Kim Dong-wan wishes fellow Shinhwa member Jun Jin a happy 29th birthday at Jun Jin’s fanmeeting, themed “All For You.” The event took place on August 16 at Konkuk University in Seoul.
Infinity Challenge’s Jung Hyung-don served as MC, while VIP attendees included Kim Su-ro (who shakes up some champagne below; he wears orange shorts) and the members of boy-band Battle.
Jun Jin is releasing his “repackaged” album in August and gives a solo concert in Seoul on September 5 and 6. He plans to travel overseas later this fall, performing and holding a fanmeeting in Shanghai in October, with another in November in Singapore.
Su Ae will have the distinction of being director Lee Joon Ik’s first female lead actress after he made his name with male leads in The King and the Clown, Radio Star, and The Happy Life. In You’re Far Away [님은 먼곳에], she’s a woman who becomes a traveling performer during the Vietnam War in search of her husband who went off to serve. Shot in Thailand, the movie releases July 24.
In response to the audience’s issues with the CG in the recently premiered Iljimae, PD Lee Yong Seok admitted on Internet message boards that he had to “sacrifice realism” and use CG for actor and crew “safety.” Yes, because realistic plots and characterizations are so unsafe. He defended his use of the invisibility cloak, saying, “It might look awkward to adult eyes, but I figured that it would be a fun treat for young fans of Harry Potter.” What, no Quidditch?
Currently promoting Girl Scouts and filming her new drama When Night Comes, Kim Sun Ah has revealed that she’s no longer with her boyfriend from her Samsoon days. She explains wanting a boyfriend who can understand her job as an actor (or perhaps be one himself).
Crown J, enjoying a rise in popularity from the MBC variety show We Got Married, is pairing up with supa-star Jang Dong Gun in a Max Beer CF. Apparently they spent so much time filming Crown J that Jang Dong Gun joked, “Hey, what about me? I can do a good job too…”
Shinhwa singer Kim Dong Wan has considered appearing on We Got Married — if his partner can be Hwang Bo: “I think I’m the only person who can show her dual personality” (easygoing on the outside, but with an extremely feminine side). He joked that it’s something her partner on the show, Kim Hyun Joong, can’t pick up on due to his youth — but he can. Kim Dong Wan is currently promoting his second solo album.
A gay couple marries on cable channel tvN’s program Coming Out, which follows two gay couples who live together over seven episodes and records them as they plan their wedding. Aww. The program airs on May 26.
KBS’s new action drama Rivals, aka Kang-jeok-deul or Adversaries, premieres tomorrow. In striving for realism, Chae Rim visited a special attack squad and handled real firearms; Lee Jong Hyuk and stunt actors worked under a special-effects director and shot blanks from real guns. Now let’s see if the story’s any good.
Kim Dong Wan, currently hospitalized after collapsing in the studio on the 11th, anticipates being released on the 15th, according to management. Reasons for his condition are attributed to stress from overwork; his solo album release will now be postponed until he is completely recovered, probably to early May.
MBC’s upcoming Monday-Tuesday drama starring Kim Sun Ah and Lee Dong Gun, When Night Comes, is in the final stages of preparation and will soon start filming. The drama follows Yi San and is scheduled to premiere June 16. He plays an antiques-expert playboy with a thing for the virginal type; she plays a fervently patriotic spinster. The two share in romantic-comedy exploits as they search for national/cultural treasures. Kind of an oddly random assortment of details, though I suppose that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Lee Hana of the film Le Grand Chef and most recently in musician Jung Jae Hyung’s latest music video (see Song of the Day, below), follows her role in last year’s mania drama Merry vs. Daegu Battle in the upcoming KBS dramaWoman in the Sun, also written by Merry scriptwriter Kim In Young. She’ll be acting alongside Kim Ji Soo (who makes her TV comeback after four years); the drama will follow currently airing Three Dads, One Mom.
Last year, new pop group 8eight seemed poised for instant success, but faded fairly quickly out of the public eye after lots of hype. The trio says they’ve learned from the failure of their first album, born of an overly hectic schedule where they’d attempted too much, too fast: “We’d rushed through recording and our television debut, so the weak points were plain to see.” They’re now looking optimistically to their second album “Infinity.”
Kim Haneul likes the comparison to her abrasive On Air character Seung Ah, and embraces her new nickname combining her real name with her character’s: “Kim Oh Seung Ah.” How is her character like herself? They’re both addicted to working out and have a love of sunglasses. For the past three years, she’s exercised three hours daily — sounds like someone’s got a bad case of exercise bulimia. (And no, I’m not being flip. That degree of fanaticism is very likely unhealthy.)
SONG OF THE DAY
Jung Jae Hyung - “Running,” whose video features Lee Hana. [ Download ]
Uh-oh. Shinhwa singer and sometimes actor Kim Dong Wan was rushed to the emergency room after collapsing in the studio while recording for his solo album on the 11th. On the 12th, his management issued the statement:
“While Kim Dong Wan was working on recording for his second album, he suffered from abdominal pains and received emergency treatment at a hospital in Kangnam. He’s currently hospitalized.”
He was diagnosed with acute enteritis (inflammation of the small intestine) and enterostenosis (abnormal narrowing of the intestine) and will likely have to remain hospitalized for several more days to be treated. As a result, it’s unclear whether his upcoming album will continue as planned.
After performing in Shinhwa’s tenth-anniversary concert at the end of March, Kim Dong Wan has been busily recording for his upcoming solo album release. His management explained that he’d felt abdominal pains for a few days, but because his album release date was approaching, he put up with the pain to finish working and overdid things.
Hopefully Kim Dong Wan is up and pain-free soon, but his health aside — the album goes on sale on April 24 and they’re still recording in the studio on April 11??? Talk about pushing it. No wonder the guy was stressed out.
Minwoo was on an episode of the talk show Yashimmanman that aired on the 12th, where he talked about being the first of the Shinhwa boys to go solo — citing oversensitive Dong Wan as one of his reasons.
(God, will you look at those eyes? How can a guy have such pretty anime-like eyes? You know, people slag on Minwoo’s height all the time but I think it’s a good thing he’s not taller — just imagine how annoying he’d be if he added heart-swoony tallness to all his attributes. He’d be totally conceited without some major flaw holding him back. I mean, look at Daniel Henney. The guy’s stunningly beautiful but I’m pretty sure he’s also insufferable. I have not liked him in one single interview I’ve seen him give. Which would be more overlookable, say, if he were actually talented. But for all the apologists out there — Have you SEEN “Seducing Mr. Perfect”??)
Whoa, major sidebar there. Back to Minwoo and Dong Wan.
Okay, so it turns out the full story’s not nearly as dramatic as it sounds. During their days of living in the same house, Minwoo found that the only time he could work on writing songs was when he was alone in his room at night, trying to keep quiet and wearing headphones. But Kim Dong Wan, in the next room, would always know and come by, saying, “Hey, keep quiet! I’m trying to sleep!”
Minwoo would therefore try to find places to work alone, and in the end decided to go solo. He expressed how he felt living with the Shinhwa members: “Back then, it was really my dream to go solo, but now I really miss those days.”
(He also revealed some stories from those days, such as the time someone had put a ketchup bottle in the shower instead of shampoo — and when Andy tried to wash his hair, he shouted in shock, “Ah! My head’s bleeding!” Heh.)
