Here are a few recently released photos of actor Jo Hyun-jae (Three Dads, One Mom), currently serving since his enlistment last August.
Usually we’ll see a celebrity head off for military service and not hear about him until his discharge two years later. Every so often, you’ll get some news about celebs currently still serving (e.g., Gong Yoo, Lee Jung, Jae Hee). These photos were posted on army blog Army Nuri, which included an interview with the actor.
I kind of love the image above, drawn up by fans depicting a combat boot shackled (with love!) to a traditional woman’s gomushin shoe. (The poster is one of many produced by his fan club Ever Jo Hyun-jae, and the words above the shoe-couple read “We’ll always be together~” Kind of creepy, no?, but in an amusing way, I suppose.)
Jo Hyun-jae is joining fellow Three Dads, One Mom star Jae Hee by enlisting for his military service on the same day. Well, it’ll be a second time for Jo, who was only in training a few days before leaving to film a drama, who now re-enlists (for reals, this time?).
He held his last fan meeting on July 19 at Yonsei University’s auditorium, where approximately 600 of his fans were in attendance. He played a few games and shook hands with attendees, received presents and a goodbye cake from fans (and his two main fan clubs, who came with the theme of “waiting” — for his discharge in two years, that is). Jo also sang two songs from his new digital single, “바람처럼 그대 곁에” (by your side like the wind) and “그대게 내게 해준 말” (words said for you and me) as well as the 015B song “Now It’s Goodbye” (posted below).
Both Jo Hyun-jae and Jae Hee will enlist on August 5. Sigh, it always seem like they go off in groups, doesn’t it?
You know how sometimes you might be watching a drama, say, and something happens in the latter part of the drama that is exactly like what happened earlier in the drama? For instance, the mother of the rich hero tries to buy off her son’s poor girlfriend, or a misunderstanding causes a rift between two people. Or two people arrive at the same crowded venue looking for each other and just barely miss each other as they walk by, oblivious to the other. These are just examples of overused and super-trite occurrences that I may put up with once in a drama, but when they appear again later, it’s irritating because clearly they are out of ideas.
Anyway, it’s like that for Three Dads, only instead of occasionally, it’s every single episode, and the repetition is in triplicate form. It’s bad enough for a contrivance to push along your plot, but when that contrivance continually happens THREE TIMES in a row, it’s aggravating. There’s very little story going on (who needs story when you can just repeat stuff three times?).
Plus Eugene is really starting to get annoying — it’s partly her, and it’s partly her stupid character. (How they squandered such talents in their supporting cast I will never know.) So given that the two problematic roles are the lead female and the lead male…
I considered following along and recapping the series anyway just for the fun of it, but I can just see the initial humor of the situation degenerating into frustration. There’s a fine line between “so bad it’s fun(ny)” and “so bad I want to shoot something.”
SONG OF THE DAY
As One – “Zza Zza La!” from their latest “Sponge Remake 2008″ single.
[ Download ]
I wasn’t sure I’d be continuing to cover Three Dads, One Mom (and I’m still not convinced), but I had time to watch it tonight with its competition postponing its episodes for the day. (The drama received a hefty ratings bump as well, nearly tripling from its very low premiere numbers of approx 5% to somewhere in the 14% vicinity. The true test will be seeing if the upward bump sticks, or was a mere blip because of a lack of counterprogramming.)
I think I’ve also narrowed down my issues to the drama. Sorry to say, his name is Jo Hyun Jae. That’s not the only aspect that gives me pause, but it is the most prominent. I don’t hate him — I want to like him, really — and the problem isn’t that he’s a bad actor and incapable of better. It’s precisely that he IS capable of doing better that makes it seem more glaring that he’s kinda phoning it in. I know it’s just a simple romantic comedy, but Jae Hee and Shin Sung Rok are playing equally simple characters and yet they’re throwing themselves into their roles with gusto. Jo Hyun Jae seems to be coasting along.
Eugene, on the other hand, may not be the world’s most skilled actress, but she’s cute as a button and her slight overacting seems to fit with the drama, so I’m not too bothered. Yet.
SONG OF THE DAY
Three Dads, One Mom OST – “Everything” by Eve [ Download ]
