Open Thread #105
October 16th, 2009 // by javabeans
recapped series
linky
-
Users currently online:
Copyright © 2009 Dramabeans. Powered by Wordpress and Fastway 2.0.
Copyright © 2009 Dramabeans. Powered by Wordpress and Fastway 2.0.
Happy Friday everyone!
I’m enjoying holiday this week, finally I have time to watch some dramas. I haven’t started You’re Beautiful yet, but I will hopefully have some time tonight.
Btw, good choice of song, dramabeans. Fits my mood perfectly!
Have anyone seen IRIS? What did you think of it? Did LBH shine? @ the LBH fans, do I need a bucket to drool in when watching?
Open thread is finally open…
I saw IRIS..
It is absolutely awesome…I think it did justice to the hype and more than that…It kicks ass…Lee byung Hun is absolutely awesome….Actually everything and everyone in that show is awesome…It is like a way better version of Jason Boure’s story
If IRIS is badass and cool You are beautiful is just so sweet and nice and fluffy. Love both shows…Thanks to these two shows wednesdays and thursday just got so much better
Finally got on the You Are Beautiful bandwagon – absolutely love it!
ah, i think it’s not a good thing if every Open Thread I’m posting about earthquake….
but unfortunately we just got one this afternoon.
we were more calm this time, everybody just walked to the emergency stairs, and generally not panic.
anyway. I like the new variety show, Strong Heart! I wish there is someone who is subbing the entire show – not only for certain celebrity’s cut…
G-dragon and Seungri’s story is the most interesting, IMO.
Good morning! It’s very early Saturday morning here down down under.
I’m going down memory lane, rewatching MNIKSS for the nth time. OT104 discussion on this classic drama sparked my interest again (not that I ever lost it) to watch Kim Sam Soon.
I’ve also started to watch ‘The Sons of Sol Pharmacy’ and I am liking it.
I can see myself getting into the ‘when will you marry, son?’ stage in several years time. I only have one son to marry off, though.
I’ll watch it with keen observation, try to learn ‘how not to drive my son crazy’, just like what the Mum is doing in this drama.
fun … fun … fun …
I LOVE ‘YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL’!
Javabeans, you’re beautiful!
Mua mua mua!
Its KPOP Friday for me! I have tons of work but its being compensated by all kpop songs on my playlist. I’m so addicted to Kara’s Mister and Secret’s I Want You Back. Its always nice to sing along while doing work.
Been lacking sleep for 2 straight nights because of You’re Beautiful. By 11pm I’m waiting for the torrent and around 2am I’m already glued on my monitor, watching. Then be up again around 9am for work. It clearly shows that I’m so addicted to this drama. And with Jung Yong Hwa too! The ogling never stops! : )
@djes: Earthquake??? Where are you?
I think she’s in Phil or Indo, I’ve heard Phil has had a very big earthquake
anyway 9day! I’ve just finished Iris and it’s awesome. I think Kim Tae Hee does improves, just her eyes, I think they make it hard for her to express good emotion, they are just, sometimes, too big
LBH is pro as usual, the story line is unique, it’s getting more and more interesting
I also watched YAB, love JGS
hv a 9weekend, everyone!
Currently Airing Dramas?
I’m currently watching Smile You and Loving You 1000 Times.
Smile You is completely adorable and I’m already in love with the OTP.
Loving You 1000 Times is annoyingly like a US soap opera and took 8 episodes to get to the main story. Ugh. I don’t know if I’ll stick around for this.
I’m really excited for Creating Destiny and Iris, I’m just waiting for subtitles!
I’m not excited about You’re Beautiful. It just looks. . . kind of ridiculous. Maybe I’ll watch it later, after a while, after the hype goes down.
To the people here who watch Japanese crack (like Hana Kimi and Atashinchi no Danshi), how similar is You’re Beautiful to these dramas? The main reason I’m hesitant to watch is because I’m afraid the changes will be too severe from ridiculosity to seriousness. It’s really hard for a drama to get the right balance between silly and serious and I haven’t seen a k-drama do it right yet. And You’re Beautiful looks all kinds of silly, but knowing k-dramas, it’ll find a way to make it angsty soon. The only deciding factor is how well the transition is handled.
GoodMorning Everybody
First I would like to thank the Javabeanite who suggested BUZZER BEAT drama. I finished it and its awesome…. I would welcome other suggestions on these kind of dramas….any sweet syrupy happy ending love story will do…………………
Watched the first episode of Iris yesterday. I caved an watched it on viikii. But in the future (because I love it so much) I’ll be downloading the subs from WITH S2 and finding the raws well where ever they are.
I’m late for chem, so I’ll definitely be back later.
@10: I completely disagree about Loving You 1000 Times. I don’t think its like a soap opera and I’m only on episode five. I think its going at the pace that it should be going. But that’s my opinion.
@mishane
IMO. You’re Beautiful is way way different from Hana Kimi or the over the top Atashinchi no Danshi.
@mishane. I think there is a real difference between crackastic dramas like hanakimi or atashinchi no danshi and you’re beautiful. There are really hilarious moments in the last one, as DB has pointed in her recaps( I’m thinking about the parodies in ep 3 for example) , but I think the story will turn “serious” or at least will have angsty tones. It’s already apparent though, with the protagonists’ familial issues. I can’t vouch for the coming episodes, but I’m sure (or I hope lol) it will be less silly than the japanese dramas you mentioned. Just give it a try, it’s a really nice and entertaining story.
@ 12 Reese
Maybe that’s because I watched 8 episodes in a row. The 8th episode is when the real meat of the story comes in, when it ’settles’, at least IMO.
And the reason I call it soap-opera-ish is because of the music!
US Soap Operas are known for the cheesy background music, overacting and dramatic closeups.
Loving You 1000 Times has horrible background music. In a serious scene, it’ll slowly creep up and I once literally LOL’d during Evil Mom/Daughter scene because it was soooo dramatic. The acting isn’t bad but I sometimes do notice the dramatic closeups.
But k-dramas are known to be a little soap opera-ish anyways, with the storylines. Come on! Amnesia, missing babies, lost siblings, evil parents? The good thing about k-dramas is they probably get more of a budget than US soap operas and are able to make their dramas shiny and pretty. And addictive.
@8 Peeps : I’m in Indonesia..
Currently airing serial that I watch : You’re Beautiful and Iris – without sub.
But thanks for Javabeans’ recaps, at least I can understand the story.
Other dramas that I’m currently watching : Dream, The Son of Sol Pharmacy.
The subber of Tamra said that she won’t continue to sub it…..:( And I don’t like to watch it on Viikii…. does anyone know where i can get the soft subtitles? I’ve downloaded the raw videos.
Wednesdays and Thursdays are now my favorite days; Thank you IRIS and You are Beautiful
First IRIS – I was worried about this drama in the beginning. Big budgets and star studded casts arent always a recipe for excellence. However, some how some way, they proved me wrong….for now. The scenes in ep 1 and 2 are wonderfully directed. The acting is strong and even Kim Tae Hae is doing a good job. LBH totally owns every scene and JJM is playing the supporting quite well.
You are beautiful – It has become my guilty pleasure. It brings out the fan girl in me and the wait for episodes is painful. The plot so far has been great, I hope that it stays that way and does not veer off to the realm of confusing or dissapointing drama’s like others before it (*cough, triple*….dont get me wrong, I still enjoyed it but it’s potential was wasted).
Its friday, so I have 1, 2….ahh 5 long days till my favorite week days come around.
Great choice for a song on a Friday!!!
@Reese
You better hurry and download IRIS from d-addicts torrents. Too many leechers are pulling out quickly and there few seeders for all the demand. I’m waiting for the subs. I’ve waited so long for this drama that I don’t mind waiting a little longer for good quality video and subs.
Have a nice weekend all !
Indo right? Hope with all these earthquakes, you people are okay. Anyway, it’s KPOP madness right now. SHINee – RING DING DONG and Taeyang Where U At!
Happy Friday!
Man this week was a really hectic one. But YB and IRIS made up for it
Thanks to JB for her awesome YB recaps. I really hope YB continues this trend and doesn’t try to get too ridiculous. As much as i love angst, my favorite parts have to the be the dream sequences and parodies. The imaginations of the A.N.JELL members and the manager are toooo hilarious!!
As for IRIS…LBH is one yum yum man… KTH is super pretty though her acting is a bit…flat. i haven’t watched anything of hers before, so i have nothing to compare against, but i hope she improves! excited for TOP to show up in the next episode. i have only recently started liking him and boy looks pretty damn good in the screencaps i’ve seen… but… it’s all about LBH for me ha!
Looking forward to another hectic day before my weekend can start. sighs.
@ #2, me too, I have watched IRIS. Wow!! It is so cool for a drama!! ^^ Also, the scriptwritter is touching on a very sensitive assisnation of the North!! Wow!! This really caught me in surprise.
Only if I knew I it was filming at Budapest, I would have check them up over a weekend, since it is only 3 hours drive away from where I lived.
Dramabeans: Are you going to do any recap of IRIS?
I think I might be the only person who wasn’t enthralled with the first episode of IRIS lol. The first ten minutes were awesome, and then the flashback just kind of bored me. Like, it just didn’t need to be that long. BUT I’m going to try the second episode, and I hope I will like it better. I REALLY want to–I’m usually a sucker for spy stories.
I’ve got a little story. So about a month ago Paula253 mentioned that there was KBS World in Seattle, and I freaked out and got it, because I had no idea there was such a thing here. Since then, it’s been on all the time, but I’ve really made an effort to watch Sol Pharmacy and 1N2D on the weekends. My father, of all people, has gotten hooked. OMG. My lovely, adoring father is the WHITEST person I know. Picture Greg Kinnear in Little Miss Sunshine…that’s his daily uniform. Add in a spash of Ugly American and the nerd version of aviator glasses, and you’ve got my poppa.
He tried to deny his love for the shows at first, but when he asked me if Bokshil had forgiven DaePung for his latest blunder, I knew he was hooked. 1N2D concerns him a little bit though–he gets really upset whenever someone is denied food for the night. I asked him if he realized that all the guys were celebrities, and thus, not going to starve to death, and he said, “oh, I assumed they were homeless.” ROFL.
Now off of the kdrama hiatus!!! Yay – I made it an entire month and a half!!!
I am dying, dying, to watch IRIS!!! I thought for sure there would be a recap here-can anyone give me recap, point me to a recap, to tide me over until the subs come out???
As for You’re Beautiful – I’m watching when I can. Cute, but not so addictive that I have to watch it as soon as it comes out. The female lead pouts so much that its distracting – how can anyone, even someone as dense as Jeremy, believe she’s a he??? I would like to see the wrap up or the reunion of the twins though – I hope they make it interesting and loving instead of angsty or jealousy driven. Hongki is surprisingly cute and innocent as Jeremy.
Can I also note here, for the record, I only like eye liner on TOP. It just looks wrong on other guys.
I’m finishing Swallow the Sun, which I started before my hiatus and I have to say, watching it with a fresh mind, not trying to compare it to All In, makes the story so much better. I wasn’t a huge fan of All In – I only watched it for the LBH-candy, so this story is much better for me. I will also say that Sung Yuri has continuously improved in her acting. I’ve watched 1st Love of a Prince, Snow Queen, Hong Gil, and now Swallow the Sun and you can see the difference. Is she the best – no way. But I definitely give her major kudos for improving on each drama. I think working on different dramas, different directors & casts has helped her improve. One day, I’d really like to see her play a role that’s really dark…
@10, mishane
I personally can’t stay away from YB; I think I’ve watched every episode at least 3 times. It is absolutely delightful!
I’ve watched the first ep of IRIS and it’s very good; you can definitely tell the budget for this drama is HUGE. It doesn’t even seem like a drama at all; it’s a big budget action movie in disguise. KTH didn’t bother me too much in the first ep because her flat delivery kind of works for her role as a mysterious secret agent. She’s not supposed to reveal too much of herself, so in that sense I think she’s doing just fine. I reserve the right to hate on her full strength should that change in the future, since we really haven’t gotten to anything too emotional from her character yet.
LBH is, of course, the most splendid badass ever. And unexpectedly cute and goofy, too!
I’m watching Golden Era of Daughter-in-Law and I’m wondering what exactly they teach in home-ec classes in Korea because it seems like every Korean guy knows how to fix a woman’s shoe when the heel breaks off!
this just in…mark zhao won best actor at the golden bell awards. a complete surprise, but maybe the judges wanted to encourage him?
still upset that my husband show luo didnt win, but alas..there’s always next year! shanghai sweetheart (hai pai tian xin) fighting!!!
I’m downloading IRIS right now, literally shaking of excitement. 16% finished!
I wonder If I can restrain myself from watching it raw….
Where do you guys watch YB? I’m not even gonna try viikii, their videos always fail to download. I’m not in the mood for waiting either…
@4 djes so many earthquakes this year! glad you’re okay!
Happy friday!!! Can’t wait to go home and watch episode 4 of You’re Beautiful. I’m loving it so far. At this point, i don’t think it’s as addictive as previous Hong sisters dramas, Delightful Girl Chunhyang, My Girl, and Hong Gil Dong…but it’s
much better than Fantasy Couple (which was pretty good too but lacked sparkle). And the mommy-issues scenes really touched me and got me tearing up. Even though there is a lot of cracktastic fun in there and some moments where you roll your eyes…for me and maybe for others too, I can’t help but always remember why Mi-Nyeo is doing this and then assume that Taekyung is trying to get his mother’s attention too. =*( I have a weakness for characters with abandonment issues.
@10 mishane
so far you’re beautiful is pretty good at transitioning between comedy and drama within each episode, but it’s too early to tell how it will transition as the series goes on…i.e will it be like My Girl and Hong Gil Dong where it was very light for the first 3/4s of the drama and then turn sort angsty?
You’re beautiful ROCKS!!!
ADDICTTED SO VERY TOTALLY.
In anticipation of the YB subs (I knew I had to take drastic action when I started refreshing the WithS2 page every few minutes – even though it wasn’t all that hopeless since I would click on ads while doing so!) I started scouring my hard-drive for old dramas that I might want to rewatch. And I found the first episode of Feelings, which I downloaded months ago.
And wow, was the first episode addicting. I was hesitant to watch it at first because the description spelled, “unrequited-love” and “angst” and other such emo topics which tend to get overblown in the drama-world. But Lee Jung-Jae’s face is so handsome and cute when being ‘angsty’ and the humour and easy plot made the angst…. not angsty. It was a really delightful drama to watch, and I marathon’d it within two days! Son Ji Chang, Kim Min Jong, and Lee Jung Jae captured my heart as the three lovable brothers. No matter what issues they had with each other or what problems they faced… they were *brothers*. And they acted as so. None of the, “You *may* like the same girl as me so I’m going to backstab you and secretly plan out the demise of your academic, career, and relationship life” which a lot of kdramas feature.
And, uh, I am such a sucker for bromance ~ which this has a lot of.
I really had no idea why what was the attraction with Woo Hee Jin, as Yuri, though. She… had long hair? Was that it? She even cut it off for the last half of the drama. *scratches head in puzzlement*. Disregarding her, I loved all the characters and the plot and the humour and everything about this drama ^^
~~
Is anyone following Kpop here? The new Kangin-scandal makes me cringe. His apology, though touching, does not hit the right notes at all. Drinking and driving, crashing into a taxi, and then making it into a hit-and-run? Uh…. there is no way to defend that. And he doesn’t even apologize for his actions – he apologizes for the scandal it caused and how much this would hurt his other SuJu members. Like, what in the world? And now his phrasing is making fans think that he may leave SuJu…
~~
Happy Diwali to all who celebrate it! And Happy Friday to everyone else ^__^
IRIS = divine viewing pleasure of divine LBH!!! <3
Got done with Ep 1 of IRIS, and totally savored every single moment with LBH on screen. He's all hot, sexy, cute, adorable and funny in one package. I'd do anything to be in KTH's place damn.
I watched the ep via viikii, and it lagged a bit here and there. So I didn't get to fully appreciate the direction. But story-wise, it's quite interesting and engaging, albeit a bit predictable.. Acting, the guys were great. KTH, not a fan of her acting, but I think she's improved a BIT? Still sensed some stiffness in her expressions…but it wasn't as bad as before. Hopefully with LBH around, she'll ease around and become more natural.
I really don't want to spoil you guys here..
But I figure more hotness won't harm?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXkxlRlhGOk
@27 annieee – ooh my mark won the golden bell for best actor?? yay!
what was show nominated for? i haven’t been following tw dramas very much lately, and the last thing i remember him in was hot shot, which i never finished.
@kaynn – the only place i’m watching YB right now is viikii – it’s not too bad? sometimes the links break but when it’s working, it actually loads really fast. i am also DL the series on d-addicts but i don’t believe the softsubs are available yet.
I saw the first half hour of Iris. I thought the action part was totally awesome. But then, they JUST had to go down the memory lane to describe the relationship between LBH, KTH, and JJH. Not subtle at all, come on! I was in the midst of watching ‘college guy LBH’ woo ‘college girl KTH’ when I fell asleep last night.
Gawd, more of the interesting character, please! Kim Soyeon, Kim Seungwoo, etc!
I am downloading the first episode of Iris now and I’ll have to download the second when I get home for the weekend; almost at 4%. I don’t like torrent, but if I am forced to use it for Iris then so be it.
@ lovenyc52 and annieee
“mark zhao won best actor at the golden bell awards. a complete surprise, but maybe the judges wanted to encourage him”
WAH!!! lovenyc52, Mark was nominated for Black & White, of course! And so was Vic. This is completely out of left field for me – IMO, Vic had the beefier role, the more nuanced performance, and was long overdue – all signs pointed to Vic, or pointed to Vic and Mark cancelling each other out. I’m going have to say – Mark must have won for the hottest sex scene in a T-drama EVER, cuz otherwise, I’m not sure where the Golden Bell Drama King crown was won.
I’m shocked….Mark should have been given the Best Newcomer Award. Oh wells, onwards to next year.
@ lovenyc52 and ockoala
show was indeed nominated for his role in hot shot, which was a big breakthrough, considering the role was more comedic, rather than the typical serious ones.
not sure what to think of mark zhao, since i havent watched black and white. but i always thought it was unlikely he would win since he’s a newbie. some ppl are saying that he won b/c of his father, which is kinda mean….but congrats to him. in the meantime, i’ll be looking forward to watching shanghai sweetheart.
@ 23 gallivanter, I’m totally with you on IRIS ep1. It was very predictable for me. BUT ep2 improved, It’s much tighter in writing, and made good use of the budget. Somehow it reminds me of the quality I was expecting the Kimutaku vehicle Mr Brain should be, but failed and disappointed me miserably in the writing. I still wasn’t wowed completely, but I was not underwhelmed one moment either.
@10 mishane, YB is in a league of its own compared to the Jcrack u mentioned. Those r pure silliness. This one grounded itself quite well. Not that u don’t need to leave your brain and logic behind, but it’s well written and well acted. imho, it’s not overrated considering the hype, it’s just that good….esp if u r in the mood of crack.
Happy Friday everybody!
@31 meh – ya i just read the kangin news… terrible. i mean, we all make mistakes, but this one put others in danger you know? his barfight i couldn’t care less about cuz he’s just a kid being a kid..but drunk driving is just dumb. and then to run away from it? that’s just even dumber. i really hope he can overcome this though and truly reform. i don’t wish him any harm, i don’t want him to leave the group or korea or whatever… i just hope he realizes this is more than just a ’scandal’ for suju and SME, but that he really could have killed someone. he’s lucky nobody was hurt this time around.
re: kpop news in general. september really sucked. october isn’t looking any better. can’t we go back to say…may? may was a good month, right lb_tmi??!?!
@ockoala – haha i know mark was nominated for B&W silly. i was asking annieee what show Show Luo was nominated for lol… damn him for having a confusing name!!
mark … so hot.. so so hot.
@annieee – you should totally watch B&W. it really is my favorite tw drama of all time now. totally atypical in the tw drama world and so so so good!!! you’ll love mark and vic both… their bromance is spectacular.
@37 mookie
PHEW. I’m more relieved now. I really do want to like this series, so I’ll look forward to watching the second episode later today.
Has anyone watched a good Japanese or Taiwanese drama recently? I feel like I’ve seen most of the popular “mainstream” ones, but I’m in the mood for something else…even though my schedule is more than full with Kdramas right now ><
Happy Friday and Happy Diwali (to anyone who celebrates it)!
@ockoala
I agree…I also feel like Vic deserved the golden bell for best actor, especially since it was probably one of his best performances ever. Mark Zhao was great as well…but wasn’t this his first drama…shouldn’t he get the best newcomer award? Who got the best newcomer then?
I had taken a break from dramas for the past few weeks…well mostly…I watched the first two episodes of Smile, You (I’m holding my judgement on this) and then watched the first episode of You’re Beautiful (and totally loved it!) but school has kept me way too busy to really keep up. But I might have the chance to catchup this weekend!
Couple of weeks ago in getting ready for watching YB, I re-watched the ending to Delightful Girl Chun-yang (another great Hong Sisters’ drama)…::sigh:: I miss Jae Hee….another year….only another year…And I miss Uhm Tae Woong because his role in QSD doesn’t count. The role of Yushin really doesn’t give UTW to shine at all. People watching QSD, is it worth it to continue? Does Yoo Seung-ho make any difference to the plot, as in is it getting interesting? I stopped watching this around ep 31 or 32…even Bidam couldn’t stop me
@Meh
Kangin needs to go to jail or something. Drunk driving is indefensible. There’s no excuse at all. He was lucky no one was hurt including himself. Just because he is an idol doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be punished. I know he is going through a hard time because of the bar fight but the people he truly hurt are his fans and himself.
—-
I’m addicted to YB. So addicted. This hasn’t happened since Nodame Cantabile.
I love the current season of kdramas now!
compared with the period down to brilliant legacy where no dramas could steal my interest & i’m bored like hell, i’m now not having enough of free times LOL
3 dramas i’m following right now: Smile, you, IRIS, You’re beautiful.
