Well, I suppose it isn’t totally out of line, considering that Lee Yeon-hee, who is managed by SM Entertainment, was almost in Girls Generation back in her training days. But I admit I tire of singers crossing over as actors with mediocre acting skills, as well as the reverse, actors crossing over into kpop with middling singing talent.

In any case, the East of Eden actress will feature her vocals on Super Junior’s upcoming third album, having lent her voice to the song “Club No. 1.” The album is also drawing notice for featuring DBSK’s U-know Yunho and Micky Yoochun, who will rap on the song “이별… 넌 쉽니 (Heartquake).” (What, with 13 members — or is it 14 now? — is Suju finding it difficult to fill out their songs with their own talent?)

Super Junior will kick off their comeback with an appearance on KBS’s Music Bank on March 13.

Via Herald Biz

RELATED POSTS

• Lee Yeon-hee addresses acting criticism
• Soonjung Manhwa press conference
• Fashion week runway features Lee Yeon-hee
• Presenting the cast of East of Eden

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Post tags: kpop, Lee Yeon-hee, singers, Super Junior

MBC hosted its awards ceremony for the 2008 Acting Awards on December 30. Let me first reiterate that I think these end-of-year broadcast-station awards are mostly meaningless. That said, this year’s Daesangs were TOTAL WEAKSAUCE, MBC. Top honor (the “Daesang” grand prize) went to…

Oh, you mean it was split this year? Between Beethoven Virus’s much-lauded epitome of awesomeness, Kim Myung-min, and East of Eden’s overblown and overrated Song Seung-heon?? I mean, I could understand going for the sentimental vote and awarding deceased Choi Jin-shil (she got a lifetime achievement instead), but Song Seung-heon winning acting awards is in itself a joke.

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Read the rest of 2008 MBC Acting Awards (1,572 words)

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Post tags: awards, Bae Yong-joon, Beethoven Virus, Choi Jin-shil, Dennis O, East of Eden, fashion, Han Ji-hye, Han Ji-min, Jang Geun-seok, Ji Sung, Jung Il-woo, Jung Jun-ho, Kim Min-jung, Kim Myung-min, Lee Dong-gun, Lee Hana, Lee Jia, Lee Jung-jin, Lee Junki, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Yeon-hee, Moon Sori, New Heart, Seo Shin-ae, Shin Sung-rok, Song Seung-heon, The Last Scandal of My Life, Yoon Eun-hye, Yoon Jin-seo

Lee Yeon-hee has been picking up a lot of flak for her acting in East of Eden, which many feel has been pretty weak. And while the 20-year-old feels that some criticism, when stated with affection, can be motivating, “outright condemnation is a little hard to take.”

After many of those bad reviews came out, she received lots of encouraging text messages from friends and acquaintances in the biz telling her not to worry about the negative press, which, ironically, is what clued her in to the overwhelming press in the first place: “Because I was busy filming the drama, I didn’t know how much people were talking about my acting. Seeing all the messages made me realize it.”

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Read the rest of Lee Yeon-hee addresses acting criticism (450 words)

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Post tags: Lee Yeon-hee

The cast was out to promote the film made from popular internet manhwa Soonjung Manhwa (i.e., shojo manga) on November 3 in Seoul. Well, most of the cast — the production press conference featured stars Chae Jung-ahn (Coffee Prince), Super Junior’s Kang-in, and Lee Yeon-hee (East of Eden), but was missing one of its leads, Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy), who was in Japan.

The relationships in the film feature the large age gaps between its older generation and the younger, pairing Chae Jung-ahn (as an older woman who’s experienced disappointment in love) with the younger Kang-in, whose character is a high school student “who chases her around doggedly.” Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-tae plays a bashful 30-year-old who meets the “tough” high school student played by Lee Yeon-hee (and is pushed around by her strong(er) personality).

Soonjung Manhwa opens on November 27.

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Read the rest of “Soonjung Manhwa” press conference: XOX (362 words)

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Post tags: Chae Jung-ahn, Kang-in, Lee Yeon-hee, manhwa adaptations, press conferences, Yoo Ji-tae

The runway show for designer Jo Sung-kyung at Seoul’s Fashion Week featured two actors leading the pack of fashion moddles, East of Eden’s Lee Yeon-hee and Women In the Sun’s Jung Kyeo-woon (also of La Dolce Vita).

