 'Burning' made a big splash, especially among eager distributors. Then we head to Las Vegas where we take a look at K-pop group BTS' second straight Billboard award. And finally, we see how actor Ryu Jun-yeol donated his talent for an important cause for Greenpeace.

[Pkg]

The 71st Cannes Film Festival in France ended on May 19th in a closing ceremony and announcement of this year's winning films. Lee Chang-dong's mystery film "Burning" scored high points throughout the film festival but failed to win a main prize. The last Korean film that won a main prize in Cannes was "Poetry", which was also directed by Lee Chang-dong. It won the award for best screenplay in 2010. "Burning" still picked up two prizes - the Fipresci International Critics' Prize for best film and the independent Vulcan Award of the Technical Artist. The Fipresci prize is granted by the International Federation of Film Critics, while the Vulcan Award is the top prize in technical achievements in art, sound and filming. Burning's art director Shin Jeom-hee received the Vulcan honor. The Cannes festival's most prestigious Palme d'Or or Golden Palm award this year went to the family drama "Shoplifters" by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. BTS was named the Top Social Artist for the second straight year at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards held in Las Vegas. The recipient of this category is decided by rankings on the Billboard social chart and social media over the past year and votes from fans worldwide. This is BTS' second honor, as the boy band won the same award last year as well. World-famous pop artists such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande were other contenders for the award. The title track from their third album released on May 18th was debuted live at the ceremony. Ryu, who has been actively involved in environmental protection since 2016, drew attention by writing a column about Antarctica last month. This time he used his voice to show the threats faced by a polar bear family and emphasize the need to protect the North Pole. Greenpeace, a global environmental group sponsoring the campaign, chose Ryu Jun-yeol for his appealing voice, which the group believed would be an effective tool to convey the campaign's purpose. Greenpeace also hoped that his participation would prompt more people to take interest in the North Pole.