{"id":343481,"date":"2026-03-17T08:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/343481\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:21:10","slug":"k-pop-meets-cantopop-in-musical-k-pop-out-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/343481\/","title":{"rendered":"K-Pop Meets Cantopop in Musical ‘K-Pop Out of Time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPhoenix Waters Prods. has unveiled \u201cK-Pop Out of Time<\/a>,\u201d a cross-border musical feature uniting the U.K., Hong Kong and Korea, with filming set to begin later this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tProduced by Phoenix Waters alongside TE Creatives, the project originated from a concept by Bizhan Tong and Everett Jenkins. The film centers on a contemporary K-pop idol who, after being accused of plagiarism, is transported back to 1980s Hong Kong, where he falls in love with the original songwriter of the song that upended his career. Music serves as both storytelling engine and cultural connective tissue, drawing on the golden age of Cantopop alongside the global reach of modern K-pop.<\/p>\n

\n\tTong, who is also writing and directing, previously helmed \u201cTape,\u201d which screened at the Raindance and Vancouver Intl. Film Festivals and was recently announced as part of the selection of the Miami Film Festival. He produces alongside Charlie Wong (\u201cWarriors of Future,\u201d \u201cZero to Hero\u201d) and Jenkins.<\/p>\n

\n\tExecutive producers are Wonil Cha of Global Content Media Group GPVC, a Seoul-based company specializing in K-pop content production, global media distribution and IP monetization, and Rancho Lee of Simsan Ventures, a U.K.-and-Dubai-based venture capital firm focused on cross-border Asian media and technology investments.<\/p>\n

\n\tComposer Christopher Lai, whose credits include \u201cBack to the Past,\u201d a best original score nominee at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and Andrew Lau\u2019s \u201cThe Dumpling Queen,\u201d a best original score nominee at the Golden Rooster Awards, will craft the film\u2019s soundscape spanning both musical eras. Costume and makeup designer Karen Yip, a multiple Hong Kong Film Awards winner and Golden Horse nominee known for \u201cTwilight of the Warriors: Walled In,\u201d \u201cAnita,\u201d \u201cCold War\u201d and \u201cNight King,\u201d will oversee the visual styling.<\/p>\n

\n\tCasting is underway for both the male K-pop lead and the Hong Kong female lead, with open auditions planned in Hong Kong and Korea in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond its theatrical release, the producers plan to extend \u201cK-Pop Out of Time\u201d into live concert events, looking to build a broader entertainment franchise around the film\u2019s original music and its appeal across generations.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project is part of Phoenix Waters\u2019 broader slate strategy aimed at developing commercially driven IP across Asia with international reach. The company has also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean studio MOFAC, the production company behind \u201cThe King of Kings,\u201d which became both the highest-grossing Korean-produced film in U.S. box office history and the highest-grossing faith-based animated film globally. The deal aims to deepen ties between the Hong Kong, Korean and British screen industries on both the creative and financing fronts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cK-pop is the most globally dominant music force of this generation, while Cantopop defined an era of Hong Kong\u2019s cultural identity,\u201d said Tong. \u201cThis film brings those two worlds together in a way that feels emotional, nostalgic and commercially exciting. It\u2019s about authorship, cultural legacy, and how music transcends time and borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJenkins, managing director of TE Creatives, described the project as an expression of the company\u2019s \u201cglocal\u201d storytelling philosophy. \u201cCantopop itself began as a cross-cultural experiment,\u201d he said, noting that the film brings together two landmark Asian pop movements separated by four decades yet connected through shared creative DNA.<\/p>\n

\n\tCha called music a universal language that defies the boundaries of time and geography, while Lee framed the project as a pivotal pre-production step toward an upcoming global K-Asia media fund, anticipating that it will leverage the impact of K-content to build long-term media synergies across Korea, Hong Kong and the global market.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Wong noted the historical arc the film seeks to capture. \u201cBefore the turn of the millennium, Cantopop was the dominant sound across Asia. In the decades that followed, K-pop reshaped the global music landscape,\u201d he said. \u201cBringing these two cultural forces together in one film feels both timely and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther casting and partnership announcements are expected in the coming months. The project was unveiled at the Hong Kong FilMart<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix Waters Prods. has unveiled \u201cK-Pop Out of Time,\u201d a cross-border musical feature uniting the U.K., Hong Kong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,167671,85,46,167908,409],"class_list":["post-343481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-hong-kong-filmart","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-k-pop-out-of-time","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}