3 perfectly different type of dramas. i dont know which one i love more but
right now, i’m loading IRIS Eng-sub Ep2, cant wait for tomorrow’s Smile,you, YB EP4 after that. i think i’m less addictive to YB compared with the other two then. well, i still love them all.
btw,
@23 gallivanter – i’m thinking did you watch IRIS raw or with subs?
its just when i first watched IRIS Ep1 raw where i couldnt understand anythin, my impression of it: cool, not so bad~
i enjoyed the beginning a lot with all the action & cool camera works, effects etc. but when it got to the flashback, i wasnt able to enjoy it that much. i dont know if i did felt bored but i just didnt get everything that happen. it was like so fast pace/not very smooth to me with the two guys suddenly so attracted to the girl etc.
BUT when i watched it with subs, hell no, the flashback is really hilarious to me. i mean i felt bored before during the lecture scene of KTH & LBH and their drinking scene bcoz i couldnt understand anything. but these scenes were funny actually LOL. my impression of this Ep after watching with subs: AWESOME! i want more~!
but if you did watch it with subs, then, dont mind me LOL =P. its just what i felt.^^
my suggestion though, to anyone who plan to try IRIS, please watch the subbed one. if you cant wait, find the subbed Eps on vikii. it come out one day after airing.
@ 33 deeta,
LOL! i know. when i first watch it raw, after some time during the flashback one thought pop up in my mind ‘hey, am i watching an action spy drama here?’, just then they kicks in the suspense and end it leaving me speechless. love the ending very much.
and btw, seering some B&W being mentioned here, urge me to say, I love this drama too! atypical idol twdrama among what i’ve seen. its awesome.
is anyone going to the Asian Film Festival in San Diego?
re : Kang In’s incident…I guess he was really stress out.
His fight’s case hasn’t finished yet, and he got into another problem?
I thought those idol boys have strict regulations from the management company?
( remember 2PM boys wanted to run from the dorm on Wild Bunny’s episode? or Big Bang older members who wanted to escape to get some vacation? )
Why Kang In could be going out and drinking, and driving his own car, alone?
But what amused me the most is the fans’ reactions. How they will defend their idol, and they’re able to find excuses for their idols’ actions…..that’s amazing.
Kangin’s apology smacks of insincerity. People are comparing this to Jaebum’s situation, but to me, they’re hugely different.
Jaebum’s situation to be honest, hurt no one except himself mostly, and maybe to a small extent JYP and his fellow members. He did not endanger other people lives.
I like Kangin, but I find it sickening that some fans can go “Poor Kangin.” Yes, poor Kangin, he’s in a self destructive mode and I wonder why, but what he did was so wrong, and he’s lucky he didn’t kill someone.
And really, I wonder if this will have the netizens in a rage like the Jaebum affair. If not what does this say? A guy says some words about a country gets drummed out of it, whereas another guy does a HIT and RUN accident and issues an apology and thats it?
@ 42 Lisa
Agreed. But why am I getting this niggling thought in the back of my head that he’s going to get off with just a ton of community service? I have no clue how the courts work in Korea, and I’m thinking this will have a much harsher penalty than JaeJoong’s DUI.
@45 djes
I haven’t seen any fans defending his actions, through the cyberweb. Most are just saying, ‘we will be there for you, when you make it through this mess alive’. I’m pretty sure that most people wouldn’t be ignorant enough to think that drunk driving is okay – under any conditions. Where are you reading the fans’ reactions? I want to take a look ~
@ 46 jamiguo
The apology would probably just be the start of the whole incident… I’m thinking – court dates, suspension of his activities, and finally a court sentence of either comm. service or jail-time.
Question: does anyone know/remember the drama & can tell me if its any good about the guy who lost his fiancee and found a notebook where she directs him to take a walk along a path where he meets a woman who was directed to walk along the same path by the fiancee as well?
@lovenyc52
i actually wanted to watch black and white, esp after hearing so many good things about it, including on friday OT lol. and i was totally willing to give it a shot, considering how diff it is from the usual tw idol drama (and i love me some bromanceee), but it’s a very sad fact that theres only 24 hours in a day and i’m still in college worrying over schoolwork. im definitely going to check out b&w during one of my school breaks or smth. sigh…the list of dramas i need to watch just keeps getting bigger and bigger..
I am crazily addicted to You’re Beautiful.
It is one of 2 dramas that brings out the fangirlness in me.
The first was BOF, and this is the second.
I cannot get over SHIN-WOO!!!!
<3 I love all of them though
I can't WAIT till next week
I'm still contemplating on wheter i should watch IRIS…
should I??
any other suggestions on what else i should watch?
I LOVE you’re beautiful!!
SHIN-WOO <3
I love the other's too though.
This is the only drama ( other than BOF ) that brings the fangirlness out of me… maybe
I love it, and I can't wait till next week
IRIS… should I watch it?
Any other suggestions on Korean Drama's to watch??
@41 Taohua
QSD!!! I'm still wathcing it, and i LOVE LOVE it!!!!
Yoo Seung Ho is like so hot <3 and it's okay to say that cause i'm 16 too. haha
Bidam is also worth watching it. It's so cute and sad how he like Deokman
T.T My fall break is over now. I have to go back to school on monday
I really want to know what Kangin will get for punishment…It’s just unbelievable…fans are still saying ‘he had bad luck’ or pitying him..ridiculous!
You can’t say sth. like that when he obviously ran away. okay he came back but 6 HOURS are a long time…
and to compare jaebeom’s case with kangin’s is also ridiculous…come on
Kangin beat people, drank and drove and than he ran away…all jaebeom did was posting a comment on myspace…seems just unbelievable to me…Jay leaving Korea and with Kangin…we’ll see..
I absolutely LOVE YB! It’s just cute not over-the-top and A LOT better than e.g. Atashinchhi no Danshi which was..meh…watchable but nothing compared to YB…
I also began to watch B&W again…and i love it…! It’s different from the typical TDrama! I seriously love Mark as Ying Xiong..right now I’m watching ep 8…Ying Xiong getting beat by Chen Lin.
@ 40 gallivanter: If you haven’t watched it already..Black and White!
@23 gallivanter
Thank you! Your story about your father made me laugh for the first time this week! So precious.
As for dramas, I’ve been focusing mostly on American tv of late (Bones, Glee, Eastwick [yea, i know - but it's my guilty pleasure!], So You Think You Can Dance, Dollhouse…). But now it looks like kdramas are on the upswing again… that is very very very bad news for my academics. And I have to write a thesis this year… woot! ah well. I was thinking about changing my major so that I can write a thesis on kdramas… I’m kidding, almost.
Happy Friday, everyone!
Sounds like IRIS is a hit! I’ve vowed to wait until it ends to start watching as with all addictions I can’t handle the waiting for episodes to air. Just started Son of Pharmacy House with 54 episodes to keep me busy!
You’re Beautiful I’ll put on my maybe watch list and looking forward to Hero. 2009 seems to be ending on a drama high note!
Have a great weekend everyone!!
Another update:
Black & White just won for Best Drama of 2009 in the Golden Bell Awards, with the director taking best director honors. Together with Mark, B&W swept the major categories it was nominated for. Considering none of the ladies were nominated (not surprising), it’s clear the weak link in B&W was the ladies, but overall – the drama is fast, entertaining, and light years ahead of its t-drama counterparts.
Most enjoyable t-drama for me in years. Sniff…my poor Vic….langdon must have been sending subliminal votes for Mark to the voting committee.
Or else Mark’s cute face and abs of thunder dazzled everyone senseless. Congrats to Mark nonetheless, I think its much suckier for him to win, cuz he’ll forever be known as a Golden Bell Drama King, and every project he does thereafter will be scrutinized and critiqued to that standard. And the boy has done ONE project so far, whoa the expectations. I worry it’ll be a YEH redux….
Happily, his next project is with Ethan Ruan, and I think he’ll do just fine.
WHOA…Ep 2 of IRIS!
Hmmm…am I watching Lee Byung-heon or Jo In-sung? I was a little confused for a minute there…
@53, ockoala
That’s so great about all the awards for B & W. I wish Vic had gotten Best Actor but Mark did a great job as well. I’m just glad they didn’t cancel each other out!
Hot blood just popped up on ViiKii. Anyone watched it yet?
@ 54 langdon-unni
‘am I watching Lee Byung-heon or Jo In-sung”
Does it matter? Eye-candy is nutritiously yummy.
@56, ockoala
Let me just state, FOR THE RECORD, that if at any time I ever find myself with any two of these three things at hand:
1) LBH
2) JIS
3) a wall
I would be a very happy woman.
Wow I actually got to this thread before 100 comments..nice
So I’m enjoying the drama landscape these days. You’re Beautiful is like crack and Smile, You is a really cute drama I like. First eppy of IRIS was not too shabby either. Let’s keep the good times rolling
@43 Fiey
I did watch it with subs, and the drinking scene was cute. I don’t know, I think I just wasn’t expecting the flashback to be the entire episode. I’m definitely not turned off the series, but it just wasn’t what I expected…?
@ 50 summerrain
OKAY. You and everyone here wins. I’m going to try watching B&W. I’m hesitant because I wasn’t crazy about Meteor Shower, and Vic in general (blasphemy, I know!) But, everyone here was so right about 9E2O that I’ve got to be open minded. Thanks for the recc : )
Such a great week for drama lovers!!! I’m so awed w/ IRIS!!! it’s always been a “priviledge” to watch his movies & dramas…totally gripping…just awesome!!!
You’re Beautiful is FUN,great humor & slapstick-style comedy Hong sisters forte!!! Heading To The Ground… find it interesting enough to follow through…
Smile, You is kinda interesting…
Creating Destiny is nice too, except for Eugene’s leading man…
Assorted Gems is more my style cuz of the handsome couples…
Can’t Stop Now, I’ve stopped watching altogether…
@ockoala –
“…mark’s cute face and abs of thunder dazzled everyone senseless”
LOL!!!!!! yes. now i want to rewatch B&W… he was so delish. i really do hope that the critics don’t judge him too harshly after this. after all B&W is really a unique drama mark really did get lucky that he got such an awesome script and directing for his first time.
@langdon813 – HAHA!! you’re too funny!! i’d be happy with LBH, 2PM, and a room with no doors.
@55 Toya – i have not yet watched Hot Blood… i want to cuz i love OneDay to bits and pieces but i don’t know how much I can take of it. I watch random cuts of the funny parts and of their guerilla concert but that’s it. i don’t think i could handle watching them run till they throw up.
@ 59 gallivanter
” I wasn’t crazy about Meteor Shower, and Vic in general (blasphemy, I know!) ”
No blasphemy from me – I abhor Meteor Garden (which is what you are referring to, I’m assuming, the t-drama version of Hana Yori Dango – Meteor Shower is the mainland version), and everyone in it, including Vic. Never a Vic fan, UNTIL Black & White. I love Vic in B&W, he’s awesome with a side of sleazy, and Mark is a hot-blooded righteousness personified hotness. B&W is unlike any other t-drama you’ve ever seen, so rest assured, it’s not MG redux.
@ langdon
I’ll take the Good and the Bad in an alternate universe where I’m the only lady alive and they the only men, and watch them fight over me, mwah ha ha ha~ (psst, I’m secretly hoping the Good wins, cuz he seems like the more ready to settle down type).
I am in kdrama heaven right now, watching:
– Smile, You and Loving You 1000 times on my own (guilty pleasures).
– You’re Beautiful with two of my teenage daughters (they fangirl, so I don’t have to, LOL)
– City Hall, for the umpteenth time but this time with my husband. He’s really, really enjoying it and it’s always great to find that someone else loves something as much as you do.
Next up, I want to add Hero to the mix, and I am thinking that IRIS may be a good choice for the next drama to share with my husband; we both like spy stories with big budgets and lots of action.
Holy moly, I just watched Iris’s kiss scene and dang, LBH knows how to smooch his way to a delicious kiss scene.
My stomach literally skipped.
@63 skelly –
watching … You’re Beautiful with two of my teenage daughters (they fangirl, so I don’t have to, LOL)
I nominate this for the Dramabeans 2009 Belleza Award, for the most chucklesome comment on an open thread. =)
This is why Open Threads are so much fun – <3 Open Threads!
Gasp! Where is the Meteor Garden love?
When Dao Ming Si and Shan Cai are separated by the locked door because of his evil heinous witch of a mother and his hands are bloody because he’s been trying to get out of the room and plus he’s been starving himself for days and now is so weak he can’t stand up and he says he doesn’t want to think about them breaking up and how they will definitely be together and how he misses her and he cries and I die but yet still marvel at the fact that his hair is freaking perfect throughout the whole ordeal???
I hate having to stick around campus till 6pm just because I have no ride home on Fridays and I have to wait for my mom to get out of work. Its a Friday! I don’t want to be stuck on campus that long.
Iris eps 1 and 2 are presently downloaded. I just need the subs. I can wait though, which is good. I have movies (Overheard with Daniel Wu) and I can always watch up to ep 12/13 of Living You 1000 Times on Viikii though I’d rather not. But I probably will.
@Mishane: Okay, now I can see how you would call it a soap opera. I skipped from episode 5 to 8. The music definitely is soap opera worthy and cliche factor is ridiculous, but I have never actually watched a drama where there was a surrogacy. I just want everything to work out and for the two leads to end up together and stay together (same for the older brother and sister in law). But I feel like that won’t happen.
@65 samsooki,
-gasp – The Belleza Award! They like me, they really like me! Now if I could only learn how to “squee” properly…
@66 langdon813,
Was this before or after the tragic onset of amnesia, when our hero, in blissful ignorance, began a new life with a new love while forgotten Shan Cai could only watch in misery from afar, a single forlorn tear tracking down her pale cheek? Oh, the inhumanity!
@50 summerrain,
If I am in kdrama heaven. I am also in kpop hell. I only like the boy bands (I have three singing teenage divas of my own, I don’t need to import any) and it seems that as soon as I get interested in them something horrible happens. I have no sympathy for Kang-In’s shenanigans but the whole Jaebom mess has just left me sick at heart. Rain’s new group has piqued my interest but I am afraid to show too much interest lest I somehow curse them.
I know that most people dismiss Meteor Garden, and they have A LOT of reasons to. (much too long and thin in some parts) But, there were some really great moments in the drama, like the door scene langdon813 mentions. My favorite was the seperation scene where Shan cai starts crying and lets the rain cover her tears(cliche!!!), the cookie scenes, the forced fiancee scenes. There were moments of niceness in that weird mess.
@gallivanter,
needless to say i am OTF (on the floor) reading your story. Who knew what my casual mention of KO-AM would lead to? ^^ Now i’m imagining you and your dad featured on a KBS news story, showing how American families are brought closer together watching their programming. kekeke. LMAO that your dad thought the guys on 2D1N were homeless!!
are you (and your dad ^^) watching MFL now that it’s begun on KOAM, or did you give up? Looking forward to I.R.I.S. — it’s hard to read all the drool, er comments about it, but i will wait to watch on the “big” screen.
@ langdon813
coughed up some oatmeal at your “two out of three” comment!!
Hei there… I rarely post anything on open thread but…. today somehow i want too.
About Kangin.. I really don’t know what to think. For me the barfight thing can be forgiven as he is young and hot blooded. I mean who can just walk away from it if someone just started a fight with you. Even if you did tried to walk away but if they just don’t leave alone.
However, this new incident of his is CANNOT be FORGIVEN. I mean he was not only drunk when we was driving and hit someone’s car but he was also running away from the place. He should be thankful that no one was hurt or it will make the matter worst. In my opinion, he should be put in jail or do community service. He can’t just be forgiven just because he is an idol.
Kangin incident cannot be compared to jaeBeom. What happened to Jay was misunderstanding. People just don’t get what he meant and he was just a young man in a foreign country without his family. Really hope Jay will comeback to 2PM.
I had watched You’re beautiful and it is awesome. Im loving each of the episode. i did not even feel this way when I was watching BOF. Its cute in its own way. The way they turned the story, i really did not expect that.. lol
About Iris….. i was really waiting to watch it. I agreed that it is good but somehow i just can’t really get into it. maybe because it is an action drama. Gonna try to continue watching it thou and see how it goes. Hope it grows on me..
@69, skelly
Yeah…even I can’t defend the black hole of suck that was MG II. In my defense, I watched Meteor Garden long before I ever watched a K-drama. But I loved it, I can’t lie.
You know what comparing any other country’s dramas to K-dramas is like, for me? When I was 11 years old I had my eyes checked for the first time and found out I was profoundly nearsighted. I’ll never forget going outside with my glasses on for the first time and being absolutely amazed at what leaves really looked like, or going back to school and seeing chalk dust on a chalkboard. I could see before, but I couldn’t SEE before, if that makes any sense.
That’s what K-dramas are for me now; it will take something REALLY special, like Black & White, to get me to watch anything else.
@ paula253
Ha, I’m glad I could give you a laugh. My father even went to his Korean-American doctor this week and they apparently spent the hour talking about Kang HoDong. He was SO surprised that a)he’s (still) famous and b)he’s got more than one show and c)it’s one of the most watched programs in Korea.
I gave up watch MFL from the Korea broadcast on the internet, but I might try to finish it when it gets that episode on KOAM. My father hasn’t quite figured out that there is more than one miniseries at a time, but I bet he would get caught up with MFL if he saw it.
Happy friday! Did anyone realise that Bokshil/Jennifer’s house is the same house as Chae Do Woo’s house in SOAM? wowwww i’m slow!
Haven’t gotten down to IRIS! sounds like a bunch of yummy awesomenesss, seeing all the comments here. Let the good drama times roll!
Mark Chao (Zhao) won?!! YYYeee!!! I love this guy! He is so awesome in B&W! He is as hot as Vic Zhou!
I loved Black and White! am glad it won as the best drama! It is one of the very few taiwanese drama that i really watched out for!
Right now, am addicted to You’re Beautiful…
and I just watched IRIS… love it! My! it even got the top ratings!
am waiting for HERO….
So far I’m really enjoying IRIS. It is so different from any other K drama that I’ve seen. Hopefully it will do for Kdrama what Black &White did for TW dramas, which is basicaly blow them out of the water. They have spent a lot of money on this and it shows. It’s early yet but some of that money may have been actually used on writers. The only snarky thing that I have to say about the first two episodes was that if I was JJH and knew that I had shirtless scene with LBH it might have been a good idea to do a few extra crunches and maybe spend a little time in a tanning bed. Sorry, I’m just shallow that way.
*munching on late lunch…ahh early dinner*
while giggling at langdon’s comment on MG, and IRIS (and its hot guys) and Gallivanter’s father (lol! i salute him!) ^-^
am a vic zhou fan, so I was a MG1 fanatic… lol!
But now… i kinda love Mark Chao more…hehe …
@ 74 pongs “Did anyone realise that Bokshil/Jennifer’s house is the same house as Chae Do Woo’s house in SOAM? wowwww i’m slow! ”
good one! i love stuff like that. MUCH smaller house ^^ but the widows’ house from Jolly Widows/Everybody ChaChaCha is the same as the Na family house from Infamous Chil Princesses, but as my husband pointed out, the color of the door and the entrance from the alley has been changed. There are only so many sets at KBS.
@ gallivanter “My father hasn’t quite figured out that there is more than one miniseries at a time” LOL. I also love the image of him and his doc chatting away for an hour while ??deathly ill patients fume in the waiting room?? keke — I swear this is becoming its own “Screening Humanity” series. Ever watch it? it’s a fab documentary series. You swear you won’t stick around to see part 4 of a portrait of some farmer in the boondocks (what’s 한국어 for boondocks?) and 10 min. later you’re hooked.
your dad will prolly love IRIS too. all that action! (from what i gather)
Just wanted to know if anyone noticed the striking resemblance of Loving You 1000 Times to Brilliant Legacy. Hell, they even use the same set.
We’ve got Evil Stepmother, Kind-hearted Girl Forced To Do Stuff For Her Sick/Fake Dead Father, ‘Evil’ Stepsister, Loving Grandmother. They even use the same living room set as Brilliant Legacy!
The only thing that’s different is the main guy is actually a nice guy, not an assface like Hwan.
And there’s no secondary guy, at least not yet. I hope there’ll be one.
I keep wondering how they could possibly make things work out. That’s the reason I’ll keep watching. HOW will this end??
Also, it made me miss Brilliant Legacy so I re-watched some of the episodes, namely the kiss scene and the karaoke scene. I’ve never seen someone stare so hard as Hwan did to Eun Sung during that karoake scene. MELT.
I started watching Smile, You last night. I just finished ep. 2 but so far I am finding it funny and has added it to my list of drama. Of course I am also loving You’re Beautiful, I don’t think I have laughed so hard yet while watching a drama. It was a good thing I was home alone when I watched the first two episodes.
I love spy movies so I will give IRIS a try. It might be one I will try to pull my husband in to watch with me though.
I am also currently following Autumn’s Concerto (Taiwanese show). The plot is moving fairly quickly and so far well done. I usually get impatient with Taiwanese shows, but so far this one is holding my attention.
I would love some Japanese drama recommendation though. After finishing Buzzer Beat (which I really liked and would recommend, if you haven’t seen it yet) I am sort of lost in what to watch next.
Happy Friday All!
@72 langdon813
I really love reading your comments. That analogy is spot on.
It’s amazing how, only after K dramas, I noticed how attractive Asian men are. What’s that all about? The only downfall is their height. I’m 5′9. I know, not all Asian men are short. Believe me, I understand. Being Hispanic, I had slim pickings as a youngster. ( I lived in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.)
I guess it really doesn’t matter since I’m married and so is CSW
@ 80 jtinma
For j-drama recs, try Love Shuffle.
My favorite j-dramas include:
Pride
Nodame Cantabile
Hana Yori Dango
Love Shuffle
True Scary Story:
I started the horror k-drama Soul. I started it up on VLC player and while the audio played, there was no video! So all I could hear was the creepy conversation and heavy breathing. And then when I tried to find out how to exit out of the audio, it wouldn’t let me. It said nothing was playing! So I had disembodied voices coming out of my computer. I finally had to unplug and restart my computer.
