Kwon Sang-woo’s latest flick, tearjerker romance More Than Blue [슬픔보다 더 슬픈 이야기], enjoyed a strong White Day showing in theaters; its opening weekend sold more than 200,000 tickets — 147,000 of them on White Day alone. Pretty good for a single day’s take.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me to such an overindulgence of weepie angst — I can have my own pity parties at home, thankyouverymuch! — but I admit from the stills and previews that the film does look very pretty.

(...)
Read the rest of Theater audiences make it a blue White Day (203 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Bo-young

Do you think Lee Bo-young is upset that her face is upside-down in BOTH photos?

With promotion heating up for the upcoming melodramatic film Story Sadder Than Sadness featuring Kwon Sang-woo, the latest dustup centers around the illegal leaking of a music video featuring a song from the soundtrack sung by Lee Seung-chul, “그런 사람 또 없습니다” (There’s nobody like that person). The video was leaked to an online portal site before it was officially ready and therefore hadn’t been through its final editing stages. A more finished version was released the following day (watch below) and the film will be in theaters on March 14.

The story seems pretty self-explanatory: Kwon Sang-woo and Lee Bo-young are in love, but for some reason she marries Lee Beom-soo instead.

I dunno; I’ve never been that excited about this movie, but doesn’t it look like just the kind of thing that would have been a hit in the mid/late ’90s? (i.e., indulgently tragic). Which is my way of saying that even if it turns out to be good, it feels pretty behind the times.

(Also, after seeing the MV, I kinda feel like I’ve already seen the movie. Right?)

Via Segye

RELATED POSTS

• A poster sadder than sadness
• Wedding No. 2 is sadder than sadness
• Cosmetics team reunites for Story Sadder Than Sadness

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Bo-young, music videos, soundtracks

Here are some lulz for you: A teaser poster was recently released for Kwon Sang-woo and Lee Bo-young’s upcoming movie A Story Sadder than Sadness, and apparently there’s a bit of an online dust-up over CG fakery in the image. Supposedly Kwon’s eyes and expression were looking a little too fake for people’s liking.

Producers deny altering Kwon’s appearance; they’ve only enhanced the image to give it the effect of an oil painting. To prove it, they have now released the original photo upon which the poster was based. (Enhanced poster, at right. Original photo, up above.)

How silly. This from Korea, the land of rampant fan Photoshop?

The film Story Sadder than Sadness also stars Lee Beom-soo (On Air) and will be ready for a March 2009 premiere.

Via Segye

RELATED POSTS

• Kim Myung-min replaces Kwon Sang-woo
• Wedding No. 2 is sadder than sadness
• Guess that wedding was shotgun after all
• Cosmetics team reunites for Story Sadder than Sadness
• Kwon Sang-woo drops film, pisses off production

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Bo-young, photo shoots

(I still think that the title for Kwon Sang-woo’s new film A Story Sadder than Sadness is lamer than lameness.)

This just-released still photo shows newlywed (and soon-to-be dad) Kwon and co-star Lee Bo-young posing in wedding attire for the inaugural shoot for their film, although the scenes aren’t for the film proper. Rather, they are shooting more of an elaborate promo — they’re calling it a “special edition music video” — which will be released on Christmas Eve as a teaser video.

The three lead stars also convened on December 10 to talk with the press.

(...)
Read the rest of Wedding No. 2 is sadder than sadness (221 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Bo-young

Huh. When it rains, it pours?

Coming on the heels of his drama announcement for Cinderella Man, Kwon Sang-woo is announcing his next film project, starring alongside Lee Bo-young (Queen of the Game). If you thought from reading about Cinderella Man that Kwon playing a dual role with an identity switcheroo in a trendy drama sounded out of character, you’ll be relieved to see him back in his usual tearjerker role for the film A Story Sadder Than Sadness. (….aaaand I’m out. No thankee!)

This’ll be Lee Bo-young’s third leading film role, following previous movies Once Upon a Time and I Am Happy, and her second time working with Kwon; they teamed previously for an ad campaign for the cosmetic brand The Face Shop (at right).

In A Story Sadder than Sadness, they’ll play a radio station PD and songwriter, who for some reason have harbored longtime affections but have been unable to express them to each other. Lee Beom-soo (On Air) is a dentist in love with Lee’s character.

Interestingly enough, the director is actually a bestselling poet (oxymoron?) in his directorial debut, and the film will be produced by the company behind Unstoppable Wedding and Go-sa: Bloody Midterms, distributed by CJ Entertainment.

The movie starts filming next month and will be released on White Day (March 14).

Via My Daily

RELATED POSTS

• Two Kwons for the price of one
• Kwon Sang-woo drops film, pisses off production
• Cast of I’m Happy looking decidedly unhappy at PIFF
• Kwon Sang-woo weds Sohn Tae-young (finally)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Bo-young

Did the Blue Dragon Awards sneak up on us this year or what?

As one of the largest year-end awards shows, the Blue Dragon always tends to draw out a good number of A-listers, and we saw plenty of them out on the red carpet on November 20 and posing pretty for photos.

One big winner of the night was the “kimchi Western” The Good, The Bad, The Weird, as was the thriller The Chaser and even the sports movie Forever the Moment, from way back in January.

But, as with any awards show, sometimes the fun is less about the actual awards and more about parsing all the red carpet looks.

(...)
Read the rest of Blue Dragon Awards 2008 (1,276 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 74 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: awards, fashion, Go Jun-hee, Han Chae-young, Han Eun-jung, Han Ye-seul, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Jun-ho, Kang Ji-hwan, Kim Haneul, Kim Hye-soo, Kim Joo-hyuk, Kim Min-sun, Kim Nam-gil, Lee Bo-young, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Ki-woo, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Mi-yeon, Lee Soo-kyung, Park Shi-yeon, Shin Hyun-joon, So Ji-sub, Sohn Ye-jin, Song Yoon-ah, Su Ae, Uhm Tae-woong

In stark contrast with its star-studded opening night, the 13th Pusan International Film Awards closed after nine days with a night much lacking in glitz or stars.

Maybe it was just a lackluster year, or maybe Choi Jin-shil’s untimely death cast a pall over opening night, or maybe celebrities went up to Seoul to pay their respects and didn’t return to Busan. In any case, stars were few and far between at the closing ceremony on the 10th.

In fact, Yeh Ji-won (Old Miss Diaries, looking gorgeous all festival long) and Jo Jae-hyun (New Heart), above, were two of only a very few famous faces to walk the red carpet. (The only other top names present were Hyun Bin and Lee Bo-young, and even then I’m not sure I’d call them A-list. Maybe B+.)

(...)
Read the rest of PIFF goes out with a whimper (150 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: film festivals, Hyun Bin, Lee Bo-young, Yeh Ji-won