After a pretty meh 2008, I was ready for the drama landscape to fire back up with 2009. And while there were a number of misses and disappointments — isn’t there always? — I was pretty satisfied with the dramas I watched in 2009. I still don’t think there were as many top offerings as, say, 2007, but I found a number of series to entertain me and satisfy my drama craving. There were a few selections early on that got me pumped for the year and things lagged during and after the summer months, but all told, I had an entertaining year.

(Okay, this is LONG. I tried to contain myself, really.)

SONG OF THE DAY

IRIS – “Empty” by Juni [ Download ]

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Read the rest of All Told, A Pretty Fun Year [Year In Review, Part 4] (7,596 words)

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Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella Man, Dream, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Style, Swallow the Sun, Tamra the Island, Triple, Will It Snow For Christmas, year in review, You're Beautiful

My pick for Drama of the Year: City Hall.

I’ll start of with an admission.  When javabeans asked me to give my thoughts on 2009, I was pretty excited, and agreed without much thought.  After all, 2009 was the best year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had.  But then it hit me: 2009 was also the only year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had. lol. And so, even given the number of dramas as I have seen this year (probably topping 50) I feel a bit out of my league.  How can I be critique-ing with any legitimacy?  

Nevertheless, I do think a newbie’s perspective on dramas is not necessarily a bad thing - since everything is new to me, it is tougher for me to be jaded.  Like when I saw Save The Last Dance For Me (my third k-drama ever!), I spent days afterwords thinking about what it would be like to have amnesia and then a second round of amnesia where I would forget what I had promised to remember while being forgetful the first time time around…

So while I can’t do an expert review, since I’m not an expert, I can give a newbie opinion on what worked for me, and what didn’t.  First though, a little background on me so that you know where I am coming from.  Sample of pre-2009 dramas that I liked:  My Love Patzzi, Who Are You, Full House, Save The Last Dance For Me, Two Outs In The Bottom of the Ninth, and Super Rookie.  These dramas tend to mix cuteness and heart together in a way that Western television shows still haven’t figured out how to do consistently.  I think it has something to do with the soundtrack songs that act as demi leit motifs and burrow the sentiment of the drama into your heart and mind. I mean would Full House have been as good, without “I Think I” by Byul? Or how good would Save The Last Dance For Me have been, without Edward Chun’s breath-y lyrics?

And taking it up a notch, here is a sample of pre-2009 dramas I loved:  Goong, Coffee Prince, Bad Family, Dal Ja’s Spring, Hong Gil Dong and My Girl.  Even more than the first group, these latter dramas did more than just create a nice balance of cuteness and heart; these dramas created a love story so palpable and real that, if you wanted to, you would need both hands to reach out and hold onto one.  And lastly, my first and still favorite drama of all is My Name is Kim Sam Soon, which combined everything – the cuteness, heart, love story, wonderful acting and a kickass OST.

Enough with the old, however. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on 2009 (oh, btw, hit “play” for the mp3 so you get the full technicolor and sound effects of this review. if the song ends, and you’re not done reading, then just scroll back up and hit play again. hehehe!):

SONG OF THE DAY

City Hall OST – “웃어봐” (Laugh) by Chae Dong-ha [ Download ]

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Post tags: Accidental Couple, Assorted Gems, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Job Well Done, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Tamra the Island, Temptation of Wife, year in review, You're Beautiful

With the year coming to an end, that means it’s time to take stock of the past twelve months (well, eleven really) in kdramas. The broadcast stations will be holding their awards ceremonies at the end of the month, and I’m working on my wrap-up of 2009′s offerings — as are some very talented (and prolific!) drama-watching fans — which I’ll post up closer to the end of the year.

But this is your turn to weigh in on what you liked or didn’t. I didn’t do a year-end poll last year (after putting one up in 2007) and people seemed to really want one, so it’s back.

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Post tags: A Star's Lover, Accidental Couple, Angel's Temptation, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, Cain and Abel, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Dream, Friend, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Ja Myung Go, Job Well Done, Loving You a Thousand Times, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Strike Love, Style, Tamra the Island, Triple, year in review

The fighting is over for drama series Cinderella Man, which had been accused of plagiarism in May by the production company of another proposed drama. On July 24, nearly two months after the drama limped to its June 4 finale, Cinderella Man and its production company, Core Contents Media, got an official apology and retraction.

Back in May, production company LK had said in an interview that Cinderella Man had ripped off a drama it had been developing called Fashion King. Core Contents immediately countered the claims and jumped to defend Cinderella Man‘s producers and writer, going so far as to sue both LK and the media source for defamation.

On July 24, the paper issued a correction, while Fashion King writer and representative Kim Ki-ho publicly stated, “After examining Cinderella Man, there is too weak of a basis for the claim, so it is not plagiarism.” And thus concludes this chapter in fashion-drama sniping.

