…though you couldn’t tell from its promo material. Syndrome‘s newly released posters and trailer are pretty standard stuff, which I could swear I’ve seen tons of times before. Seriously, is there a medical drama template setting in Photoshop, where you insert actors’ faces and out it spews a generic-looking promo shot with the requisite scrubs, scalpel, and body part of interest?

True, medical dramas are always going to be popular and a great number of them are quite different from each other (see: House versus Grey’s, or New Heart vs OBGYN vs White Tower), so I don’t dismiss Syndrome for being yet another entry in the field. Occupation dramas are just a reason to change the scenery for universal stories of love/ambition/rivalry anyway.

Even still, I just can’t get my interest up for this show, because, well, we just saw Brain, right? The show ended not long ago, aired on Mondays and Tuesdays, and was about neurosurgeons. Syndrome, like Brain, revolves around a motley collection of familiar personalities, from your young female resident to the perfectionist colleague to the cold-hearted surgeon. You may as well call this Brain No. 2 (no relation to HeadsNo2). Or Brain Again. Re-Brained? No-Brainer?

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Read the rest of Medical drama Syndrome is no Brain (229 words)

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Post tags: cable programs, Han Hye-jin, Song Chang-eui

This must be the year of the medical drama. We’ve got Brain airing currently on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Uhm Tae-woong and Kim Hee-sun both have their own medical dramas lined up — Tower and Faith, respectively. We can add Han Hye-jin to the list, who’s set to star in Syndrome on cable.

The drama has some strong actors attached, many of whom have played doctors before: Song Chang-eui in Life Is Beautiful, Jo Jae-hyun in New Heart, and Han Hye-jin in Jejoongwon. Park Gun-hyung (Kingdom of the Wind) is another of the cast members. Directing are Lee Sung-joo (Hello God, Seoul 1945) and Go Jae-hyun. On the other hand, the writer’s previous (and only) drama was the flopped soccer drama Heading to the Ground. Eep!

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Read the rest of Han Hye-jin’s new medical drama Syndrome (167 words)

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Post tags: cable programs, Han Hye-jin, Park Gun-hyung

Awards, awards, awards! And tons of pretty people.

As with yesterday’s MBC Drama Awards, note that winners are decided in part due to popularity, in part due to ratings and politics. That said, I don’t think anyone will argue with their Daesang winner, Shin Ha-kyun (below), who has been tearing it up on Monday and Tuesday nights with medical drama Brain.

Also no surprise was the awarding of runner-up acting prizes to The Princess’s Man‘s pair, Park Shi-hoo and Moon Chae-won (above), which bagged a number of awards.
As did weekend hit Ojakkyo Brothers.

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Read the rest of 2011 KBS Drama Awards (2,271 words)

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Post tags: awards, Chun Jung-myung, Daniel Choi, Eugene, Han Eun-jung, Han Hye-jin, Hong Soo-hyun, Hwang Woo-seul-hye, Jang Nara, Joo-won, Jung Jin-young, Jung Woong-in, JYP, Kim Min-seo, Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Jang-woo, Lee Jong-hyuk, Lee Shi-young, Lee Yoon-ji, Moon Chae-won, Moon Jung-hee, Park Jung-ah, Park Min-young, Park Shi-hoo, Shin Ha-kyun, Suzy, UEE

The first teaser for KBS’s upcoming Thorn Birds is out, and basically what I can tell from that is: tears, tears, and more tears. Seriously, that’s all there is. Crying, sobbing, weeping, the eye-sweats, call it what you like. All I know is: I’m pretty much out.

The teaser video’s narration tells us, “We’ll atone for that sin. I’m sorry…” I don’t know what she did, but I’m betting she cries about it. A lot.

Thorn Birds stars Han Hye-jin (Jejoongwon) and Kim Min-jung (Strike Love) and is touted as “the revival of well-made melodramas” whose teaser video takes “a teary concept to stir viewers’ emotions.” Yeah, we got that. But how ’bout a little less with the sad, and a little more with the story?

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Read the rest of Thorn Birds teaser and stills (288 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Kim Min-jung, Thorn Birds

There’s a new drama in the works for KBS’s Wednesday-Thursday timeslot, Thorn Birds, which hasn’t been much on my radar because it seems like a muddly mess in the making.

But first, the details: It stars Han Hye-jin (back to TV a year after 2010′s Jejoongwon), Joo Sang-wook (who revitalized his career with Giant), Seo Do-young (who took an edgier turn with his dark cable drama Yacha), and Kim Min-jung (in her first drama since being forced to drop Hero due to injury).

I have nothing against those actors; it’s the creative team that has me on alert. This drama is described as the story of two women who make radically different choices in pursuing their ambitions. It also centers around “a beautiful and fierce love” between the heroine and the two men (Han, Joo, Seo).

