On October 8, the 14th Pusan International Film Festival, or PIFF, opened in Busan. (Yes, the city takes a different official spelling than the film festival. Blame inconsistent Romanization.)

As the largest film festival in Korea, it drew a large list of attendees, as you can see from the long list of red-carpet walkers. It was definitely a star-studded opening night, and even included one familiar Hollywood face (Josh Hartnett).

This year’s PIFF features its largest lineup to date, screening 355 films from 70 countries, and closes on the 16th.

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Read the rest of Opening red carpet at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival (241 words)

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Post tags: Byun Jung-soo, Choi Jung-won, Eom Ji-won, film festivals, Go Eun-ah, Go Jun-hee, Ha Ji-won, Han Chae-young, Han Eun-jung, Han Hye-jin, Han Ji-hye, Han Ye-seul, Im Joo-hwan, Im Soo-jung, Jang Dong-gun, Jang Hyuk, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeon Hye-bin, Jo Jae-hyun, Jung Ryeo-won, Kang Ji-hwan, Kim Haneul, Kim Kang-woo, Kim Nam-gil, Kim So-yeon, Kim Yunjin, Lee Byung-heon, Lee Seon-kyun, Min Hyo-rin, Park Hee-soon, Seo Woo, So Ji-sub, Su Ae, Sung Yuri, Sunwoo Sun, Uhm Jung-hwa, Wang Seok-hyun, Yeh Ji-won, Yoo Hana, Yoo Sun, Yoon Kye-sang

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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Read the rest of Kwon Sang-woo would like more viewers, please (648 words)

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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.

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 (1,837 words)

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

I admit to poking a bit of fun at MBC’s upcoming series Cinderella Man, but I will say from photos of the drama’s production press conference, it does have one good-looking cast. (Of course, merely casting pretty actors never ensures quality, but when you’re approaching a drama with low expectations of the body-switching, weirdly-cast, cliché-ridden story, eye candy becomes important.)

Kwon Sang-woo and Yoon-ah, above, still look a little more like “Daddy’s little girl” than romantic counterparts, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

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Read the rest of Cinderella Man production press conference (293 words)

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

Han Eun-jung (Lawyers of Korea, Full House) will be the leading lady opposite Kwon Sang-woo’s pauper-into-prince main character in upcoming MBC drama Cinderella Man.

Or should I say, leading lady opposite both of Kwon’s pauper AND prince characters — his Dongdaemun market shopkeeper character (the “pauper”) switches places with a businessman who owns a large-scale clothing enterprise (the “prince”). Hilarity (I’m sure) ensues.

Han Eun-jung plays a rich daughter of a banker, who falls for Kwon’s shopkeeper character. Neither actor excites me, but the premise seems rife with possibility for ridiculous cheesiness. The drama will air on Wednesdays and Thursdays in early May.

Via DongA

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Post tags: Han Eun-jung, Kwon Sang-woo

Did the Blue Dragon Awards sneak up on us this year or what?

As one of the largest year-end awards shows, the Blue Dragon always tends to draw out a good number of A-listers, and we saw plenty of them out on the red carpet on November 20 and posing pretty for photos.

One big winner of the night was the “kimchi Western” The Good, The Bad, The Weird, as was the thriller The Chaser and even the sports movie Forever the Moment, from way back in January.

But, as with any awards show, sometimes the fun is less about the actual awards and more about parsing all the red carpet looks.

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Read the rest of Blue Dragon Awards 2008 (1,276 words)

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Post tags: awards, fashion, Go Jun-hee, Han Chae-young, Han Eun-jung, Han Ye-seul, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Jun-ho, Kang Ji-hwan, Kim Haneul, Kim Hye-soo, Kim Joo-hyuk, Kim Min-sun, Kim Nam-gil, Lee Bo-young, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Ki-woo, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Mi-yeon, Lee Soo-kyung, Park Shi-yeon, Shin Hyun-joon, So Ji-sub, Sohn Ye-jin, Song Yoon-ah, Su Ae, Uhm Tae-woong

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.

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Read the rest of Pusan International Film Festival’s opening night (165 words)

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Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Cha Seung-won, Choi Jung-yoon, Choi Kang-hee, Eom Ji-won, Eugene, fashion, film festivals, Go Ara, Gong Hyo-jin, Han Eun-jung, Hyun Bin, Jang Dong-gun, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Ryeo-won, JYP, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Ji-soo, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Rae-won, Kim So-yeon, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Bo-young, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Jin, Lee Jung-jin, Lee Seon-kyun, Lee Wan, Lee Yeon-hee, Oh Ji-ho, Park Eun-hye, Park Hae-il, Park Jin-hee, Shin Hyun-joon, Shin Mina, Song Chang-eui, Yeh Ji-won, Yoon Jin-seo