The show took place on the afternoon of October 21 at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention center (SETEC) under the name “Il de Dokdo,” aka “trip to Dokdo” (I’ve previously mentioned the contentious land dispute surrounding the island).

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Read the rest of Fashion Week runway features Lee Yeon-hee (155 words)

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Post tags: fashion, Lee Yeon-hee

• Actor Lee Wan (Insoon is Pretty) revealed on a Yashimmanman episode taped on October 20 that Kim Tae-hee (above) doesn’t look so hot when at home and that she’s prettier onscreen than in person. Spoken like a true kid brother out to annoy big sis.
• East of Eden is killing in the ratings, with its latest episode on the 20th bringing in a hefty 29.7%. We’ll see if it can hold up against The World They Live In’s premiere next week.
• Unfortunately, Eden star Lee Yeon-hee (below) can’t catch a break. She’s been repeatedly criticized for poor acting, and now that extends to her pansori (traditional singing) skills. The 17th episode showed Lee’s character giving a pansori performance to the famous “Arirang” song, after which the drama’s homepage was flooded with scorn for her “embarrassing” and “inadequate” performance.
• Newlywed Kwon Sang-woo has been picked as the second favorite in a Top 10 list of Asia’s young actors as chosen by Japanese female fans (part of Asahi TV program SmaSTATION). He came in behind Taiwan’s F4, stars of the Hana Yori Dango adaptation Meteor Garden. (3rd: Jay Chou, 4th: Song Seung-heon, 5th: Jaycee Chan, 6th: Lee Junki, and Rain in 10th.)
• Moon Geun-young is back in action on the Painter of the Wind set after fracturing her nose during filming.
• Speaking of which, Painter of the Wind is set to pick up more fans throughout Asia to add to its already lavish praise as a “perfect drama.” It has already made contracts exporting the drama to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and now also Thailand.
• “Kimchi western” film The Good The Bad The Weird won double awards at the Hawaii International Film Festival, taking home the Achievement in Acting award for Jung Woo-sung (who played “the good” to Lee Byeong-heon’s “bad” and Song Kang-ho’s “weird”), as well as the Maverick Award (ugh, that word gives me twitches) for director Kim Ji-woon.

 
RELATED POSTS

• East of Eden: Viewers up, paychecks down
• “Painter” delayed due to more injury
• These boys don’t cry
• Now quite ready for her close-up yet
• Presenting the cast of East of Eden
• Press day for the Good, Bad, and Weird

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Post tags: East of Eden, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Tae-hee, Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Wan, Lee Yeon-hee, Moon Geun-young, news bites, The Painter of Wind

“In the face of love, these four men and women have no strategy, no experience, no courage, and no counterstrategy, but embark on a special romance in Soonjung Manhwa.”

This is how the new movie is being touted, and I’ve chosen not to translate the title because while “soonjung manhwa” literally means a “pure comic book,” it’s also the Korean term for what is more commonly known as “shoujo manga.” Here’s the Wikipedia definition of shoujo:

“[M]anga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18… [which] covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles… often with a strong focus on human and romantic relationships and emotions.”

In any case, Soonjung Manwha has finished filming, and it seems like just the type of thing I’d go for. The movie is an adaptation of the internet manhwa which became a hit sensation, drawing in more than 60 million pageviews and building up an enthusiastic netizen audience.

The film stars Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy) in the lead role, starring with Chae Jung-ahn (Coffee Prince), Lee Yeon-hee (East of Eden), and Kang In of Super Junior. Manning the camera is director Ryu Jang-ha, the writer for One Fine Spring Day and assistant director for Christmas in August

There’s a reason to be optimistic about the film with its sizable built-in fanbase from the internet original, plus its four good-looking stars (with two older and more experienced actors — Yoo, Chae — to balance out the other two hot young things, who target the younger market). But we won’t be able to find out for sure until the film opens on November 27.

Via Mk.co.kr

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Post tags: Chae Jung-ahn, Kang-in, Lee Yeon-hee, manhwa adaptations, Yoo Ji-tae