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Thing vs. Thing: Actors playing actors

javabeans: Not all meta is funny, but actors making fun of themselves always hits the spot. Like Siwon opening up a twitter account for his King of Dramas character Kang Hyun-min, who resembles nobody so much as, perhaps, Zoolander. Though I suppose Eric and his alter ego for Myung-wol the Spy come close.

girlfriday: Eric the real-life actor is definitely zanier, but as far as characters go, Siwon’s Kang Hyun-min takes the cake.

javabeans: He’s hilarious. Just the variety of facial expressions alone is a crack-up. He’s vapid and vain and totally willing to go there to look absurd.

girlfriday: I love that every time you think the drama’s going to show you that he really has a deeper layer, they undercut the moment and it turns out he really is as shallow as he appears. So funny.

javabeans: Totally. You think he’s going to be this misunderstood bleeding heart… and then you see that nope, you understood him just fine the first time around.

girlfriday: Underneath the surface… there’s just more surface.

javabeans: To contrast, it’s strange that Eric’s Kang-woo character wasn’t more fun, given how off-the-wall he is in real life.

girlfriday: I know. They really could’ve taken him to funnier extremes. They certainly got the diva thing down. He might even beat Hyun-min in that department, with his designer water and such.

javabeans: The downside to that is, Myung-wol treated the diva setup totally straight, instead of making it… you know, funny. Why? Who knows why anything was the way it was in that drama? Whereas with Hyun-min, you see him putting on the generous front for the public, and then fuming in all his petty vanity behind the scenes, but it’s in this absurd and laugh-out-loud way.

girlfriday: And it’s even funnier that he’s on point with everything, like the fact that he gives good interview, knows exactly what to say and when, and has the image aspect down to a science.

javabeans: With Eric’s Kang-woo, I wondered, “How’d this guy ever get mistaken for being a charming top star?” With Hyun-min, I wonder, “How’d this guy ever graduate elementary school?”

girlfriday: Hee. So yeah, I think Hyun-min blows Kang-woo out of the water. But then, what about say, against Dokko Jin?

javabeans: Ooh, good one. With that, I think we have to break down the category further. They’re both media-savvy and glib to the cameras. They’ve got a lot of things in common. It would be interesting to see who’s got the bigger ego, though I think Dokko Jin edges Hyun-min out for sheer braggadocio.

girlfriday: And he certainly beats him in the facial hair department. Though to what end, I don’t know.

javabeans: I do think that Hyun-min is more manipulable of the two, despite how difficult they are with their handlers. Dokko Jin is putty in the hands of the woman he wants to impress, but Hyun-min wants to impress everyone. Plus, Dokko Jin’s honey is way smarter than Hyun-min’s, who, like him, is hard-pressed to string together a coherent sentence on her own.

girlfriday: Dude, his idol girlfriend is friggin’ hilarious.

javabeans: I love her, for the sheer fact that she’s absurd. A singer who’s told not to speak?! Bravo, King of Dramas, bravo.

girlfriday: I died laughing at her introduction.

javabeans: I don’t know if any of them could beat the fashions of Rain in Full House, though. And by beat, I mean be any more questionable. I get that these things are tied to the era they were shot in… but some crimes against fashion are just timeless.

girlfriday: Oh yeah. You can’t leave out the icon of fake actors in dramaland.

javabeans: He wins for having the worst wardrobe and being the shoutiest star.

girlfriday: I dunno, wasn’t Oska quite shouty as well? Or was he just whiny?

javabeans: Oska was loud, but I thought of it as a half-joking thing. Rain was the king of shouty. Shouty shouty shouty. It was back in the era where loud bickering was romantic, apparently. That and orangey floppy hair.

girlfriday: OH, now we’re gettin’ out the big guns. Hair? Lessee… there’s Jang Geun-seok’s Mary character…

javabeans: But… but… you almost can’t compare dramaland actors with pop stars and idols. Because idols… they are a breed of alien unto themselves. And Full House 2 wins that hands down (…in defeat).

girlfriday: Is that crossing a hair line? Fine, then Full House wins the hair award, though Hyun-min’s floppy ‘do right now is climbing up there.

javabeans: I really hope King of Dramas shows us snippets of the drama-within-the-drama, because I can’t wait to see Siwon in a Gaksital-style pompadour. Please?

girlfriday: That would be really fun. Okay, what about Siwon vs. Siwon, since he did play two fake actors?

javabeans: Hm. Again, you’re gonna have to be more specific. ‘Cause for instance, if we’re talking SIwon’s character’s acting skills, I suppose Hyun-min wins, because despite his uber-shallow, greedy, questionably coiffed persona, he’s supposedly a decent actor. While Siwon’s Oh My Lady character was known for his foot-acting. And yet, he was so much less interesting, despite that deficiency.

girlfriday: I do find that despite Hyun-min’s vapid persona, I do want him to be good in the fake drama in the drama. I don’t even know why. The other guy’s foot-acting was hilarious, but maybe in King of Dramas we have more invested in the fake drama being good?

javabeans: Yeah by all indicators they’re making something on par with Gaksital, so I want it to prevail. Plus, it’s just funnier to have the dichotomy of the vain idiot being really talented.

girlfriday: Yeah maybe that’s it — it would be the joke to top all jokes, if the guy who couldn’t bother to read the script was just some natural talent who blows everyone away, and they all gape, “Wait, he can ACT?”

javabeans: I suppose there’s also some vicarious thrill in the message — however unintentional? — that at the end of the day, no matter what it took to get us there, the good drama prevailed. Otherwise life would just be depressing.

girlfriday: But they’d have to bring it back down to earth at the end, like the thing that Hyun-min walks away from the experience with is more CFs and a video game based on his drama character.

javabeans: I suspect that asking for depth from Hyun-min might be an unreasonable order, but a little more room in that wading pool he calls a brain could be gratifying.

girlfriday: Well, if Dokko Jin could make room in his ego to love someone else, then I suppose anything’s possible in drama-within-dramaland.

