Soon we’ll be saying goodbye to the endearing young cast of The Moon That Embraces the Sun, who did such a solid job of anchoring the show in emotion, conflict, and cuteness. Their appeal surely sets up the adults (Kim Soo-hyun, Jung Il-woo, Han Ga-in, Kim Min-seo, Yoon Seung-ah) for lots of goodwill as they make their entrances, so let’s take one last look at a couple of the youngsters at the heart of the show: Lee Min-ho playing Yang-myung, and Yeo Jin-gu as young Prince Hwon.

First, Lee Min-ho, who’s 18 by Western counting, 20 in Korean age. He’s been acting for more years than not; his debut came in 1998 at the age of four in the SBS drama Soonpoong Clinic and he continued that with lots of child roles in dramas like Empress Myung-sung, Jang Hee-bin, Love and Ambition, Gumiho: Tale of the Fox’s Child and Kye Baek. (He also had a memorable bit in Sungkyunkwan Scandal as the Banchon thief in Episode 10.)

He says of his Moon/Sun role, “I put everything into it, thinking this would be my last child-actor role. Because I’m twenty now. [Laughs]”

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Read the rest of Interviews with Moon/Sun’s child actors (1,366 words)

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Post tags: interviews, Lee Min-ho (2), The Moon That Embraces the Sun, Yeo Jin-gu

Are you having Kim Sun-ah withdrawals yet?  Because I seem to be, so I thought I could share my fix with the rest of you, until we can get the real goods when she decides to do another drama (hopefully soon!). 

In her new interview with Movieweek, Kim shares her newfound wisdom on marriage and secrets to living a fulfilling life with her fans. Kim always searches for what message each of the role she takes on leaves behind. From the movie Fighting Spirit, she has learned what it is like to be living a married life, and from her most recent drama Scent of a Woman she realized how she should be living her life. Let’s read on to see what other words of wisdom this dynamic actress has to share with us.

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Read the rest of Kim Sun-ah, from cancer patient to Fighting Spirit (1,155 words)

© sassychef for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 41 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: interviews, Kim Sun-ah

He’s back! He went off to the military as a sweet loverboy boss in Coffee Prince, and came back a different man in his upcoming movie, The Crucible. If you’ve seen the trailer, damn — he takes his acting skills up a notch…or two…or three. In this Star News interview, Gong Yoo talks of his years in the military, what it’s like to be back and shedding his image as the typical leading romantic actor.

Gong Yoo has been typecast as the gentle and romantic guy in his previous projects.  And why not?  He was boyishly charming in Coffee Prince, and adorkably cute in Finding Mr. Destiny.  But he has taken a huge leap in his acting with The Crucible, which is based on Gong Ji-young’s novel of the same name.  The novel is based on a true story of the terror that went on behind closed doors at a school for the deaf.  (It makes me just shudder to think that the ones you should be able to entrust your chidren to can turn out to be the definition of evil in human form.)

The movie is reportedly dark, chilling, and terrifying.  Gong Yoo read the novel during his days in the military and was shocked and horrified. He decided that if the novel was ever made into a movie, he would become a part of the project. Then his personal magic genie (a.k.a talent agency) went on to buy the rights to the film, and a movie was in the making.

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Read the rest of Gong Yoo, shedding his softer image (1,191 words)

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Post tags: Gong Yoo, interviews

With Scent of a Woman having wrapped up over the weekend, it’s managed to raise the profiles of its two stars — or, should I say, re-raise, since Kim Sun-ah and Lee Dong-wook were successful leading actors before as well. But as is the case with many a well-received, heart-warming TV series, what we’re left with isn’t just the warm fuzzies over the drama plot, but also newer, fresher impressions of the actors who played the characters we laughed and cried over. (Although in this case, it was probably more crying than laughs.)

The following is taken from multiple interviews with Scent’s leading man Lee Dong-wook given over the past few weeks, as he was shooting and wrapping the show.

Scent of a Woman is Lee’s first project after being released from military service, and he wasted no time getting to work; he headed to the drama’s poster shoot on the day he was discharged.

Lee laughed about seeing an article while he was still in the army (his hair stylist sent a camera-phone picture of the story), which listed Can You Hear My Heart’s Kim Jae-won as number 1 pick for the actor who’d do the best in his post-army project, and Lee Dong-wook as number 2. He joked, “It was my goal to beat Kim Jae-won.”

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Read the rest of Lee Dong-wook: “I want to conquer the universe” (1,071 words)

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Post tags: interviews, Lee Dong-wook, Scent of a Woman

This interview came out before the big news that Park Min-young was in fact dating her City Hunter co-star Lee Min-ho, but maybe that’s a good thing; anything published after that is bound to be overshadowed by questions of her relationship.

But since that romance IS bound to attract the most interest, let’s get some of those details out of the way first. As noted when the news was first confirmed, the two actors had known each other before working together on City Hunter, although they hadn’t been that close until this project. They shot a CF together before either was well-known, and a few years later she was the lead in the 2007 high school drama I Am Sam. Lee played one of the supporting characters as one of her schoolmates.

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Read the rest of Park Min-young: Over her slump and keeping busy (1,688 words)

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Post tags: City Hunter, interviews, Lee Min-ho, Park Min-young

He sure is pretty…or is he too hot to call pretty? Lee Min-ki even admits, “As far as looks go, I don’t have a complex over it.” I guess that self-confidence does add a certain je ne sais quoi to his image. Adding to his looks is his adorable southern dialect that manages to be urbane and innocent at the same time. It’s charming. And delish.

