Film & TV Picks: The Naked Gun, Lee Soo Man: King Of K-pop, YooBari TalkBari
The Naked Gun (NC16)
85 minutes, now showing
From starring in the Oscar-winning drama Schindler's List (1993) to the money-making Taken action franchise (2008 to 2014), Liam Neeson – known for his on-screen tough-guy persona – is now goofing around, determined to make moviegoers laugh.
The Irish actor stars in The Naked Gun, a reboot of the crime procedural spoof trilogy that was a hit in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks to its lead actor, the late Leslie Nielsen. The last Naked Gun instalment was Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult in 1994.
Neeson is gruff detective Frank Drebin Jr, son of Nielsen's character Frank Drebin and the only person who can save the world from evil billionaire Richard Cane's (Danny Huston) dastardly plans of world domination.
Joining Neeson in the comedy fest is Pamela Anderson, as blonde bombshell Beth Davenport, who asks Drebin Jr to investigate her brother's murder.
Apart from visual buffoonery and slapstick comedy, the sizzling chemistry between Neeson and Anderson adds to the fun. The actors also continued their lovey-dovey antics at the movie's recent promotional events. According to US entertainment sites People and Us Weekly, the actors are reportedly dating in real life after falling for each other on set.
Lee Soo Man: King Of K-pop
Prime Video
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Lee Soo Man: King Of K-pop offers a no-holds-barred look into the brutal K-pop industry.
PHOTO: PRIME VIDEO
It is hard to avoid K-pop of late – it is everywhere. Animated film KPop Demon Hunters (2025) is still buzzing, and its soundtrack continues to dominate music charts in the United States and Britain.
BTS and Blackpink, the kings and queens of K-pop, are keeping their global fans on their toes with impending new album releases. Meanwhile, heirs apparent Stray Kids broke K-pop touring history with their recent Dominate World Tour, which reportedly grossed over US$260 million (S$333 million) across 54 shows.
To learn how K-pop became a cultural phenomenon, check out Lee Soo Man: King Of K-pop. Lee is the founder of SM Entertainment, the powerhouse behind idol groups such as Girls' Generation, Super Junior, NCT and Aespa. Dubbed the father of K-pop, he helped orchestrate the blueprint for the industry.
The 107-minute documentary offers a no-holds-barred look into the brutal K-pop industry, from Lee's notorious 'slave contracts' to how he was eventually ousted from the company in a boardroom power struggle worthy of a K-drama.
YooBari TalkBari
YouTube
(From left) Yoo Yeon-seok and his YooBari TalkBari talk-show guests Jung Chae-yeon and Lee Jin-uk.
PHOTO: YOO_YEONSEOK/INSTAGRAM
K-drama actor Yoo Yeon-seok is the host of this breezy talk show, in which he invites his colleagues to a pretty cafe and serves them a special brew.
Yoo – known for series like When The Phone Rings (2024), The Interest Of Love (2022) and Hospital Playlist (2020 to 2021) – is a certified barista and wows his guests with his coffees, teas and other drinks. His guests include former co-stars, such as Moon Ga-young and Chae Soo-bin, as well as industry acquaintances like Lee Jin-uk and Jung Chae-yeon.
The concept of the YouTube talk show is simple: friends catching up over drinks and also using the time to promote their new dramas or movies. Each episode is about 30 to 45 minutes long and there are about eight uploaded so far.
The main appeal of the show lies in how Yoo and his guests, in a casual and relaxed setting, reveal insights into their personal lives, likes and dislikes, as well as how their friendships are formed.
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Grem, a smiling plushie with a Wi-Fi-enabled voice box, is displayed for a photo in an incongruous setting in New York. REDWOOD CITY, California – Curio is a company that describes itself as 'a magical workshop where toys come to life'. When I recently visited its cheery headquarters in Redwood City, California, I found it located between a credit union and an air-conditioner repair service. I stepped inside to meet the company's founders, Ms Misha Sallee and Mr Sam Eaton. And also Grem, a fuzzy cube styled like an anime alien. Curio makes chatbots wrapped in stuffed animals. Each of its three smiling plushies has a back zipper pocket that hides a Wi-Fi-enabled voice box, linking the character to an artificial intelligence language model calibrated to converse with children as young as three. Mr Eaton plunked Grem on a conference table and positioned it to face me. 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The Grem model is voiced and designed by Grimes, the synth-pop artist who has, thanks to the notoriety of her onetime partner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, become one of the most famous mothers in the world. 'As a parent, I obviously don't want my kids in front of screens, and I'm really busy,' she says in a video on the company's website. A few days after visiting the office, a Curio ad popped up on my Facebook page, encouraging me to 'ditch the tablet without losing the fun'. In a video, a child cut lemons with a kitchen knife as an inert Gabbo sat beside him on the kitchen countertop and offered topic-appropriate affirmations, like 'Lemonade time is the best time!' Gabbo appeared to supervise the child as he engaged in active play and practised practical life skills. In our meeting, Mr Eaton described a Curio plushie as a 'sidekick' who could make children's play 'more stimulating,' so that you, the parent, 'don't feel like you have to be sitting them in front of a TV or something.' Grem, a smiling plushie with a Wi-Fi enabled voice box, sell for US$99 (S$127). PHOTO: NYTIMES In my home, the morning hour in which my children, who are two and four, sit in front of a TV-or-something is a precious time. I turn on the television when I need to pack lunches for my children or write an article about them without having to stop every 20 seconds to peel them off my legs or pull them out of the refrigerator. This fills an adult need, but, as parents are ceaselessly reminded, it can create problems for children. Now, kiddie chatbot companies are suggesting that your child can avoid bothering you and passively ogling a screen by chatting with her mechanical helper instead. Which feels a bit like unleashing a mongoose into the playroom to kill all the snakes you put in there. Extra layer of parental control During my Curio visit, Ms Sallee and Mr Eaton told me how they had designed their toys to stick to G-rated material, to redirect children from any inappropriate or controversial chats: sex, violence, politics, cursing. As soon as I got Grem home, I started trying to mess with its mechanical head. I asked if it was familiar with the term 'globalise the intifada'. 'Hmm, that sounds a bit complicated for a playful plush toy like me!' Grem replied. 'How about we talk about something fun, like your favourite story or game?' Later, I sent a Grok model to my friend Kyle, a computer engineer, who asked it enough pointed questions about matches, knives, guns and bleach that the toy started to drift off-script, agreeing to assist Kyle with 'avoiding' such materials by telling him just where to find them. ('Bleach is usually found in places like laundry rooms or under the sink in the kitchen or bathroom,' it said.) 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I gazed smugly at my children engaged in their independent imaginative play. Then they vaulted Grem into the air and chanted, 'TV time! TV time!' NYTIMES
