Sometimes you look at a picture and you know it’s off, but there are just so many things to comment on that you can’t articulate any of them.
Yeah, this ad for Converse featuring its new brand models, Choi Kang-hee (My Sweet Seoul) and boy-bander Kim Hyun-joong (of SS501), is one of those instances.
Converse is selling… what, exactly? The ad says “down jumper” but the picture tells me “goose mothering skills.”
It’s kind of unnerving how all the news right now is either Choi Jin-shil’s sudden death or the 13th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), and sometimes while looking through the news listings, it’s easy to confuse the two based on the thumbnail images. (Given the timing, as far as I can see, there were no overlaps in attendees — or at least, very few — between PIFF and Choi Jin-shil’s funeral viewing.)
October 2 saw the opening night to the nine-day festival; PIFF closes on October 10 and is the largest film festival in Korea, and one of the largest in Asia. Over the course of the week, more than 300 films will be screened from 60-plus countries.
Kim Rae-won and Han Eun-jung, above, came as brand models for PIFF sponsor L’Oreal. Other famous name actors showed up to the red carpet night; the opening film was Kazakhstan’s The Gift to Stalin, as well as the Hyun Bin & Lee Bo-young film I Am Happy.
Sorry for the delay. I had no intention of dropping My Sweet Seoul, but I also found myself dragging my feet to keep watching. I’ve had a hard time working up the interest, even though I do think the drama is high-quality. Strange dichotomy, that.
I wish I could like the series, I really really wish I could. But I think this just shows that interest and quality aren’t always perfectly correlative. So many other factors go into making a drama watchable and entertaining — as if I didn’t already know from the people yelling at me for dissing certain dramas! Taste is subjective, yes. Matters of “quality” can be “graded” based on specific criteria (directing, script, acting, plot), but ultimately a viewer’s enjoyment is subject to factors outside of those.
SONG OF THE DAY
Yoo Hee-yeol (aka Toy) - “여름날” (Summer day). This comes from the “Summer Days” advertainment series (mini-movies with a plot and its own soundtrack highlighting a laptop brand) starring Shin Mina, Hyun Bin, and Ryu Seung-beom. [ Download ]
[Javabeans here. As I've mentioned several times in the past, I have a few issues with the otherwise charming SBS drama My Sweet Seoul, which has prevented me from enjoying the series as I probably ought. I expressed, in growing dissatisfaction, my initial disconnect with Choi Kang-hee's acting, a growing frustration with the Eun-soo character in Episode 7, and then an all-out rant after Episode 9.
I wanted to get the other side and bring a more balanced view, because god knows not everyone hates Eun-soo, otherwise this series would have no audience. So I invited Dahee Fanel, who has previously done me the honor of sharing her 2007 wrap-up review, to explain the other side. The result was an enlightening conversation, and despite the fact that I think Dahee and I pretty much disagree on most key points (LOL!), I had tons of fun debating the point with her. Hope you enjoy!]
SONG OF THE DAY
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” (Btw, who calls oysters “er-sters”? Or pronounces after “off-ter”?) [ Download ]
I like the opening animated sequences of My Sweet Seoul because they’re usually cute, literal representations of the metaphors Eun-soo uses in the drama itself. In this one, for instance, wall meets wall at the corner. A small flower springs up where they connect, windows are created on both walls, the blooms flourish, and Young-soo waves at Eun-soo. So you can be a brick wall and still find love. Aw.
