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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Read the rest of How was 2009 for you? (1,304 words)

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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

…in case you were wondering, which you probably weren’t.

MBC’s weekend miniseries Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설] has not had the buzzed-about broadcast run it was hoping for when it adapted one of the biggest box-office hits in Korean film history and cast name stars like Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon in the leads. I wouldn’t call it an abject failure… but nobody could say it hasn’t been disappointing.

In fact, the drama has most recently had to fight rumors that it is cutting its broadcast run and ending early. The production has come out and issued strong denials, stating that the drama has always been planned for 20 installments and has already completed those episodes.

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Read the rest of Friend will not be ending early (296 words)

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Post tags: Friend, Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon

With Brilliant Legacy out of the picture, KBS’s cheery family drama Sons of Sol Pharmacy has reclaimed the top spot as the number 1 weekend drama after ten weeks of being pushed aside by the now-wrapped Brilliant Legacy.

Sol Pharmacy‘s Saturday episode recorded a 26.3% just as its storyline gets more interesting in the Dae-pung and Bok-shil area. On the other hand, a new contender, SBS’s Style, premiered well with a 17.6%. That number made it number 1 in its time slot, and number 2 among the weekend dramas overall.

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Post tags: drama ratings, Friend, Iron Empress, Job Well Done, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Style

I haven’t had a chance to see the newly aired drama Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설], but perhaps you have. It premiered this past weekend on MBC, and has been the source of a lot of curiosity, given its cast (Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon), director (Kwak Kyung-taek of the film), and high-profile source material (the movie Friend) which starred one of Korea’s most famous and well-liked movie actors, Jang Dong-gun. Naturally people have been prepared to draw comparisons between the two versions (and two lead actors in the main role of Dong-soo).

On the drama’s upside, the entire series has been produced in its entirety, meaning that the actors are now done filming and the production won’t be in a race to beat the clock to get the episodes on air. Furthermore, having the same director behind both projects pre-empts some of the comments that the drama is merely aping the style of its film predecessor.

Here’s an interview with Hyun Bin from last week, published just a few days before the drama’s premiere.

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Read the rest of Hyun Bin isn’t afraid of the Friend comparisons (706 words)

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Post tags: Friend, Hyun Bin, interviews

Are you excited for the new drama Friend, Our Legend?

If you’re not, that’s okay. I’m not, either, despite (or perhaps because of) all the hype. But there are a lot of dramas that I didn’t expect to like initially that I did in the end, so I won’t make a call until it’s aired. And that’ll be soon — with the weekend drama Strike Love meeting an ignominious end, Friend, Our Legend will be airing a little sooner than originally planned; it premieres on Saturday, June 27, on MBC.

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Read the rest of Newest posters for Friend, Our Legend (59 words)

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Post tags: Friend, Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon, Lee Shi-un, Seo Do-young, Wang Ji-hye

Before the drama Friend, Our Legend even gets off the ground, announcements have been made for a musical version in the works. There’s even a new word to describe the trend of movie-turned-musicals (e.g., 200 Pound Beauty, On Air): the somewhat ungainly term “moviecal.”

A representative from Friend‘s production company said, “We haven’t made concrete plans yet, but it’s true we are in talks to produce the musical.” Although technically this adaptation would be based on the original film, considering that the movie was released in 2001 and the drama version is set to come out this month, they must be riding on the anticipated popularity of the Hyun Bin-led miniseries. (What happens if it flops?)

Meanwhile 20-episode television drama has been produced in its entirety prior to its first broadcast, which will be this weekend, June 27.

Via Sports Khan

RELATED POSTS

• Press conference day for Friend, Our Legend
• Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon are friends again
• Shoots nearing completion for Friend
• Auditions for Friend pick up steam

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Post tags: Friend, musicals

MBC’s much-awaited drama adaptation of the 2001 movie Friend, titled Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설], is set to premiere in a couple weeks, and the cast and crew held their drama production press conference on June 17 in Seoul.

The cast has some rather large shoes to fill, and none more so than Hyun Bin (The World They Live In), who takes the role originally played by Jang Dong-gun in the film that broke box office records at the time. Kim Min-joon (Tazza), Seo Do-young (Unstoppable Wedding), and Lee Shi-un fill out the quartet of friends.

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Post tags: Bae Geu-rin, Friend, Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon, Lee Shi-un, press conferences, Seo Do-young, Wang Ji-hye

(Cute.)

With baseball drama Strike Love winding down on MBC, its replacement series is getting ready to air: Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설], which is the television remake of the immensely successful 2001 film Friend.

The series stars Hyun Bin (The World They Live In) and Kim Min-joon (Tazza) as Dong-soo and Jun-seok, respectively. The roles were originated in the film by Jang Dong-gun and Yoo Oh-sung, who played the two leads in a group of four childhood friends.

This also marks the second time Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon are acting together; their first experience was back in the 2004 drama Ireland, which went a long way to establishing their acting careers back before they were well-known.

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Read the rest of Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon are friends again (196 words)

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Post tags: Friend, Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon, remakes

Aw, this is too bad. MBC’s baseball drama Strike Love has been underperforming in its weekend time slot, and is now reducing its episode order. Rather than the planned 20, the drama will now end with Episode 16.

MBC says that their agreement with the production company allows for anywhere from 16 to 20 episodes (although the initial number was 20). Given the single-digit ratings, they have decided to cut things short and end on June 21. (Its last two episodes, 9 and 10, drew in 9.1% and 8.9% — not great, but not abysmal, either.) Because this comes late in the game (there are reports that the drama has already shot its 18th episode), the ending episodes will be edited down to finish by 16.

I hope this doesn’t become a trend with kdramas; one of the biggest reasons I prefer the kdrama one-season model to the U.S.’s indefinite run is because a finite length helps pace out the storytelling. While popular kdramas regularly get extended, until recently even low-rated ones were allowed to finish their planned broadcasts. This lack of a cancellation threat made for a less uneasy atmosphere when deciding to watch shows that don’t get all the popular attention.

I’m behind with this drama, but I had found the actors’ chemistry really compelling — Yoon Tae-young and Kim Min-jung do a great job conveying a sweet first love that is pure but not boring. The drama may be flawed — it’s more like familiar comfort fare rather than fresh new content — but I thought it was much more enjoyable than its numbers suggested.

In any case, the drama to follow in its Saturday-Sunday timeslot is the Friend adaptation (starring Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon), Friend, Our Legend. It premieres June 27.

Via Newsis

RELATED POSTS

• Open set day at Strike Love
• Strike Love (MBC)
• Shoots nearing completion for Friend

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Post tags: drama ratings, Friend, Strike Love

(Hyun Bin, is that really you?)

One of the buzzworthy dramas this year is the remake of the 2001 film Friend [친구], which is being adapted for television in MBC’s Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설]. Aside from the casting, the drama has a few things going for it that’s drumming up early interest: It’s being written and directed by the film’s director, Kwak Kyung-taek, and it’s just announced that it’ll get all 20 episodes in the can before premiere time.

The production company, ZinInSa Films (which also produced the film), stated on May 10 that filming is currently about 80% completed: “Filming and editing are being done together, so the entire production will be completed prior to broadcast.”

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Post tags: drama production, Friend, Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon, remakes