Although I didn’t watch August 23’s broadcast of Mnet’s 20’s Choice awards (a wannabe VMA’s, really), looking over the full winners list, my first reaction is: “What were they smoking?”
Some choices made sense. I get why Jang Geuk-seok, shakin’ his thang above as the event’s MC, was awarded Hot Movie Star (Male) because he’s had a great year coming off the drama Hong Gil Dong and recent movie Baby and I. And Hot Sports Star is a topical choice, going to the recent gold-medalist female weight lifter Jang Mi-ran, while the annoyingly catchy, ubiquitous earworms “One More Time” and “So Hot” (by Jewelry and Wonder Girls, respectively) are no-brainers.
But even the fact that they’ve got a “Hot Schoolgirl” category (winner So-hee), or “Hot Comment” (I think they meant catchprase) are kind of, pardon my French, retarded. And don’t even ask me what “Hot Sweet Music” means.
Furthermore, I get that “American beef” was a hot topic this year, but to highlight it at an awards show as the “winner” of Hot Issuemaker seems a little crass. Or just stupid.
Check out the full list beyond the jump, along with pics of the show in all its tacky glory.
Another reason to hate on 2006’s Miss Korea (and new actress) Honey Lee? After all, she’s gorgeous (and a Miss Universe finalist), a talented musican (majoring in classical instruments like the gayageum), smart (went to Seoul National University), and is expanding her career to include not only acting but now also singing. If that ain’t a target for anti-fandom, I don’t know what is.
Honey Lee teams up with Shinhwa balladeer Shin Hye-sung, this time showing off her singing skills (she’d trained as a vocalist under YG and reportedly picked up vocal lessons in preparation for this collaboration).
Shin has previously recorded duets with two other female singers — with Kang Suji on his first solo album and Lyn on his project album — and this third comes on his upcoming third album, to go on sale August 26. The duet is called “A Good Day to Love” [사랑하기 좋은 날] and is written by the songwriter behind Brian’s solo track “Don’t Go” and Lee Ji-hoon’s “I’m Sorry, My Heart,” Ha Jung-ho (so, going by those examples, we can expect this song to be a melodic ballad).
Shin Hye-sung is scheduled to take the stage on August 24’s Inki Gayo (Popular Music).
Kim Dong-wan wishes fellow Shinhwa member Jun Jin a happy 29th birthday at Jun Jin’s fanmeeting, themed “All For You.” The event took place on August 16 at Konkuk University in Seoul.
Infinity Challenge’s Jung Hyung-don served as MC, while VIP attendees included Kim Su-ro (who shakes up some champagne below; he wears orange shorts) and the members of boy-band Battle.
Jun Jin is releasing his “repackaged” album in August and gives a solo concert in Seoul on September 5 and 6. He plans to travel overseas later this fall, performing and holding a fanmeeting in Shanghai in October, with another in November in Singapore.
So Ji-sub returns to MVs after three and a half years since his last one (ballad singer Jo Sung-mo’s “Mr. Flower”). This time he’s appearing in the music video for the digital single “고독한 인생” (Isolated life) by ”G” (mp3 posted below). The track was released online on August 13.
Part of the interest in the “G project” is that it doesn’t refer to a single artist, but rather intends to become a “brand,” meaning different artists and groups will release albums under the “brand G”; some of the other artists include Banana Girl, Color Purple, and Color Pink. Furthermore, “G” is also the name for the unknown hip-hop artist behind the song, who remains something of a mystery — neither his true name or background has been released in accordance with the “teaser marketing” surrounding his promotional activities.
(Oh, brother. More Zia-esque manufactured madness? Marketing gimmicks, I tire of you. Plus, I don’t get all this kpop-industry cross-promoting confusion — shouldn’t this multiple-artist format make “G” a label, not a project album/group? Whatevs.)
The MV is directed by the same director (Jo Soo-hyun) behind videos for Big Bang, Rain, Jewelry and Seo In-young; the song is written and produced by J@TRAX, who’s produced for artists like Rain and kpop newbs Mighty Mouth.
Apparently there are three versions of the music video in total, to be released in due time. This is the first of them, which includes scenes from So Ji-sub’s upcoming movie with Kang Ji-hwan, A Movie Is a Movie.
As announced, supa-star Rain held his fanmeeting and birthday party (called “Summer Vacation with Rain”), at Olympic Hall in Seoul’s Olympic Park on July 27.
The event commenced at 3pm, hosted by MC Kim Jae-dong, who made his TV debut around the same time as Rain’s singer debut. That familiarity made for a light-hearted time with lots of joking around as Kim interviewed Rain. The star also sang “A Day” (haru do) and “How to Escape the Sun” and danced to “Instead of Saying Goodbye.”
Approx fans 1,300 were from overseas, making for an overall total of around 3,000.
Some interview highlights:
His “worldwide album” planned for September has been pushed to next year, mainly in part because of his filming schedule for upcoming film Ninja Assassin. However, he does plan for an “Asia special album” for October, to be released — and performed, and promoted — in China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and throughout Asia. He explained, “The Asia special album is about 50 percent complete. Actually, I’m holding up completing the remaining half because I want to perfect it.”
(What does “worldwide album” even mean? Is that a euphemism for his U.S./English-language album? Is this his way of backing off from Western ambitions without actually admitting to it? Did he finally realize that despite overwhelming domestic popularity, the U.S. watered-down-R&B-pop-music machine is saturated with homegrown pop-star aspirants? Is he going to sing in multiple languages?)
As for his Hollywood film, Rain trained rigorously for his role as the titular assassin, learning swordplay as well as how to throw a blade attached to a chain. He lost a lot of weight while training, although he expressed having a hard time with the strict diet: “If I stayed away from food for too long, I’d end up overeating, and my insulin levels would shoot up, which isn’t healthy.” Thus he mostly stuck to a 30-30-40 diet (30 percent protein, 30 percent fat, 40 carbs, aka The Zone diet).
Rain also revealed, “I thought filming a Hollywood movie would allow for more sleep and more comfortable shooting, but I was wrong. Because daily production costs are so high, I ended up sleeping five hours a night and started filming at 8am and continued all through the day.”
Asked what event in his six years of fame has left the strongest impression, he answered that it was meeting with the now-deceased cancer patient Ahn So-bong: “When I visited the hospital room, he was sadly in the late stages of cancer. Afterward, we spoke many times over the phone, but because I was working overseas, I couldn’t visit again, which was painful for me. Up till that point in my life, that was probably the one really good thing I’d done with my celebrity.”
His cooking? “I’ve cooked for myself a lot,” he explained, prompting Kim Jae-dong to ask for the recipe for his kimchi chigae. (He’d cooked onstage at a previous fanmeeting last year.)
Acknowledging that he’s spent quite some time away from home, he promised, “After I release my Asia special album in October, I’ll be doing promotional activities so much that my fans will get sick of me.”
(Restraining… self… from retorting… to last comment…)
