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 →

If that ain’t the picture of “triumphant return,” I don’t know what is.

The sizable cast of upcoming epic drama East of Eden held its production press conference on August 21, and trotted out all most of its big names (and it has many, although some were either not in attendance or weren’t photographed — no Lee Mi-sook?). The event was held at the drama’s open set location in South Gyeongsang province (located on the southeastern part of the peninsula, near Busan).

Everyone looks healthy and happy, although pretty-faced Song Seung-heon seems a little, um, smirkier than usual, doesn’t he? (I don’t think it’s his best look.)

The drama premieres August 25 on MBC (it’s a Monday-Tuesday-er).

The cast is, from left to right: Park Hae-shin, Han Ji-hye, Yeon Jung-hoon, Lee Da-hae, drama PD Kim Jin-man, Song Seung-heon, Lee Yeon-hee, and Jo Min-ki. (Too bad they didn’t decide to pose under their poster images, like some sort of performance-art onscreen-versus-reality juxtaposition. Or, you know, just for fun.)

More cast pics beyond the jump >>

Tags: East of Eden, Han Ji-hye, Lee Da-hae, Lee Yeon-hee, Park Hae-shin, press conferences, Song Seung-heon

Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 25 Comments →

While I wouldn’t call the 4th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (JIMFF 2008) a star-studded event, it had its share of famous faces sprinkled in amongst the packed crowd of festival attendees, including promo reps Lee Jung-jin and Lee Yeon-hee, above, who hosted the opening ceremony on the evening of August 14.

Also attending the festival are Korean directors Lim Kwon-taek, Lee Joon-ik, Heo Jin-ho, Park Heung-shik, Kim Sang-woo and others. International guests include director Claire Pijman from the Netherlands (Talking Guitars), American animator Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), German director Martin Walz (Melodies of Spring), Morocco’s Ahmed El Maanouni (Burned Hearts), Hong Kong’s Pang Ho-cheung, and more.

Following the opening ceremony, the festival kicked off with a screening of British filmmaker Stephen Walker’s Young@Heart, the acclaimed documentary about senior citizens singing rock and pop songs as a part of the Young at Heart Chorus.

JIMFF will screen films from 30 countries — features, documentaries, shorts, animation, and others — including a new section on films featuring world music. The festival takes place over the next six days in the city of Jecheon in scenic Chungcheongbuk-do (North Chungcheong province), and closes on August 19.

 
Top row: Lee Jung-jin and Lee Yeon-hee
Middle row: Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Yeon-hee, Kim Tae-woo with Eom Ji-won, Eom Ji-won, Ahn Sung-ki with Kang Soo-yeon

Via OSEN, Newsis

Tags: film festivals, Lee Jung-jin, Lee Yeon-hee, Yoo Ji-tae

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 6 Comments →

I don’t usually comment on fashion, usually because I don’t care enough about what makes fashion “good” or “trendy” or “cutting-edge.” But I DO know bad fashion when I see it, and while I was scrolling through a bunch of the latest photos hitting the (internet) wire, I was taken aback by how uniformly bad things looked at the Gucci 2008-2009 FW Collection, which attracted stars on the evening of August 7 at Seoul’s W Hotel.

For instance, Lee Dong-wook above? Freshly shaven after playing a scruffy bad boy in the recent drama La Dolce Vita, he looks youthful and handsome… from the neck up. I don’t know where he got came up with the rest of the look, though — an ill-fitting gray suit, with a brightly patterned scarf in the middle of sweltering summer? The end patterning on the scarf looks like a rug my parents own (albeit a very pretty rug), and has he lost so much weight that the ends of his belt trail down under the jacket to peek out over his leg? (And brown studded leather with pinstriped gray twill? Even I know that doesn’t go.)

And he’s not even the worst of the offenders. For instance:

(1) Lee Jin-wook’s headstone will soon read: “Death by Paisley Scarf.” Probably not the manliest way to go.
(2) Speaking of manly, someone hit it on the head recently when saying Jang Geun-seok is uncomfortable with his prettiness, because he’s always trying to overcompensate by overdoing it in the opposite direction. But instead of looking masculine, now he looks halfway between a lipstick and butch lesbian (both into biker chic), when he should just embrace his inherent metrosexshuality. OWN THE PRETTY, Jang Geun-seok! The pretty likes you.

(3) I know Lee Jia likes to think of herself as punk rock (really more punk rawk, and lite at that) but when you try to punk up your froofy ballerina tutu (cuz black is so badass), and then matchy-matchy your gold ruffly hem to go with your gold studded belt, you end up merely looking like Avril Lavigne Goes Kentucky Derby. Yee-haw!
(4) Kim Haneul is a pretty woman with bad lipstick, who looks stoned, and is wearing FRINGE on silk. With a sequined skirt. My eyes glaze over looking at all the weird texture combinations, sort of like Kim Haneul’s eyes here.

Clicky for more >>

Tags: fashion, Ha Seok-jin, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Haneul, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Sung-soo, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Eun-sung, Lee Jia, Lee Jin-wook, Lee Yeon-hee, Sung Yuri

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 47 Comments →

MBC’s upcoming East of Eden looks to become the next big-budget, high-profile drama of the year, with recent cast additions of two lovely ladies to act as romantic interests for lead heartthrob Song Seung Heon: first, crying queen Lee Da Hae, and now Lee Yeon Hee.

The story concerns the stories of two boys born into the same hospital at the same time (the other being played by Yeon Jung Hoon) and their intertwining fates (shades of Autumn in My Heart? Just don’t tell me he’s got a long-lost sister he falls in love with too). Lee Yeon Hee plays the daughter of the casino head with whom Song Seung Heon falls in love; this is their second time acting together after the “2008 Love Song” music video.

Lee Da Hae rounds out the love square; although it’s not explicitly stated, I’m speculating purely based on current career trajectories that Lee Da Hae plays the main love interest and Lee Yeon Hee the tragic second fiddle. (Because stories like this — switched at birth! revenge! heartbreak! — scream tragic melodrama. All fifty-some episodes of it.)

East of Eden premieres on MBC in August. Will this highly anticipated project live up to the hype, or fizzle like so many supposed surefire blockbuster hits before it?

Via Mk.co.kr

SONG OF THE DAY

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Tags: East of Eden, Lee Da-hae, Lee Yeon-hee, Song Seung-heon

Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 27 Comments →