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 →

Actress/singer/lingerie entrepreneur Uhm Jung-hwa joins Kim Rae-won in the upcoming movie Insadong Scandal, which is set in the art world and takes a behind-the-scenes look at art restoration and reproduction.

Although she’s taken on numerous acting projects in her 15-year career (previous screen roles include the drama Wife and the films For Horowitz and Singles), this is her first villain role as an ambitious collector.

Meanwhile, Kim Rae-won’s “cool-headed” character specializes in the restoration of valuable paintings, and the story unfolds around a hidden masterpiece of a painter who lived in the Joseon era.

For the past month, Kim has been studying art restoration and reproduction for the role to familiarize himself with the topic and lend an air of authenticity to his character. The film is set to start filming this month.

I’m… not sure about the pairing, but I won’t write it off immediately. Kim Rae-won tends to have good chemistry with his co-stars, and even if she wasn’t great in the awful movie, I keep remembering how she tried, dammit, to have chemistry with Daniel Henney in Seducing Mr. Perfect. She failed, but it wasn’t her fault; the juxtaposition of the two made her seem like Oscar material in comparison.

Via OSEN

RELATED POSTS

• Kim Rae-won for L’Oreal
• Gourmet (SBS)
• Stars raise awareness (about selves)
• Kim Rae-won for Unicef

Tags: Kim Rae-won, Uhm Jung-hwa

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 12 Comments →

Instead of another foodpr0n montage, I thought it would be fitting to do something a little different for this last episode.

Gourmet really has been, all along, more about execution than inventiveness (ordinary events, but depicted well), and this is once again exemplified in Episode 24. To wit: I could sum up the episode in about two sentences — and nothing in those two sentences would surprise anybody, since we could have predicted this all far in advance — but that didn’t stop the episode from being satisfying.

SONG OF THE DAY

Gourmet OST - “새로운 세상” (New world) by Kim Rae-won. [ Download ]

GOURMET Episode 24 (Final) >>

Tags: episode recaps, Gourmet, Kim Rae-won, Nam Sang-mi

Filed under: Drama Recaps by javabeans - 28 Comments →

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, huh?

• Newlywed Park Eun-hye is returning to work following a recent miscarriage of what would have been her “honeymoon baby” (she wed in April). She plans to attend the upcoming Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), which screens her film Night and Day.
• Speaking of which, Kim Rae-won (Gourmet) and Han Eun-jung (Lawyers of Korea) will take a particular place on Wednesday’s opening-night red carpet at PIFF, as brand models for the festival’s sponsor, L’Oreal Paris.
• Song Il-kook had his day in court and won; the reporter who accused him of assault (whom he countersued for false accusations) has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. Ouch. We may never know the truth of whether he struck her as claimed, but a year in the slammer seems harsh. Well, that’s what happens when you go up against a rich actor with powerful connections.
• Sigh. Things are hard enough for Ahn Jae-hwan’s widow Jung Sun-hee, whose husband killed himself over large amounts of debt, and has endured accusations of kidnapping Ahn by his sister. She underwent an additional round of police questioning, spending four hours at the police station on the 29th. Jung roundly denies Ms. Ahn’s claims, and also denies rumors that she’s heading overseas for rest (which doesn’t sound like a bad idea, actually — the press was all over her collapses at Ahn’s funeral, and she again collapsed after emerging from the police station).
• I don’t think many people outside of Korea are watching cable drama Chosun Police [조선과학수사대 별순검], but the MBC Dramanet fusion sageuk gained a following as a “Chosun-era CSI” and is now set to launch its season 2. The production press conference was on the 29th, featuring lead actor Lee Jong-hyuk, who admitted he’d purposely avoided watching Season 1; he wanted to differentiate his character from its original actor, Ryu Seung-ryong.
• Kim Min-jung (26, of New Heart) has been cast in the lead of MBC’s drama 2009 Foreign Baseball Team, which was originally a hit manhwa in the ’80s. Actors Yoon Tae-young (Legend’s Hogae), Park Sung-min (Legend’s Saryang), Park Jung-hak (Kingdom of the Wind), Song Ah-young (Moon Hee), and Kim Sun-kyung (Legend’s Lady Yeon) are also cast. There’s a whole lotta Legend there. It should air sometime next year.
• After spending most of his recent energies trying to make a dent in the international film scene, Rain is back to kpop after two years away with his fifth album. He’s announced that his title track will be a dance song, followed by a ballad, to go on sale in October. Rain, here’s a fundamental rule of showbiz: Show, not tell. We’re happy to welcome ya back if your work is good, but g/d I’m sick of hearing so much about it.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Kim Rae-won for L’Oreal
• Final trial starts in Song Il-kook’s reporter assault case
• Mourning Ahn Jae-hwan
• New brides become new moms
• Summer Vacation with Rain

Tags: Ahn Jae-hwan, bad deeds, film festivals, Han Eun-jung, Jung Sun-hee, Kim Min-jung, Kim Rae-won, Lee Jong-hyuk, news bites, Park Eun-hye, Rain, Song Il-kook

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 12 Comments →

As though to make up for the lack in recent episodes, there’s lots and lots of food in this episode. And that means lots and lots of food analysis! Mmm, my favorite kind of analysis. Apart from actually eating.

SONG OF THE DAY

Gourmet OST - “그대 좋아하는 계절이 와요” (The season you like is coming) by Na Yoon-kwon
[ Download ]

GOURMET Episode 23 >>

Tags: episode recaps, Gourmet, Kim Rae-won, Nam Sang-mi

Filed under: Drama Recaps by javabeans - 6 Comments →