Via Star News, No Cut News

RELATED POSTS

• Idol stars struggle with acting debuts
• Cinderella Man fights back, sues Fashion King
• Get ready for a glut of fashion dramas
• Kwon Sang-woo would like more viewers, please
• First impressions: MBC’s Cinderella Man

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Post tags: Cinderella Man, Kwon Sang-woo, lawsuits

The following article looks at pop singers who make the jump to acting and kind of falls into the “No duh” category with its statement of the obvious. But I think the topic is interesting, even if the article is overly simplistic. (It could have been a more persuasive piece if it had looked at more examples, for instance.) As a jumping-off point, it does the job, given how many idol stars are trying to make the leap into acting careers these days, some with more success than others.

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Post tags: Brilliant Legacy, Cinderella Man, Kim Hyun-joong, Lee Seung-gi, Park Su-jin, Queen Seon-deok, Yoon-ah

See, now this is just funny.

First, fashion-world-centered drama Cinderella Man was accused of plagiarism by the folks behind the proposal for Fashion King. Then Style announced its casting and called itself the Korean Devil Wears Prada. Magazine Allo announced its casting and also made a reference to The Devil Wears Prada. Then Style accused Allo of plagiarism. And now Cinderella Man is suing Fashion King for libel.

(Do none of these people understand what copyright infringement even is? You can’t plagiarize an idea, people, just like you can’t copyright a title. It’s the content that matters!)

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Read the rest of Cinderella Man fights back, sues Fashion King (315 words)

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Post tags: Cinderella Man, lawsuits, Magazine Allo, Style

There’s only one fashion-themed show on the air right now — MBC’s Wednesday-Thursday Cinderella Man — but soon, we’ll have three. KBS and SBS are also following the trend with fashion-themed dramas of their own.

First will be KBS, who will follow the current romantic comedy Accidental Couple with their series Magazine Allo (working title). The plot revolves around an outsider to the glossy fashion-mag biz, who comes in to work at Allo magazine and does her best to survive in the new competitive work culture (so… Devil Wears Prada meets Ugly Betty?) This drama will be a Wednesday-Thursday series and premieres on June 24.

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Post tags: Cinderella Man, Lee Jia, Magazine Allo, Style

And wouldn’t we all?

Oh, Kwon Sang-woo. I understand that you’re in something of a career slump after being one of the hottiest hotties of the early 2000s, and yeah, both your best buds Song Seung-heon and So Ji-sub came off pretty strong series in the past two months… but is bargaining for more viewers really the way to go about it?

Ratings for his new trendy drama Cinderella Man have been low, and Kwon offered that if they rose above 20% (ha!), he’d personally ask co-star Yoon-ah‘s girl pop group Girls Generation (SoShi) to make a cameo.

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Post tags: Bad Love, Cinderella Man, drama ratings, Han Eun-jung, interviews, Kwon Sang-woo, Sohn Tae-young, Song Chang-eui, Yoon-ah

On Wednesday, Cinderella Man premiered to a disappointing 9.3% rating, which dropped further to 6.7% on its second day. (It was up against Cain & Abel and I Hate You But Let’s Try Again, which both pulled in numbers in the 15%-19% range.)

I’ll always take the stance that ratings aren’t strictly indicative of a show’s quality, so I don’t think the numbers automatically say the show sucks. However, after seeing the first two episodes, I can see why the show received such a lukewarm response. Articles discussing the show’s first week point out the shaky quality, which range from complaints of Kwon Sang-woo‘s muddy diction (“It requires subtitling!”) and exaggerated accent, as well as Yoon-ah‘s acting and insufficient range of expression.

Personally, I didn’t think Cinderella Man was actually bad. It was okay. Inoffensive. It just… wasn’t very exciting.

[Watch the series at DramaFever]

SONG OF THE DAY

Biuret – “Dreams Come True.” Hm, maybe this song is too energetic for this post… Oh well. Just know that the drama ain’t anywhere near as upbeat as this fun song by Biuret, whose second album released a couple months ago. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of First impressions: MBC’s Cinderella Man (1,842 words)

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Post tags: Cinderella Man, first episodes, Han Eun-jung, Kwon Sang-woo, Song Chang-eui, Yoon-ah

So, what’s airing these days?

After a popular phenomenon of a drama ends, people tend to wonder, What next? Even if you haven’t been watching Boys Before Flowers, maybe you’re wondering what else is out there.

So here’s a rundown of all the dramas currently airing, and a list of those to keep an eye on as they beginning premiering soon. I can’t speak for every single drama out there, but I’ve tried to provide most of them with a short description and/or personal impression.

SONG OF THE DAY

Fly to the Sky – “Song For You” from their latest (and last) album, “Decennium.” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Currently airing dramas: A roundup (1,878 words)

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Post tags: Cain and Abel, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Friend, IRIS, Iron Empress, Ja Myung Go, Queen of Housewives, Return of Iljimae, Six Months, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Swallow the Sun, Triple