javabeans: So here’s Joo Ji-hoon’s new movie, I Am the King, and it looks like a hoot. Basically the premise is: Prince and the Pauper. That’s all you need to know.
girlfriday: But, how come the prince and the pauper look like identical twins? Were they separated at birth? Or are they just happy-coincidence doppelgangers?
javabeans: See, this is the major hang-up I have with the Prince and the Pauper (and all its versions and retellings). How can two people look perfectly alike, like identical twins, and not be identical twins? At least in makjang dramas there’s a reason they look alike.
girlfriday: Right? Like one was the sickly twin and cast aside by the ruthless king.
javabeans: Telling me to just accept that the king has the same face as a beggar and that nobody questions the biology is just too much disbelief-suspending. Then again, this IS a Korean movie, so perhaps we shouldn’t speak too soon. (Act 3 twist!)
girlfriday: In this case, adding a birth secret would actually be more believable!
javabeans: I like how the stills basically tell us the whole movie right here. There’s this lazy beggar, see, and he meets this king…
girlfriday: And they’re eerily similar. What a coinkidink!
javabeans: And suddenly the king has a huge appetite and bows to his advisors.
girlfriday: All newly polite and well-mannered, and yet totally lacking princely graces.
javabeans: But there are also those expected fish-out-of-water moments, like, You want me to do WHAT?
girlfriday: And reading the books upside-down and backwards.
javabeans: Meanwhile his poor bodyguards and advisers are left scratching their heads, like what crawled up this guy’s butt and died? And apparently, there’s a royal physician on hand for that.
girlfriday: Oooooowwwwww.
javabeans: The one thing that makes this premise different from, well, all other Prince-Pauper setups, is that this is apparently a riff off the life of King Sejong. It’s totally a comedy and fictionalized, but they’re playing with the idea that the great wise king got that way by experience the common life in his early years.
girlfriday: Ha, well that’s certainly a twist on the Sejong biography.
javabeans: I’m assuming that the real Sejong comes back to the throne newly enlightened, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if it was the beggar who went down in history, all Man in the Iron Mask style?
girlfriday: That’d be great. Or even if during his stint, he did all the important things, like invent Korean. And then the doppelganger gets credit.
javabeans: HA. Now I’m imagining the beggar being reminded of his expansive language project that’s been stymieing him for years, and beggar’s all, “Dude, why complicate it? Just copy sounds!” And voila, hangul was born.
girlfriday: Right? It’s so much simpler! Hooked on Phonics!
javabeans: Except in his version it’s Hookt on Fonix, and the rules are more logical.
girlfriday: LOL.
Via Daum
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HAHAHA! That’s very funny ~ Joo Ji Hoon’s facial expression and acting look so comical!
I love me some Joo Ji Hoon after that super sexy movie, The Naked Kitchen, with Shin Mina, I was hooked. Haha.
Those simple peach background posters are great. I love it.
I’ve never seen Joo Ji Hoon laughing like that. I’m interested.
Waah, all the pics are GOOD. You really can tell a story from them alone. I love even the supporting cast and I’m happy for Ji Hoon. Looks like they had fun shooting this movie.
Thank You!
You guys are a hoot!
Haha can’t wait to see this!!
lol hookt on fonix!!!
This actor is just adorable.
You guys are so funny. I love your interactions… whatever the subject!
Where do you get to watch this movie? On the east coast? or online? soju is so full of viruses i try to not visit there.
It looks like fun and I would like to watch it.
Finding good movies online with eng subs has been a challenge, not like dramas.
thanks again.
Well the movie doesn’t come out until Aug 9 and subs for movies aren’t as quick as dramas so maybe a few months after it’s theater run is when you’ll be able to find it on the internet. Or when it comes out on DVD w/ Eng subs. That’s how I watch some Korean movies, my library has copies of them on DVD. So check your local library after a few months?
Thanks, I will do that.
i’m not familiar with anyone in this movie but seeing all those pictures makes me want to watch.. now
^^
I love that in the poster, the king *literally* has a golden spoon. Also, are they eating wood?! I also love your perfect explanations for the pics, especially “Meanwhile his poor bodyguards and advisers are left scratching their heads, like what crawled up this guy’s butt and died? And apparently, there’s a royal physician on hand for that.” ROFL!
Lol the posters are so fun!
Kim Soo-Ro!
and a very cute Joo Ji-Hoon – the smile looks good on him
Ooo..Didn’t recognized Kim Soo Roo. Cute pics of Joo Hi Hoon. Looks like a hoot.
Looks really funny especially this is something different about the austere and revered King Sejong.Love the Hookt on Fonix because I’m trying to learn Hangul too.
In India, there is a belief/saying that there are seven look-alikes in the world. Not sure of the background behind this thought. So in movies/dramas, they dont really need a twin/separated at birth twist to explain why they look alike. they just do! if an explanation is given, its just the seven look-alikes saying. just a interesting side bit of random cultural info
i heard something like that in my country too. And have not seen one, but once some ladies used to be awed when looking at me because they claimed I looked so much like the daughter of one of them. hehe.
out of curiosity, where are you from niKai? my coworker once told me that I look lot like my superior’s wife that we could be sisters. met her once in a party and yea there was some resemblance that it was kind of weird…. guess such things do happen
i’m from malaysia n i’ve heard the elders say this exact same thing since i was able to remember. its a well-received belief. i’ve been told i look like this certain person n such so its not that unusual for me. i mean even in hollywood, take a look at zooey deschanel n katy perry!
Oh my goodness, is that Tae San?
Joo Ji Hoon! Welcome back, sweetie! You have been sorely missed around these parts. I’m sure we’ll eventually see your flick somewhere after its release… ::winkwink::
Movie Noonas!!!