Freaked me out.
That said, I’m so happy I didn’t watch Soul when I was home alone while the parents were away for vacation. I would have freaked myself out. It’s not scary-scary, but it’s pretty freaky.
So the 24 hour news networks got collectively punk’d by ballon boy and his fame-whoring family – would I be remiss to say that thank the lord I had something better to do than to watch in rapture at a ballon floating over Colorado – namely, watching ep. 4 of You’re Beautiful. Another point for k-dramas, you’ll never be lacking for anything good to watch lest you resort to watching MSNBC or Fox News.
On the upside, I feel like a new person – I finally got my braces off! and I got a new IPhone from work. Double yay! And I’m headed to Boston next week, triple yay (though it is for work so I should be less yay).
@84, ockoala
Triple YAY for sure! Of course I knew about the iPhone (jealous) and Boston (really jealous), but not about the braces (yippee)!
You’re so pretty anyway and now you’ll be even prettier…look out Boston!
My son wore his for 5 years and we had a braces removal celebration with all kinds of oooey, gooey, chewy things. It took so long to get used to seeing him without them!
@82 Mishane
I am a bit ashamed to say this, but I have seen all 5 drama you recommend and they are my favorite too. Especially Pride and Nodame Cantabile. Not sure why I loved Pride so much, but it’s just one of those classics.
I keep wondering about Soul, but I’ll probably stay away unless I am going to watch it with my mom who loves scary stuff. Maybe it’s because I grew up with Asian scary movies, I am not usually scared of Western horror movies, but Asian ones gets me every time. Especially Japanese dolls. Probably traumatic memories of the Japanese horror movies my mom watched when I was little.
@ 86 jtinma
Especially Japanese dolls.
Funny you mention that. I don’t usually freak out at scary movies but the two things that will creep me out forever and give me nightmares are dolls (YES, DOLLS) and creepy children. Creepy children creep me out. Why are you sitting there looking so creepy? And singing? Creepy children singing. Ugh.
@mishane –
“Creepy children creep me out. Why are you sitting there looking so creepy? And singing? Creepy children singing. Ugh.”
omg yes!!!! creepy children, dolls, and CLOWNS… i hate hate hate clowns. i see nothing funny about them at all. they are creepy and scary and how they are portrayed in the movie IT is exactly how i see them..everytime.
LOL, mishane! I’m guessing you probably didn’t watch Torchwood: Children of Earth, huh? I don’t like clowns, personally. And that’s purely thanks to Stephen King.
Wanna know what else freaks me out? Men who make prettier women than women do. That just ain’t right. Case in point:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/viikiiimg/dev/cp_intro/20091013/6429.jpg
@ b020 (#48)
I don’t know about dramas, but do you mean the movie Traces of Love with Yoo Ji Tae, Kim Ji Su, and Uhm Ji Won?
@ Taohua
I also stopped watching QSD at 31. From what I hear from other Yushin Rang fans, there’s still no development of his character.
@ gallivanter
I actually enjoyed the flashback part of Iris’s first ep. because LBH’s character was so hilariously funny. I found ep.2 entirely predictable (though the kiss scene was delicious), as it shifted focus back to the NSS workings. But if you’re a sucker for spy action, you’ll probably enjoy it. I’ll still be watching for the action and to see what Kim So Yeon and Kim Seung Woo (badass!) bring unless it heads seriously south…or until Uhm Ki Joon diverts my attention.
I’m all caught up on You’re Beautiful, and while it’s not yet cracktastically addictive for me, I am enjoying the Hong sister’s delicious dialogue and wit. And finally, JGS’s not annoying me (that much). He should defnitely stay away from the angry brooding and stick to the quirky and obsessive-compulsive acting. Jeremy’s adorkable…but I’ll take Shin Woo as my puppy.
@ langdon813
“They’re HERE…” (emphasis on “HERE” pronounced in two syllables)
@10 mishane: I’m also, surprisingly, very into “Smile You” – I think the main leads have great chemistry, considering their ability to bounce off of each other marvelously with many long, fast, and extended dialogues without breaking character POV.
“Loving You 1000 Times” is a little too melodramatic for me, though I’m very intrigued by the 2nd storyline of the first-son married couple – I think I just like the acting and character devo better. But I’m not sure I can handle the over-dramatics. – probably will drop this drama.
@23 gallivanter: “oh, I assumed they were homeless.” LMAO. I was grinning all throughout your story! Cheers for “converting” another one to the world of Asian ent.
@26 Jessica: “…it seems like every Korean guy knows how to fix a woman’s shoe when the heel breaks off!” Add that to the “50 things you learn from K dramas” list!
@41 Taohua: If you’ve watched up to 31 & 32, then you might as well continue. QSD has been somewhat of a disappointment, but there are still redeeming qualities of the show. And Mishil does bounce back in current eps. I’ve found LYW to have improved in her character’s majestic aura, as have UTW in his legendary general role.
@ 53 ockoala: I completely agree, Vic should have gotten it if they had to give it to B&W. I found Vic’s performance also to be more natural, in tune with the character, and creative. Mark’s win is more pressure than consolation. But he did do great for his first role.
As if the recommendations aren’t enough for this drama, I’m have to add that B&W is really one of the best “idol” – and I say that loosely – dramas from Taiwan in a long time. There is a reason why it got nominated for 11 Golden Bell Awards. It’s highly recommended for directing, character devo, plot construction, relationship development, and thrilling unpredictability.
Haven’t watched IRIS, but I guess the general census is “exceeds expectations?” Is the story pacing tight so far and appropriately thrilling? I would love to balance the wonderful fluff of YB, and comedic family-values of “Smile You,” with action-packed and thrilling IRIS.
Happy Friday!!!
@ Rifae – Wow.. we watch the exact same American shows!! The only three show I watch on American TV are bones, dollhouse and eastwick. The last one is bleh but it’s my guilty pleasure as well!!! =P I know what you mean when you’re talking about school interfering with drama watching (o.. wait, it should be the other way round.. darn mixed priorities!) This is my final year as an undergraduate.. I wonder if I could major to korean.. lol.. my parents would kill me!! They already know that I secretly obssessed with kdramas!! So much so, that they have asked me if I’m planning on bringing a korean guy home! LOL
@ mishane – I loved Hana Kimi and Atashinchi no Danshi!! And I love YB as well. LOL.. But I don’t think they can be compared. For one, YB has some actors who aren’t good at acting. Also there’s a lot more romanance and drama in this series.. and substance too!! So it’s not just a piece of fluff IMO. However, I hope it doesn’t get too angsty later *crosses fingers*
@ BW fans – I watched 10-ish episodes of BW but I stopped because I thought it was getting a bit ‘dark’.. I’m not to fond of watching scary, dark shows right now as I have enough scary stuff to worry about in my real life! Give me my romantic comedies…LOL…
P.S – Has anyone seen kmovie, addicted.. that’s one cool ‘dark’ supsense movie..
@48 – b020, the drama sounds interesting. I want to see it now after your discription!!!
Is it Diwali time already?? Wow, It feels like just last week was Eid! Anyway Happy Diwali to people who celebrate it..
Happy Friday everyone!
@Kangin incident
As a fan, I was extremely disappointed by his brawl but I was understanding. Not because he’s young but given what he has revealed of his personality, it would seem odd to allow himself to get beaten up, regardless of his age. Now with this new turn of events, I am appalled. I can see why he was drinking, its highly acceptable in his culture, along with the fact that he probably is dealing with much more than we know concerning the assault issue, but wow driving drunk, hitting someone and then running away?! Can’t let that slide, can’t even understand, wholeheartedly. I mean I get that he was scared and I’m glad he turned himself in but NO, there’s no way that this should be swept under the rug. For me the issue isn’t forgiveness, for all things can be forgiven, or the amount of penalty but more so the fact that this kind of thing doesn’t need to be acceptable regardless of who commits the crime. People make mistakes but if those mistakes are illegal, they need to deal with the consequences, with no respecter of persons. Period.
Now onto why I live and breathe….
AH! It was the week of tango between I.R.I.S and You’re Beautiful…which do I download first? Should I wait for subs? Should I dream of Byung Hun or YB possible story plot lines? Blah, blah, dilemma, dilemma…
IRIS doesn’t really need subs, not in the first ep. I do understand the aforementioned issue with the flashback. I noticed that I was getting kind of bored but I blamed that all on Kim Tae Hee. She didn’t impress me in the first ep at all. Therefore, I was confused as to why the male leads were. Overall, I love it. I think that its definitely worth my time.
As for You’re Beautiful, its good, great, lovable! I had to admit I was disappointed by the pool scene because it smacked of, Hana Kimi, but I held out hope and bam…I was boiled over with laughter! I love that the Hong sisters always turn these situations on its head.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only pool scene I’ve seen this week…I saw Angel’s Temptation. Now, my buddy told me about it and was enthralled with it in its raw form, so I thought I’d take a peek too…don’t know about it though. Its a little too much for me. Too dramatic, too soap opera-esque, too unbelievable, but I think I’m going to try to keep up at least until the plastic surgery revenge concept crops up. With that said, I definitely see that it has potential to be loved by many!
As for other dramas, Smile, You is cute but I can’t do the billion eps week to week, same for Love you… I will prob take peeks every few weeks to see the progression. Creating Destiny, I’m trying to stick in there because I love Eugene. We’ll see after this week. I might have to wait till about 10 eps are subbed.
Lastly, to whomever suggested Resurrection to me… I LOVE YOU!
@84, blkrose
Thank you!! And…WOW, 5′9″? Nice!
I claim to be 5′3″, but I’m really 5′2″. And I’m the TALL sister out of the four of us, believe it or not!
@Mishane
I’d say Your Beautiful is closer to the manga than the Jdrama. There’s moments of silliness but on the whole it’s very watchable.
How did the Mainland version of HYD turn out?
@ 97 langdon-unni
” I claim to be 5′3″, but I’m really 5′2″. And I’m the TALL sister out of the four of us, believe it or not”
Like I said, we’re twins! From different ethnic races, which is uber-cool, and definitely need to be studied as part of a genetic experiment.
I kinda wheedled, cajoled, begged (minus sexual favors) my orthodontist to remove the braces a few month earlier – and he relented/consented because presumably (1) I am an adult so I will be responsible and wear my retainers, (2) I have a very very important (NOT) conference to attend in which I will need to look/feel/act my best (look lawyer, yes sir!), (3) they’ve been on so long I’ve forgotten what I look like anymore without them and (4) I’m so vain (cue Carly Simon…..).
I can’t stop licking my teeth, but with retainers on, I talk with a lisp – and a few clients on the phone have asked me whether I was eating when talking with them (oh, how rude could I be?).
I’m in happy happy land this week, with so many nice things happening, but best of all, the start of IRIS to join YB (even though I am still abstaining from IRIS – even with LBH kissing scene tempting me……). I need some breather from KTH’s performance in The Restless, so I don’t end up judging her from residual bad taste in my mouth, plus, I kinda like to power through my spy thrillers (watching all 20 eps of Black & White was sooooooo exhilirating without the needed wait).
As for scary stuff – I’ve lost my stomach for scary shows as I’ve gotten older, including thrill rides at amusement parks. It’s just not something I want to spent time on, being scared. However, I still like to read spoilers, I’m so chicken this way. My absolute #1 scary shizzzz – Japanese dolls. I read too many mangas in my youth, including crazy creepy Japanese horror mangas, and for the love of my sanity, I cannot stand a doll staring back at me….
As for You’re Beautiful – I’m loving it so much that I’m actually not anxious waiting for new eps or scrounging for spoilers – it’s just a wonderful feeling of enjoying the experience as it rolls along. Park Shin-hye eating that ice-cream, adorable!
OMG!! i can’t believe that i totally worked and forgot that it was OT friday. and now that i’m here, there are already 100 some posts. boohoo.
the whole kangin thing.. is horrible. there is no defense for drunk driving other than stupidity.. and that is no defense. this is NOTHING like Jaebeom’s incident. Jaebeom was totally forgiveable and just a big misunderstanding. there is NO misunderstanding drinking and driving.
i’m determined to jump on the YB bandwagon.. and i am definitely going to get on the IRIS bandwagon too.
i can watch scary movies as long as i have a blanket covering my face and my fingers in my ears.
i’m happy that Marc won for B&W, but i’m very sad that Vic didn’t win. i’m also happy that B&W won all those awards.
Happy that Black and White won a lot of awards. It is much deserved. But really sad that Vic Zhou did not win Best Actor. I think it was one of of his finest performance. He deserved to win! Anyway still proud for Zaizai..he has come a long way!
More reactions later.
@lb_tmi – there you are!!!!!!!!!
hi! *waves!!*
@ockoala – hehe PSH eating ice cream was really so cute!! i LOVE jeremy’s overactive imagination…and how it’s contagious cuz tae kyung is starting to as well! can’t wait to add this to my collection
@ Kangin
I take back about what I said how fans were more sensible about the whole Kangin situation. How fans wouldn’t just disregard his actions and be all-supportive and even attempt to justify it. That is like… all I found, when I clicked on allkpop. I was flabbergasted. “Kangin we still love you!” “awwwww” and “bad luck!” seems to be the main themes there.
What in the world?
*how* is it ‘bad luck’? He acted like an idiot. And then continued to act like one, when actually running away from his crime.
~ ~
J!Crack seems to be totally different from K!Crack… and I see others agreeing with me here. J-Dramas seem to have no social/cultural boundaries when it comes to late-night dramas, so they seem to disregard everything and just go into the pun. “Incest? Let’s make a joke from that! Lesbian/Gay stereotypes? That would be hilarious! Prostitution? That could make a good gag in this scene. And don’t forget the necessary fanservice where everyone runs around without their clothes on…” seems to be the crack-tastic Jdramas that we know and love.
Atadan got ruined by Maki, but otherwise it was wonderful… but there are lesser-known J!Crack which is less mainstream (and therefore more cracky) which I usually prefer. They literally make fun of everything in those *grins*. K!Crack hasn’t been made successfully yet, sadly, IMO…. it’s been pushed into genres (rom-com, comedy) since they’re usually less liberated. Oddly enough, I find the Korean variety shows to be more cracky than their actual movies/dramas.
@ 102 lovenyc52
hi twin. *waves back* i see you’ve claimed YOUR marc winning the best actor award due to ockoala’s “Mark is a hot-blooded righteousness personified hotness”.
oh, and before i forget.. i HATE dolls.. and clowns..
For langdon, a double scoop of your favorite boy-candy.
Just one thought going through my brain – what dead animal ended up on Park Shi-young’s feet? Btw, I love fashion show pictures – cuz everyone is jousting to be the most couture, and the results are typically HI-larious. In this show, the couture aspects seems to be “who has the more dour expression.”
http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/stars_turn_up_for_phillip_lim_fashion_show/
Hey now, Mark is obviously not up for grabs. He currently preoccupied, if you didn’t know.
Oh, what the heck…since I love this drama and it sweeped the Golden Bell Awards, here’s a super HQ, English-subbed intro to it. I think I’m going to do an expose on B&W with the OST attached, all this talk is bringing back the love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LRiKj_f-I
P.S. Who’s with me and suffered SLCS, falling more for Xi Ying instead of the main girl?
@104, ockoala
I didn’t just see MY MY MY MY (MINE) Lee Min-ki sitting next to Yoon Eun-hye, right? Right? Well, if I did, at least he doesn’t look too happy about it.
I really need a body-language analyst’s expert opinion on that photo.
What is Kim Bum wearing? I think I had that sweater in 1983. Oh, who cares? His hair is so shiny and pretty and wonderful.
Speaking of Lee Min-ki…I may need my OT friends to start screening his movies for me. I watched Haeundae last night. Now every day at 3:00 I’ll think of him.
Also, why is Lee Mink-ki wearing granny sweats to a fashion show? Life, so many unanswered questions….. But I can tell you, langdon-unni, he was having none of Miss. YEH, who was all staring at him sideways.
@ Kgirl
Thanks, the vid is great quality! Love the opening of B&W. You may need to change your name to Tgirl.
Another reason why JB’s blog is so unique and special is the type of discussions that occur on there: for example, today, I’ve heard differing opinions on Mark’s win at the Golden Bell, here’s a sample “What, Mark won? Poor Vic, he so deserved it. But congrats to Mark! Did Zai Zai doom his chances with his lack of excitement when he was nominated? But Mark winning as a newbie is unprecedented, go Mark. Aw, Vic was awesome in B&W, so sad he lost. But Mark is so adorable, I want to crown him King myself….” And so on and so forth – we can have differing opinions, but shouldn’t forget to be postive and upbeat for the winner. I’m gonna craft my own drama award and hand it to Vic, my poor baby. I think Mark winning was probably as difficult a feat as shagging Lei Musa from the elevator to the room and up against a wall.
As for preferring Xi Ying to Chen Lin – I didn’t, but it was close.
@lb_tmi – hello there twin. glad to see you’re back hehe. and yes, totally claiming Mark (again!)
@106 Kgrl – yap, Mark is preoccupied…with ME
) lol. and yes i totally like Xi Ying so much more than Chen Lin. Can’t wait for the movie so I can see more of MY MY MY MY (MINE!) Mark…
that last part was for you langdon813
hehe!!
@ Samsooki (from last week’s OT)
““You promised me a happy ending!” (to belleza and hjkomo, who said the ending was “beautiful” but I interpreted that to mean the ending was “happy”, hehe, and I got the unexpected in Ep 24)”
I promised you “beautiful”. Promise delivered.
======
So, I hear it’s gonna be hot in SoCal this weekend. What’s with the funky CA weather?! First, cold….then, more rain in 24 hrs. than our average for the entire month of October…then, bizarre hot humidity….
It’s earthquake weather, I tell ya…(knock on wood!)
All right, I’m off to brave the Friday afternoon traffic….all 400 miles of it. (But what do I really care, when I’ll be napping most of the way anyways).
Good Korean food, here we come.
YAY for Black & White!! I absolutely adored that drama, but its sad that Vic didn’t win- his performance was better than Mark’s imo.
@ockoala: lol Mark’s sex scene was hot.
I didn’t like anyone in Meteor Garden and it wasn’t until Sweet Relationship that I became a zaizai fan.
regarding other Twdrama’s , is anyone watching Autumn’s concerto?? Only 2 episodes in and I’m completely hooked!! (the ending sequence makes me go awww)
@95: I really disliked Atashinshi no Danshi. There was nothing memorable in it. I started watching b/c of the drama format (and Horikita Maki) but the ending was just…. again, nothing memorable.
with k-drama’s, I’m only watching You’re Beautiful (loved the Super Junior parody), Iris is for sometime later.
Regards to J-pop, I just ordered both versions of the BANDAGE single -Jin Akanishi’s solo project with Takeshi Kobayashi for their upcoming movie BANDAGE. I can’t even remember the song well, but considering it’s Jin I ordered it anyway *is very excited*
I don’t know if i ever mentioned this, but Mark’s white Mitsubishi Outlander SUV in Black & White (the one with the huge HERO decal on it) is exactly the same as mine. Minus the decal, of course. Every time he’d throw the police light on top of that thing and give chase I’d laugh, because I know all too well that it’s kind of a wimpy ride. No knock against Mitsubishi (my vehicle of choice for the last 10 years), but trust me when I tell you..badass it is NOT. Now the Mistubishi Endeavor I had previously? THAT was badass. Sigh…
I feel like complaining to the dealership. The least they could have done was offer me a “DRAMA QUEEN” decal. I mean, really.
@langdon813 – the huge HERO decal is what made the ride badass. it also made it faster. obviously.
if they gave you a DRAMA QUEEN decal, what kind of magical properties would it have? OH! the decal should have LBH’s face on one side and JIS’s face on the other side. like bookends. fabulous.
@lovenyc52
HA! Well, if that’s the case, and I’m driving around with men’s faces on my car, one of them is going to be Lee Min-ki. He’s my “I LUB YOU”.
And the other one would be Lee Jung-jae. I’d say Jung Woo-sung…but ockoala has got a pretty firm grip on him at the moment.
@langdon813 – option 2: have the decal circle the entire car and then you can have an entire harem at your disposal (why limit yourself to 2??). i think i like option 2. brb. i gotta go design my decal.
@skelly: your post made me smile
don’t think you’re a curse 
Jaebeom’s incident really made me depressed…but i hope it’ll get a good ending…
am i the only one?
Rain’s boygroup…MBLAQ? i like them too…they kinda remind me of ss501 in their déjà vu days
@mishane: do you think i should finish Shining Inheritance…?Right now I’m stuck in the 24th episode and just don’t know if i can watch the last 4 episodes…
@gallivanter: i know a lot of people already mentioned it but..you WON’T be disappointed…i started watching TDramas at first and then slowly moved to KDramas…looking back the TDramas were horrible! But B&W is well acted and is just great… I never really like Vic but after watching the first 10 episodes within a couple of hours i can understand why so many love this guy!
anyone watched Kang Shim Jang (?) or Strong Heart w/ Kang Ho Dong & Lee Seung Gi?
@summerrain – i watched some Strong Heart clips when 2NE1 was on and lee seung gi mimicked minji’s chest pop. so funny!!! in Shining Inheritance he played an a$$ (granted one that you slowly grew to love, even if i was on Team BSB!) but in Strong Heart, he is just so darn cute!! I love when he smiles cuz he’s got these mandoo cheeks that i just wanna pinch!! I loved Shining inheritance, even with all it’s cliches… and especially if you’ve come this far, you totally should finish it!
Jung Woo-sung, grrrrrrrr, hands-off ladies (and gents), but he’s *mine*. (Brownie points to langdon-unni for helping me stake my territory and claim so thoroughly). I’m still fangirling over Lee Byung-hun and Jang Geun-soek, of course, but they are both enjoying mass overexposure, so I’ll let everyone else enjoy them for now, and pick them back up when the hype has settled.
