A whole lotta names are being bandied about for A Gentleman’s Dignity, the new drama set to come from the Secret Garden and Lovers in Paris scriptwriter (hence the heightened buzz).

Jang Dong-gun (Good Morning President) and Lee Na-young (Runaway Plan B) were both previously in contention, and their names have resurface as leading candidates to headline the series. Although the bottom line hasn’t changed (neither is confirmed, both are “positively considering”), the fact that a fresh news cycle has brought both of them up suggests that the drama is close to finalizing negotiations.

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Read the rest of A Gentleman’s Dignity inches closer to securing its cast (316 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jang Dong-gun, Kim Min-jong, Kim Myung-min, Lee Na-young

Upcoming MBC special 50th anniversary drama Light and Shadow has had drama veteran Ahn Jae-wook‘s name attached as the leading man for some time. Now he’s confirmed for the lead, and joining him is… Son Dambi? I thought at first they were paired together as leads which would be So. Strange. But it looks like she’s confirmed for the second lead. Ahhhhh… all is right with the world. It’s not so much the twelve-year age gap (that, I can stomach) but the…uh… acting gap that had me confused. But hey, I guess we’ve seen weirder pairings work before.

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Read the rest of Son Dambi and Ahn Jae-wook cast in Light and Shadow (263 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ahn Jae-wook, Kim Min-jong, Nam Sang-mi

I love the shot above – so artistic and yet served a purpose in the storytelling. So let’s go down into the depths of hell together, and finish the series!

I’d really like to thank those who stuck through with aberdeen_angus and me as we recapped this drama – all the way down to the bitter end. Your comments were sweet and supportive, and it was always fun to read your thoughts/discussion (whenever discussion made sense rather than “Oh let’s just forget how to rationalize that,” – a thought which I’m sure happened often enough). Secondly, I can never forget to thank javabeans and girlfriday for giving us the space to write!

SONG OF THE DAY

“Order” by Baek Chan (Athena OST) [download]

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episodes 19-20 (Final) (4,836 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

Mutiny!! Kinda. Sorta.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sean Richard’s slo-mo action scene, despite it lasting only a few seconds. Hey – seeing him in action makes my day; at least he’s not just standing around and shooting. I gotta find the small things to humor me. *Shrug*

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 18 (2,267 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

Episode 17 has only one highlight. It’s also got the best action scene second to those in the first two episodes. It’s also the highlight that gave this series a mini boost, but not enough of one to help the lagging series.

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 17 (2,424 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

I have nothing to preface this episode, save for this song:

What Should Be Son Hyuk’s Anthem:
“Let Go” by Frou Frou [download]

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 16 (2,702 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

Athena doesn’t have flashbacks – it just has immensely long recaps at the beginning of the episode. It starts off with a refresher on the whole battle scene on the bridge, which, according to the episode special, was one of the biggest action scenes for the series since it required big explosions and closing down a bridge for several days. It’s all good for me – more action!

However, much like the picture above, this episode was once again full of “tense, dramatic talks” that you just want to have boiling over, but takes 40 minutes to get there.

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 15 (2,374 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

Hi all! Many apologies – but let’s get right on with the story, eh?

It’s kinda funny how I just started watching 9 End 2 Outs (thanks to girlfriday’s review, and on dramafever no less), so I think I can better appreciate Su Ae as an actress now… not that I ever thought she was terrible to begin with. It’s definitely fun to see her all girly and then all badass at once.

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 14 (2,174 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

Ack! Jung Woo knows! He knows! I’m so proud – our Jung Woo is not as dumb as we think he is!

Or is he? I felt that this episode was a step back from the build-up of the previous three. When you have so much plot and excitement going into this episode, the writers decided to pause, and add some side stories. Really, drama? Really?

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 13 (2,864 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae

I know I’ve said all kinds of things about Athena. Mostly bad things. Okay, all of them were bad.

Let me tell you, though, that this episode is full of win. Maybe it’s some kind of Stockholm Syndrome, or maybe it really was the most entertaining episode since it begun. Either way, Athena found its way out of the dark woods of “No Development”, and entered the “Insane but Fun” territory which can never be a bad thing in my books.

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Read the rest of ATHENA: Episode 12 (2,677 words)

© aberdeen_angus for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Athena, Cha Seung-won, Choi Siwon, featured, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Min-jong, Lee Jia, Su Ae