You’re reading my mind, chingu! As soon as it comes out in one form or another, a Movie Noona Night will be scheduled!
what if it’s like the movie Dave? king has a stroke, is in coma, cabinet decides to use body double lookalike as their own personal puppet, lookalike gets smart, makes changes to policies, defeats evil cabinet dudes, wins girl, lives out rest of his live in his new identity.
Reminds me of antique bakery! Joo Ji Hoon can be funny when needed.. And you know, there are seven people on earth who look alike.. So I get it.
One of my favorite bedtime stories!
Park Yun Gyu and Kim Soo Ro?????
Can’t wait to watch it!!!
Oh my gosh i wanna watch this so bad now!!!! Grrrrr give me my JJH!!!!
♥♥♥.
I am really happy that Joo Ji Hoon have projects to get him back on track.
i wanna watch this!
These pics alone are getting me to like Joo Ji Hoon, whom I’ve never really cared about.
I wouldn’t count it out. I’ve had people tell me they’ve seen someone that looks just like me on the street before. Then I’ve had people think I was another person even calling out their name to check if I was that person, LOL. Who knows how this world works. Someone in charge just gets lazy and goes “fuck it, I’ma just re-use this face” hahaha
I think the movie looks like fun, I’m down for it (: Been looking forward to it.
the last I counted I have four look-alikes (like exact carbon copy)and nowhere and no way they are my identical twins.. unless my mom goes down in history as the first quad-mom who subsequently lost the three of the twins.
btw.. love, love joo ji hoon
I had a similar experience. Back in high school, I had a classmate in the same class where my teacher and her friend would mistaken us for one another. Then we went to the same school for college and it was the same thing-I had a friend who said we looked alike. There was another time I had a stranger come up to me asking me for a pen/pencil that would be returned at the end of the class. Afterwards, I figured out that he mistaken me for the other girl.
We had similar features but no way did we looked alike.
I am even more curious now LOL… I was a science student, so, I should be questioning this whole biology crap… But, I don’t really care. I mean, The Prince and the Pauper had bern around for so long and had been remade a lot I can’t even bother to question logic. As long as the movie asks all the righy questions and answer the questions that needed to be answered I am all good. Besides, this is Joo Ji Hoon’s comeback and as long as he can prove to be he could deliver a convincing act , I’m good.
The scientific term for it is called homoplasy or ‘convergent evolution’ whereby mother nature has managed to arrive at the same conclusion/answer for more than one organism/species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_convergent_evolution
Doubles in humans have also been recorded across races/ethnicities where the two subjects are completely unrelated– as evidenced by DNA tests (we’re talking completely different continental-specific genotypes)– but bearing uncanny resemblances to one another.
Also, Francois Brunelle is a Canadian photographer who found some success with his doubles series a few years ago:
http://www.francoisbrunelle.com/aaa/aaimages/MediaCanada/thegazette.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2912199&page=1#.UBsrgE2PV8E
joo ji hoon could never fail as a prince/king. welcome back crown prince lee shin……
yes! shin is back!
2 whoops for the mane of glory ; )
My first impression when I saw the posters. OMFG. IT’S THE GOONG GUY.
Oh goody goody!!! Ji hoon my love.!! Welcome back to the entertainment world…^o^
it look’s interesting to me, more interesting than the thieves, even it’s success, i’m not interested to watch korean version of ocean’s eleven
this looks amazing! can’t wait to watch it. the movie has some great supporting actors
thanks gf,
the mole on the cheek tell the difference.
Welcome back Joo Ji Hoon !!.
Welcome back JiHun. Fighting!
Excited on this new film. I love all his projects, and collected the DVDs – Goong, Mawang, Antique bakeshop, Naked kitchen… yay! Must get this in DVD.
Questioning look alikes and all, I thought about Gary from Running Man…. It’s not exactly the same but hats what came to my mind….
They say that there are 7 people in the world who looks like you who are not a direct relative. Maybe it just so happened that they’re born in the same country and accidentally found each other?
I’ve yet to meet one of my lookalikes, but I think the idea is fun.
Looking good ji hoonie
Honey Lee such a goddess!
Beggar or King I love Jihun. He is my numero uno favorite and miles and miles away from the others in my book! I am hoping my City will show his movie in my neighborhood CGV Cinemas.
I am loving JJH expression on all of his stills. Hahaha!! I don’t remember him being this funny in Goong… but then again he was a Darcy there so hopefully I’ll see a different side of him here.
Yay!!! Love him
… I’m loving how hilarious he looks
Actually it’s possible to have people look a like (almost identical!) and not be related. I saw a photoshoot once where they sought out people who looked identical but were unrelated. You should try to find it because…right now I’m lazy. It’s not impossible…
This man has that Royal charisma! Enough said.
He had nailed the charisma as a Prince in Goong and he looked very gorgeous in that Royal outfit in Goong and in his new movie this years, he played as a Prince/King and see how gorgeous he is in those Royal handbooks.
Really can’t wait to see his upcoming movie and drama
Good luck Jihoon! <3
Even with poor Korean, this was a fun movie. It helps that most of the comedy is pretty broad. The supporting actors are great (who’s the young lady who plays Solbi? She’s cute as a button), and JJH is fun although he leaves teethmarks in all the scenery.
HAHAHA! I love that last poster! Haven’t seen Joo Ji Hoon in a while, will probably enjoy this once it comes out.
very cute posters joo ji hoon …..handsome awesome joo ji hoon ……excellent movie… loveu,,,,,
Something is so offtrack?
I stop seeing all the vibrance in JJH’s eyes. Wondering why? His “prince” look doesn’t add up, nothing worldly about him in any of those stills/posters. I just can’t catch his royal essence/vibe here. Pity.
Miss his Goong aura so much!