I’ve got a date with my Woo-sung oppa tonight – re-watch of a Moment to Remember – and re-sobbing over why Son Ye-jin couldn’t make IRIS…..she singlehandedly made Summer Scent watchable (and yes, even with my robotic and automatic love for Song Sueng-hun, SS was pretty much unwatchable, and he was a big part of why).
Anyone see that movie with SYJ and Bae Yong-jun? Any good?
Funny, I’ve got a date with The Good tonight myself. Oh, The Bad and The Weird will be there too!
Korean movie plus Chinese takeout.
YUMMY!
Have you guys been watching Soul Special, with the girl from Shining (Brilliant? I never remember) Inheritance? Anyway, she is completely adorable. I think when Dramafever loads it I’m going to check it out.
@lovenyc52 it’s just sooo long..but yeah i’ll try
…I actually like Lee Seung Gi A LOT more in Strong Heart..he’s sooo adorable…or when he called 2NE1’s Dara ‘noona’! Did you watch the 1st episode w/ G-Dragon, Seungri & SNSD’s Yoona? I never liked Big Bang but the stories were just funny and nearly shouted: SCANDAL xD
Just watched Episode 6 of Smile, You… I was really worried about the Grandpa for a few episodes but thank goodness he’s flipped the script. I was hoping this would happen!
Gee I clicked onto OT 105 and got CH banner! Woohoo…
Then my PC rebooted itself……think it was jealous? LMAO
Anyway had to come back and of course the banner was not CH
I am constantly getting the BoF cast not matter how I refresh! If it was a few months prior aka pre-CH I would not have cared, and possibly loved it even. (and I really had thought I had gotten better with my CH addiction, but of course not, I just watched ep 4…)
re: Ockoala
“Anyone see that movie with SYJ and Bae Yong-jun? Any good?”
April Snow – I got the DVD – I have managed to fall asleep both times I tried to watch it. Is it the movie? Is it me? Might check it out again to give you a proper response to that!
(although I did enjoy the brief appearance of Clazziquai in the ‘concert’ scene. FYI Alex from Clazziquai is MINE! too)
I really like SYJ (and agree she owed Summer Scent, even if I had bought ti due to SSH). If you compare her from Summer Scent to now she really has grown her acting chops.
I think I’ve watched every first episode of every drama airing right now except for Iris. I even watched Don’t Hesitate…(shudders)
“Loving you a defined number of times”: Such the drama. The main girl has some good eye widening/muppet looks. I feel for the married woman (to the older brother) who can’t have kids. Everyone on Viikii is leaving comments like “just leave him”. Really? ……Really? Like you’d just -get married- to have kids. She loves him, even if he is turning out to be a cheating jerk. (I haven’t watched past episode 8 or so, I assume storms are already brewing)
Re: Japanese Dramas: These are not all my favorites but are probably what you’re looking for:
Yamato Nadeshiko (she a snob, him a dork), Last Christmas (christmas-story, Tamaki Hiroshi from Nodame is in this), Manhattan Love Story (for quirky love, and weird crackpot plots), Koi wa Tatakai (like japanese sex and city, there are bed scenes in this so viewer forewarned, but you don’t see anything), Wedding Planner (an oldie, but one of my favorites, so cute)
Mark Zhao won? Really? He’s cute and all… but Best Actor? For Black and White? His best scene in Black and White was when he was bawling his eyes out and confessing to that girl (i cannot even remember her name in the drama..hahaha). Other than that, he was really just ‘pretty’ (…apologies to all the Mark fans out there… please don’t stone me..hehehe). But okay, i am sure other people dont share that opinion.
Now let me fangirl for a moment…hihihi.
1. You’re Beautiful simply solidifies my totally inappropriate crush on Jang Geun Suk. HAHAHA… This man (ahem….boy???) won me over with his angst-filled portrayal of Changwi in Hong Gil Dong. Apart from being so pretty (hehe), he just keeps getting better and better each year. He certainly has not wasted the potential he showed in Hwang Jini. OMG he looked so young and cute then. Now, JGS looks every bit the part of an idol – handsome, hot, very cool.
And more on boys turning into men…
2. Anyone else caught the Shinee comeback performance on MusicBank?
OMG…these boys can sing and dance…. and looked hot (not just cute anymore)!
They first impressed me when they guested on Star Golden Bell challenge and sang Juliette acapella – nice voices, can definitely sing without digitizing melodies so i was impressed. But I could not stomach the silly colorful leggings/skinny jeans and weird tops/shirts (whatever you call them) when they were promoting their 2nd mini-album.
The song is very catchy and the dance moves quite impressive (especially while singing)…. Just ignore some of the repetition (hehehe) and try not to think too much of what they’re trying to sing (haha..if at all possible).
@ 95 Icarusfalls
haha! I’m pretty sure my parents would be ecstatic beyond belief if I brought a korean boy home. They’ve started doing the subtle nudging now that I’m near graduating as well… *shudder*
I’m so happy that I have kdramas to watch now… It’s been a dry few months, y’all.
Happy friday (Saturday) to all…
@djes, when i heard about the earthquake yesterday i called my parents and they didn’t feel anything, well they were just chillin in the first floor, i heard that many office wrokers felt it though… it must’ve been some experience for you… from what i read, there seem to be no casualties… thank god…
Kangin case,
seriously, this past months are the worst for (boy) idol groups, i really hope Kangin get the punishments he deserved (plus some suspesion time from SME), people don’t go around freely after hit and run.
BW,
Wow, all the talk about Mark Zhao (sex scene) make me want to watch BW, i’ve bought the dvd, but didn’t have the time to watched it, well all due to the crazyness that is YB
i sometime wish i was in a country with better internet connection, it took me forever to download the first episode of YB, and after like 5-6 hours i only get 40-something %
About Strong Heart,
idk, coz the subbed videos are only for the fans dedicated idols, i haven’t see the whole episode yet, and from watching said videos, i feel kinda sorry for all the other celebrity that didn’t get to talk… talk show with 25 guest star seem too much, Star Golden Bell only had 16 guests (we can excuse 4 in the Bell line) and sometime not all of them get enough screen time… well i only watched the first episode, so maybe i should see the next episodes to make up my mind…
and note about SGB, from its soompi thread said that Kim Jae Dong will not be the host of SGB after 4 years of broadcast, that just so bad…. i like the way he host SGB, with KJD gone, if Nicole were no longer there, i don’t think i can watch SGB again
@124 tombrady
At first I was iffy about the song RingDingDong, but I’ve been watching the MV for about an hour now. They are definitely not boys anymore….they’re really gorgeous girly men (LOL). I can’t get the song out of my head!
I’m back!!! Or is anyone looking for me? Anywho, the reason I’m not joining the OT fun lately was because I’ve only been following two Kdramas lately. And that, for any selfrespecting kdramaholic, is just so wrong. Well, I finished off My Fair Lady last night(it was a struggle, the drama dragged in the last eps) and Queen Seon Deok is the only thing that’s keeping me going. I’m ready to take on new ones now. From what I’ve been reading from you guys, it seems like You’re Beautiful and Iris should be my next ones. If you guys have other recommendations then I’d happily hear them.
As a rule, I only watch Kdramas. That’s mainly because I’m trying to learn the language. But I’ve been hearing so many good things about Black and White that it’s becoming hard to ignore. I used to watch so many Chinese films (Wong Kar Wai anyone?) before I was swept away by the Hallyu wave. I’m just worried that I might find the sound of spoken Chinese(which has far too many i’s and e’s) distracting as I have now gotten used to (and love) the deeply spoken Korean(brought about by the many o’s and u’s in the language). But I’ll give it a shot. Hope I like it.
Lee Min ki is or (was) Joo Ji Hoon’s friend but now don’t know if they are.
Happy Friday All,
I finally got to my computer and haven’t had a chance to read all the posts but trying to get this in before I leave again – Love YB!! I thought it was going to be too fluffy but it’s actually quite hilarious and well written. The PSH and JGS scenes are so cute. I am addicted to it!
The only problem I have is I couldn’t finish Episode 4 last nite because the computer kept getting frozen when I tried to open the videos on viikii. Will try again tonite.
Still want to watch Iris – will try to check it out soon. Have been deprived of sleep lately but what to do – YB and Iris are on the same days.
@Djes, glad to hear everything is okay. I like Strong Heart too. Hope somebody will start subbing it.
okay, will catch up again later tonite. Everyone have a great weeked.
Not that I haven’t mentioned this before, but Ep 14 of HGD rocks!
Features of Ep 14:
1. a mad king being raving mad.
2. a brutal faceoff between Gil Dong and his daddy.
3. many mano a mano scenes between Jang Geun Seok and my KJH.
4. a slimy Chang Whe trying to mack on Yinok (eewwwww).
5. Yinok being a steadfast girl (cheer!).
6. Gil Dong’s cowardly brother being all cowardly (booo!).
7. a brave sacrifice by Gil Dong.
8. an even braver sacrifice by Yinok.
9. Yinok, absolutely stunning in a hanbok.
10. and a nexus at the end – mad king, Yinok and Gil Dong… duh duh dummmmm!
brilliant acting, brilliant writing. that’s really all you need.
Quick thoughts on Episode 2 of Iris . . .
Single best kissing scene I’ve ever seen in K-drama. Period. Sexy, but also emotionally stirring. Beautiful, natural, the way she falls back and he pulls her in and how she literally is tasting his lips for more and . . .
OMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMO . . .
LBH has had some awesome kissing scenes in his dramas, but OMG this was . . . wow . .. I mean . . . wow . . I think I’m pregnant. Immaculate conception by the Iris Kiss???
Wow. That alone was worth $20M. Too bad I now need to prepare a baby room.
“I used to watch so many Chinese films (Wong Kar Wai anyone?) before I was swept away by the Hallyu wave.”
You know . . . in a weird way, A Love To Kill vaguely feels like Wong Kar Wai. The first 2 episodes reminded me of Fallen Angels, just in the way hypersaturated way the director depicts the city.
Dang, I had to rewatch the Iris kissing scene 3-4 times. I’m almost moved to tears by how beautifully it’s just done. How it closes up. The music. The way LBH reflects upon what just happened. (This is BTW the same director as A Love To Kill, and it shows in the soulful, dangerous, melancholy intimacy that the director does in their moments. Minus the melodrama of that show) The . . . wow . . . I’m pregnant again.
Also — let’s face it — Lee Byung Hun just in 2 episodes reiterated himself as GOD OF KDRAMA once more. If anything, his acting is that much better since the movies he’s done. The hunger in his eyes, the fineness and subtlety, the CONCENTRATION with his partner in the moment.
Sigh. I didn’t want twins.
Belleza, hehe, you can’t with your own award! Now I gotta see this Iris drama. I’ll compare it to CH’s “the Kiss.”
Wong Kar Wai…I guess for the rest of my life I’ll thank him for making me think about Takeshi Kaneshiro every time I eat pineapple.
belleza, belleza, belleza…I’ve only watched that IRIS kiss about 20 times today, dang it; now I have to go watch it about 20 more thanks to that wonderful description.
That was the single most incendiary kiss I’ve ever seen since I started watching dramas. Seriously! I almost could not believe my eyes. But this is LBH we’re talking about, after all. Whatever he’s selling, I’m buying. The moment after the kiss is just as powerful as the kiss itself, plus the fiery background of the artwork behind them…gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaking of LBH, my husband actually enjoyed TGTBTW and laughed all the way through it, just like I did the first time I saw it. I was so happy. I don’t think I’ll ever talk him into a drama but this was good enough for me. And there was football on tonight, too!
So…guess how I’ve been spending the last couple of hours. No, not watching YB for the umpteenth time! I’ve been watching the first two eps of What Happened in Bali. I guess since I posted about Jo In-sung earlier today I had him on my mind. I like it so far but I’m a little confused. Who is the main guy? Who is the “bad” guy? Because who I think is the main guy (JIS) appears to also be the bad guy.
I dunno. But I’m certainly intrigued enough to keep going.
But but but what am I going to do about my 2 children immaculately conceived during the Iris Kiss? Lee Byung Hun, you damn sexy beast you, you better pay for my kids!!!
@ Belleza
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, you’re just so funny!!! I bet no one can sell IRIS as well as you can. I’m sold! Didn’t put me off it even when you said it was directed by the same director of A Love To Kill(damn, I wished the two lead characters in that drama to die, and they did!).
I love it when seasoned film actors turn up in dramas to show tv actors how it’s done. First it was Yoo Ji Tae in A Star’s Lover, then Hwang Jung Min in That Fool, then Cha Seung Won in City Hall, and now Lee Byung Hun(and Jung Joon Ho) in Iris.
LOL belleza…not to worry! All your fine baby daddy has to do is teach other drama couples how to kiss (Dong-chan and Hae-na, I’m looking at YOU). He’ll become insanely wealthy and your immaculately conceived babies will be set for life!
@ belleza
I checked it out – the kissage – and it was beautifully done by both of them, even KTH participated instead of the usual girl being a cold fish. But I have to say, the entire scene was won by LBY staring at KTH right before, she’s all *wah, wah, wah, blah, blah, blah* and he’s all *I’m the king of the intense stare, the one that looks riveting without being creepy, mesmerizing without being buggy*. Thanks for enlightening us non-IRIS watchers, I loved it. LBH is back, baby!
Here’s the kiss for the dramabeaners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXkxlRlhGOk
@ Samsooki
I compared it to “The Kiss”, and IMHO, “The Kiss” continues to rein supreme for 2 reasons (but the IRIS kiss is way hot and very close second/third in my view):
(1) The prelude to the kiss – in CH, we’ve got 13 freakin’ episodes of Jo Gook and Mi-rae literally playing mental, emotional and verbal footsie with each other – and even a scene in a tent that involved a line of dialogue being “if you continue to do that, I’m going to jump you” – so we viewers are literally in heat for them two to finally breach that next level, and damn that JG for dragging out the kiss anticipation for like 5 minutes of funny but kill my now banter, and then lodging a lamer than lame kiss, before delivering the real thing.
(2) The emotional connection – I didn’t yet feel it between LBH and KTH’s characters (plus, it happened so early in the drama) – so the IRIS kiss isthe hot, lusty, sexy, I want to jump you soon, type of kiss. And the CH kiss is hot, sensual, I think I’m (falling) in love with you kiss. I’m preferential to the latter.
(3) Male kissing gods Cha Seung-won and Lee Byung-hun both initiated and delivered BIG TIME, both Kim Tae-hee and Kim Su-na were all in there 100%, but I give a slight edge to KSA (but this slight edge is neigh neligible) – so all 4 are tied in this category!
Still, awesome kissing, IRIS, to go along with awesome bang, bang. Bravo and lucky for belleza, cuz she’s having twins in 9 months, woo hoo.
Here’s the CH kiss cuz I am still a dedicated Haller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7OV71RGTuE
@ 137 hanjaman
“I love it when seasoned film actors turn up in dramas to show tv actors how it’s done. First it was Yoo Ji Tae in A Star’s Lover, then Hwang Jung Min in That Fool, then Cha Seung Won in City Hall, and now Lee Byung Hun(and Jung Joon Ho) in Iris”
Yes, yes, yes, you’re so right on. Too bad Lee Jung-jae’s return to drama vehicle was the tepid Triple, but he’s still right on the money.
Dear Drama Gods: hear my prayer, loud and clear – please, please bring back my Woo-sung oppa to star in a drama, and pair him with Son Ye-jin (who’s looking great for having alzheimers at like 26), Kim Su-na (I’m torn, kinda want to keep her with CSW forever and ever), or Lee Da-hae. I will be so happy.
And if Jang Dong-gun ever makes a drama – I will buy copies and distribute it at work and at every stranger I meet.
We’re so spoiled to have so many great dramas on this year.
Happy OT Friday everyone-
Like most of you, I’ve been watching YB- love it. I usually like to wait til 1/2 way point of the series so that I don’t have to “suffer” the “next week” problem. But I finished MFL , and since I’m not familiar with LBH, I wasn’t “dying” to watch IRIS, I’ve decided to watch YB. Even hubby joined me since he was wondering why I was cracking up (with my laptop).( For the “cure” for “next weeK”, I rewatched MNIKSS , again. And Again, I fell in love with KSA and Binnie)
PLEASE DON’T KILL ME, GUYS’ MOMENT
Uhhh, I watch “the Kiss” LBH and KTH vs CSW and KSA’s-
not being biased, but I think our MiGook wins…The LBH/KTH version reminded me of a CPR training video. It didn’t help that KTH’s acting is quite poor ( what happened, her bro Lee Wan rocks, ok, at least better). Besides, I can feeel the MiGook chemistry while in IRIS version, I think only LBH was doing a good job.
Ok – the CH gods love me (finally!).
After a crap day – even with it starting off awesome by finding a car spot right outside the caffeine place from heaven
– I just clicked onto OT to read and who pops up?
CITY HALL BANNER!
You know the ‘presidential’ dance speech scene…….Wooohooo
Yep folks, if I include my previous short sighting today, that is TWO CH in one day! The CH gods have taken pity on my. Of course I am now typing this from another tab, while also waiting for the gem of an IRIS – kiss video to load (thanks ockoala). CH Banners AND Lee Byung Hun! My day is saved.
Oh and IRIS recap……YIPPEEEE!
Only bummer is I was going to get ‘Friend, The Legend’ to watch, but now I am thinking to park Binnie aside (for a little while) and hop on the You’re Beautiful (NB: JB thanks for the recaps, think I am hooked already) AND IRIS (really LBH for 20 eps! Nose bleed city!) train.
No I’ll hit submit and go back to reading the rest of the OT or should I IRIS recap first? hmmm tough one
“The LBH/KTH version reminded me of a CPR training video”
And in fact, I needed to be resuscitated after the first time I saw the Iris Kiss.
Yeah, there’s some context to that scene that’s lost without the subtitles (and a previous key scene.)
The romantic aspect in Iris is strong. Kim Kyu Tae also shot World That They Live In, and though the writing is not sharpened for relationship nuances, there’s a quiet, warm style that is shared with the drama. I can’t hide my enthusiasm for Kim Kyu Tae getting the director’s role here. He really understands the different film grammar between genres. For example, he uses a lot of handicam (perhaps too much) for the thriller bits. But during the romantic bits, he locates the characters within the overall frame of the picture, and he knows how to slow it down and quietly let us in on their intimate moment. You guys know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen World That They Live In. But he also did the same thing for A Love to Kill — if you recall all the times that Rain and Mina kiss or have that stolen moment, there’s a lot of filmmaking technique used to properly capture that intimate moment that you rarely see with other directors working in K-drama.
The other thing I love about Iris is that, like the first Bourne Identity movie, it’s likely that the majority of this drama will take place during the autumn or winter. There’s a lot of comedic moments, but it already feels like melancholy and fatalism will eventually take over the show. In effect, these are the last days of light before the clouds gather and sigh the sun away.
(excuse me. the twins kicked. they want to see their daddy Lee Byung Hun kiss again.) Anyway . . .
The romantic triangle is beautifully done here. Part of Iris’s natural strength is that because you do have 2 film stars in the male lead role, you can kinda do the buddy bits and the triangle bits in narrative shorthand. They’ll take care of the emotional work for you. By the end of episode 2, you have a triangle and you have a couple in love and it feels natural.
Kim Tae Hee is good so far in this role. In a sense, this character seems written with Kim Tae Hee in mind, since the audience’s perception of her as a CM beauty influences how you see her in Episodes 1 and 2. Which itself changes. The work that they sign up for is nasty work.
Actually, and I mentioned this over at D-addicts, Choi Sun Hee may end up the most interesting female lead character Choi Wan Kyu’s ever written (or since Sangdo.) Depends on whether the show really wants her to be a traditional Choi Wan Kyu “long road back to her” female heroine, or a mirror of the sinister life they signed up for.
Just read the IRIS recap….shirtless LBH? Wahhhh I am now getting this ep ASAP. Binnie is going have to wait.
Also watched the vid of the IRIS kiss – while I thought LBH was awesome, was Kim Tae-hee wasting her opportunity or what? I mean she is PAID to act/touch/kiss LBH???? How is that fair????
While I had no idea what the dialogue was, thought LBH brought his smexiness to his kiss (as if there was any doubt of his smexiness…) KTH looked like she was just trying to eat LBH. I mean he is yummy and all, but please if you are going to kiss LBH she should have done it better.
If I was in her shoes (oh how I wish!) I would have asked LBH for practice sessions….like 1000 for this one scene. Just to get it just right!
Really 2009 has been an awesome year of great kdramas. Now if only I could stop time to watch them all…… anyone got a time machine to stop the clock? I need it so I can have a little bit of sleep, food and squeeze in a little bit of work to earn some $$$ so I can have kdramas as my main focus….
@ langdon813
Takeshi Kaneshiro eating pineapple… oh yes. I think of him every time I eat pineapple! Or see a can of pineapple. And sometimes when checking best before dates…
The post-July drought is finally over with so many great drama serves right now that making the choice is the biggest question!
I just started You Are Beautiful and it is so likely to be the crack drama of this year. (CH will remain my number one, best drama of all time, no matter what.) I will definitely watch IRIS and Smile, You. Down the list are Creating Destiny and Hero. Anyone with good advice on how to find time watching all these, apart from not sleeping or eating……
@ The Kiss – IRIS vs City Hall
The IRIS one is lusty and sexy through the savvy delivery by LBH. I’ll have to say that the CH kiss is still The Kiss for me for the reasons stated by ockoala. It is the whole build-up thing and how that kiss is so well-planned out by JG. The CSW execution is as yummy as LBH’s.
@ April Snow
I love that movie although its entertaining value is probably not too high. I’ve seen it probably four or five times and consider it to be the best BYJ work that I’ve seen. SYJ is great and I can see why she picks up this project as her arthouse movie attempt. Some people find it boring and you do have to see it in the right mood. It is like a quiet monologue between two people, and the snow and the music are all pluses. Thinking about it now, it is like a very dry but poignant version of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood of Love. My dear ockoala friend, go try it and see it as an alternate among all the great candy fluffy fun we have now.
