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East of Eden cuts budget even further

MBC’s East of Eden has already cut its budget once by lowering the actors’ salaries, but it’s further cutting its production budget. Originally planned as a 25 billion won project (approx. $19 million) for its 50 episodes, it is now curtailing that amount to 18 billion won ($14 million).

I wonder if the prodco is now kicking themselves for blowing a lot of their early money on overseas location shoots — Hong Kong, Macau, Japan. (They say no, but they have announced that they’ve nixed the foreign shoots from about four episodes, which will be filmed domestically instead.)

It’s rough times all around, y’all. We keep hearing about the slumping K-entertainment industry, which was on the decline even before this year’s massive global economic meltdown. As a result, lots of actors (Go Hyun-jung, Choi Ji-woo, Kwon Sang-woo, Song Seung-heon) are lowering their asking fees because the productions can no longer afford their astronomical rates. Pop goes the actor-salary bubble! (And those who don’t, like Park Shin-yang, are punished by being banned from dramas and/or not being nominated for a Daesang. Understandable, but a bit harsh since some of that is a result of retroactive resentment for contracts that were negotiated ages ago.)

Via Star News

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Still surprised that we haven't yet heard of an extension for the show, especially after the reworked budget. The revelation has come out, but East of Eden effectively has two storylines now, and the basis to do a romantic hexagon. Who will save poor Shin Tae Hwan?

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If they do extend beyond 50 I'm done with this show.

There's about 16 episodes left, a average drama run, imo there's no need to extend it. The two main plots are full swing now (revenge and the birth secret) once those are cleared up, hopefully without dragging it out more than it already has been do we get even more love angst? Like the revenge angle the love angst is already overplayed I can't tolerate much more of it.

Get them together or don't I no longer care.

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OMG, that's alot of money on one drama. Why is this drama so long? It's one of the main reason why I chose not to watch it.

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the same should be done in hollywood. but i don't think our demanding stars would like that xP

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"I wonder if the prodco is now kicking themselves for blowing a lot of their early money on overseas location shoots — Hong Kong, Macau, Japan. (They say no, but they have announced that they’ve nixed the foreign shoots from about four episodes, which will be filmed domestically instead.)"

East of Eden shooting has been kinda up and down. They switched writers, and there's been audience complaints about acting, plotting, etc. I'm just not sure how they're going to properly close this story with only 16 episodes left.

"the same should be done in hollywood. but i don’t think our demanding stars would like tha"

Hollywood actors do take less money if they actually love the material. Otherwise, the Coen brothers would never be able to afford Clooney or Pitt in their movies.

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e.x.t.e.n.s.i.o.n?! hell no....eoe is a gloriously longggg fashion show of pretty ppl pretending (extremely well) they r really acting and faking this IS some 'serious' drama that needs resolutions or proper closures... maybe that magnetic hole somewhere expanding will suck Shin and all us sinners in to his kinda haven next ep and spare us 15 more....

as for those initial 'extravagance' in Macau/HK/Japan, it annoyed me when they blatantly just squeezed in a few boring tiresome 'tourist' traps w/ no care/thought that those bldgs and roads were erected just yrs ago. if they went all the way to HK to film that stupid resto on the boat, that's said enough how 'serious' they r. Watch it for the 'shrill' and nonsensical 'drama', y bother w/ proper anything when the tone was set long ago?!

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I feel pretty strongly that East of Eden should run about 60 episodes if they want to smoothly tie up the storylines. With the way they've restructured the budget and taken their sweet time in developing the LDC/MHR courtship, it still looks like we'll see a mild extension. The fact that East of Eden has split up the storyline suggests they might still do that. Otherwise, it would have made more sense for Dong Chul and Dong Wook to actually be in the same storyline, working together to try and convict sweet Shinny. Right now, East of Eden kinda plays like a revenge switcheroo drama . . . with All In added on top of it. Like eating a slice of pizza wrapped around a Whopper. Well at least Song Seung Heon and Lee Dae Hae are getting some happy sexy time together. Kinda late though.

