(Another) one of the things I like about Mixed-up Investigative Agency is that the band of treasure-hunting misfit friends has some good ideas, but so often, they’re just plain WRONG. One tricky thing in making a mystery come alive is in making each step believable and yet keep the viewers guessing. The difficulty, many times, is in allowing the heroes to gain their objective, but not TOO easily (or there’s no suspense or fun), and yet also not too much by coincidence, otherwise it’ll seem like they didn’t earn their victory.

The friends mess up quite often, but their mess-ups often lead to insights they wouldn’t have gained otherwise. Which also means that other, smarter people might not have figured out these clues, because they would’ve thought of different, more clever ideas. In this way, this really is a “mixed-up” agency — a bumbling, awkward, clumsy, but lovable group of heroes who may just be the only people capable of finding the treasure. Not in spite of their flaws but because of them.

SONG OF THE DAY

J - “Ghost” from her newest (sixth) album. [ zShare download ]

MIXED-UP INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY Case 13 >>

Tags: episode recaps, Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

Filed under: Drama Recaps by javabeans - 11 Comments →

Wonder Girls

I suppose this makes Part 3 in my unplanned Child Stars series (Part 1, the Golden Age, and Part 2, the oversexing thereof).

I’ve always wondered at the way these kids are (over)worked, and why their activities aren’t more regulated. There ARE laws, but as the article points out, they’re largely ineffectual. I suspect the bottom line always wins out, and with management companies running what amounts to basically short-lasting-celebrity machines, these Lolita-bots are milked for all they’re worth — ew, sorry, unintentional (mixed!) metaphor — before being cast aside into old has-been territory (at the ripe old age of twenty?). Or whatever.

I suspect legal ramifications need to be enforced, and strongly. In the States, you work with child actors for your allotted hours in a day, and once they’ve maxed out their limit, you’re done. No “one more take” or “but we’re almost done!” You work with them while you legally can, and then you deal with it.

Child Actors and Singers and their Killer Schedules

“In Japan, teenage entertainers are prohibited from appearing on air after 10pm.”

Young teen stars were the center of attention in 2007 in the entertainment industry.

As adolescent entertainers win over fans, concerns have been growing about whether their excessive schedules could cause harm or have unwanted repercussions on their health. …

SONG OF THE DAY

Linus’ Blanket - “Don’t Call It Puppy Love” [ zShare download ]

Wait, you mean overworking young stars is a bad idea? >>

Tags: kpop, overworking, Wonder Girls

Filed under: Kpop News by javabeans - 14 Comments →

Two things have occurred to me while watching Mixed-up Investigative Agency, ideas that solidified in Episode 12. I’ll get to the second item later in the recap, but first is that nobody’s really a bad guy. Certainly, you have people who do more good than bad, and others who do more bad than good, but it’s like a sliding scale of morality and not a definitive, black-white, heaven-hell dichotomy.

The good way of looking at that is that everybody is capable of ceding to their good side. The dumb gangster subordinates, for instance, are aligned with criminals and career violence-doers — but really, they spend most of their time waiting around and filling their hours by bickering or, more hilariously, dancing. I found it pretty touching to see 007 given more depth in recent episodes, and showing remorse for his actions. And it’s not just that he was nervous at the thought that Hee-kyung was seeing Junsu’s ghost — his admission that he’s seen Junsu’s face in his dreams shows that he’s actually been haunted by his complicity in Junsu’s death (even if he didn’t kill him directly) for years. And who’d've thunk all-around badass Baek Min-chul’s Achilles heel was love?

Maybe by that corollary, you must also concede that nobody’s entirely good, either. Our “good guys” are the traditional good guys merely by dint of being the protagonists in this story — but are they necessarily good? Does not being bad make someone good? They’re caring friends and loyal allies (good) but so far they’re mostly acting upon their own interests (bad? morally neutral?). In any case, this good-bad duality is something we see in striking contrast in this episode.

