Ooh, Episode 5 is good. And with Strongest Chil Woo, “good” really means “bad,” but you probably already guessed that.
This series isn’t just funny. It’s hysterical. I’m pretty hard to surprise, but I have to admit there’s always a moment or two in each episode that literally makes my jaw drop open in disbelief. It’s almost enough of a farce to liveblog.
SONG OF THE DAY
Strongest Chil Woo OST – “기다려요” (Wait) by Han Eol. I really like the instrumentation of this track; it reminds me of other fusion pop musicians Sorea and I.S. (Infinite of Sound). In fact, doesn’t it sound like this song? But in a good way; they’re different despite their obvious stylistic similarities. [ Download ]
The “romantic musical” Polaroid (first mentioned here as Andy’s second stage role) starring former Miss Korea and classical musicianHoney Lee (so pretty) held its dress rehearsal–cum–press conference on June 30, the day before its official July 1 premiere.
The project is directed by Sung Jae-joon and written by Won Mi-sol, who also produced last year’s musical Music In My Heart, and its story unfolds around the two leads who meet by chance on a street — he’s an aspiring photographer, she’s an art student — and fall in love. Although Honey Lee’s musical specialty lies in traditional folk instruments, she had trained as a vocalist with YG in the past, which makes a musical role a natural vehicle for her acting debut. (Although I haven’t heard her sing myself, so who knows?)
Honey Lee was also asked about current Miss Korea Lee Jisun, who’s competing in the upcoming Miss Universe 2008 pageant in Vietnam on July 14. She wished her successor well and said she hoped that Lee Jisun would be able to improve on her own fourth-place finish last year.
Polaroid runs through August 24; Andy joins the cast in August.
Project Runway is coming to Korea. Cable channel On Style is producing and airing the competitive reality show for fashion-designer aspirants, having bought the rights to produce Project Runway Korea from the show’s international distributors, Fremantle Media.
Because the production rights have been bought from the purveyors of the original show, the Korean version will follow the exact format as the U.S. show, with twelve contestants completing one design challenge per week, each of which will result in one cut. The winner earns a cash prize and a spread in a fashion magazine, and just as U.S. finalists show at New York Fashion Week, Project Runway Korea finalists will present at Korea’s Fashion Week in the fall. Apparently there are strict guidelines that the show must follow regarding filming style, editing, set design, challenge content, etc., in accordance with the original format.
Project Runway has already been shipped overseas to countries like Canada and Malaysia, although this is the first time a well-known foreign format will be applied to a Korean reality show. Applications for contestants will be open until July 13, and the program plans to air in September.
I’m… interested to see how this shapes up. What I like about Korean reality programs, like I mentioned about Mnet’s cable reality show I Am a Model, is that they actually focus on the challenges and the stated purpose rather than highlighting interpersonal conflicts, which we see more in American faux-reality programming. (By the way, if you’re following I Am A Model on Imaginasian, it’s shaping up quite nicely. I dig that the pro models running the challenges, unlike Tyra, actually want their model-aspirants to succeed, and are frank about their business. I was actually pretty surprised that they would show one girl’s plastic surgery so honestly, although the actual procedure was so subtle that I could hardly tell the difference.) But then again, with the format so rigidly prescribed by the licensing company, maybe Project Runway Korea will just be more of the same. Which, granted, can be pretty decent as far as reality shows go.
You know, I’m not sure if it’s the choice of music, or the way the episodes are structured, or the loose feel of the plot, but there’s something about My Sweet Seoul that reminds me of Japanese shoujo anime. (Perhaps old-school shoujo; I haven’t watched any in years so I can’t be sure of the current trends.) Cute, short, sweet with romantic conflict that is on the brighter side of realistic; real problems, but not painted in overly serious tones.
I’ll admit to being skeptical when I heard that the cute, bubbly Moon Geun Young would be dressing as a man in the upcoming period drama The Painter of Wind on SBS, but as with Yoon Eun Hye in Coffee Prince, she’s made the transformation (appearance-wise) more credibly than I would have thought. The drama stars her as a woman who dresses a man to pursue painting (which women couldn’t do in Joseon times), whose mentor is played by Park Shin Yang.
