Author: VIBE KR 편집팀

The Wall Street Journal and other US outlets reported Wednesday that Netflix plans to part ways with about 1,000 employees worldwide. Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos sent a company-wide email that morning. The gist: to fulfill the company's mission, leaders have to make hard calls about where to put people and resources first. HR, legal, product development and technology teams are reportedly the main targets.

In the same message, executives stressed that the business is growing steadily and that the company is on track to meet this year's goals. The announcement comes roughly a week before Netflix reports quarterly earnings. In July, the company said second-quarter revenue hit about $12.6 billion, up 13.4% from a year earlier, which was a hair below what analysts expected. It guided for third-quarter revenue of around $12.9 billion.

The backdrop is a fight for screen time and market share. Netflix's US churn rate (the share of subscribers who cancel) is among the lowest in the industry, but analysts say engagement has softened as free platforms like YouTube eat into viewing time. Netflix has been trying to keep people around longer with live channels, bundles with other services, video podcasts, YouTube creator content and live sports and events. Its ad-supported tier and games are also being built up as revenue streams beyond subscription fees. An analyst at research firm eMarketer said the subscription model is nearing its limits, and no big replacement revenue source is in sight yet.

This is Netflix's first major workforce reduction since 2022, when a painful subscriber loss led to two rounds of cuts totaling roughly 450 people. With about 16,000 employees at the end of last year, the new round is more than double that size. The stock is a pressure point, too. Some reports say shares have dropped more than 40% over the past year, while others put the decline at around 25% so far this year. The gap comes down to different starting dates.

The U.S.-based outlet Radio Free Asia (RFA) obtained and released a video that shows how North Korea catches and punishes soldiers and unit staff who watch or share outside media. On screen are several confiscated cell phones and an arrest warrant. Soldiers are arrested at a public trial, stripped of their belts and caps. The footage also includes a punished soldier writing a self-criticism and a military doctor's case file. RFA said it confirmed the details with multiple anonymous sources.

The rhetoric in the video is harsh. One woman on a discussion panel argued that anyone who watched American or South Korean videos should be hunted down and executed on the spot. A narrator branded viewers as traitors in league with the enemy and warned that watching banned videos ruins not just the viewer's life but also the lives of family and relatives, a nod to collective punishment. One punished soldier, in tears, said he regretted it because South Korean speech patterns and ideas wouldn't leave his head. Still, these are claims made inside the video. No actual executions have been reported.

The video also spells out the penalties. It stresses that this kind of viewing is a serious crime punishable by at least five years of labor-camp detention, and that offenders are excluded from amnesty. It also points out that soldiers are already barred from using civilian cell phones, yet some used them to get, watch, store and spread banned videos.

North Korea passed its Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Law in 2020, then added measures such as the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act to keep outside culture out. In an RFA interview, Yoshihiro Makino, a visiting professor at Hiroshima University, explained that young North Korean men enlist around age 17 and serve at least seven years, sometimes more than ten, so it's hard for a military full of young people to stay indifferent to South Korean culture. He noted that military trials are normally held behind closed doors, which suggests that putting one on video reflects the military's deep fear of ideological contamination.

The video RFA released on the 12th is training material used for ideological education in North Korean army units. Soldiers are banned from using personal cell phones on base, but the video accuses some of buying, watching, storing and passing around outside recordings on such devices. North Korea calls this kind of content "impure recordings."

On screen are several confiscated phones and arrest documents. Soldiers who were caught are led into a public trial with their belts and caps removed. One soldier, in tears, writes a self-criticism, saying that after watching a few videos he couldn't get the Southern accent and capitalist ideas out of his head. Authorities reportedly screen these scenes to other soldiers to scare them straight.

The rhetoric is harsh. One female speaker demands that people tainted by outside culture be summarily executed and hunted down to the end. Others suggest families should be held responsible too, and a narrator warns that watching ruins not just the viewer but also the lives of their family and relatives. Another speaker explains that watching is a serious crime carrying a labor re-education sentence (a term in a prison labor camp) of five years or more, with no eligibility for a general amnesty.

A Japanese diplomatic correspondent quoted by RFA said that with young men serving up to a decade or more in the military, it's hard to believe they have no interest in South Korean culture. He added that the very fact that military trials are made public shows how wary the military is of ideological contamination.

