IN CELEBRATION of the 70 years of friendship between South Korea and the Philippines, Gangwon Province will hold a trade fair and exhibition in Manila on Aug. 9.

LIKE HIS first acclaimed Cinemalaya entry Kiko Boksingero (2017), writer-director Toph Nazareno once again brings us a deeply sympathetic and profound coming of age story. The motherless Edward (played by 15-year-old Louise Abuel who is totally amazing) must serve as his father Mario’s (Dido dela Paz) bantay or hospital bedside watcher — although in Philippine charity wards they do not sleep beside, but underneath, the patient’s bed, barely a hand’s breadth from the rusted steel matting bedframe, upon flattened cardboard boxes. They may only bathe between 4 to 6 a.m. Throughout the day and night, they must see to their patient’s feeding, hygiene, and medication, since there are not enough orderlies or nursing aides to do these tasks. Without the bantay, many patients would never make it.

IT’S A testament to the depth and breadth of the Advance Wars series that it continues to be viewed as the gold standard insofar as turn-based defeat-all-enemies-type games that require no small measure of strategy are concerned. The first title (released way back in 2001 for the 32-bit Game Boy Advance), direct sequels Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising and Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and the stand-alone Advance Wars: Days of Ruin all compel gamers to either vanquish rival forces or capture opposition headquarters. Several interface options are on offer, but the Campaign Mode, where an intricate storyline unfolds in the midst of deliberate, if engrossing, action, takes the cake.

HERITAGE is such a loaded word these days, and in the face of a rapidly changing world, preserving a legacy seems ever more urgent.

THE MULTI-BILLION dollar beauty industry has increasingly shifted to digital as social media became a way of marketing products, a trend that has also come to Southeast Asia, according to a media intelligence firm.

IF YOU are a woman who works, chances are you have struggled with footwear.

LONDON -- Royal-loving readers queued up on Friday to buy the new edition of the British Vogue magazine which was guest edited by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and wife of Britain’s Prince Harry.

Manila FAME October 2019 will feature the stories of two rags-to-riches shoemakers from one of the shoe capitals of the country.

THE ORGANIZERS of the Woodstock 50^th-anniversary festival canceled the event a week after its relocation to Maryland led many of the acts to back out.

BARANGAY VENEZIA is still underwater three months after the last typhoon hit. It has affected every aspect of their lives. The children and the elderly are getting sick. Their livelihood has been threatened. The simple act of moving from one street to the next would require a boat ride. Its residents, frustrated by the inaction of the local government, realized that the massive flooding began only after a subdivision for the affluent was built near their impoverished community.

HAROLD “HAL” PRINCE, who won a record 21 Tony Awards as producer and director of some of Broadway’s biggest hits of the second half of the 20^th century including The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, and Evita, died on Wednesday at age 91.

IRISH rock band U2 is coming to the Philippines for the first time for a concert that is part of the band’s ongoing Joshua Tree World Tour. The concert will be held a Dec. 11 at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.