And now to conclude the Big 3 Broadcaster awards with SBS, featuring some of the most popular dramas of the year. Tree With Deep Roots was the big winner of the night, winning six trophies in total, including the Daesang for Han Seok-kyu, and the Top Excellence Award for Best Drama. There were no big upsets in any category, because they kind of have a category for everyone, but that’s the name of the game. I’m just happy for Han Seok-kyu’s big win, and the fact that he didn’t have to share the glory with any split-award hullabaloo.

Protect the Boss cleaned up as well, winning Best Couple and acting awards for the stars, as well as an additional netizen popularity award for Choi Kang-hee. As expected, Thousand Day Promise had a strong showing in the acting categories, as did fellow melodrama Scent of a Woman. It certainly was the year for tearjerkers. The winners…

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Post tags: awards, Choi Kang-hee, Eom Ki-joon, Gu Hara, Han Seok-kyu, Im Soo-hyang, Jaejoong, Jang Hyuk, Jeon Gwang-ryul, Ji Chang-wook, Ji Sung, Jung Kyeo-woon, Jung Yumi (2), Kim Rae-won, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Min-ho, Lee So-yeon, Lee Yo-won, Seo Hyo-rim, Shin Hyun-bin, Shin Se-kyung, Song Joong-ki, Su Ae, Wang Ji-hye, Yoon So-yi

We’re just two Bachelors into the Six Pack, which is slow for my liking, but on the upside I just adore what we’ve seen of them so far. Mostly Tae-yang, who brightens up the screen with his presence, his warm spirit, his good humor… and okay, the sheepish half-nakedness surely doesn’t hurt.

Frankly, the proportion of actual bachelors and vegetables to Crazy Mom and her snooty chaebol world is still woefully small. The former is winning and feel-good; the latter, trite and, for lack of a better term, feel-bad. Let’s get on with the show, drama gods! We’ve all seen Baker King, haven’t we? Or at least a good 40% of the viewing public has. It’s time to move past those shenanigans and get to the heart of this story. By which I mean: the bachelors.

SONG OF THE DAY

Sweet Sorrow – “나랑 같이 해줄래” (Will You Join Me) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Bachelor’s Vegetable Store: Episode 3 (3,611 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, featured, Ji Chang-wook, Wang Ji-hye

Finally! Ji Chang-wook! Boy, did you make me suffer through a whole lot of backstory to get to you. The second episode spends most of its time still stuck in the past, throughout which I’m continuously mumbling, yeah, we geddit. But the good news is, once we get out, things look brighter. Let’s just hope they stay that way.

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Read the rest of Bachelor’s Vegetable Store: Episode 2 (3,189 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, featured, Ji Chang-wook, Wang Ji-hye

Another premiere! Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, which premiered today on Channel A, is both more than I was expecting, and less.

I was hoping it would be light and heartwarming, which it is. There are some truly aww-inducing sweet relationships, with characters you can imagine yourself falling in love with, with conflicts clearly established for the future. On the other hand, there’s also a dramatic thread running through it that veers melo, in a way that works with the story but isn’t really my cup of tea.

Basically, it’s Bachelor King Tak-gu’s Vegetable Bakery. I don’t know if it’ll get as crazy-makjang as Baker King did, and perhaps it’s more like Baker King’s sweeter, calmer cousin. Or maybe it’ll expand on the hint of Makjang Things To Come and be just like it.

I’m sticking with it for now, because what Episode 1 does accomplish is getting you to care about these characters and make you eager with anticipation to see how they grow up.

SONG OF THE DAY

Healing Me – “별볼일” (Not much) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Bachelor’s Vegetable Store: Episode 1 (3,224 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, featured, first episodes, Ji Chang-wook

Aha, so this Bachelor’s Vegetable Store has some real six-packs to go along with its Bachelor Six Pack! This drama does know how to speak to its audience — it’s sure got my attention.

