South Korean Cult-Horror Series ‘Hellbound’ Returns at BIFF

In this picture taken on October 2, 2024, (L-R) South Korean actors Im Seong-Jae, Kim Hyun-joo and Kim Sung-cheol arrive on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 29th Busan International Film Festival in Busan. (AFP)
In this picture taken on October 2, 2024, (L-R) South Korean actors Im Seong-Jae, Kim Hyun-joo and Kim Sung-cheol arrive on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 29th Busan International Film Festival in Busan. (AFP)
TT
20

South Korean Cult-Horror Series ‘Hellbound’ Returns at BIFF

In this picture taken on October 2, 2024, (L-R) South Korean actors Im Seong-Jae, Kim Hyun-joo and Kim Sung-cheol arrive on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 29th Busan International Film Festival in Busan. (AFP)
In this picture taken on October 2, 2024, (L-R) South Korean actors Im Seong-Jae, Kim Hyun-joo and Kim Sung-cheol arrive on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 29th Busan International Film Festival in Busan. (AFP)

Netflix's Korean cult-horror thriller "Hellbound" returned for its much anticipated second season with a world premiere at Busan International Film Festival, showcasing intense performances from the new cast members, particularly Moon Geun-young.

Created by Yeon Sang-ho, known for zombie flick "Train to Busan", the first season of "Hellbound" achieved critical and commercial success with its portrayal of a world where supernatural beings suddenly appear to tell people of their impending death, followed by monstrous entities that drag the condemned to hell.

Yeon, whose early works included a dark animated film about a Korean cult organization, elevates the dystopian thriller into a more philosophical realm in its second season, while still delivering the spectacle of creatures, violence, and collective religious hysteria.

"I believe that the concept of disaster in the work 'Hellbound' refers more to a mental or ideological catastrophe than to a physical disaster," director Yeon said at a BIFF event late Friday.

The show had to let go of actor Yoo Ah-in, who played a key character in season one, after he was charged with illegal drug use. Yoo was subsequently found guilty.

Kim Sung-cheol takes on the role of the charismatic leader of a cult that arose amid the horrific supernatural deaths that triggered a wave of social media frenzy, delivering a convincing portrayal of this intricate character.

But the most captivating -- and gut-wrenching -- performance of the second season arguably belongs to Moon Geun-young, a much beloved former teen actress in South Korea, who portrays a young wife gradually transforming into a deranged cult fanatic.

Yeon said he decided to cast Moon after seeing her in a 2021 TV drama where she portrayed a tormented wife who succumbs to alcoholism while caring for her alcoholic husband.

Moon did not attend this year's BIFF, but fellow cast member Kim Hyun-joo said: "Moon Geun-young made a tremendous contribution. I already knew (she was immensely talented), but I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by her performance."

The series was featured at BIFF in its big-screen theaters, even as the festival faces criticism from cinephiles for selecting a streaming title, "Uprising", also from Netflix, as its opening film this year.

Cineastes blame OTT streaming platforms for some of the challenges encountered by the traditional theater market and independent filmmakers.

"BIFF has been a key player in showcasing fresh Asian films by young, emerging talents in the region, and this has been their priority," Kay Heeyoung Kim, owner of the film studio K-Dragon, told AFP.

"But the lines between traditional independent cinema and big-budget streaming titles have blurred at this year's festival, which is unfortunate to see."

Yeon, who began his career as an independent animated filmmaker, along with his work "Hellbound," is credited with increasing the global visibility of South Korean content in recent years, alongside works like "Squid Game" and "Pachinko."



Fans Criticize Beyoncé for Shirt Calling Native Americans 'the Enemies of Peace'

Beyonce, center, attends the men's Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Beyonce, center, attends the men's Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
TT
20

Fans Criticize Beyoncé for Shirt Calling Native Americans 'the Enemies of Peace'

Beyonce, center, attends the men's Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Beyonce, center, attends the men's Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A T-shirt worn by Beyoncé during a Juneteenth performance on her “Cowboy Carter” tour has sparked a discussion over how Americans frame their history and caused a wave of criticism for the Houston-born superstar.

The T-shirt worn during a concert in Paris featured images of the Buffalo Soldiers, who belonged to Black US Army units active during the late 1800s and early 1900s. On the back was a lengthy description of the soldiers that included

“Their antagonists were the enemies of peace, order and settlement: warring Indians, bandits, cattle thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries.”

Images of the shirt and videos of the performance are also featured on Beyoncé’s website, The Associated Press reported.

