Jung Ryeo Won, 26, (My Name Is Kim Samsoon, What Star Did You Come From) has been cast opposite Jung Jae Young (My Son, Welcome to Dongmakgol), 37, in the upcoming film Wandering Mr. Kim.
The film has attached Kang Woo Seok, described as a “Midas touch director” (Shadows in the Palace, I Like it Hot, Hwang Jini, Sarangni) as a producer. It will be directed by Lee Hae Joon, who made a splash and won Best Director at the Blue Dragon Awards with his 2006 film Like A Virgin.
In the film, a man (Jung Jae Young) attempts suicide by throwing himself into the Han River, but instead winds up on Bamseom, a small uninhabited island in the Han River. After failing attempts to escape the island, he gradually realizes there’s hope to life as he grows accustomed to island life; the “help” he scrawls into the sand changes to “hello.”
Jung Ryeo Won plays the socially isolated woman whom he meets while on Bamseom, and while he wanders the island alone, she wanders her small room alone, using the Internet as her sole portal to the outside world in a kind of “digital xenophobia.”
The movie films later this year and plans for a release early next year, but first Jung Jae Young will be promoting his next release, Kang Chul Joong: Public Enemy 1-1 (in which he plays an unbalanced cop), which comes out on June 19. Meanwhile, this will be Jung Ryeo Won’s second movie after last year’s My Girlfriend Has Two Faces.
I pretty much feel this every time an Open Thread rolls around, but thank god it’s Friday, yeah?
Have you entered my free Oldfish CD giveaway yet? I’ll be closing the giveaway in a few hours — noon PST, to be exact — so I can pick winners and get those posted.
So while I do that, go on and talk amongst yourselves.
I just recently saw that Imaginasian TV just started showing the first season of Korean reality show I Am a Model, and tuned in out of curiosity. Originally aired on Korean cable channel Mnet, I Am a Model was pretty successful and has aired multiple seasons (three, I think). I never caught it, because I don’t watch Korean cable or reality/variety programs that much.
In the absence of AZN, Imaginasian’s got some decent programming (check your cable listings!), and I found myself liking I Am a Model. The episodes are subbed in English and similar to America’s Next Top Model, minus the shenanigans. If you’re like me, you watch America’s Next Top Model despite yourself — you know it’s predictable and most likely rigged and way too loaded down with exaggerated “drama.” Plus Tyra’s getting crazier and crazier, and not in a good way. But the premise is interesting, and you fast-forward through all the humdrum boring parts to get to the actual point — the photo shoots and judging. (There’s just no way to watch ANTM live, because the filler stuff will make you want to slap somebody.)
I Am a Model is less conflict and more about actual modeling (who’d'a thunk?). For that reason, it might be a dry watch for some viewers, but I liked it much more. It’s only up to the second episode so far and I know nothing about the model-contestants, but I kind of like it that way. I’d rather just see how they’re judged based on their evaluations and photo shoots.
Model-contestants Park Hee Hyun, Han Boram, Kim So Young, Kang Suji, Yoon Jihye, Park Eun Hye
Tablo addressed erroneous rumors that he’s retiring from the music biz by posting a message on his homepage: “I’m not retiring.” He’s not happy with the state of the industry and its focus on singles over albums, but he assures his fans, “I’ll make music forever.”
Ha Jiwon was invited to the New Zealand embassy in Seoul to welcome Prime Minister Helen Clark on the 15th. She’s been active in promoting films from New Zealand in Korea, and vice versa (Korean films in NZ). She also films her next movie in New Zealand at the end of the year.
First it was a Girls Generation song (sung here); now figure skater Kim Yuna says she’ll be performing Jewelry’s “ET dance” next, using their chart-topping hit “One More Time” (song here) in one of her skating routines at the KCC Switzen Festa on Ice. Maybe she just really wants to be a pop star.
MBC’s popular variety show We Got Married has brought several stars into the limelight, including Shinhwa’s Andy, dubbed “top husband material.” But did you know he’d already gone on a formal “seon” (marriage set-up date) years ago at the tender age of 25? His mother tricked him into going, saying it was merely dinner with a friend, but when he showed up the woman was there with a “young girl” — and the mothers quickly got up and left the couple behind.
And with SBS gearing up to launch two new series, the promotion blitz sure is kicking in. All of a sudden, everything is about Iljimae (Lee Junki, Han Hyo Joo) and Gourmet (Kim Rae Won, Nam Sang Mi). Seriously, Lee Junki is everywhere.