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well it good they can laugh at themselves after all they should know it not their acting talent that gets them these roles but their looks, of course looking good is a talent too, indeed in korean often the most important one. But as long as they work hard and show improvements they hardly the worse actors around, indeed I can think of a few pretty faced actors who have never shown much improvement at all.

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Is that a Charlie Brown jumper Kang Hyun-min is wearing. I would love it to be some reference to Charlie Brown.

(Also I am making the big tangent to Bit Na's not able to talk as a reference to Singing in the Rain.)

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I actually love all actors-playing-actors mentioned above when their dramas were shown. Of course, Siwon's always been my fave since OML, but episode 6 of KoD made me love him so much more. So hilarious. So glad Siwon got this role.

And yeah, I got hooked on Shinhwa broadcast because of Eric. I loved that episode when they punk'd him so he lost all games and got punished until the end. Sometimes, he's a bit boring compared to the other members (he really can't make up comedic, on-the-spot stuff) but he does have a lot of charisma so I always cheer him on more than the others. ;) [Hehe,I remember the kids' episode where one of the kids said that he looks like a carpenter from Africa. So funny!]

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JB and GF's comments about Rain and Dokko Jin's disastrous hairstyles are pretty spot on. In fact, I have always been curious why almost all male Kdrama leads sport so awful hairdos. Does anyone know? Do Korean women really find them attractive?

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I think I know how the Full House production team justified Rain's bad fashion choices. It's like with kissing in K-dramas - kisses are usually very chaste and we don't get to see much action. Similarly, they had to tone down Rain's hotness with an...eclectic mix of clothes bought from the finest market stalls of Hongdae Flee Market. :D

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Thank you for bringing up Rain and Full House, I will always love that drama because it made me discover the whole world of Hallyu but omg was it cringeworthy looking back on it :D

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I love Siwon. He's gotten better at acting. But of all these guys, Dokko Jin is my favorite.

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javabeans: I love her, for the sheer fact that she’s absurd. A singer who’s told not to speak?! Bravo, King of Dramas, bravo. ----------> Jaejoong is that you?! LMAO

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oh my! I love your Thing vs Thing posts. When I know about all the dramas being discussed, it's totally fun. But even here, when I haven't seen some of the dramas you guys mentioned, I still love the humor/comparison.

Loved this: some crimes against fashion are timeless
and this: beneath the surface is just more surface.

You guys are so funny...and yes, javabeans: "I really hope King of Dramas shows us snippets of the drama-within-the-drama, because I can’t wait to see Siwon in a Gaksital-style pompadour."

I think he's gonna be a great actor. I totally do. And now I'm kinda hoping he won't break up with Bit-na. I think they're perfect for each other. And I really do think that underneath it all, everyone involved in World Empire (with the exception of the mole) are good souls. So flaws and all, they should triumph. They oughta triumph.

Am sitting here waiting for episode 7 to be eng-subbed. I keep visiting viki to see if the subs have finished. Am so addicted.

Thanks for the post.

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I love this post! Siwon kills it (and me) in King of Dramas! He is the most hilariously absurd character, and I just love it.

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I love King of Dramas. Dokko Jin in Best Love - forever funny. Could watch this over and over again. A side note, Siwon, is suppose to be a "Christian" and is very open about this area of his life. Yet, he constantly uses JC as swearing in King of Drama's. Just saying... His acting is really interesting - makes me laugh! Thank you for this fun topic!

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YAY THING VS. THING

I do love actors portraying actors, and your breakdown is spot on. I wonder how close Si-won's portrayal is to his actual experiences... I bet it's a lot of fun to be a cracked-out silly version of yourself.

The closest thing I can think of here is Wil Wheaton and his hysterical Big Bang Theory appearances, where he's a jerkass version of himself, and his appearances on The Guild, although there he played an actual separate character.

I can't wait to catch up on King of Dramas. The meta is killing me, and the reason I'm enjoying it so much is probably from you guys.

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HILARIOUS!!!! Siwon is very shallow, I love it. and I totally agree that Rain was shouty, shouty shouty. LOL. I'm just amazed I got through FH with all that shoutyness. I did not realize there was an era of shouty. That is so funny!
BUT, more importantly, how did I almost oversee a segment that included Eric?! I finished Que Sera Sera last week and I'm still daydreaming abou..t h..i...mmmm...... eeerrrrrric......... mmmmm.... ... skin..shippingggg.... oooo.........

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does anyone else get the feeling that Siwon's character can't read...or is it just me? He seems to hand everything off to his manager.

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i liked the post.it was funny.by the way i lo0o0o0ove my dashing man cha seung won:)i killed myself not to say it here but i couldn`t:)

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Oh man! Totally missed this post till now. Love it! I like it that Siwon is totally not afraid to take things to the extreme as Hyun Min although it might spoil his image....totally uncool and stupid and petty haha...But Dokko Jin was awesome too. Lots of meta in the greatest love too!

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One have to TOTALLY add Chun Song Yi (Jeon Ji-hyun) into this list!!! She was so AWESOME in You that Came From the Stars. Maybe like an update of this post. Pretty Plwse.

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