Happy friday to JB and readers,
How about pairing LBH and Kim Su Na for a drama ??. ….
any takers producers??.
@belleza
Thank you for not “killing” me regarding “the Kiss”- langdon must be busy or sleeping by now and missed what I’ve posted. I was scared to read the rest of the post ( ok, I was busy watching YB-he he), thinking one of you guys might ban me from OT ….
@hjkomo
where do you work that you have to commute 400 miles???or are you on a trip?
Is it me or Andromytta’s been missing for a couple of weeks?
@Samsooki
You are tooo quiet- are we en route to hospital to get my new favourite cute Korean male . lil Samsooki?
Better go to sleep, or else I have to use more makeup to cover my panda eyes…
Goodnite all…catch you guys later…
@ #89 jtinma
On Jdrama recommendations.. what are you looking for exactly? There’s like a ton of variety, though I must warn you that there’s practically little to no romance (unless it’s a romantic drama). That’s the downside. So whatever you’re used to kdramas or tw-dramas, you probably won’t get it in jdramas.
Sora Kara Furu Ichi Oku no Hoshi (A Million Stars Falling from the Sky)
- Kimura Takuya, Fukatsu Eri. The story starts out as a murder mystery. Warning, it’s really slow in the beginning and you can’t see the point of what’s going on until you get a few episodes later… where it all ties up. Eri’s brother is a detective who is suspecting KimuTaku to be responsible for a murder. Then Eri and KimuTaku gets close, weird stuff happens around KimuTaku. Big bro tries to keep them apart, but of course, the two already can’t get their hands off each other. Something happens, Eri has to choose between the lover and the brother who raised her all her life. Actually I can’t remember what happened about the murder the brother was investigating, because SOMETHING more mysterious and bigger came up in the latter half of the drama. My all time favorite, probably tied to Karei Naru Ichizoku.
Here’s an amazing MV. I can’t remember who made this, and I can’t find the original link… I don’t even know the title and artist for the song. Anyway, it has lots of spoilers, but it’s so well-made I had to share it.
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=WJ8YS8R7
Karei Naru Ichizoku
- Kimura Takuya, Kitaoji Kinya. It’s set in the 1960s when Japan gov’t was restructuring the financial industry. It focuses on the Manpyo family who is struggling to survive the crisis, it actually centers more on the rivalry between the father and son… Actually I think the rivalry used to be between the Manpyo grandfather and Manpyo father, but when the grandfather died, whatever negative feelings the father had for him was transferred to the son instead… because the son takes after his grandfather a lot. The father manages the bank, but the son was more interested in the grandfather’s suggestion, the steel business. Now the problem is, in order for the bank, which is the center of their business(es), the father is willing to sacrifice the steel business.. but the son won’t let him. It’s not really just business…. Teppei (KimuTaku) has never gotten love from his father… so he sorta has to deal with this.. he finds out why he is treated like that. And the moment he does find out, you will never look at KimuTaku as an idol again. I’m always loving him because he’s like ya know, the legendary Johnny…and he’s hot… his dramas are always successful.. but in this drama, you will appreciate him as an true actor. You won’t see the usual KimuTaku you’ve ALWAYS see in Long Vacation, Good Luck, Pride, Change, etc… I think Belleza can explain this better… Anyway, here’s an MV with the theme song and caps (no spoilers) from the drama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEJRboUQXIw
btw, Shiroi Kyoto’s (also known as The Great White Tower) author wrote the novel this drama was based on.
Hero (Kimura Takuya, Matsu Takako, Abe Hiroshi, etc) – solid cast imo. Not LOL comedy, I can’t explain it.. it just has the typical Japanese humor.. it’s detective-themed, though the cast works in a prosecutor’s office.
Bara no Nai Hanaya (Katori Shingo, Takeuchi Yuko, Matsuda Shota, etc) – this is really a drama, with a bit of humor in the beginning. It’s a good combination of romance and family drama. Katori Shingo’s girlfriend passes as soon as she gave birth to their daughter, so he raises the baby alone. He works day and night until he was able to open a Flower Shop. Bara no Nai Hanaya means a Flower Shop without Roses. That girlfriend was the only daughter, so basically the father hates Shingo’s guts. Years later, he meets a beautiful and blind woman… they fall in love.. but as usual there are secrets bound to be revealed.. and i mean a lot of secrets. Not OTT though, interesting twists.
as mentioned before 1 liter of Tears.
14 sai no Haha – amazing cast. I thought the guy who plays father can only do comedy, but the guy can cry! It’s a touchy subject since it’s about the journey and challenges a middle schooler (and her family) face for becoming a mother so young.
Aishiteru – focuses on three mothers and their relationship with their sons. One mother is a single parent, the other one is a doting mother but her son ends up being murdered at a tender age of 5/6 yo, and the last one is trying to salvage her son and her relationship with him. I cried a lot watching this. It’s hard to watch cos it’s really tragic, but seeing how the mother never gave up to save her son…. This is the drama is unpredictable, I mean, the situation the characters are in.. you can’t really imagine what’s going to happen next… or what they would do… or how they would end this show.. maybe that’s what pushed me to finish it.
Watashitachi no Kyokasho – a junior high student died after being bullied at her school. It’s a sensitive topic since the school doesn’t want to admit there is bullying among the kids. One party wants to shed light on this harsh reality, the other party wants to protect its students (or its reputation?) from being caught in a scandal..
Aikurushii – good drama, I cried as much as I laughed while watching it. It’s a heart-warming story about a simple and poor family. They haven’t finished fansubbing this.. so I’m stuck in ep 9. Yet its’ good enough for me to recommend to tohers.
Life – dunno the cast, but it’s about a girl being bullied at school. full of angst.. they can be very bitchy.. but again, I’m curious how the girl will survive the bullying. Almost reminded me of HYD ep 1 or 2… but from a serious point of view, shedding some light on a social issue.
Classic Romance:
Beautiful Life – my 1st jdrama..
Last Christmas
Koi ni Ochitara
Overtime
Love Revolution (Fujiki Naohito, period)
Love Generation (which I liked so much better than Tokyo Love Story)
Comedy
Trick series – Abe Hiroshi and Nakama Yukie are hilarious here. Murder/Mystery.
Galileo – Fukuyama Masaharu, Shibasaki Kou – murder/mystery.. comedy.
Jikou Keisatsu 1 & 2- Odagiri Joe.. so HOT! Comedy.. murder/mystery.. cracktastic imo.. lots of puns.
Ryuusei no Kizuna – Ninomiya Kazunari, Nishikado Ryo, Toda Erika.
murder/mystery… some comedy.. some drama… family bonds. The three play as siblings, they were orphaned at a young age. Their parents were killed. So they investigate who really is the killer before the statute of limitation is over.
Cracktastic HS drama
My Boss My Hero – omg… Nagase was hilarious throughout the show.. i can’t pick a favorite scene: the HK one where he was called “baka” or the race to win the pudding..
Waterboys – classic really..it’s a comedy. along the lines of Gokusen where it’s episodic. I watched the movie with Tsumabuki Satoshi & Tamaki Hiroshi, Season 1 with Yamada Takayuki and Eita, Season 2 with Ichihara Hayato, Special with Eita, Koide Keisuke and Hiraoka Yuta. They’re basically the same, but for some reason it’s addicting to watch their hilarious struggle, aiming to create and perform as an all boys synchronized swimming club.
Gokusen Series – though I think i’m through with it by season 2.
H2 – Yamada Takayuki. a bit of drama, puppy love, some comedy, another classic hs drama. Yamada’s character was a promising pitcher. But the doctor diagnosed him of “glass elbow”, therefore he gave up on baseball and enrolled at a HS where there is no baseball club. Stuffs happen, and they were able to form an official club composed of strange but lovable characters. Their aim is to win the national baseball tournament. But that means Hiro (Yamada) would face his greatest rivalry, his bestfriend who goes to another HS… a promising batter at a HS that has one of the best baseball club in the region/country.They’re also rivals in love.
Nobuta wo Produce
Stand Up! – four boys aiming to lose their virginity before the summer is over.
Not HS, but Densha Otoko is hilarious….
Other Highly Recommended:
News no Onna
Haikei Chichiue-sama
Satomi Hakkenden
Princess Hiro (Takenouchi Yutaka, Tokiwa Takako)
Kusuragi
Love & Fight
Love Story
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Tiger & Dragon
Kisarazu Cat’s Eye
Hitotsu Yane no Shita
Ninkyo Helper from the summer season was pretty good
Last Friends
Bloody Monday
..kinda weird, but I really liked Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi.
… i’m missing a lot of titles.. but can’t remember them at the moment.
I forgot to add…
Yasha, another favorite of mine. Sei is genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, and smarter than your average talented/perfect Joe. His surrogate mother had to steal him away, but ends up being found out… and she gets killed. Now the company raised him. He returns to Japan to solve a weird murder incident in a village. Only to find out something bigger and more dangerous, not only is the country in danger of mass destruction.. but someone close to him. Murder, mystery, drama, and action. Probably the only jdrama where you’ll see lots of guns and shootings. Kinda Yaoi.. but Ito Hideaki is yummy to begin with..
Another highly recommended title, Odoru Daisousasen. Detective drama.. not very serious since there’s some comedy.
Sorry for ranting so much on jdrama stuff.. that’s the only thing i can contribute here since I’m still learning kdrama goods from JB and the rest of the posters.
“where do you work that you have to commute 400 miles???or are you on a trip?”
I think Hjkomo is coming down to see UCLA vs. Cal this Saturday. I’d say “Go Bears” and I really want to say “So What If Riley Happens, Play The Whole Game!!”
“KTH looked like she was just trying to eat LBH. I mean he is yummy and all, but please if you are going to kiss LBH she should have done it better.”
At this point in the story, she doesn’t love him. She actually thinks he’s just like other macho men (and she’s actually correct), and the dialogue is actually her sizing him up and basically tearing him apart. She tells him that, from their files, she knows he fell in love with her at first sight and the way she expresses it is extremely cold (and, again, accurate.)
She is his superior.
She already knows much more about him than he knows about her.
She watched him get tortured as part of his initiation. She was actually part of the team that prepared his torture.
He is humiliated.
Therefore, he kisses her.
That is why the scene works as it does. And, Kim Tae Hee, whether she actually intended to or not, nails the emotional tone of that scene.
When my kids Jung Pyo and Ji Hoo grow up, I shall tell them about they were immaculately conceived with the very above description.
@ cingdoc
“where do you work that you have to commute 400 miles???or are you on a trip?”
I’ve arrived safely in the OC after 7 hours (ugh!), and damn it’s hot down here.
No, I’m not going to the game…we’re here visiting the family for my nephew and niece’s birthdays. I only slept for an hour in the car (which is unusual, since I’m the queen of knockin’ zzz’s in the passenger seat), and I only got to watch one ep of Assorted Gems before my laptop battery died. I would’ve copied something onto a flash drive and continued my drama addiction on hubby’s laptop, but I only thought of that after mine turned off (must plan ahead for the return trip). My laughter prompted hubby to look over at what I was watching, and he asked why there was a white guy in a kdrama, so then I gave him a synopsis of the drama. Since we were stuck in the car together, he naturally couldn’t escape and had to listen to the entire summary. Ha.
Upon arrival at my parents’ house, Omma proceeded to feed us despite that fact that we had eaten dinner on the way (what Asian mother doesn’t?). Then, she and I compared verbal lists of the dramas we’re watching (I’m currently watching more, which is also unusual)….followed by updates on all the family goings on. I normally don’t keep abreast of the family gossip, since I live so far away, but Holy Cow, someone should make a kdrama about my extended family. I won’t go into the details of the histrionics (who knows, one of my cousins could be reading this and I wouldn’t even know), but suffice it to say that my 98-year old halmoni is now living at my parents’s house instead of my aunt’s.
@ ockoala, cingdoc, samsooki, belleza et al
Don’t kill me CH-ers, but I’m going to have to disagree with ockoala & cingdoc.
The Iris kiss scene is much sexier than the CH kiss scene. The only part of CH I’ve scene is the kiss scene, so I don’t have the emotional attachment to it…and in terms of what it represents in the drama, I’m sure it’s monumental…..but in terms of just the actual kiss itself, Iris wins. Hands down. I mean, come on…it spontaneously caused a twin immaculate conception! (Congrats, belleza!)
@ ockoala
I liked April Snow a lot. If you like Hur Jin Ho, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
epyc’s description sums it up nicely.
“Hands down. I mean, come on…it spontaneously caused a twin immaculate conception! ”
You know, I think baby Jung Pyo will have his daddy’s hair (kinda pama, kinda Ji Sun-ish, ya know?), and baby Ji Hoo will have his eyes (deep, intense, pure.)
If either has Natural Beauty (tm, Tae Hee Enterprises), I’m sorry — they’re going to the orphanage!!!
@belleza – omg you crack me up. seriously. but really, if anyone’s kissing can cause the immaculate conception of not just one but two babies, it is LBH. i haven’t gotten around to watching episode 2 of IRIS yet, but i did look up the kiss scene. as someone who has watched CH, i have to say KSA and CSW’s kiss had a lot more history and meaning, hence was more monumental. i don’t know what led up to the IRIS kiss, except what i’ve read in this thread about him being humiliated or what not, but omo, that was probably the hottest kiss ever. LBH’s eyes just….and his lips.. and omg his jawline and ok i gotta go back to that clip now.
just got city hall banner. tango scene. holla.
Hi just wonder there isnt any drama series upload in the past one week?
I’ve never ever equated April Snow and In the Mood of Love. …now it got me thinking…but ‘more poignant’……hm. maybe I should watch April Snow again.
In the Mood of Love is not a standard WKW, he’s completely abandoned the sparse narrative, but it’s my fav. It’s a Christopher Doyle’s baby (or the marvelous Chang Suk Ping for those jawdroppingly gorgeous QiPaos) that WKW adopted because he can get the dough and the name to get this made. Is WKW the best out there for me, no…. but he’s a great opportunist. He captured all the greats that ever graced HK cinema in the hey days of the 90s and they gave him their all and more. There will be no Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung if there was no WKW vehicles for them, they’ll still be stuck making blockbusters, but there won’t be WKW without any and all of those stars as well. In his movies, never was the charisma/star quality of a thespian put to a bigger showcase. LBH can act with KTH, but Tony Leung can act against Garfield/wet towel/soap. What Takeshi does is not acting, he’s just showing us he’s a star and he can just sit there and eat pineapple and we’ll lust over him forever. WKW let them freely roam on his film. In ‘Mood’ he even let the cinematographer Doyle and the costume/art director Chang be in the very foreground and portrayed exactly a ‘mood’. The storyline is almost as thick as a puff of cigarette smoke, making all those QiPao’s Maggie is strutting around impossibily, heartwretchingly graceful a character, or even that stainless steel wonton carryout can sobbing almost as she carried it desolately along those stairs. Every single ‘object’ appearing in that film has a serious purpose to illustrate a mood, not just to make a visual scene, but to seep in deepr into our psyche and that is the sole theme of the film… a moody snapshot of a specific time and place…1962 Hong Kong. ppl r settling down after the war years, but as what?! as HKers? HK has no identity then…. HKers r in the ambiguity still of being cramped like sardines in a developing society of immigrants and its trapping of being a still 2nd world British colony yet in the mean time, romancing over the lost love of lustful Old Shanghai their hearts r still married to. It’s so not literally a love story of the married Mr. Chow and Mrs. So. It’s the love story of a lost bygone era of ambiguity… a recurring theme in all WKW’s.
If u haven’t seen the movie, the following lines must be the most ‘bleh’, but in a WKW, it’s oozing ‘mood’.
If, there’s one more ticket, will you go with me?
If, there’s one more ticket, will you take me with you?
my mommy is visiting, and jetlagging… so I’ll be up with her. I did not realize how much I miss marathoning a HKdrama with my mom.
I love Wong Kar Wai, but I’m not as passionate about WKW as I am about Hou Hsiao Hsien. For me, my identification with them is mostly one over shared love for, essentially, your favorite Asian folks acting out New Wave cinema. It’s a profound vicarious thrill (kinda like what Park Chan-Wook has done with Korea’s Glamorous.) Both prefer elliptical narrative, ad-libbing, and finding meaning and sadness and pain in the Daily Boredom. Both seem to enjoy using non-actresses as their muses. However, WKW has steadily moved into a bubble of kitsch. Even as he maintains auteur status, there is that vague, yet still uncomfortable suspicion that the “world that is gone” is not his private Shanghai, but his place in Sino art-house. (That and how the Asian World Cinema circuit has fallen madly in love with South Korean film.) That he, in the inevitable Chinese way, become merely gaudy. WKW could speak to a time, but often only when his people were art objects to be manipulated in marvelous, tragic brocade, which is his approach to narrative. Though Ashes of Time is great and transformative for that very thing. From that thing, Fallen Angels correctly observes HK living as, sometimes, a dorm of millions.
In the Mood for Love plays even better if you get the Criterion Collection. There’s extra scenes that bookends both Mood and 2046. And one carnal scene perhaps dirties the couture miserablism (though necessarily so) of the piece.
Having said that, In the Mood for Love is the middle piece of his trilogy proper — Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046. And 2046 plays much better if you get to see the Criterion version of IML. Which is a favorite WKW due to the metadrama rush of Kimura Takuya and Faye Wong trailing a love affair in both normal narrative and an inspired remix of Barberella. The equivalent in the English speaking world were if Robert Pattinson fell in love with Miley Cyrus. Or if Charlotte Church fell in love with the Jonas Brothers. Or if uhhhh . . . okay I’ll stop now.
@lovenyc52 and ockoala
Just finished reading all the posts….Yes, that scene with PSH eating the ice-cream was cute. And the dialogue, so funny with Jeremy asking who the two hyungs thought were pretty and Tae-Kyung suddenly said “Go Mi Nam”. I thought Jeremy was going to have a heart attack. I thought the dialogue is quite smart, sometimes having dual or hidden meanings.
hi dramabeans! will you be doing a re-cap for la dolce vita??
@ wong kar wai is a great opportunist
This has been my suspicion for a long time indeed. There is always more form than substance – but supreme form. Watching his movies is to admire and be seduced by his visual flow and mood.
For heart and soul, nobody gets pass Ang Lee. I always think his Ice Storm is the most underrated which is way better than another american suburbia narrative, the oscar winning American Beauty.
How about Johnnie To’s movies? Any JT fans here?
Gosh, going back and forth from this thread to the Iris recap thread is tiring.
Anyways, when discussing the kiss scene in Iris. Damn, that was one hot kiss scene (congrats, Belleza for the twins =] ).
I am sorry, CH fans, but I would have to agree that it was way hottter in terms of lust. But as the storyline is concerned, I didn’t really care for it, maybe that comes from my dislike of KTH. The kiss in CH was more meaningful for me.
But you know, when there is a kiss involved, you can always count of Mr. LBH to deliver. That reminds me of the kiss in Beautiful Days, – Mr. LBH is probably one of the only few korean actors that could generate THAT MUCH EMOTION through a kiss. This is for the kiss obsessed ladies–I have mentioned many times of the kiss scene in BBC North & South. Men, take lessons from Richard Armintage.(Can’t escape from the long gazing stare).
here it’s ladies, be prepared =]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyYiwD1Q1aY
and not I don’t mean to spoil it for anyone who has not seen N & S. But this is another favorite scene of mine…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4M54xIun0
also, thank s Belleza for replying to me in the Iris thread. SYJ being attached to this project was only a dream. *sighed* But I hope that in the future, they might do a movie together (fingers crossed).
I agree that another alternative to KTH would be Ha Ji Won. I have never seen her in any action role, but she is indeed a better actress compared to KTH.
Still, KTH really hit the jackpot by being involed in Iris. It’s going to be interesting to see how the love triangle would form, and this way, Kim So Yeon’s character comes across as more mysterious.
I shouldn’t watch things when I’ve removed my contacts, I miss the subtleties.
IRIS kiss – my cornea is on fire – I *may* have to concede it’s the hottest kiss ever in k-drama.
CH kiss- still the *best* kiss in k-drama considering the context, and the fact that CSW and KSA kepted kissing as the camera pulled away (hello, arms around neck), hence mwah, mwah, mwah.
Poor KTH ran off, so she missed out on more LBH kissage, but probably prevented belleza from having triplets, or even more kids and somehow quality for her own TLC show – belleza plus immaculately conceived quints. But I LOVE the wonderful framing of the IRIS kiss and the gorgeous orange, red background(stupid CH directors had to tone down the lusty hotness for their ratings, bah says me, but watching the BTS of all the CH kisses, if I didn’t already have the ockoala babys, I would be carrying another one as well – CSW-KSA shouldn’t be kissing like that when one is married, would lead to too much conjecture).
@ hjkomo
Have a nice weekend in LA!
@gracefulmoonie
The North & South kiss is spectacular, and this from not knowing anything about the show at all, just watching the scene makes you feel as if you’re peeping into a very private moment between the two of them…Richard carries the scene so well, the subtle smile on his face just reads…”god, i want to kiss her, she’s so beautiful, i love her so much…” oh wow, I must say that is one good scene…and the music just sets the mood so well…i’m gonna have to look up the ost to this, seriously. And when they pull away from the train station, i just loved the framing of the shot where she looks up and out, so appropriate, so sweet, so gentle, so romantic.
Iris vs CH Kiss … Haven’t seen Iris yet, but to me i feel like the two kisses are in different categories. CH is a kiss that’s meant to be romantic, it was set up to show the two characters falling in love and moving to the next step. the kiss in Iris is NOT a kiss meant to be romantic, the fact that it was a forced kiss (eventhough the lady succumbed) makes the scene brutish and is a scene set to show LBH’s character more than the “love” that he has for her. My 2cents, please don’t hate me now!
@gracefulmoonie
Richard Armitage’s gaze at that train station scene in N&S is as erotic as the kiss that follows it. I love N&S!
