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.

PIFF’s red carpet >>

Tags: 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 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

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 46 Comments →

Goong lovers, take note! Your favorite faux royal couple, Yoon Eun-hye and Joo Ji-hoon, just may be teaming up again in a new drama.

The two former onscreen lovebirds are top picks for the lead couple in MBC’s new Personal Taste [개인의 취향 -- working title]. One rep from the drama side explained that the production company is nearly finished with its casting and contract issues, and put the likelihood of a Yoon-Joo match-up at “very high.”

The plot: A restless girl wants a gay (male) friend, ’cause fag hags are cool. The guy wants a place to live, so he pretends to be gay as they live together.

In an interesting genre pair-up, we have the director of the jokey rom-com Fantasy Couple (Kim Sang-ho) and the writer of the weepie Sad Sonata (Lee Sung-eun) working together.

Okay, first of all, we have several favorite kdrama clichés built right into the premise, including two of my favorites (cheesy but effective!): enforced proximity (the better for falling in looove!) and mistaken/pretend identity (to add angst when the pretender has to unveil his/her true self). This sounds like a hasty potluck of past hits, drawn upon in hopes of re-creating prior successes, like a Coffee Prince meets Fantasy Couple meets Bottom of the Ninth with Two Outs.

Second of all, it sounds AWESOME.

Via Today Korea, Sports Seoul

RELATED POSTS

• Ladies keep their cool with Samsung
• Yoon Eun-hye sings again
• Boyish again for Marie Claire
• Yoon Eun-hye gets crafty

Tags: Joo Ji-hoon, Yoon Eun-hye

Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 117 Comments →

Okay, I think I’m done posting pics of stars visiting Lee Eon’s funeral room. If more information comes to light, I’m on it, but until then we’re just going to be getting photos of grieving folks, which is probably gratuitous.

I know it sounds hypocritical for me to dislike the photos and then post them. However, I do think it’s a matter of interest — just up to a point. When it starts feeling gratuitous, I step back.

Below are Strongest Chil Woo co-stars Eric, Gu Hye-sun, and Kim Byul. More pics beyond the jump.

Celebrities pay their respects >>

Tags: Chae Jung-ahn, Eric, Girls Generation, Gu Hye-sun, I Am a Model, Jang Yoon-joo, Joo Ji-hoon, Kim Byul, Kim Sung-soo, Lee Chun-hee, Lee Eon, Lee Min-ki, Lee Yoon-jung, Oh Ji-ho, star accidents

Filed under: Drama Recaps by javabeans - 44 Comments →

Hm, nothing really catches my eye too much today. Here are just a few items in the news:

• Samsoon actress Jung Ryeo Won (above) has cut her hair and grown an unexpected 2.5 centimeters (at age 26!) from the height she’d always believed herself to be, 166cm. Some people have all the luck.
• Goong and Jumong actress Song Ji Hyo thinks model-actor-costar Joo Ji Hoon is better for dating, but Song Il Kook is better for marrying.
• Pop singer and highly criticized plastic-surgery patient Han Aeri “regrets her plastic surgery!” Except for the pages and pages of press it got her, I’m sure.
• Meanwhile, mediocre drama actress Kim Gyuri also undergoes scrutiny for (alleged) plastic surgery: “Is it surgery, or has she just lost weight?” (Yeah, right.)
• Gyopo actress Han Ye Seul (right) admits on Yashim Manman that she hasn’t dated since her acting debut.
• And singer (and sometimes actress) Lee Soo Young jokingly wonders if her song titles are the reason why she’s single. What, you mean with songs like “I Don’t Understand Men”?

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Soo Young - “시린” (cold) [ zShare download ]

Tags: Han Ye-seul, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Ryeo-won, Lee Soo-young, news bites, Song Ji-hyo

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 18 Comments →

Or rather, perhaps the headline should more accurately read: Rhetorically speaking, say you were theoretically a woman in China, and you had to take a poll — which Hallyu star would you most hypothetically want to marry?

But first, a ranty sidebar. Sweeping, generalized conclusion o’ the day: Koreans love polls.

Or rather, Korean media loves polls. I suppose media in general, Korean and otherwise, likes reporting on them because they supposedly “represent” the “people” and their “opinions” or blah blah blah whatever, but my inner cynic (remarkably similar to my outer cynic) believes it’s just ’cause polls are easy topics on a slow news day. I’m not talking Gallup or BBC or CNN, because those might actually carry some weight, but do we really need to see every small-scale poll conducted by women’s magazines, cable entertainment programs, variety shows, and the like?

Judging from the amount of poll-reporting I come across every day (and some are truly stupid — which female entertainer has the most appealing bosomly charms? Are you effing kidding me?), the answer is YES. And I’m totally guilty of featuring them too. At first, the headlines catch my eye (they ARE good for that), but then you start to see the same questions and same names over and over, and you’re like, “Guh, these are lame.”

But here’s a poll anyway. Hey, it’s a slow news day.

SONG OF THE DAY

Sol Flower - “내게 소중한 작은 일도” (even the precious little things)
[ zShare download ]

Which men do the Chinese ladies dig? >>

Tags: Bae Yong-joon, Hyun Bin, Jang Dong-gun, Joo Ji-hoon, Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Junki, Rain, Song Seung-heon

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 30 Comments →