Eee, these may be my favorite wedding photos ever. (Pre-wedding photos, to be specific.) I just love the old-fashioned dress and styling here; vintage wedding photos are my favorite.

Actors Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy, A Star’s Lover) and Kim Hyo-jin (Mary Stayed Out All Night) have been dating for years and are all set to tie the knot this Friday, at Seoul’s Silla Hotel. The couple recently posed for a wedding-themed photo spread for Bazaar’s November issue, where they rocked a modern look with fashion-forward wedding-wear. I love that this set of photos goes completely in the direction, down to the lighting and the treatment of the image to look old and vintage. Fabulous.

(...)
Read the rest of Yoo Ji-tae and Kim Hyo-jin’s wedding photos (96 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kim Hyo-jin, weddings, Yoo Ji-tae

It’ll be a busy winter for actor Yoo Ji-tae (A Star’s Lover, Oldboy), whose feature directorial debut is about to start filming, just a month after his upcoming wedding to actress Kim Hyo-jin (Mary Stayed Out All Night), who’s pictured with him in this wedding-themed shoot for Harper’s Bazaar.

Yoo has been directing shorts for a number of years now, picking up awards and traveling the film festival circuit, and his first feature film, which he also wrote, has been in the works for a while. Now he’s found a major investor, Lotte Entertainment, and completed contracts with a distributor, which means his attention now turns to casting. Once that’s done, he’ll begin filming in January of next year.

(...)
Read the rest of Yoo Ji-tae’s directorial feature and wedding plans (191 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 47 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: directors, Kim Hyo-jin, Yoo Ji-tae

You’ve probably noticed that it’s that time of month again, when fashion rags tease their upcoming issues with previews of celebrity photo spreads. This one features actress Kim Hyo-jin (Mary Stayed Out All Night) in the April issue of Harper’s Bazaar, which is centered around the theme “intelligent and sexy.” If by intelligent you mean posing with books and crawling over a typewriter as though having your way with the device somehow imbues you with its literary powers. (If only!)

According to a rep with the magazine, “We thought of the concept for a long time. Kim Hyo-jin loves reading and has discerning taste, so we built the theme around her.”

(...)
Read the rest of Kim Hyo-jin in Harper’s Bazaar (134 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kim Hyo-jin

Korea’s making a big showing at the Berlin Film Festival, with nine films headed abroad, in competition for jury prizes. A few are films we’ve talked about for a while, like Late Autumn, while a good number of them are experimental films or shorts that are more artistically adventurous. Can’t wait to get my hands on some of these. Also, Binnie’s having some year, isn’t he?

Here’s a list of the films in competition at Berlinale:

Love Me, Love Me Not, by director Lee Yoon-ki, starring Hyun Bin and Im Soo-jung in a melodrama about a married couple on the brink of divorce. (Poster above.) This is THE HAIR that made me go crazy. Is it wrong to watch a movie for a hairdo? Well I don’t care ’cause I’m gonna do it anyway.

(...)
Read the rest of Nine Korean films at Berlin film festival (436 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 64 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film festivals, Hwang Jung-min, Hyun Bin, Im Soo-jung, Kim Hyo-jin, Park Chan-wook, Ryu Seung-beom

Hurricane Mary, coming through! This drama goes out the same way it began…totally insane. But you know, by now it’d be even MORE schizophrenic if the drama did a total 180 and started to make sense. So it’s best we go out with as much crazy as we started with. It’s time to embrace the mental instability. Or at least start drinking heavily…

SONG OF THE DAY

Mary Stayed Out All Night OST – Jang Geun-seok – “I Will Promise You” [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 16 (Final) (3,267 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 247 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young

This episode is all Mu-gyul. Unfortunately, it’s all Mu-gyul being petulant and mopey, which tends to put a damper on things.

I’ve already lost my mind trying to follow the wacky logic of this drama, and the last episode pushed girlfriday over the edge. Which means… now it’s time for Mu-gyul to lose his hold on sanity. I love ya, Jang Geun-seok, but I spent all episode dying to wrangle some sense into you. Alas, it seems you can wrangle sense out of lots of things (like this drama), but not into. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation for that.

SONG OF THE DAY

Paloalto – “어쩔거야 ” (Whatcha gonna do?) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 15 (3,260 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 239 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young

Well, it finally happened. You knew it was coming. The episode in which girlfriday’s sanity gets kidnapped and sold on the black market. What’s the going rate for what’s left of my marbles?

 
EPISODE 14 RECAP

So…Mu-gyul gets KIDNAPPED. No, really. I was hoping that maybe I just had too much to drink and imagined that part last night, but then I realized I would just be angry at myself for imagining such a ridiculous scenario…and lo and behold, it’s actually happening. Sigh, Drama. Sigh.

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 14 (3,044 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 469 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young

It’s like this drama went from zero to eighty in the span of seconds — one moment, it’s spinning its wheels while remaining in the same place for ten episodes, and then suddenly wheels find purchase on the gravel and speed off into the distance, careening wildly because all that speed makes it hard to steer. It’s enough to give you whiplash. We’re getting makjang-er and makjang-er, with extreme parental opposition of the Montague/Capulet variety and gangsters and kidnappings, which is actually kind of amusing since the tone has remained staunchly romantic-fluff.

SONG OF THE DAY

Jang Geun-seok – “Hello Hello” from the drama’s soundtrack. [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 13 (3,357 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 211 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young

Pro: The episode had some fluffy, light, funny beats, which I’ve been missing lately.

Con: This show has LOST ITS MIND. The plot makes no sense at all.

Pro: At least the nonsensical plot is moving?

Con: But there’s no consistency to the characters!

Pro: How ’bout that awesome taunting look on Jang Geun-seok’s face above?

Con: Yeah, you got me there. But the plot! The story! The laws that govern human actions and emotions!

Pro: …Yeah, you got me there.

Con: I win! Oh god, I’m talking to myself. This show has driven me insane.

SONG OF THE DAY

Byul – “기억이 안나” (I Don’t Remember) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 12 (2,918 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 265 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young

Listen, it doesn’t make any more SENSE, but the pace is up and the cute is up, so we’re in happy territory. I wish the live-in hijinks had begun eons ago, not only because it made more sense back when the contracts were in effect, but because they add a nice layer of conflict and interaction that was sorely needed. Seo-jun continues to be an energy suck, but Jung-in steps up his game, and now the triangle seems to be back in action. Finally. Now if we could just get all three of them to move in together…

(...)
Read the rest of Mary Stayed Out All Night: Episode 11 (2,620 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 199 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Jae-wook, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Moon Geun-young