The Iris kiss is just like a kiss in a US drama, akin to a Buffy-Spike kiss, and just like a Veronica-Logan kiss. All of the heat, none of the sensibilities. Well done LBH and KTH, I know expect a sizzling sex scene.
Morning all!
I am the recipient of 9 straight hours of glorious sleep…can’t tell you how long it’s been since that happened, but I suspect it would coincide with my discovery of K-dramas and Dramabeans!
Anyhoo…jumping into the early morning fray and the wonderful topic of who had the hotter/better kiss, IRIS or City Hall.
MINOR SPOILERS (but probably nothing you couldn’t have gotten from the trailer)
Context is SO important in these situations. Yes, the IRIS kiss was a forced kiss initially, but why did Hyun-joon do it? Was it to shut Seung-hee up because she was telling him a few home truths that he didn’t want to hear, despite his request for her to do so? Or was it because he knew instinctively that she fell in love with him at first sight just as he did with her (she did, as we see in a later flashback). Well…it’s both!
In City Hall, we have a slow burn buildup to a kiss because there’s a major conflict preventing our couple from being together. In IRIS, we have a raging fire of a kiss from the get-go because there’s a major conflict preventing our couple from being together. In City Hall, it’s resist, resist, resist until we can’t stand it one more minute; in IRIS, it’s let’s not resist at all because we could. you know, DIE at any moment.
Apples and oranges…and a whole bunch of happy viewers!
As far as KTH is concerned, I’ve only ever seen her in The Restless and I’m inclined to give her a pass, because that was one hot mess of a movie. I’ve only seen a clip or two of Love Story in Harvard so I didn’t form an opinion there. So as someone who has no preconceived notions about her acting abilities, I can say that two hours in, I think she’s doing just fine.
On another note; I’m now 3.5 eps into What Happened in Bali. Still confused, but I just don’t care because OMG it’s So Ji-sub and Jo In-sung!!
^ o langdon, if u r confused 4 eps in with Bali, u’ll stay confused thro out…BUT loving every fantastic minute of it. And u would’ve guessed HJW will have to choose btn the 2, and she’ll be as confused but u’ll TOTALLY understand her dilemma. plus JIS turned my mr.mook into a screaming fanboy, just by the cushion he’s molesting while crying.
Belleza, word. But I have no problem just falling for all the brocades and qipaos or just Maggie Cheung’s lithe legs…it’s just so pretty pretty pretty and I’m even loving it being OTT pretentiously artsy….
and 2046, was the best acting job of Kimutaku…. because he’s retreated back to his green days circa LV, before Kimutaku ever existed. And he should be grateful for such an annoyed, difficult time working with WKW, he didn’t GET much if any direction..and the lost, anguish, @$#%$$%&@ he must felt, we saw every bit of it, coloring up his character marvelously (maybe it’s the plan of slysly WKW)and… Faye Wong will forever be my girl crush.
I just saw Ashes of Time Redux. Mr mook asked me if I’m watching a docu of multicolored hot springs in Yellowstone. I told him yes.
@ langdon-unni
“On another note; I’m now 3.5 eps into What Happened in Bali. Still confused, but I just don’t care because OMG it’s So Ji-sub and Jo In-sung.”
You are watching WHIB? OMG as well!!! That’s all I have to say (for now).
And yes, The Restless is a hot mess of a movie even taken in context and with a grain of salt. I’d say KTH’s character couldn’t possibly be played well by anyone, because she had no substance, no angst, no context, other than as a foil for JWS.
I’m now itching to start watching IRIS, but I’m agonna wait untl after I return from Boston and a few more eppies air. I’m glad your hubby enjoyed TGTBTW.
@ belleza
Funny aside – with my new Iphone, wherever I go, I get asked to hack into random WiFi hotspots, and I always decline (3G is fine for me). Today, at the Coffee Bean on Beach Blvd in HB, I got asked to proxy into a WiFi named “beleza” I was looking around for you – but knew it was just a similar name.
@belleza:
You mean your twins has been conceived under the influence of LBH? But, IRIS has only started showing on last Wednesday/Thursday, how do you know that your babies going to be twins? You mean the technology are now so advance? Wow!!
Ah…I am stuffed…nothing beats Mom’s Korean cooking.
More drama on hjkomo’s SoCal family front – paternal aunt tried to set cousin (on my mother’s side) up on a seon (meeting/blind date). Cousin went out of politeness and respect, knew immediately the guy was a big fat “X” (strike), told said fellow as such (more politely, of course)….then just now, received a phone call from said fellow’s mother IN KOREA pleading with my cousin to date her son. OMFG. My poor cousin. (Edit: cousin is now conferring with my parents on how best to convince Aunt to get the fellow’s mother to back off)
Meanwhile, Mom has put me to work cutting fruit….while hubby merely laughs at the sight and refuses to lift a finger in fear of reprimand from Halmoni. (She has, many times, scolded him for trying to help in the kitchen.)
@langdon, re: WHIB,
What are you confused about? Like, which guy is the lead?
Well, both guys are leads — that’s what’s so great about WHIB. There is no decoy- third wheel. This drama has a genuine love triangle — both are viable love interests. Also, all three characters in the triangle are terribly flawed, and at times you will hate all of them, but at the back of your mind, you will know that you don’t really, and that you just don’t like how they are making choices that are uncomfortably real.
WHIB is really one of the best K-dramas, imo. If it had a Facebook page, its status would be “It’s complicated.”
@ Nom_Kitteh
I think I’m less confused now, but I can tell you this after just finishing Ep 6. My personal opinion (as of this moment) is that SJS and JIS should kick those two chicks to the curb and just be with each other.
Wishy-washy Fiancee and Too-Stupid-To-Live Girl can stay in Seoul; I’m all for the boys heading back to Bali!
161 epyc
” I always think his Ice Storm is the most underrated which is way better than another american suburbia narrative, the oscar winning American Beauty.”
That has been my opinion as well for a good number of years but not enough people I know have watched the Ice Storm for me to gripe about it and now years later I see someone shares my opinion and on a kdrama blog at that. American Beauty was not that great and the acting was a bit over the top. The Ice Storm on the other hand was a revelation in terms of the topic, the period and understated acting. I’ve always wondered how Ang Lee could conjure up the images and feel of the early 70s considering he wasn’t in the US during that time or that matter Austen’s england.
When the Ice Storm came out I recommended it to my office worker since at the time it was the best movie that I’ve seen in a while. After she watched it she told me she was never so depressed in all her life and she might never forgive me for putting her and her bf through such a miserable time. I think that was the last time I recommended a movie to anyone.
@langdon813.
Ideally, all K-dramas would end with the main male lead hottie and second male hottie heading off to Bali and making out, but sadly….
I hope that at some point you come to like Lee Soo-jung as a character. Yes, I suppose she is Too-Stupid-To-Live Girl, but she is also a desperately poor girl with no connections and a hunger for the life on the other side of the tracks. I thought her character captured the complicated reality of (choosing or not choosing) love in a desperate and materialistic world. I really liked her, and I also fell in adore with Ha Ji Won.
I am jealous of you. I wish I were watching WHIB for the first time!
langdon-
Glad that you are watching WIB. That drama introducted me to SJS and JIS.
But as Noh_Kitteh said- Three words that would really sum up the plot of WHIB_ it would be “it’s complicated.”
When I first started, I was going crazy the first & second ep. wondering what the hell all 4 of them were doing in Bali.
I saw Ha Ji Won from Damo already, so I knew that she could act. But through out the entire drama- I was like “Woman, pick one guy for goodness sakes”…the plot really draged on and on for the last 10 episodes…but actually it wasn’t her fault..both SJS and JIS played really ‘needy” male characters, maybe this applies to JIS’s character’s more. sorry… hopefully I didn’t give too much away.
I rooted to HJW and JIS all the way to the dramatic ending…but somehow, after watching the entire drama, I became more interested in SJS. That’s what lead me to watching him in Cain & Abel, and Glass Slippers. I really liked C & A because he was paired up with Ha Ji Min..but Glass Slippers is just tooo freaking long to watch eventhough the lovey Kim Hyun Joo is the leading actress.
and many people recommended “I’m Sorry, I love you”- but I just cannot stand watching the main actress w/ So Ji Sub. sorry…going off toipc again.
I loved JIS’s bratty character in WHIB– you should watch the bloopers when you are finished. They are sooo hiliarious. =]
On another note, I loved loved Jung Joon Ho from Last Scandal…I might catch more Iris and vote for team “Sa Woo”— that will give me an excuse to watch KTH.
I am soooo ready for Kim So Yeon’s time to shine in Iris….why can’t we get like 4 episodes per week…just kidding…
@Nom_Kitteh (and ockoala, I know you’re just waiting to jump in, hahaha)
At the risk of turning this into the langdon WHIB play-by-play thread, I thought I’d tell you that I’m not really hating Lee Soo-jung any more (except when she cries…her sobs are like nails on a chalkboard to me. Less is more, honey). I am so ready for this girl to catch a break! Which reminds me; the movie/dinner date was cute, cute, cute.
But has everyone else had this problem? One minute I’m on JIS’s side…five minutes later I’m rooting for SJS; five minutes after THAT I’m back with JIS. It’s like the Wimbledon of K-dramas!
I’m all confused again. Can’t she just have them both? Nothing wrong with that, right??
One other observation. I think because MiSa was the first SJS drama for me, it’s a little weird to see him all GQ in these designer suits with perfect hair. Although he was a little better dressed in Rough Cut, he was still a gangster, so it wasn’t as strange. He makes such a beautiful hoodlum.
Back to the show…
@ langdon and Nom_Kitteh
I agree with both your points of view on WHIB. I’ve gotten two completely different reactions from watching WHIB twice, the first time I really felt the connection between HJW-JIS, the second time, I was all about SJS-HJW. I don’t want to discuss why for fear of spoiling plot turns, suffice to say, I never once disliked Lee Soo-jung, but I could never figure out what the men saw in her (other than her cushy sexuality). WHIB is complicated indeed, to this day, I don’t think I can really describe what it’s about adequately.
out of intense curiosity, i finally checked out black and white, even though i prolly shouldnt since i have a midterm coming up in three days…but its too late hahaha. i am really enjoying it. theres the right amt of suspense and the right dash of humor that makes the timing spot on. and of course the whole project, with its CGI, great art direction, and intense chase scenes, gives off this sexy, sleek feel to the drama that u prolly never get watching an ordinary tw idol drama. mark zhao is actually pretty cute, but i have to say that in the beginning, he still appears a bit stiff and having difficulty annunciating the mandarin. vic zhou is handling his role so well, and maybe its b/c ive only seen a bit of him in meteor garden, but i have a feeling he’s been getting the good guy roles alot and this one was a breakthrough for him. right now im really curious to find out what is the dark past that he harbors, and who, why, and how the hell the mysterious informant keeps giving tips to pi zi.
from what ive seen so far, black and white definitely deserved all its awards, although maybe the best actor really should have gone to vic…either way, im glad theres finally a breath of fresh air in the tw drama industry. i dont know if other ppl in the future will want to take a risk and follow in the director’s shoes to make smth awesome like b&w, but we can only hope haha.
Happy Open Thread everyone…
Several days ago I tried to watch My Fair Lady and boy!!! I stopped watching after 20 minutes. God knows I’ve tried but I really couldn’t stand Yoon Sang Hyun. His character was
so annoying and has no appeal at all, at least not to my liking.
And I’ve never seen Yoon Eun Hye so robotic, nothing at all like YEH I used to love,
So I decided to give up and rewatch Gossip Girl instead. At least Chace Crawford was not horrible to look at.
I’ve also noticed that a lot of people are making a fuss about how great You’re Beautiful is,
But I don’t know if I’m gonna dedicate my life to watch some pretty guys with so much make up on.
I mean I get that they are in a sort of boyband, but the idea of falling in love with a guy who wears eye liner is inconceivable for me.
So anyone can help me by telling me why this drama is worth watching?
I’d really appreciate that….
Lastly, talking about (sigh) earthquake, I’m getting sick of living in fear. After spending a week covering stories about the devastating
Earthquake that has killed more than a thousand people in West Sumatra last month, I had to experience another temblor on Friday just like Djes.
I was lucky enough I had a day off at was at home. I can’t imagine what would happen if I was at my office.
The thought of running down the stairs from my office at the 9th floor of my building makes me cringe.
I started thinking to move out of country for the sake of my heart, my legs, and my sanity.
So peeps… Stay safe and alert, especially if you’re living in Indonesia.
@ 180, Gita
I can’t imagine living under the stressful conditions that you have been (I’ve never actually been in fear for my LIFE before), so I’m glad that you’re able to come to Dramabeans and the OT to hang out. There’s no better place online to seek relief from real life problems; and I speak from personal experience!
You’re Beautiful is absolutely fantastic and I hope you’ll give it a chance. Read JB’s recaps if you haven’t already; you’ll find that she has succinctly (and hilariously) pointed out all of this drama’s many excellent qualities. The number of comments posted after each recap rival the OT and believe me, that takes some doing! The story is fresh (despite the premise), the whole cast is wonderful, and the two leads have amazing chemistry together. And so do the main female and the second male lead, which is never a bad thing! It’s just a joy to watch. I’ve seen each episode at least 3 times (so far!) and the only drama I’ve done that for before is City Hall, if that tells you anything. Nothing goes the way you expect it to; every cliche is turned on its ear. The Hong sisters have really given us something special with this one.
I think you’ll love it! And typing this may have just talked me into watching it a 4th time…
Hey guys quick question… I just downloaded Feelings from the d-addicts subs page and the subs don’t work. I have never had this prob before…just wanted to check and find out if anyone else has ahd this prob…suggestions?
Just to be clear, I have all my codecs, etc. I watch subbed videos everyday. This just isn’t working.
@langdon813
Just finished YB (3 &4)…I think (from the preview), the GMN and HTK are heating up..he he. In a way HTK reminds me of Park Kyu. We all know HTK’s starting to have feeling for GMN (like PK had for BJ in the beginning), and yet he’s fighting it…we all know he will lose…he he
@mookie
You know, the more I read postings from you, the more I wonder if you’re one of my sisters (it’s impossible since I only have older sisters, and you are tooooo young to be one of them). The way you like to watch WKW and HKdrama ( my sisters never critize my kdrama addiction because they have their HK drama); your mom who just came from HK(???)(my Mom ,too).
—Chinesedrama in general: since my Chinese is poor (only went up to 4th grade), it’s actually “hard” for me to understand them. I honestly can say that I was not interested in ANY drama (US including) until 2007 when I accidentally caught onto Coffee Prince from the local LA channel ( if I’m not mistaken, that was the year the US networks’ workers were on strike, and only re-runs were on). Anyhoo, my chinese is sooo bad that my Mom often scolds me for being too “Qwai lau”, and not too happy that 1)my hubby is Chinese , but not a word of Chinese from him (3rd gen ABC), and 2)well…worse for my 2 kids .
@hjkomo
Hey my fellow Cal “sister”- you were/are in town…should have told/reminded me , and we could have got together with ockoala. I spent 1/2 day in OC on Sat…had to watch games (NCAA, MLB and hockey) with my hubby’s fellow *gag* Trojans.
Thank God, at least Cal won. The Anaheim Angels lost to Yankees (sob), and I’m not even going to mention my Ducks (slaughtered, 5-0!!!!!).
Wow, like you don’t get enough (virtual)drama from your laptop, you are now getting a reality show from the family….I’m sorry about Grandma. Hope you have a better trip returning to the Bay Area ( wave to my family, ok?)
Sidenotes:
this week in South Cal, we had ALL weather-
cold in the early part of the week, rain, Santa Ana wind, followed by 2 days of 90+ heat wave, an Earthquake (3.8), and a mild Fall day today. I guessed we should be thankful that we do not have tornadoes…
What should I watch now…last week I spent all week with MNIKSS while I was waiting for new epi of YB. For this week- any suggestions, anyone…another round of CH -since I’m still on a KSA viewing mood??? Besides, there is no such thing as too much GOOKIE.
anyway…i love k-dramas….4 me…all the best…..
@Gita – langdon813 is SO on the money about You’re Beautiful. I was hesitant at first too because the synopsis didn’t intrigue me at all. But after all the rave reviews of the first and second episode i read on OT, i had to give it a try, and it did not disappoint! very very enjoyable.
@cingdoc – WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE!? where was i!??! the weather sucked though. i hate this heat. It’s october. i want rain. i drove by UCI this weekend (go ‘eaters!!) and i saw their front lawn by the dorms were BRIGHT GREEN. wtf. stop wasting water~!! i want to see some brown grass during this ridiculous drought of ours.
@hjkomo – wave to my family too!! i forgot, where in the bay are you from again?
I tried watching MNIKSS on dramafever tonight but it’s acting up and won’t let me. sighs. whyyyyyyyyy!?!?!?
@lovenyc52
You don’t have to worry about the earthquake-it was only 3.8 , and it was at Beaumount. As for brown grass, you are more than welcome to my front and back lawns for that ; we have many patches of that…lol
ROOTS:
where were we from the Bay Area- I grew up near 24 and 680
As RE: dramafever:
I think when I try to get on it this morning, they stated that they have tech problems so the streaming is malfunctioned.
I actually started Smile- it’s good so far. I recognized quite a few people. The poor, but fiesty jilted bride is Goo Jung Pyo’s jilted bride. Her snobby dad is from Pure 19 (Goo Hye Sun’s early work- it’s a good drama with Suh Ji Seuk, but very longggggg 167 episodes!). The grandfather is the grand chef/dad from Gourmet. And …..my favorite- ( and I thought of you, @Samsookie, because of our discussion in OT 104) the jerk who dumped the bride is no other than Kim Sam Soon’s cheating boyfriend!Anyway, for me this is a good drama to “bridge” me til YB’s on again.
@ epyc, nycgrl
How does Ice Storm, the movie, compare with the book?
@ lovenyc52
Bear Territory (well, a couple miles away, technically)
@ cingdoc
I would’ve waved to your family on my way back, but I was busy being carsick starting from around Pleasanton. I had put my plan into action and was going to watch more videos on hubby’s laptop after my laptop battery died….but then trying to start up his laptop entailed a little too much reading (I get very carsick while reading). Hubby got a bit irked that I made myself sick just to watch more kdrama. To make up for it, he got to laugh at my expense when I got cold and reached for the nearest sweatshirt in the back seat…and didn’t realize that it was his Stanford shirt until after I had already put it on (grrr).
Halmoni is doing well. We had a blast playing hwatu (I hadn’t played since I was a kid. Go Stop’s too complicated, so we opted for min hwatu)…and yoot no ri (a stick-throwing/board game usually played at New Year’s). It brought back fond memories of my childhood.
Dinner was out in Garden Grove. Let’s see…I had galbi, naengmyun, dol sot bibimbap, pajun, and bunch more there….then sorbet & frozen custard at Frostbites….then birthday cake….then Korean pears. Ah, too much food!!!
Thank goodness Cal won (yay!).
ND almost beat USC (darn!)
And was that Angels game the longest ever, or what?! Those poor New Yorkers in the freezing cold rain. The game ended so late, we had to postpone watching TGTBTW until this morning. Hubby thought it was all right (aigoo!), but the kids loved it. Their favorite character was The Weird (mine, too).
As far as who was smexier….I must admit, no one but LBH can make guyliner hot and masculine, and the underwear scene was sizzling….but my vote still goes to Jung Soo Sung as The Good. I wouldn’t mind being that horse, rope, or shotgun…I don’t care which!
Being gone this weekend and sick the previous, I’m even more behind on my weekend dramas. Oh, noes!
Edit:
@ cingdoc – I’m absolutely loving Assorted Gems. It’s refreshing.
Oh, and I just found out that I’ll be spending a week at Christmas babysitting the nephew and nieces while bro & sis-in-law take a trip to Korea & China.
Any suggestions of -
1) things to do (Magic Mountain is on the list – nephew’s finally tall enough to ride the fastest rollercoasters – poor kid’s got my mom’s short genes)
2) kdramas/movies to watch (they’re currently addicted to QSD)
@hjkomo
I was just going to sign off, and there I see my Cal Sister…I’m glad that you had a blast down here. The mentioning of delish food (I love naengmyun and bibimpap)just made me gained 5 virtual pounds- have to spin that extra 10 min tomorrow morning, he he. Those Stanford Cardinals can be mean, don’t they? You should have retaliated by getting sick on his precious sweatshirt- that would have scare him good, he he.Well, I think we should call it a nite…rest well. See you later in the week , here, ok.
typo – I meant, Jung Woo Sung!
@ cingdoc
Yeah, I really should have!
When I started to put it on, he just smiled and said, “Oh, you’re putting that on?!”
I thought he was thinking it was cute because it’s been ages since I’ve worn something of his….it was dark, and I just thought it was one of his Eddie Bauer shirts….until he pointed to the tiny little “S” on the front and mocked with glee, “TEEHEEHEE, look what you’re wearing!”
Definitely must think of adequate payback…
*hugs* cingdoc, I’ve been a lost cause for my mom for too long. She still buys clothes for me fr HK, and actually she gets my taste to a tee, just does not approve of it. I’ve no prob wearing most of them…but she’ll usu sneak in a piece or 2 she dreams of me in… and those r always dutifully sold on Ebay.
She had preconceptions and expectations of my hubby, but she’s abandoned them, he can speak/write fluent Cantonese, but he’s a Midwesterner, he doesnt get any of our coy sensibilities. He still nicely refuses food my mom cooked, thinking it’s no big deal.
I do not watch as many HKdrama nowadays, they r just too long to follow, 80+eps…gosh. and the fun of watching HKdrama is watching it LIVE with the whole of HK. It’s so monopolized there, when one drama hits the mark, it’ll be on 99% of the tele, and that’s 90% of the time. We’re watching Gem of Life, it’s so nostalgic seeing all those familiar veteran actors still in a popular soap.
So…I finished What Happened in Bali. How you guys managed to do such a brilliant job of not giving me so much as one tiny little hint as to how it would all end up….I am duly impressed, that must have been tough!!