(Also? The real-life Chonggak/Bachelor brand should really expand and make this Bachelor Six Pack into a real thing. What? Beer is a vegetable. And they’ve got six strapping young bachelors on hand to handle the marketing…)

These two stills featuring shirtless Ji Chang-wook come from a recent shoot in a marketplace. I especially love the giddy looks of excitement on the ajummas’ faces, and the one ajumma’s attempt to make grabby hands. Ha. Not that I blame her:

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Read the rest of In the market for Bachelor’s Vegetable Store (340 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, Ji Chang-wook

I thought we’d only have one bachelor in upcoming drama Bachelor’s Vegetable Store — played by Ji Chang-wook — but we get SIX? The more, the merrier. Bring on the pretty!

They are, in order of the photo below:

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Read the rest of Meet the Bachelors of the Veggie Store (582 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Kwang-soo, Park Su-jin, Wang Ji-hye

It’s confirmed: Ji Chang-wook will take the lead role in the drama series Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, which will air on cable (surprise surprise) on Channel A. The news was teased a while back after Yoon Shi-yoon dropped from the list of candidates, filling his schedule instead with the upcoming Me Too, Flower, and Ji was tapped to fill the slot.

Playing his love interest in her first leading role is Wang Ji-hye, who’s coming off a string of secondary roles in well-received dramas like Protect the Boss and President. Meanwhile, Ji Chang-wook will get rid of his lustrous warrior’s locks (sob) from Warrior Baek Dong-soo to portray the young hero here. Don’t get me wrong, he’s pretty any way you cut it (in this case, “it” being his hair), but it means for the time being we’ll have to say goodbye to this:

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Read the rest of Veggie Store gets its bachelor, broadcaster, and leading lady (204 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, cable programs, Ji Chang-wook, Wang Ji-hye

It’s certainly cable’s year, that’s for sure. And it looks like there’s a running theme in this fall’s lineup — TvN’s got Flower Boy Ramyun Shop in the works, and now jTBC is gunning to air its pretty-boy-shop-owner show, Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, in the fall as well. Does every pretty boy get a shop now? What’s next, Beast Man Pet Shop? Sensitive Boy Record Store? Salami Prince: Meat Shop #1?

Don’t get me wrong. I much prefer modest shopkeepers to chaebols and princes, and I’m looking forward to middle class heroes being back in vogue. Former Baker King Yoon Shi-yoon was the name originally attached to the project, but now he’s out, and the actor rumored to fill the shoes of last year’s It Boy is this year’s It Boy, Warrior Baek Dong-soo‘s Ji Chang-wook.

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Read the rest of Bachelor’s Veggie Store: Yoon Shi-yoon out, Ji Chang-wook in? (267 words)

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Post tags: Bachelor's Vegetable Store, Ji Chang-wook

Crap. It’s good. What to do? There just aren’t enough hours in a day for all these dramas!

Fusion action historical drama Warrior Baek Dong-soo premiered on Monday to 10.1% ratings (with Baby-Faced Beauty in the lead at 14.2% and Ripley close behind at 12.9%). This was one we were keeping an eye on because the premise is so cool—two young warriors trained together, one to protect the king and one to kill him—but stayed cautious about because this kind of drama is all in the execution.

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Read the rest of Warrior Baek Dong-soo: First Impressions (601 words)

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Post tags: Choi Min-soo, featured, Jeon Gwang-ryul, Ji Chang-wook, Warrior Baek Dong-soo, Yoo Seung-ho

The first official poster is out for upcoming fusion action sageuk Warrior Baek Dong-soo, a show about which I am being cautious, but optimistic. Because while some of its stills verge on looking cheesy, others are much more interesting, visually and thematically.

Plus! It stars two young rising stars, Ji Chang-wook as the good guy and dastardly assassin Yoo Seung-ho as his rival, with both of them being equally matched in their mastery of swordsmanship. They trained together in childhood, but somehow went their separate ways, with Dong-soo becoming one of the king’s guard and Yeo-woon turning to the dark side as a member of a shadowy organization plotting to kill the king. I just love this kind of conflict; let’s hope the drama can deliver on the tension built right in to the premise.

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Read the rest of Warrior Baek Dong-soo’s first poster (246 words)

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Post tags: Choi Min-soo, Jeon Gwang-ryul, Ji Chang-wook, Warrior Baek Dong-soo, Yoo Seung-ho, Yoon So-yi