Han Hye-jin plays a tough woman who faces off against a difficult fate, while Kim Min-jung’s villaness character harbors a birth secret that leads her on a path of revenge against the world. Joo Sang-wook plays the heir to a powerful chaebol, while Seo Do-young plays a romanticist and film director whose affection for the heroine is described as a “shadow love.” Oh great, more romantic stalking.

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Read the rest of KBS’s Thorn Birds begins rehearsals (177 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Joo Sang-wook, Kim Min-jung, Seo Do-young, Thorn Birds

There are lots of awards handed out, for sure, but at least SBS has some strong shows this year, with great performances all around in the competition. Go Hyun-jung stacks up another Daesang for her turn as the first Korean female president in Daemul, which if I’m to go based on all the parodies, involved lots of shouting in the rain. There’s a performance by Noh Min-woo, a THREE-way tie for Best Couple, and of course, some red carpet hits and misses.

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Read the rest of 2010 SBS Drama Awards (1,983 words)

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Post tags: awards, Choi Jin-hyuk, Go Hyun-jung, Ha Ji-won, Ham Eun-jung, Han Chae-ah, Han Hye-jin, Hong Ji-min, Hwang Jung-eum, Hyun Bin, Joo Sang-wook, Jung Bo-seok, Jung Seok-won, Kang Sung, Kim Jung-eun, Kim So-yeon, Kim Soo-hyun, Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Hee-jin, Lee Jong-seok, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Soo-kyung, Min Hyo-rin, Moon Chae-won, Park Jin-hee, Philip Lee, Shin Mina, Shin Sung-rok, Yoo Min

Kim Kang-woo (Story of a Man) married quietly earlier this year, and now he’s announced that he and his wife are expecting their first child. They married in June after a seven-year courtship, having been introduced by friends in 2003. This also means that actress Han Hye-jin (Jejoongwon) will be an aunt — his wife is her older sister.

A representative from Kim’s management company, Namoo Actors, stated on the 8th that the couple is three months into the pregnancy, which puts the expected delivery date sometime in spring. Kim is generally protective of his privacy, so there were some at his management company who didn’t even know the truth until the reports leaked to the press: “He’s amazed at how the news got out, but he’s extremely happy at becoming a father.”

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Read the rest of Kim Kang-woo to become a father (132 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Kim Kang-woo

More awards!

The Blue Dragon Film Awards took place on November 26, and the many of the same films that have been winning lately were rewarded once again: Some of the big winners were for films such as crime drama Moss, dark thriller I Saw the Devil, romantic comedy Cyrano Dating Agency, stark action movie Ajusshi, and the much-lauded Poetry.

Kang Dong-won and Song Kang-ho’s Secret Reunion prevailed to win best picture over nominees Ajusshi, The Housemaid, Moss, and Jeon Woo Chi.

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Read the rest of 2010 Blue Dragon Film Awards (1,851 words)

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Post tags: awards, Choi Kang-hee, Daniel Choi, Han Hye-jin, Jin Gu, Jo Yeo-jung, Jo Yoon-hee, Jung Jae-young, Jung Soo-young, Kim Hye-soo, Kim Sae-ron, Kim Sung-soo, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Min-jung, Nam Gyuri, Park Bo-young, Park Hee-soon, Park Jin-hee, Park Min-young, Sohn Ye-jin, Song Joong-ki, Won Bin, Yoo Joon-sang, Yoo Sun, Yoon Shi-yoon

This week saw the finales of two Monday-Tuesday dramas, KBS’s comedic Birth of the Rich and SBS’s medical-themed period drama Jejoongwon. The former enjoyed enough of a response to extend its series by four episodes, for a total of 20. The latter began in January and wrapped up its four-month-long broadcast with Episode 36.

Both dramas have fallen in viewership behind MBC’s Dong Yi in recent weeks, which has broken the 20% mark, but viewers have expressed overall satisfaction with their endings.

Warnings to spoiler-phobes: Details about the endings will be mentioned!

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Read the rest of It’s finale week for Birth of the Rich, Jejoongwon (541 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Jejoongwon, Ji Hyun-woo, Lee Bo-young, Lee Shi-young, Nam Goong-min, Park Yong-woo, The Birth of the Rich, Yeon Jung-hoon

Han Hye-jin‘s character takes to the ice in an upcoming episode of Jejoongwon, the Joseon-era medical drama airing on SBS. These stills show her wearing traditional hanbok clothing along with old-fashioned ice skates (the series takes place in the late 19th century). In the drama, Han’s character is a daughter to a government official who is always the first to acquire Western items of interest, which is how she is among the very first to try skating on ice.

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Read the rest of Han Hye-jin skates in Jejoongwon (100 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Jejoongwon