Cannes 2026: Ji Chang-Wook, Jun Ji-Hyun and Han So-Hee turn the red carpet into a K-Drama dream

The Cannes spotlight belonged to South Korea this week, as stars Ji Chang-Wook and Jun Ji-Hyun arrived at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival for the explosive premiere of Colony. Indeed it was a K-Drama dream, peppered with several sweet moments between the stars that were captured on camera, and of course, shared on the internet. Everything made news, from Chang-wook's glasses look, to Jun Hi-hyun's white overflowing gown.

Moreover, the film Colony, left with one of the loudest reactions of the festival so far.

Directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, the filmmaker behind the global zombie phenomenon Train to Busan, Colony debuted in Cannes’ prestigious Midnight Screenings section at the Grand Lumière Theatre, instantly becoming a major talking point among critics, horror fans and K-drama audiences alike.

As the credits rolled on the tense zombie thriller, the audience erupted into a standing ovation that reportedly left Jun Ji-Hyun visibly emotional. The film’s cast and crew soaked in cheers after what quickly became one of Cannes’ buzziest midnight premieres.

Set inside a quarantined high-rise in Seoul after a terrifying viral outbreak spirals out of control, Colony trades sprawling apocalypse landscapes for claustrophobic survival horror. Survivors are trapped floor by floor as the infection mutates around them, turning the building into a vertical nightmare.

Meanwhile, Cannes avid viewers gushed about the red carpet. Ji Chang-Wook delivered classic polished charm, while Jun Ji-Hyun stunned in an elegant couture look that immediately lit up social media feeds worldwide. Fan clips from the premiere spread rapidly online, with many calling the pair one of Cannes’ most glamorous Korean star appearances in recent years.

If Colony brought the screams and standing ovations, Cannes’ red carpet delivered its own kind of cinematic drama, this time in monochrome.

While Ji Chang-Wook and Jun Ji-Hyun dominated headlines with their zombie-thriller premiere, fellow Korean stars Han So-Hee and YoonA turned the Croisette into a high-fashion chessboard of black versus white.

Han So-Hee arrived in an all-black look that with gothic glamour: smoky eyes, sharp silhouettes and enough mystery to look like she had just stepped out of a noir thriller herself. Representing a luxury jewellery brand as global ambassador, the actress doubled down on her signature cool-girl aura, proving once again that nobody does icy elegance quite like her.

Meanwhile, YoonA floated onto the carpet in the complete opposite direction — a soft white gown that had international photographers comparing her to a Disney princess.

Together, the two unintentionally created the festival’s most talked-about style contrast: shadow versus light, femme fatale versus fairytale heroine, espresso martini versus vanilla chiffon.

Both stars also attended the 2026 Women in Motion Awards dinner hosted by the Kering Group, an annual Cannes initiative celebrating female voices and contributions in cinema and the arts. But while the event honoured women shaping culture, social media seemed equally invested in deciding which Cannes aesthetic reigned supreme.