Huh. MBC has one Wednesday-Thursday drama called My Princess coming up, and now it’s got a second Wednesday-Thursday show called Royal Family that’s in the works. Well, I suppose these things DO tend to come in pairs, for whatever inexplicable cosmic reason. (Daemul and President, What’s Up and Dream High, Cinderella Man and Style…)

In contrast to My Princess, though it appears that Royal Family won’t be about literal royalty, but a more figurative kind; the story unfolds as a woman overcomes various struggles to become a prominent chaebol. The woman is involved with a younger man whom she supports and who eventually becomes a lawyer, and the relationship turns into a “dangerous love.”

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Post tags: Ji Sung, Lee Mi-yeon, Royal Family

One of Korea’s favorite child actresses, 15-year-old Shim Eun-kyung, will once again be stepping into a childhood sageuk role; she’ll be playing the younger counterpart to Lee Mi-yeon‘s title character in the upcoming historical drama Merchant Kim Man-deok.

She has already played notable childhood roles in television dramas Hwang Jini (whose adult role was played by Ha Ji-won) and Legend (adult role played by Lee Jia). She actually won the same youth acting award twice at the KBS Drama Awards, in 2006 for Hwang Jini and in 2008 for Women in the Sun.

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Post tags: Lee Mi-yeon, Merchant Kim Man-deok, Shim Eun-kyung

These new photos of Lee Mi-yeon are beautiful, showing the actress dressed in hanbok for her latest television role as Merchant Kim Man-deok. The real Kim Man-deok rose from the low status of gisaeng and became a successful merchant and philanthropist.

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Post tags: Lee Mi-yeon, Merchant Kim Man-deok

Lee Mi-yeon has a leading man for her upcoming historical epic, Merchant Kim Man-deok: actor Han Jae-seok of Women in the Sun and Lobbyist.

The KBS drama stars Lee Mi-yeon as the real-life figure born in the 18th century who became a gisaeng, then turned herself into a prosperous merchant — impressive given that she was a woman and an inhabitant of Jeju Island, then considered a remote backwater. Later, she became a famous philanthropist when she donated everything to save the inhabitants of Jeju after a famine struck the island.

Han Jae-seok plays an aristocratic man with a generous spirit “who does not cling to social standing and works to win his love.” A love triangle forms between him, gisaeng Kim Man-deok, and Park Sol-mi‘s character, who is an aristocrat’s concubine. The cast also features Kim Gab-soo, Kim Byung-ki, and Go Du-shim (who played Man-deok in a 1976 drama).

The drama is currently filming its fourth episode with child actors; the adults appear beginning Episode 5. The drama premieres on March 6.

Via My Daily

RELATED POSTS

• Lee Mi-yeon returns to television with Man-deok

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Post tags: Han Jae-seok, Lee Mi-yeon

This is news that had been floating around for a while (and denied, then floated again), but now it’s confirmed: Lee Mi-yeon is making her drama comeback — eight years after her last sageuk Empress Myung Sung — in another historical epic, Merchant Kim Man-deok.

The drama is based on a real-life woman from the Joseon era who became a great merchant, then donated everything to save the poor. Lee takes the title role, along with a solid supporting cast that includes Go Du-shim (Good Morning President), Kim Byung-ki (Iron Empress), and Kim Gab-soo in a very busy year (he’s also slated for Jejoongwon and Chuno). Go Du-shim notably played the Man-deok character thirty years ago, in MBC’s 1976 drama Jung-hwa.

Merchant Kim Man-deok will air beginning March 2010. For more background about Kim, here’s a description from The Korea Times:

Records are few on Kim Man-deok, a Joseon Kingdom female merchant, who embodied the virtue of a true, noble merchant. She was born in 1739 on Jeju Island and became a gisaeng (female entertainer) employed by the state after losing her parents at a very early age and later turned herself to a successful merchant and philanthropist.

Kim was good at selling the principal products of the island and running other businesses with woman divers, handicraftsmen and farmers. Her ability as a merchant seemed to be impossible at that time, given the fact that during the Joseon era, Jeju Island was so remote and thought of as a place of exile and Jeju inhabitants could hardly travel to the mainland. But she built up her assets from lucrative businesses there and escaped her status of a gisaeng belonging to the state.

When famine gripped the island, she donated all her assets to the residents, saving 18,000 lives.

Via Newsen

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Post tags: Go Du-shim, Kim Gab-soo, Lee Mi-yeon

Aw, isn’t little Wang Seok-hyun cute?

September 5 saw the end of the 17th Chunsa Film Festival and its closing-night awards ceremony, which was held in Icheon, Kyunggi-do. The winners list was dominated by the popular, recently released sports film Take Off [국가대표, or National Athlete], although vampire film Thirst did well, as did lush period piece Portrait of a Beauty.

Full winners list below:

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Post tags: awards, Cha Seung-woo, Choi Jung-won, Choi Jung-yoon, film festivals, Go Eun-ah, Im Joo-eun, Jo Ahn, Jung Jun-ho, Jung Soo-young, Kim Hae-sook, Kim Ji-suk, Lee Mi-yeon, Park Chan-wook, Park Hee-soon, Shin Mina, Song Chang-eui, Song Kang-ho, Wang Seok-hyun

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.

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Post tags: awards, 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

Another film festival, another red carpet.

On September 6, the city of Icheon was host to the 16th Chunsa Film Festival, which found its red carpet walked by film and TV stars and capped off the night with an awards ceremony. Honors were handed out actors including Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, a big winner that night) and Lee Mi-yeon (Love Exposure).

The red carpet wasn’t as star-studded as the recent Chungmuro Film Festival and its fashions were a bit more subdued (there was a LOT of black), but it had its share of name actors in attendance, such as Kim Ah-joong (above) and Daniel Henney.

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Post tags: Daniel Henney, Eom Ji-won, film festivals, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Ah-joong, Lee Mi-yeon, Shin Hyun-joon

Stars came out in full force, from A-listers and all the way down, to the opening night of the 2nd Chungmuro International Film Festival, held on September 3. The celeb list boasted some big-name actors and even a few kpoppers (Girls Generation) who turned out in fine feather on the red carpet. (Well, minus a few sartorial misses.)

Attendees included the likes of Chae Rim (above), Jang Dong-gun (below), and event representative Kim Jung-eun, for starters.

The festival, headed under the theme “Discovery, Restoration, Creation,” runs over the next week and closes on September 9.

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Post tags: Chae Rim, Choi Su-jong, Eom Ji-won, Eugene, film festivals, Girls Generation, Ha Hee-ra, Ha Ji-won, Jang Dong-gun, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Min-joon, Lee Hana, Lee Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-hyuk, Lee Mi-yeon, Shin Ae, Shin Hyun-joon, Yoon So-yi