The actor who once delighted us as Kang Tae-bong in his last drama, Dal Ja’s Spring, sat down for a quick interview to give his fans a quick low-down on his latest activities. With his 2009 blockbuster movie Haeundae, Lee showed the audience he has the star power to act on the big screen and solidified his bona fide movie star status with his latest action packed movie, Quick, which had a staggering budget of 10 billion won for its production. Lee’s charismatic yet quirky persona seemed to be tailor-made for the role he plays in this action comedy movie.

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Read the rest of Lee Min-ki: “I want be in a relationship with a woman in her mid-30′s…” (912 words)

© sassychef for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 83 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: interviews, Lee Min-ki

They had me at pig rabbit…or wait…was it the rabbit pig? The hybrid lovechild doll born out of Tae Kyung (Jang Geun-Seok) and Mi-Nam’s (Park Shin-Hye) puppy love in the hit drama You’re Beautiful had me looking at the Hong Sisters in a fresh new light.

It was just this past winter when I was first introduced to their sweet and often zany sense of humor while watching My Girl, starring Lee Dong-Wook and Lee Da-hae, while laid up in bed with a cold for 3 days. Although I thought the rom-com to be cute, sassy and funny, it wasn’t until You’re Beautiful and My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho that I was hooked…line and sinker. I mean come on, how could one not be hooked after Shin Mina’s first outburst of Woong-ahh~!

With the recent completion of their latest MBC hit drama, Best Love, it seems as though the sisters have done it again. The adorable paring of Dokko Jin and Dding-dong will forever remain on my list as one of the best couples Hong sisters have ever created. Even with Best Love now over, the viewers are still riding the aftermath of the “Dokko wave” and don’t seem to want to let go of the drama. The ever-busy Hong sisters sat down for an interview to speak about their latest mega hit, and what other projects they may up their sleeve for the future to keep feeding our addiction for the dramas we just can’t seem to get enough of…so let’s get started!

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Read the rest of Fabulous Hong sisters sit down for an interview (823 words)

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Post tags: Best Love, Cha Seung-won, Gong Hyo-jin, Hong sisters, interviews, Yoon Kye-sang

The “Perfect Man” is back! For an interview, that is… The dynamic actor, who portrays the sweet and perfect Yoon Pil-Joo (Best Love) and the mysterious Poongsan (Poongsan, formerly Phungsan Dog) who crosses the dangerous border between the North and South Korea as a courier for hire, is the one and only Yoon Kye-Sang (Who Are You?, The Moonlight of Seoul, Best Love), who seems pretty darn close to perfect to me.

In an interview conducted by Money Today Star News back on June 14th, just as Best Love was heading to its finish, the star revealed answers to the many questions his fans wanted to know.

On one side we have an oriental medicine doctor who suffers from an unrequited love for Gu Ae-jung (Gong Hyo-Jin), a celeb who’s seen better days of her fame on the ever popular twice-weekly MBC drama, Best Love. On the flip side, there’s the dark and gritty film about a man that barely ever utters a word as he crosses North and South Korea’s dangerous borders as a courier. If Yoon Pil-joo is the perfect man within a fantasy, then Poongsan is the rough masculine manly man…you can say that Yoon Kye-sang is the perfect blend of both. So let’s dig a little deeper to see what Team Pil-joo’s Yoon Kye-sang is made of!

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Read the rest of Yoon Kye-sang: “Wishing love for everyone…crushes are heartbreaking!” (1,059 words)

© sassychef for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 67 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Best Love, interviews, Yoon Kye-sang

IS Plus is the media outlet that does interviews outside of the norm, which I always enjoy, whether it’s “drinking interviews” or an “SNS interview” like the following one, which is basically a Twitter interview.

This exchange was conducted between the interviewer and City Hunter’s resident justice-seeking avenging hero Lee Min-ho over a few days earlier this month on me2day, a Korean service that’s pretty close to Twitter in functionality.

Hello, this is Lee Min-ho. This is my first time doing an interview through me2day, so it’s new to me, but that makes it fun. Actually, I was using a different type of SNS [social networking site], but recently I started on me2day. While I was doing this interview, the response from you fans has been good, so I found myself going on me2day whenever I found time while shooting City Hunter. These days, I’m really working hard on shoots. I hope you’ll all love City Hunter, which will allow you to see a variety of appealing sides to Lee Min-ho.

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Read the rest of Lee Min-ho’s me2day interview (1,763 words)

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Post tags: City Hunter, interviews, Lee Min-ho

Six episodes in, Best Love is doing strong, and it looks poised to do even better with one competitor bowing out of the ratings race (true, City Hunter takes 49 Days’ place next week, but it’s always nice to have a definite rival out of the picture). At the heart of the drama’s success: The Hong sisters’ trademark brand of tight plotting and fast-flying laughs, as well as the strong chemistry of the leads, played by Gong Hyo-jin and Cha Seung-won.

The following interview with the latter is on the short side, but something’s better than nothing, right?

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Read the rest of Cha Seung-won: I am Dokko Jin (719 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 255 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Best Love, Cha Seung-won, interviews