Pyongyang has passed a string of laws to block outside culture, including the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act (2020), the Youth Education Guarantee Act (2021) and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act (2023). That said, the video's authenticity and how widely it is used today rest on testimony from sources cited by RFA.

This was BTS's first full concert in Peru. The shows took place at Estadio San Marcos in Lima, starting Oct. 7 and continuing on the 9th and 10th. Their agency says the three-night total came in just over 150,000.

Only two nights were originally scheduled. Tickets went so fast that a third was added, and it sold out too. The crowd kept up wave after wave of fan chants and sing-alongs, and the members answered with "I love you" in Spanish.

The members said they were blown away by the local fans' energy and wished they'd come sooner. Jimin, who turns 31 on Oct. 13, got a roar when he said he'd carry the love from the other side of the world with him.

The economics drew attention, too. Before the shows, Peru's trade and tourism ministry estimated that more than 50,000 visitors from outside Lima would come, putting the tourism boost at nearly $19 million. The Lima Chamber of Commerce said that once you add up tickets, hotels, food, transport, sightseeing and official merchandise, activity could reach as much as 200 million soles.

Getting-there data told a similar story. Citing figures from ride-hailing company Cabify, local daily El Comercio reported that ride requests toward the stadium on opening night ran up to 15 times normal, then spiked up to 48 times right after the show ended. BTS now continues its world tour, Arirang, which kicked off in April, with Santiago dates on Oct. 14, 16 and 17, followed by La Plata and São Paulo.

'Paradise Lost' is a psychological thriller from director Yeon Sang-ho. Its heroine, Ryu So-young, lost her son nine years ago when a camp school bus disappeared. Then Ryu Sun-woo, the boy she believed was gone for good, suddenly resurfaces, and that's where the story kicks into gear.

Yeon and stars Kim Hyun-joo and Bae Hyun-sung held their press conference on the morning of Oct. 10 at BIFF Hill, the Busan Cinema Center's press venue in Haeundae. The day before, Yeon and Kim met fans first at an outdoor stage greeting, and the Loop Theater was packed with barely an empty seat. After the press conference, the team heads to the film's second screening and a Q&A with the audience (called a GV in Korea) to round out their Busan schedule.

Yeon said the project began with a question: what is still human in the age of AI? The title, he explained, comes from the idea that a being cast out of paradise will long for it forever, which he sees as the root of human identity. He sounded confident about the two leads, calling their performances the film's biggest draw.

Kim said playing a mother who has lost a child felt daunting, but she was drawn to a story that digs deep into a single side of one character. She found it fascinating to pull out her own darker side and push it to the extreme. Having to hit peak emotion within a short shooting schedule was hard, she said, but also fun. Her favorite scene is the first meeting between So-young and her son at the front door, with So-young wearing AI glasses. She described Yeon as a director who lets an actor's emotions surface naturally instead of piling on instructions.

The festival runs through Oct. 15 and is showing 316 films from 59 countries. Once it wraps, 'Paradise Lost' meets the general public on Oct. 21.

The Buil Film Awards, organized by the Busan Ilbo newspaper, reached their 35th edition this year. The ceremony was held October 7 at a hotel venue in Busan, and organizers announced the full results the next day. The top prize, Best Film, went to Yoon Ga-eun's 'Owner of the World.' In the story of 'Juin,' an 18-year-old high schooler, Seo Su-bin also won Best Actress in her first-ever screen role.

Best Director went to Na Hong-jin for 'Hope.' Beyond directing, the film also swept Best Supporting Actor for Eum Moon-suk, Best New Actress for Jung Ho-yeon, Best Cinematography, and Best Art and Technical Achievement. Five trophies for a single film is the most at this year's ceremony. Best Supporting Actress went to Yum Hye-ran for 'No Other Choice.'

Best Actor went to Yoo Hae-jin, who plays the village chief in the town where an exiled king stays in Jang Hang-jun's period drama 'The King's Warden.' The film is a blockbuster that has drawn more than 16 million viewers. Park Ji-hoon and Jeon Mi-do, from the same film, shared the male and female Star of the Year awards. Best New Actor went to Jo Yu-hyeon for '3670,' and the Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award went to film critic Lim Jae-chul, who died this year.

Launched in 1958, the Buil Film Awards are considered the oldest film awards in Korea. This year they honored winners and films across 16 categories, including picture, director, acting and technical work. What defined the results was that indie and low-budget films were called up alongside big box-office hits.