I’m calm now, but about an hour ago poor ockoala (who is trying to be out in the real world on a business trip) had to deal with text messages such as:
OMG!!!
WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED HERE?
SERIOUSLY??? NO REALLY, SERIOUSLY???
And in her usual calm and unruffled manner, she managed to talk me down off the ledge. Mostly.
But…SERIOUSLY?
187 hjkomo
“How does Ice Storm, the movie, compare with the book?”
I’ve never read it but I heard the author was very pleased with the result. I tend to read more classic lit, history and biography books and not as much modern lit. The last modern lit book I read was “geek love” and “moon palace” and that was a while ago.
@ langdon-unni
And like a twisted cherry on top of the red velvet cake, the final image of WHIB is a flashback to the a very early scene in the drama, juxtaposed against what you’ve just watch devolve from a idlyllic shangri-la into……something that is not. WHIB is so delicious in its subversiveness, like belleza said.
I was happy to calm you down, but please refrain from so many all caps and exclamation marks in one text – you freaked me out until I figured out what you were talking about (it took me 2 seconds, of course) – though if there was ever a drama that merited such a reaction, it would definitely be WHIB.
I’m exhausted but curling up with a few chapters of Kitchen Confidential – I love bad boy chefs, like I love my bad boy drama heros.
@190 mookie
….things we do for our clueless other half). It’s over 20 years now, the son-in-law and m-i-law get along fine, and there’s any conflict, it’s usually ME who will “receive” it.
OMG, are you SURE we’re not twin…(but of course with a time lapsed, since I’m MUCH older than you). Yes, my Mom stil buy clothes for me, in bright pattern, and of course wrong size (Sorry, Mom, but your kid is no longer petite, but supersized petite due to years of American diet).
Yeah, my sweet hubby got me in hot water a few times, too. A good example: in our first year of marriage, he actually said “No, thank you” to my Mom when she gave him a red packet ( lai see) during Chinese New Year. Not good , honey. THAT has never happened again. Being the way he is, my hubby then topped that by throwing away the Kumquat tree before the New Year was over. I thought my Mom and Dad were going to disown me right there and then….aiya!!!! However, since he was soooo clueless about the whole incident, he was spared of the yelling ( I took the brunt of it, for a good 2 hours worth
@193, ockoala (not anonymous at all, LOL)
Sorry about that. I did pause for about half a second thinking you might be at some highly important business dinner or something…but a drama emergency IS a drama emergency, after all! I knew you would forgive me!
What also helped tremendously was gracefulmoonie’s suggestion to watch the WHIB NG’s after I finished, which I did, and they were hilarious. I have to say…seems like JIS was hands down the worst culprit out of the entire cast. For some reason, this does not surprise me in the least. He is completely adorable in that way that makes you want to kiss him or kill him.
Sigh…I’m trying so hard not to be all fangirly over So Ji-sub, I really, really am. But I fear it is a battle I will not win. He has the eyes of an Egyptian pharaoh, all sad and mysterious and hypnotic…plus, he has mastered the technique of letting those wondrous eyes fill with tears, but not letting them fall until just…the…right…moment. He has elevated this to an art form, truly.
@langdon813,
A really good show to “come down” from WHiB is Spring Day. Jo In Sung essentially plays a variation of his *puts fist in mouth and cries uncontrollably* ARRGHHHHHH!!!!!!” character in WHiB, except this one has a happy ending. He and This Mishil (aka Ko Hyung Jung) have strong chemistry throughout that show.
Before WHiB happened, Jo In Sung was considered one of the worst actors in K-drama. Because of WHiB, he won the Baeksang and then after the movie Dirty Carnival, he was regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation. What one show can do!!
Also of note: Jo In Sung won the Baeksang in 2004. So Ji Sup won the Baeksang in 2005. Jo In Sung was the dude who handed the award to SJS. Here’s the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UHFHe41ahs
So, for me, SJS’s Moo Hyuk is my all-time favorite performance. But JIS’s Jo Jae-min is probably #3 or #4 for me.
belleza, thanks for the clip! I got a kick out of their Award Show Ensembles.
JIS’s theme for the evening appeared to be Revenge of the Nerds, complete with oversized specs and slicked-down hair. All that was missing was the white shirt and pocket protector! And SJS seemed to be rocking the Cowboy Disco Pimp attire quite nicely.
I didn’t find WHIB to be as overwhelming emotionally as MiSa or Hong Gil Dong, because I could tell early on that it wasn’t going to end well. I had no idea it would be that extreme, that part of the ending shocked me; but I was definitely expecting a bad ending. JIS was awesome; so much so that I was actively pulling for him over SJS, and that takes some doing!
Funny, I usually cry buckets over everything, but I didn’t even get a lump in my throat with WHIB. I think Hong Gil Dong may have broken my crying mechanism.
@langdon813,
“Funny, I usually cry buckets over everything, but I didn’t even get a lump in my throat with WHIB.”
Ah, you know, I was the same way. Pretty early on, WHiB came off as very satirical, almost nihlistic. I don’t so much empathize with JIS’s performance as I go “cocaine is a helluva drug!” It’s almost performance art in that way.
Loved the ending though. Very, well, “Miami Vice.”
Certain scenes in WHiB, I actually have Flock of Seagulls playing in my head. I run, I run so far away . . . .
“JIS’s theme for the evening appeared to be Revenge of the Nerds, complete with oversized specs and slicked-down hair”
And that’s the thing about JIS and LJK. LJK is pretty, but he’s pretty much a guy. JIS sends off major gaydar (though, true, after Frozen Flowers, not as much.) No other 20-something K-drama actor wears clothes as well as JIS.
My assessment of both Jang Geon Seok and Kim Bim is strongly affected by their physical resemblance to JIS. I’m harder on JGS’s performances, because of that, I guess. In JGS’s adult shows, he needs to project an image of authority and macho. Even in You’re Beautiful where he’s essentially playing a parody of the Jang Geon Seok Serious Guy to Zoolander-meets-Kang Mae cartooniness, he’s for me most beguiling when he’s performing. Because then he drops the macho bull-ish and is just a dorky, beautiful boy enjoying the moment. The thing with Jo In Sung is that he too had that mental block. When he started out, he was unbelievably stiff partially because he often was playing to notions of what a “guy” should be in dramas. Bu then, he sought inspiration and influences from his female actress partners and, through a lot of work, dropped all that sullen, macho stuff. He came a person capable of violating the personal space of “normal” intimacy. I’m not saying JGS should do what JIS should do. But I’m waiting for JGS to let go (like he does with his clothes) and let out his inner weirdo. And I think it’ll free his acting.
WOOooooooo….I just have to share this with the JWS fans here.
Jung WOOoo Sung just came on Showbiz Extra a few minutes ago. He was being interviewed for his new movie “Season of Good Rain”.
When asked what else interest him these days besides acting and directing, he said…WOMEN!!
I.DROPPED.DEAD.
ok. finally got around to watching MNIKSS…. and can i say, KSA’s daydreams and overactive imagination CRACK ME UP… and binnie is an a$$. and he’s scary when he yells.
SPOILER AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m in episode 4 where samsoon tells jin heon that hee-jin came to see him and she asks him if that’s the girl who liked ‘over the rainbow’. He gets this scary look on his face and asks her what the 4th rule of the contract was. When she doesn’t answer right away, he YELLS REALLY LOUDLY!! …and i got scurred and thought ‘guy is an a$$!!!!’ and i kinda wanted to kick him in the face at that point. he’s not doing a very good job making people think they’re dating if he’s screaming at her in the workplace…. but then afterwards, i love how samsoon stuck up for herself… she rocks my world!!
SPOILER END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok back to watching ep 4
@198 belleza
YES! I totally get that.
I think this is why I’m so drawn to k-dramas, because, for lack of a better term, men aren’t afraid to be girls sometimes; to be led by emotion rather than the perceived notion of what a man “should” be.
(In WHIB, Jung Jae-min and Kang In-wook were so very very yin/yang that, in the end, it really couldn’t have turned out any differently).
I’m trying to think of a good example of an American actor who embodies this, but it’s tough, because the movie-going public in America these days would rather see Transformers than say, 500 Days of Summer. (I reserve the right to see Ninja Assassin without shame, however. It’s RAIN, dammit).
One of my favorite guilty-pleasure movies from the 80’s is Valley Girl with Nicholas Cage. It has a killer soundtrack which doesn’t hurt, but it also has a boy who’s crazy for a girl and doesn’t care who knows it, doesn’t care what he has to do to win her, and never for one minute pretends that he’s anything less than 100% in love. I mention this only because I think Nicolas Cage is such a good example of a very talented actor turned mediocre movie star. Why? Because he stopped being a free spirited man who made risky choices early on (i.e. Valley Girl, Raising Arizona, Moonstruck) but morphed into an action hero (Con Air, Face/Off, Ghost Rider…urgh).
Even Johnny Depp has sold out, kinda.
@200 lovenyc52
Nooooo….Binnie is not an a$$, just an idiot. If you stick it past epi 4 or 5, you, too will fall in love with him as KSS will. It’s a very cute romance. You know, if most of us have watched it 4-10 times ( I, personally, have watched it 6 or 7 times, and as recently as last week, and that was just 3 months since last watch !!!), then we would not have recommended it to you if it’s a lemon. I mean I STILL cry, laugh and “awww” at each precious moment even though I already know “what will happen next”. I think besides Samsook, I can claim to be the biggest KSA/Binnie fan. The first time I watched MNIKSS, I thought the writer had written the character KSS with me in mind-the avg looking Asian female who has to fight to get ahead professionally, and get the guy she wants/loves .(ok, maybe not the last part, hehe) . So, pleeeease , don’t hate my Binnie…..
“Binnie is not an a$$, just an idiot.”
World class a$$ in My Name is Kim Sam Soon. But adorable.
It’s okay though. Before that role, Binnie played a husband in Ireland who struggles with his wife’s adultery. And of course, after Sam Soon, he grew out his hair and became The Hyun Bin of Legend (aka Snow Queen.) Oh okay, MY legend.
@langdon,
“to be led by emotion rather than the perceived notion of what a man “should” be.”
In that respect, Jo In Sung is to other K-drama leads what K-drama leads are to American leads. What makes JIS’s performance in Bali so memorable — besides the extremely pretty weeping and that awesome thing he does with his fist — is that he doesn’t merely want (to sleep with) Ha Ji Won, he wants to climb back into her womb. He wants to be One with her, even if it destroys him (even if it destroys her!), and he acts in kind like a woman scorned.
She fell in love with him, not because he was good, but because he was rich. Her pride (and sense of morality) couldn’t accept that. He fell in love with her because nobody loved his money like she did. However, even if she were to accept him, there is no real possibility for a happy, healthy relationship, because they could not substantiate their bond by anything but money. Neither had souls.
The JJM vs. KIK debate is actually kind of a trap and a subversive middle finger to the Cinderella K-drama setup. While the audience is trying to pick which one (and at the same time trying to empathize with a female character who is deliberately written to be wishy-washy), they don’t see the true ending, which is that Cinderella and her Friends eventually go to Hell.
“I’m trying to think of a good example of an American actor who embodies this,”
That era of Jo In Sung (when he was THE go-to guy for a noona romance) reminds me of 70s Travolta. Whereas So Ji Sup reminds me of . .. well, an Egyptian God. Lo!! I am King Ramses. So let it be written, so let it be done!!
The Nicholas Cage comparison is really good. Old school Nicholas Cage was really into playing dudes who were, you know, crazy. Then comes Michael Bay who convinces him that a mullet, wife beat and bad Elvis accent would lead to action hero stardom. Who knew that would actually happen???
@gita
If langdon 813 and lovenyc52 have not convinced you, I would like to chime. Please give YB a chance. I’m like langdon, I’ve watched it twice and planning to watch it again. JGS may be strange but I think I’m beginning to see his potential as an actor. This role as well as the one in Itaewon Murder Case is quite different from his own personality.
Anyhow, I hope you are doing okay. It’s quite scary being in Indo. It seems like it’s a target for mother nature’s wrath. i’ll keep you and djes in prayer.
@cingdoc and hjkomo
when the angels lost on saturday, I was bummed but still hopeful they’ll come back strong at home. I’m glad they won today. As for football, I was so hoping Notre Dame could beat USC. I think this year’s USC team is overrated.
@cingdoc – hehe sorry i didn’t mean binnie is an a$$, but that his character is an a$$. i should have clarified. i don’t doubt that i will LOVE this series – it comes soooo highly recommended from all of you, who’s opinions and recommendations i cherish.
i’m finishing up ep 4 as i type and i already feel for binnie’s character. before watching this i already knew bits and pieces of the story and climactic moments. i tried to not read too much of the discussion that occurred in OT about binnie vs. ex bf vs. blind date guy so that my opinion of them wouldn’t be too colored by the discussions. there are moments though, where binnie’s cold exterior has cracks and his humanity seeps through. i’m looking forward to the next ep!!!
oh and plus, he’s freakin cute. his dimples kill me. seriously.
@205 lovenyc52
Oooooh, dimples, yes I love them-
My list of Mr. Killer Dimples -this is by no mean a complete list, feel free to add your own, you guys
-Binnie, OF COURSE
-My Gong Yoo
-Shin Dong Wook
-Jung Il Woo
-Suh Ji Seok
-Lee Wan
-what am I doing…I swear ALL the cute Korean actors have killer dimples…I surrender…..drooooool
Omo, omo! Just got news that The Good will be the male lead playing opposite Michelle Yeoh (Bond girl and Crouching Tiger fame) in a romantic thriller in a John Woo production set for a late-summer 2010 release. The romantic thriller will be a combination of ” ‘Face/Off’ meets ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ set in the Ming Dynasty”. How good does it get??? Read here. http://aznr.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=32151&st=0&gopid=91855&#entry91855. I’m very excited about the story line. Not the most original, but Crouching Tiger always make me cry at the end, even if it’s the tenth viewing.
^ emmm…hate to be the party pooper, but I feel sorry for The Good if he’s stuck with this. He did Restless, he’s paid his due. On the contrary, I want to ask How Bad Can this stink?
John Woo ….maybe the most overrated living director. He’s a kind, sweet, religious soul. Bless his heart. He can do couple things well (as in entertaining): very gay , very blatant bromance and action sequences with guns, or if u r an animal lover…flying doves. He can’t do subtle, and never should he touch any straight romance. Red Cliff was a ridiculously stinky bad trainwreck that made a lot of $$, therefore sadly he won’t wake up fr this WTF stage of his. It actually angered me how he raped my favfavfav Chinese classic, my beloved Tony, and made all the most inappropriate artistic decisions in every possible way. It’s an epic with…..epic failure written all over it ignoring the commercial success. He diminished my love for the beautiful Takeshi by allowing him to embarrass himself in cringe worthy acting and lines. If he’s doing a romance he’ll put doves in the middle of a kissing scene in this…and every other inappropriate scene for that matter. It was one of my saddest movie experience ever…a wake up call on how tasteless in artistry he is as a director. (I did like him long long time ago… *sob*)
I don’t want to start dissing Michelle because it’ll really turn very mean. she really has a grace with her action sequences on screen as a life long dancer…but acting, esp in a romance, is never her vocation.
I’m much more interested in the one that’s out now with Guo Yuan Yuan.
Mookie, I like Red Cliff 2. It was GRAND, and I was awestruck at the cinematography and battle scenes. Now that you mention it, it’s true Michelle Yeoh is more an action girl. But this is wuxia, so she should be okay. And, as I said, Crouching Tiger always makes me cry, and it’s been the tenth time over the years. Have to admit, though, there is the powerful Chow Yuen Fatt …
Mookie, I am totally with you on this new movie to be co–produced and co-directred by John Woo. JW has long gone past his best which was in the late 80s and early 90s, when HK movies were at their prime. You are so right about raping the classic and hence, my not having the courage to watch Red Cliff which is gathering dust on my DVD shelf. Michelle Yeoh is OK as an action actress but she has never gone beyond that. But the question is which star will say no to John Woo?
@ hjkomo
I haven’t read the book Ice Storm. My love for Ice Storm is purely for it as a superbly directred and acted movie. I always think Ang Lee has that rare ability to tackle characters of his movies to the very core, or he must allow himself to fully understand those characters before allowing himself to roll the camera. This makes his works so full of soul and humility. Take Brokeback Mountain and Lust Caution as examples. Both are originally short stories, BM is particularly short. I would not be the best judge to say his movie adaptation in both cases surpass the original novels. He did however make both bigger and beyond what is depicted in the originals, without compromising their spirit. Another amazing aspect of his works is the well-balanced East and West philosophical influences. I like to think that S&S and BM are made with Confucian gentle eyes whereas Lust Caution is dissected with a Western mind…..
I give up posting via my IPhone, lost 2 posts now. Didn’t cry in WHIB either, JJM such a memorable creation from JIS – other memorable portrayls for me are CSW as JG in City Hall, LDH in My Girl, KJH in HGD, JS in New Heart, LMH in BBF, KSA in MNIKSS, Binnie in SQ, and many more awesome character creations.
@207, rambutan
Thanks for the news flash! I’m a big ol’ crying mess every time I watch Crouching Tiger too, so we have that in common. I definitely think that the combination of Jung Woo-sung and Michelle Yeoh is not to be missed. Barbie Hsu too, huh? Interesting casting choices for this project.
I really liked both of the Red Cliff movies; the second more than the first because the naval battle was just un-freaking-believable. I know absolutely zilch about the actual history behind the films (shame on me) but I enjoyed both of them tremendously. Enough to force my husband and kids to watch them too! Had to hide my Takeshi Kaneshiro drool bucket, though.
I also loved Warlords…cried my eyes out over that one more than once, too.
@cingdoc – oh man o man, dimples are the death of me… i love them!!! all you listed have killer dimples, but let’s not forget our lovable KIM BUM!!!! and recently i have been utterly in lust with Big Bang’s TOP who’s got the more slit-like dimples and also to-die-for cheekbones and omgiwantyou eyes and his voice…. gahhh.. seriously, kid is my new obsession lol.
I’m sorry, I was still angry and insulted with my experience with RC so …I rant on.
And to all the OT sisters who loved RC and had not read/know anything about the history, I do understand the movie looked dazzlingly grandiose. But every elementary Chinese kid, would have known enough of the accounts to point out how inaccurate and outlandishly insulting the changes he made in very very crucial developments of the characters and the historical events to the point that the only resemblance with the historical figures and events were mostly just the namesake. I did go, ‘can u really read, Mr Woo?!’ (the fact that JW is such a nice, sweet guy in real life…totally break my heart)
Historically, there had never been a more colorful, tragic time in China. We still have our language, idioms, philosophies and wisdom stemming fr that period of time. 3rd century AD, 3 warlord fractions, each holding their own, all deserving the throne, with the abundance concentration of talents and loyalty never occurring again in China’s history at their disposal… because that was the way of life and survival. It was almost 2 millennia ago ….the age when women and cattle were choice commodities at best. So when an 800,000 grand army of enemy was approaching your camp…. your top commander and your head strategist focused on…. helping out the birth of a foal?!….yeah right.
Yes, RC have larger than life grander than grand war scenes….but this was no cartoon, who fight battle as if playing a PC game, one superhero at a time?! Were we allowed to feel? I felt more for my crudely done RPG Dynasty Warriors game characters. Tony’s character was a genius of all trades, and had a renowned handsome reputation written in historical records, Takeshi’s, same…and they go tit for tat over playing a musical instrument?! Of all the historical accounts of them picking each other’s magnificant brains, this?!@%$!%. They might have been the best brains in war history of mankind, their brilliance really do not need to be cheapened by CG overload. Zhuge is still revered as a symbolic figure of Chinese intelligence….which if u r making a movie on the greatest most horrific battle in a very tumultuous time, most of these ‘heroes’ died young and tragically and claimed to be trying your best to be historically accurate, should the focus of those characters be on all these light ‘human’ innuendoes?! . AND he clearly put his goal on making a romance out of it all. JW can never do romance, he had never shown us he could give a female character her rightful narration in any of his movies… it’s almost like he’s so shy and so righteous a guy that maybe he thought of portraying woman as humans with emotions and desires is blasphemy. He made the worst artistic choice of portraying some extremely trivial (never historically justified) facets of these characters, missing the much more crucial strokes On a mean day, I saw Tony’s character as a down low in the closet married Queen. His every scene with his wife was omg cringeworthy. I had to turn my head away. And this viceroy was not HeMan, was not a cartoon superhero, he was a very rational historical figure that once breathed and walked and outwitted them all…ie second half of theRC2 was basically a very bad joke/tasteless JW wetdream. Give CaoCao some respect, all this for a woman?! It can’t get more outrageously historically inaccurate esp when we have an abundance of written record of this warlord, how ambitious, cut throat ruthless he can be even to his blood bro.
What broke my heart to million pieces was the fact that JW loved the classic, he proclaimed to the world he’s going to base this on the more scholarly accurate historical record Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms yet he liberally threw in major fictional liberties of cheesy fanfics/Koei DW games (most of Zhou Wei’s character)….and he said, very seriously at interview, he really intentionally want to portray Tony’s Zhou Yu and Takeshi’s Zhuge Liang as having intense feelings with those closeups of their faces just a breath away. ……*facepalmheaddeskWTF* and Tony Leung slying said, ‘I’m used to Director’s style of showcasing brotherhood, it’s the same in Hard Boiled, The Killer..’ *winkwink*
The lines were disgustingly colloquial. Supposedly funny ‘wisecrack’ at awkward inappropriate scenes… I still want to cry esp when I heard he deliberately do so to ‘cater’ to the younger and Western audience, he said, ‘War needs not be all serious and heavy, I want to show a lighter side, I do as I felt at the moment of shooting’.. Do you really insert jokes, ‘make it lighter’ when doing a ‘historically accurate’ movie on say, WWII? I cut him slacks for all his crap working under the Hollywood system, but with this subject matter, this grand scale, his genuine and earnest passion (saddest part…nth was accidental), this amount of talent around him, I’m beyond sorely disappointed.