As she prepares to return to the US for performances in her hometown this weekend, fans and Indigenous influencers took to social media to criticize Beyoncé for framing Native Americans and Mexican revolutionaries as anything but the victims of American imperialism and promoting anti-Indigenous language.

A publicist for Beyoncé did not respond to requests for comment.

Who were the Buffalo Soldiers? The Buffalo Soldiers served in six military units created after the Civil War in 1866. They were comprised formerly enslaved men, freemen, and Black Civil War soldiers and fought in hundreds of conflicts — including in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II — until they were disbanded in 1951.

As the quote on Beyoncé’s shirt notes, they also fought numerous battles against Indigenous peoples as part of the US Army's campaign of violence and land theft during the country's westward expansion.

Some historians say the moniker “Buffalo Soldiers” was bestowed by the tribes who admired the bravery and tenacity of the fighters, but that might be more legend than fact. “At the end of the day, we really don’t have that kind of information,” said Cale Carter, director of exhibitions at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston.

Carter and other museum staff said that, only in the past few years, the museum made broader efforts to include more of the complexities of the battles the Buffalo Soldiers fought against Native Americans and Mexican revolutionaries and the role they played in the subjugation of Indigenous peoples. They, much like many other museums across the country, are hoping to add more nuance to the framing of American history and be more respectful of the ways they have caused harm to Indigenous communities.

“We romanticize the Western frontier,” he said. “The early stories that talked about the Buffalo Soldiers were impacted by a lot of those factors. So you really didn’t see a changing in that narrative until recently.”

There has often been a lack of diverse voices discussing the way Buffalo Soldiers history is framed, said Michelle Tovar, the museum's director of education. The current political climate has put enormous pressure on schools, including those in Texas, to avoid honest discussions about American history, she said.

“Right now, in this area, we are getting push back from a lot of school districts in which we can’t go and teach this history," Tovar said. "We are a museum where we can at least be a hub, where we can invite the community regardless of what districts say, invite them to learn it and do what we can do the outreach to continue to teach honest history.”

Historians scrutinize reclamation motive Beyoncé's recent album “Act II: Cowboy Carter” has played on a kind of American iconography, which many see as her way of subverting the country music genre's adjacency to whiteness and reclaiming the cowboy aesthetic for Black Americans. Last year, she became the first Black woman ever to top Billboard's country music chart, and “Cowboy Carter” won her the top prize at the 2025 Grammy Awards, album of the year.

“The Buffalo Soldiers play this major role in the Black ownership of the American West,” said Tad Stoermer, a historian and professor at Johns Hopkins University. “In my view, (Beyoncé is) well aware of the role that these images play. This is the ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour for crying out loud. The entire tour, the entire album, the entire piece is situated in this layered narrative.”

But Stoermer also points out that the Buffalo Soldier have been framed in the American story in a way that also plays into the myths of American nationalism.

As Beyoncé’s use of Buffalo Soldiers imagery implies, Black Americans also use their story to claim agency over their role in the creation of the country, said Alaina E. Roberts, a historian, author and professor at Pittsburgh University who studies the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to present day.

“That’s the category in which she thought maybe she was coming into this conversation, but the Buffalo Soldiers are even a step above that because they were literally involved in not just the settlement of the West but of genocide in a sense,” she said.

Online backlash builds ahead of Houston shows Several Native influencers, performers, and academics took to social media this week to criticize Beyoncé or call the language on her shirt anti-Indigenous. “Do you think Beyoncé will apologize (or acknowledge) the shirt,” indigenous.tv, an Indigenous news and culture Instagram account with more than 130,000, asked in a post Thursday.
Many of her critics, as well as fans, agree. A flood of social media posts called out the pop star for the historic framing on the shirt.

“The Buffalo Soldiers are an interesting historical moment to look at. But we have to be honest about what they did, especially in their operations against Indigenous Americans and Mexicans,” said Chisom Okorafor, who posts on TikTok under the handle @confirmedsomaya.

Okorafor said there is no “progressive” way to reclaim America's history of empire building in the West, and that Beyoncé’s use of Western symbolism sends a problematic message.

“Which is that Black people too can engage in American nationalism," she said. "Black people too can profit from the atrocities of American empire. It is a message that tells you to abandon immigrants, Indigenous people, and people who live outside of the United States. It is a message that tells you not only is it a virtue to have been born in this country but the longer your line extends in this country the more virtuous you are.”