The main story of East of Eden doesn't really begin until Episode 28. If a person's watched the first 8 episodes or so, they can just skip right to the Episode 28 and it'll flow pretty smoothly and true to the original synopsis: the Lee Brothers learn what Becky did, and JR Ewing is fighting to maintain control of his ranch. Ilimae played like that too; the main story doesn't really start until Episode 8, and it flowed like a 24-episode show. Unfortunately, the show only had enough time to run 20 episodes, and the finale played like four episodes of climax and denouement, dehydrated into a "did he or didn't he?" shrug. I mean, really, WTH happened to Bong Soon all that time?!?

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they have to extend EOE! the story is still unfinish!
they still have to show the story on what happens after the truth would be revealed! that would like take 5-10 episodes? then, DONG CHUL and HYE RIN have to continue! they can't leave such promise out hanging? i mean, i was already fed up with all of the YR-DC scenes?! can't they take those away already?

hoping for a 10-20 episode extension!

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"then, DONG CHUL and HYE RIN have to continue! they can’t leave such promise out hanging? "

And that's the thing. Assuming the writers intended DC/MHR all along to be the feature couple, it wouldn't make sense to effectively devote almost equal time to depicting DC/YR and DC/MHR. And in the manner that they're doing in the story, the DC/MHR courtship is being developed almost separately from the main plot, not really integrated into it. The defunct location shoots in Japan and Macao would have almost NOTHING to do with the main storyline; it's mostly there to promote the DC/MHR romance. So, presumably, they let DC/MHR start so late and in this disjunctive direction because they intended the show to run past 50 episodes.

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if they cut the budgets, seems like there will be no extension for this drama. and i hope they dont too!! it took me so long to decide whether i should or not gonna watch this. it's 50, ok? i can watch 4 jdrama with these amount of time! and plus, if theyre going to extend for the sake of DCHR im gonna puke. it wont work since most general viewers were already touched and attached with DCYR love story.

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all i hope is that this drama ends successfully whether people like the pairing or not ..... it quite tuff these days everyone criticizes something in east of eden usually targettin the couples but no one realised which characters based on the storyline should stay together...Hopefully all this mess will clear up and EoE will be a money boom at the end of jan. :P

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plz no extension, and with the budget cut, it is highly unlikely that they will extend. and even if they do, its going to be really shoddy with such a low budget.

i am very much satisfied with DC+YR couple and the way their love was and is being portrayed. i now want to watch the unraveling of the birth secret. i dont want to have the show extended just so that DC+HR couple can develop like DC+YR did. i think one well developed love plot is enough for a drama like eoe. so plz..i say bring in the revenge and the betrayal, but no unnecessary extension to create another full fledged romance...

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The writers have the face up to their false advertisement and develop DC/HR. Why? Because it was the implied relationship in all of their press releases and story summaries and I know a lot of LDH fans tuned in to see the DC/HR storyline. And boy were they gypped! Instead we were confronted with a green and talentless actress who is the main female lead even though all the advertising made her seem like a small side character. So yes, to even out this injustice and to end the DC/YR never ending cycle of travesty, MBC should extend the series and deliver what was promised.

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The DC/MHR is one thing (and I'm okay with DC/YR being the feature couple), but the other problem is that the synopsis promises a rivalry between LDC and LDW. However, the show has LDC travelling around to absorb Tae Sung businesses. So, now, all you really have is Dong Wook vs. Shin Myung Hung, with maybe Dong Chul finding out in the last 4-5 episodes to cap off an orgy of "Hyun!! Dong Wook! Hyun!! Don Wook!!" to finish out the show.

There isn't sufficient time to develop the story where the Lee brothers can look back at being once brothers, before the truth came out, and after they became rivals, in love, business, whatever. And I thought that was the point of the show. There may not be enough time to develop how the parents relate to their biological sons. There may not be enough time to develop Ji Hyun into a front-and-center character caught in this terrible revelation (if Dong Wook became the heir, that also destroys Ji Hyun's ambitions for her son), while at the same time maintaining lead time for Min Hye Rin and Yoo Ran.

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Just to let you know Mike passed away in the coming episode
so where will this story lead to??

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