@lovenyc: welcome to the MNIKSS club! This drama is one of my all-time favorites.
@Cingdoc & lovenyc52 and all dimple lovers – have I seen Lee Seo Jin of Damo and Lovers mentioned? Shouldn’t he be crowned King of Dimples?
@Mookie! That was an interesting dissection of JW and RC. Interestingly, what you don’t like about RC was what I liked about RC. I went in without expecting to know about Cn history. Just wanted eye candy (don’t like Takeshi looking 50 years old with wig and false beard), Tony Leung magic and heart pounding sequences. I don’t think RC is great, but I find it very watchable. For history, I go for China productions or other versions. Actually, I have all 80+ eps of Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, a Cn production in the 80s or 90s. I started on a few eps, but without eye candy (the leads are REAL middle-aged men with paunches) the going is a bit tough… Ah! If only the leads were Song Il Kook-ish, I’d swallow all 80+ eps in less than a week. As it is, the series is gathering dust, because IRIS and You are Beautiful have taken over. Yes! to eyeliner (only a bit) and eye candy (as much as possible)!
@mookie,
And see — this is why Mr. X can’t stand the sageuks MBC has been producing the last 10 years.
But Belleza, X must REALLY genuinely loves MBC as a person to harbor any thread of expectation… do we really hold a TV station up for any accuracies or anything?!
JW *break my heart* is such an honest, nice, sweet guy, a gentle, kind soul (no kidding) even the scriptwriter (good one who scripted farewell my concubine, To live) whom JW discarded had nth but nice things to say about him as a person, but he’s blunt in saying artistically he’s shockingly clueless, and JW did not have a literate mind to tackle this too full a plate. Mr JW has been planning this passionately for ~15 years, IF he said he’s going to ‘loosely’ base this on romance of 3 kingdoms (a novel) and he’s going to just stick the same names to these st fr his imagination figurines, I’m more than fine. But he’s dead serious in saying he’s not satisfied with RoTK (to many the best of the 4 Greats of Chinese literature…it’s basically as holy as the Chinese Bible) coz of the inaccuracies and the author’s liberties…very big words…then he brought me this piece of ‘entertainment’?! I therapied myself by playing my ancient DW on my antiqued playstation. (hehe I had better strategies and war scenes than what 80mil USD can come up with)
rambuttan, I have np with the casting, the pretty boy Zhou Yu (ie Tony) died at a tender age of 35. they should be eye candies, even historical records said so. And yes, 80+eps with only historical accurate plots and lines and top notch acting and directing may not be easy to sit thro without gorgeous young men (me guilty). It’s the everything else with RC, yup I even hate peace doves now. If u like RC, Promise also have JDG as eye candy (and he’s a slave boy there). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Promise_%282005_film%29
OK I got that out of my system. phew… I’ll go back to my hK soap marathon.
@201 Langdon 813: Yay! another Valley Girl fan. That is one of my absolutely favorite American movies: Nicolas Cage at about 18 with his original teeth, Frederic Forrest, and Martha Coolidge’s director’s commentary pointing out each of the brief bare-breasted scenes she was contractually obliged to include to get the pittance she had to make the movie. Still great after all these years.
hjkomo 171
is “seon” the same thing as “so gae ting?”
that’s a funny and unfortunate story about your cousin.
i think the matchmaker gene is within all korean ajummas. it’d be fine if they knew well the two individuals involved, but it usually turns out that they know one person well and just know that the other person is the son/daughter of a friend of a friend who is from a “good” family.
it’s haphazard matchmaking at its best.
@215 rambutan – first of all, i love your name!! i used to eat rambutan all the time as a kid (the canned kind with all that sugary syrup) and then i started eating fresh lychee and maybe it’s cuz i’ve had one canned and one fresh, but i swear they taste the same, just one is not drowning in syrup…. anywayyyy… i am really loving MNIKSS so far. have only finished 5 eps so far but i love love love samsoon’s spunk. everytime binnie yells at her, she yells back. LOVE!!! and daniel henney.. man o man i thought he couldn’t act in Seducing Mr. Perfect, but i think he’s possibly worse in this (so far…maybe he’ll improve??).. good thing he is the most delicious eye candy, which makes up for horrid dialogue delivery (sorta…)
in other news, way too obsessed with TOP. poor lb_tmi knows cuz i’ve been fangirling up the wall to her. can’t help but love the raspy voiced bad boy… but…WHY ARE THEY ALL SO DAMN YOUNG??!?!
can’t wait till YB and IRIS to be up and subbed… *cheer!!*
~ [If anyone has a clearer definition, please feel free to chime in] ~
@kb
To me, “so gae ting” is similar to a “seon” but more informal.
so gae -> introduction; ting -> from “meeting”
(I think these types of introductions can be one-on-one or in the company of a friend/friends)
seon seems to encompass more of the traditional definition of a blind date -> two people meeting with the intention of dating (if they hit it off) and the ultimate goal of marriage (if all goes well)
Then, there’s the even more formal matchmaking called mat-seon [맞선], where parties are interested in marrying in the very near future.
Yup, Korean ajummas are all about the matchmaking. Although, my mother never tried to set me, nor any of my cousins, up with anyone. (Some of my aunts, on the other hand, were a different story.) Hubby still occasionally jokes about The One That Got Away (Aunt had tried to set me up with someone from a “good” family (ha!) right around the same time I started dating Mr. hjkomo – although, there was no chance in hell I would’ve ever agreed to meet TOTGA). This joke usually pops up whenever I’m so engrossed in kdramas that I “neglect” him for the hotter Korean men.
@hjkomo 221
lol regarding TOTGA…next time your hubby teases you about it, just turn to him and tell him you are watching kdrama diligently to “find” TOTGA….LBH, etc…he he
@221 hjkomo –
hehe. you so funny.
I didn’t know how much I would love City Hall until well after the mid-way mark, MNIKSS didn’t make it on my top three until after a re-watch (and solidly parked there after the recent MNIKSS dissection here in OT – loves), but I have been dying for a drama to come along and kick What Happened in Bali out of my top three. It’s impossible to recommend WHIB to someone I don’t know, takes too much time to summarize it’s plot, and why I love it reveals my pseudo-nihilistic tendencies and love of all bad boys and good boys being bad, and some misogyny thrown in for good measure.
Coffee Prince, My Girl, Hong Gil Dong – all faves, but none have toppled WHIB yet. I have to proclaim that after six (6!!) episodes of what I presumed would be the fruitiest drama this side of androgynous metrosexual k-pop idols – You’re Beautiful might very well be that drama which yanks WHIB out of my personal top three and plant its Hong-ki sized perky ass in that spot, and then proceed to slug it out with MNIKSS for the second-place spot. To challenge City Hall – I should never say never – but I can’t envision that just yet. I do know that my love for You’re Beautiful is increases with each adorable sneer from JGS and each second these two made-in-heaven cuties TK-MN/MY spend together. I can watch the first six episodes over and over again, any scene is good, that why I know I love it and it’s something special.
If only, if only, I could be sixteen again (forgive this maudlin sentiment – I just watched the Zac Efron movie 17 again on the plane yesterday back to LA)…..
“It’s impossible to recommend WHIB to someone I don’t know, takes too much time to summarize it’s plot, and why I love it reveals my pseudo-nihilistic tendencies and love of all bad boys and good boys being bad, and some misogyny thrown in for good measure.”
To me, WHiB is the hot, angry sex that comes out after you stop believing in love. It’s dirty, it’s nasty, it’s RELEASE. And then after it, you start believing in love again.
That and I absolutely love the song “The Way” (Angelo? who dat?) and its attendant guitar solo.
“You’re Beautiful might very well be that drama which yanks WHIB out of my personal top three”
This Belleza is getting there wit the show. The situational comedy in You’re Beautiful is so, so well crafted. Like the bit when they kept on ending up at the same ice cream shop. They do that joke 4 straight times, and you should get sick of it. But everytime they come back, it gets funnier and funnier. Why? The first 3 times, they honestly believe that there were 3 different ice creams that looked EXACTLY THE SAME. And only AFTER THE FOURTH TIME did Mr. Zoolander finally admit “well . . . I always get driven around okay?”
That’s just craftsmanship right there.
Even the taser bit was genius. Why? Because when you’re watching it, you really don’t know whether she’ll taser herself or him. We’ve already established that she’s a Murphy Law magnet, and that Zoolander ends up the unfortunate beneficiary. When she finally zaps herself, there’s almost relief that she didn’t physically hurt him. And that relief compounds into a sweet way to end the episode.
I also appreciate that the Idol band here is actually a proper RAWK BAND, like Trax or uhhh the Jonas Brothers, which itself is counterintuitive. I kinda imagine them as a boy-band version of Cheap Trick, totally sugar sweet hormonal feel good power pop. I’d love to see An Jell perform at the SBS Awards Show.
@ belleza
I agree with every single word you wrote above – no, every single alphabet – and with respect to YB, this quote sums it up just about right – “[I] can just eat you up, [I] love it so.”
As for WHIB – sometimes I still feel kinda dirty, naughty, angsty when I think about that drama and scenes from that drama and performances from that drama – and I’ll need to take a shower to cleanse myself. But it was truly a drama worth watching.
By the by – I checked out a few episodes of Spring Days when I was traveling (per your suggestion to langdon), and oh my goodness, putting aside JJH and GHJ, I cannot imagine the day that Jo In-sung can out Jo In-sung himself from his performance of Jung Jae-min in WHIB – but I think he did it in Spring Days, and I’m only on episode 4! Story sucks, btw, I’m only in it for moar JIS-ness (it’s kinda like a creepy peepshow, you can’t look away when a hot, grown man has regressed into every oedipal id in the drama psyche).
And JGS – I hope he doesn’t follow in JIS’s footsteps, good footsteps, no doubt, a baeksang in the pocket – but I see JGS really creating his own brand of character for his hubei’s to follow. And speaking of Mr. Zoolander – if YB was 5 years ago – would Junki have nailed the role of TK?
@ockoala,
“I cannot imagine the day that Jo In-sung can out Jo In-sung himself from his performance of Jung Jae-min in WHIB”
And that’s the thing. Watching JIS trying to out “Aarrgghhhhoooommwwaahhharrgghhhfistinmouth@#$@#%!!!!” himself makes you wonder whether he acts . . . . or he really needs to see a therapist?
Yet, having said that . . .
“(it’s kinda like a creepy peepshow, you can’t look away when a hot, grown man has regressed into every oedipal id in the drama psyche).”
It’s reassuring to see JIS actually get into a relative state of normalcy through the 2nd half of Spring Day. You almost tell yourself, “okay, so WHiB didn’t really have to end THAT way? It wasn’t inevitable. He didn’t have to aarrgghhhhoooommwwaahhharrgghhhfistinmouth@#$@#%!!!!” ”
“And JGS – I hope he doesn’t follow in JIS’s footsteps, good footsteps, no doubt, a baeksang in the pocket – ”
I fear more of that from Kim Bum. When I heard his role model was JIS, I could definitely see that in KB’s acting style (esp. the yelling when he’s upset.) Which is not a good thing IMO — it’s very easy to turn into, well, a “Aarrgghhhhoooommwwaahhharrgghhhfistinmouth@#$@#%!!!!” Robot if you always go for that.
My thing with Zoolander is that he’s really settled for this. I know I’m not being fair – -his performance here is really good, what with the double-takes, neurotic tics, and that yummy guyliner (mmmmm . . . .emo boy with thing stuck up his butt . . . ) If I hadn’t seen his previous performances, where he got interesting roles but seemed stuck in a rut, I would be more happy for him. I can’t really say, wow Zoolander’s really expanded his range, “Sid Vicious-meets-Billy Idol” lips aside.
“And speaking of Mr. Zoolander – if YB was 5 years ago – would Junki have nailed the role of TK?”
Oh hun — if Lee Jung Ki did this part and was still sporting his Pepsi Choice of a New Generation Hair — An Jell would become what the Flower Four is in Meteor Garden. A legitimate group touring all over Asia with loads of yaoi fun between him and guyliner rival Shin Woo (squeeeeee!!!!!!)
Guy liner + Zoolander = Smirky hot
Guy liner + Lee Jung Ki = International Situation in Asia
He was born to play this part. Born. To . Play. TK.
@ belleza
1. I agree – as much as JGS is perfectly cast as TK today in 2009 – I can’t say this is the breakthrough performance for him. JGS is a legit actor in my eyes, I may someday say his TK was my favorite role he every played, but I know he will have some breakthrough performance in him coming along.
He looks like he can play TK in his sleep, it’s looks effortless, and and probably is indeed effortless for him. TK is not terrible hard to grasp for a good actor, and I love that JGS is owning TK instead of the other way around. A lessor thespian, and a lessor kookier real life persona than JGS in real life, may be overwhelmed by the guyliner, ridiculous bordering on fruity-punk attire, and earlier hairdo-from-hell.
2. Lee Junki as 2004 Hwan Tae-kyung, with his Go Mi-nyeo as……2004 Yoon Eun-hye? (no, too obvious a choice, and somehow to earthy for a nun and to be paired with Junki)…….Ah, this is easy……what with all the clamoring in the comments for this…..2004 Han Ji-min as Go Mi-neyo. Does the thought make your heart race like it does mine. 2004 Han Ji-min is right after her almost nun turn as baby Song Hye-gyo….
I would pay to watch A.N.-jell tour with Junki as the lead singer….seriously, like buy a ticket and fly to Asia pay.
“He was born to play this part. Born. To . Play. TK.” – I’m glad someone (esp. this belleza), though along the same lines.
But 2009 JGS as TK and 2009 PSH as MN – I love it!!! Love it!! And am going insane with a certain kiss that ends episode 6 of YB. Roar of anger from ockoala!~
Well, it’s anniversary week. Exactly 20 weeks ago (see Open Thread #85), my wife and I finished HGD, and we saw the ending of HGD (ep 24) and I was shocked because hjkomo promised me one ending and we got a totally different ending than the one that hjkomo promised. I was not ready for what I saw, but I liked it a lot regardless.
Anyhoo, as I draft recaps, I like to listen to k-music (not completely surprising), and the k-music I like listening to, is k-drama OST music. Sort of gets me in the recapping mood. And one of my most fav k-drama OST songs is “If” by Tae-Yeon of SNSD, the title track to the Hong Gil Dong drama series. But even though I’ve listened to the song a thousand times, tonight I got a new take on the song.
I don’t think that I ever really paid attention to the lyrics; I just sort of liked the song and I liked how it meshed with the drama and the romance between Gil Dong and Yinok. But now sort of a have a handle now on why I loved both the drama and the song. Here are the lyrics to the song again, roughly translated by me:
“If” by Tae-Yeon.
If I should go, if I should get close to you,
What would your thoughts be?
But I don’t have the courage (to do so).
If you should go, if you should go ahead and leave,
How do I get myself to let you go?
I always get scared (to even think about it)
CHORUS:
Because I’m not very smart, I know all I can do is watch you from a distance
And it’s also because my heart which does not know how to do anything,
Might lead to us to being like strangers to each other.
Because I’m really dumb, I know that I don’t even know how to say that I love you
And the pain and sorrow that follows in the time after seeing you
Is what is frightening me so.
If you should come, if you should come all the way to me.
What would I have to do (in such a case)?
It is something truly unknowable to me.
Chorus
Repeat second half of chorus.
What is interesting is that this song is basically a dirge. It’s an expression of emotions based on a tragedy. The song is about a girl who likes a boy, but the girl isn’t that smart and so she believes that she has to stay away from him – first because she might screw up any possibility of a relationship, and also because she is afraid of feeling the sorrow that follows after seeing him.
It isn’t that the girl is afraid of being rejected by Gil Dong per se, but since she isn’t that smart, she can’t figure things out to be confident enough to believe that things will work out. It is SUCH an honest assessment of why she has to stay away. Is it that only people who aren’t so smart, end up being so brutually honest with themselves (i.e., smart people tend to fool themselves with justifications and distractions)? If only everyone in the world were this honest with their feelings, how much better would the world be?
What is also interesting is that as smart as Gil Dong is, he too, has the same fears and the same inability to see into the future, to see what would happen if they did get together. It isn’t a matter of intelligence after all, but a matter of whether the lines of fate will allow them the chance to be together or not. In a rather ironic way, the singer of the song is actually wrong – it turns out that it isn’t because she’s not that smart, that she can’t be with Gil Dong; rather, it is because of forces far beyond Yinok’s control that are causing all the issues.
Hong Gil Dong may be an action fusion saguek fusion, but really, it is a love story and a potential epic tragedy. And this song that I have on infinite repeat, really really captures the essence of that tragedy.
Okay, back to recap drafting!
@ockoala –
“And am going insane with a certain kiss that ends episode 6 of YB. Roar of anger from ockoala!~”
ya my head exploded after this. i had to pause, breathe, and play again. i don’t LIKE UEE DAMMIT!!!!! i’m also biased because i’m not a fan of hers to begin with and then having her of all people play the ‘evil girl’ role irks me even more ha.
but i am loving this show. JGS does the angsty eyes so damn well and PSH is lovely and adorable. i still cannot stop raving about how darn hilarious and adorable HongKi is too.. his expressions slay me. There were so many awesome scenes in ep. 6. i think one of my favorites had to be the manager’s daydream of what happened with JGS, PSH and the taser. the audio to that killed me. pure <3
now onto IRIS…. wait for me TOP..i'm coming.
awwww……i have a CH Banner….i feel much better now. I don’t have internet connection at my new place and I’m piggybackriding right now..keke! I’m always late for open thread, so I’ll just say HAPPY ADVANCE OPEN THREAD everyone!!
I saw a very detailed explanation on how the header rotations work a while back but don’t have the energy to dig it up…but I swear, I get CH banners at least twice a day, sometimes 5! (I counted). I’m not complaining
But I also think I’m gonna come right out and start requesting for YB headers…just throwing it out there….
@Samsooki,
“it turns out that it isn’t because she’s not that smart, that she can’t be with Gil Dong; rather, it is because of forces far beyond Yinok’s control that are causing all the issues.”
I feel the same way about the meaning of that song. That passage was really well done.
I really, really love the song If. For whatever reason, I actually liked Kim Yu-na’s version a little bit better, note misses and all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxsk-US2Vws
@ockoala,
“A lessor thespian, and a lessor kookier real life persona than JGS in real life, may be overwhelmed by the guyliner, ridiculous bordering on fruity-punk attire, and earlier hairdo-from-hell.”
Yup, and that’s the thing. In real life, Zoolander’s fashion sense is even wilder than this. He’s playing down to TK!!
(But I also feel that’s kinda the point with Zoolander. He should let out his inner freako in one of his roles. Not this one, but definitely something else down the line.) In any case, TK is a really, really well written part. The characterization is very detailed and I think the Hong Sisters wrote it with him and a wink to Maestro Kang Mae.
“2004 Yoon Eun-hye? ”
See, on paper, you would think so. But the difference there is 2009 Park Shin Hye is already a seasoned actress, and her performance actually requires a lot of finesse in order to prevent the slapstick from going overboard. 2009 YEH (let alone 2004 YEH) is still kind of a ham; you feel like, at times, she’s still conscious of the camera looking at her. Park Shin Hye, not so much.
But admittedly I’m partial to PSH because really she’s the female equivalent of Jang Geon Seok. She’s 19 years old, but she’s already a veteran entertainer. She’s done a daeha. She’s worked through daily drama. She’s done a number of Hallyu properties (probably should have been lead in Goong S.) She’s hosted variety and award shows. She’s released a single and her dancing chops rivals Son Dambi, if not BoA.
“2004 Han Ji-min is right after her almost nun turn as baby Song Hye-gyo….”
I kinda wished Han Ji Min played adult Song Hye Kyo in All In. Even 2009 Han Ji Min, who regardless of the role kinda gives off this Suffering Nun vibe, no matter what.
One thing though . . . HJM still tightens up when she’s doing close scenes with her male leads. Her chemistry can be hit-and-miss because of that, and it’s not a real surprise she does better with, erm, Ladies Men. (I’m looking at you So Ji Sup and Lee Seo Jin
) Plus, she’s not great at comedy. She’s on paper right for the character, but I don’t know . . .
“Lee Junki as 2004 Hwan Tae-kyung,”
Lee Jung Ki as 2004 Hwan Tae Kyung is frankly . . .unfair. It’s like casting 2004 Jo In Sung to play Jung Pyo or 2004 Kwon Sang Woo to cry over a white piano in some random beach. Oh wait, he really did do that. O_o
OY, SAMSOOKI!!!!
You’re never going to let that one go, are you?!
난 약속했다.
난 약속지켰다.
매롱!!!
Btw, shouldn’t you be attempting to get every second of sleep you can possibly manage? o_O
hjkomo
thanks for the explanation.
samsooki,
i like that song a lot too, and i haven’t even seen the drama yet. thank you for recommending it a while back. any hope that dramafever will pick up HGD any time soon?
as an aside, i finally got my hands on that kms hairplay you talked about before. i was gonna wait until i used up the american crew pomade that i got a while back, but the pomade is so disappointing, i don’t think i will ever get through using all of it.
that kms stuff is something else. i don’t think i will be able to use any other styling product from here onwards. now i can really imitate the wavy/messy korean drama star hair.
@kb:
yeap, kms hairplay rox. it is a bit on the pricey side, but wow, it works well. Just use a tiny blip tho.
what i do is wet my hands first, then i take a tiny blip of hairplay and then i am able to spread out over two hands evenly.
also, if you want a bit more of a shinier “freeze” look, you can combine a bit of kms with a tiny bit of normal “mega” hairgel, and voila. Remember to blow out your hair with cold air not hot air, for a shinier look.
@hjkomo -
bleh…
1. I was so not expecting what happened at the end of Ep 24 of HGD. You must take take 책임 (責任) for what happened! I will bring this up every open thread until you hand over all present and future rights to KJH and take 책임.
2. Yeah, sleep is at a premium now, but, sleeping is soooo secondary now. =)))
@belleza -
You agreeing with me makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. =)