SONG OF THE DAY

Casker - “말할 수 없는 이야기” (A story I can’t tell)
[ zShare download ]

MIXED-UP INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY Case 12 >>

Tags: episode recaps, Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

Filed under: Drama Recaps by javabeans - 13 Comments →

Who’s excited about Hong Gil Dong??

The upcoming drama (the official title is “Kwae-do Hong Gil Dong,” which translates roughly to “Sharp Blade Hong Gil Dong”) has been on my radar ever since it was announced because it’s the next project for screenwriters Hong Mi Ran and Hong Jung Eun, who wrote three series I thoroughly enjoyed: Delightful Girl Chun Hyang, My Girl, and Fantasy Couple. A lot of times with dramas, they sound interesting and I get all excited, then watch an episode or two and drop it in boredom. With these two, I’d practically commit to a series sight unseen because I know it’s going to be (1) funny, (2), fast-paced, (3) and have great, sparkling characters. Oh, and romance peppered with funny dialogue, hilarious clashing, and lots of chemistry.

It’s described thusly:

“The drama is decidedly different from any sageuk dramas we’ve seen thus far. From the actors’ wardrobes to its styling, it plans to show the essence of what a fusion sageuk is. In particular, there are a lot of fantastic action scenes and fiery sunsets, but the harshest and most brutal scenes have been reduced, so anyone, male or female, young or old, will be able to enjoy it.”

Unfortunately, the Olive Nine-produced drama doesn’t air till early next year (KBS2, Wednesday-Thursday), but at least we have these newly released preview pictures to whet our appetites…

SONG OF THE DAY

Sorea - “이 노래를 부를게요” (I would sing this song) [ zShare download ]

More Hong Gil Dong and crew >>

Tags: fusion dramas, Hong Gil Dong, Kang Ji-hwan, sageuk dramas

Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 35 Comments →

Jang Dong Gun, Lee Seon Kyun

Oh man. What a trip back to the old-school days of Korean drama.

The Voice, aka Lee Seon Kyun, recently recorded an episode of the MBC talk-variety show Yoo Jae Seok and Kim Won Hee’s Let’s Play airing on the 23rd, wherein he shared a story about his acting “senior” and friend, supa-star Jang Dong Gun.

Back in his university days, Jang Dong Gun was playing basketball with fellow basketball enthusiast Lee Seon Kyun, when one day he turned to him (Lee) and said, “Your shoes look too worn — it must be uncomfortable playing with those.” With that, he handed him a pair of shoes, saying, “These are my sneakers from when I filmed The Last Match — if that’s okay with you, wear them instead” — and gave them as a gift. Lee Seon Kyun was so touched by the gesture that afterward, he always wore those sneakers when playing basketball.

(Of course, things got tricky when the sneakers started to smell because off Lee Seon Kyun’s peculiar habit of wearing them without socks! File that under “too much information”?)

Dude. I remember The Last Match fondly because it was one of the first Korean dramas I ever watched, way back in 1994, and was one of the earliest projects for two of the most famous all-time Korean actors, Jang Dong Gun and Shim Eun Ha. Along with Jealousy [Jiltu] (starring a very young Choi Jin Shil and the current sageuk pro Choi Su Jong) and Feelings [Neukkim] (which I’ve mentioned here and starred a very young Lee Jung Jae and Kim Min Jong), those three dramas composed a early-kdrama trifecta that helped shaped my current trendy-drama watching habit.

Source: Newsen

(Old-school soundtrack) SONG OF THE DAY

The Last Match OST - “다시 시작해” (Start over) by Lee Chang Kwon. Thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was able to raid some of my long-ignored stacks of ancient kpop and kdrama CDs. Yay nostalgia. This was one of the most prominent themes of the series. Played a lot while Jang Dong Gun was off running around (literally, i.e. basketball training). Also played while he did a lot of pulling-up by his metaphorical bootstraps. [ zShare download ]

Read on for a total ’90s-drama digression >>

Tags: Feelings, Jang Dong-gun, Jealousy, Lee Seon-kyun, old-school dramas, Sohn Ji-chang, sports dramas, The Last Match

Filed under: Drama Reactions & Reviews by javabeans - 9 Comments →