The Queen Seon-deok largesse, she continues. And here I thought co-star Go Hyun-jung’s gifts to the crew (worth $16,000) were pricey.

Lee Yo-won, who plays the titular queen, and her co-star Uhm Tae-woong have teamed up to present their cast with expensive padded jackets — a total value of 160 million won, or $136,000. Each item costs between 500,000 and 600,000 won ($400 to $500), and they gave them out to 300 staff members. Lee said, “I’m not feeling well either as I film, but the staff can’t even admit that they’re feeling sick as they work. I was thinking of how to show my gratitude, and came upon the jackets.” Hearing about her intention, Uhm joined his colleague in making the gift.

Queen Seon-deok continues to rule Monday and Tuesday nights in the ratings, bringing in numbers in the upper 30s and lower 40s.

Via Segye

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• Queen Seon-deok gets twelve more episodes

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 35 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok, Uhm Tae-woong

This was pretty much inevitable, and comes as no surprise: MBC has ordered 12 more episodes for its highly successful historical drama Queen Seon-deok, currently sitting with a comfortable lead on Mondays and Tuesdays, with ratings past 40%. This extension brings the episode total up from the originally planned 50 to 62.

A representative from MBC’s drama department said, “We had discussed extending Queen Seon-deok by 14 to 16 episodes, but in the end we decided upon 12 episodes. Giving consideration to the airing of awards ceremonies and year-end special broadcasts, we estimate that we can air about 62 episodes of this drama.” That means Queen Seon-deok, which premiered on May 25, will wrap up its run neatly by the end of the year, on December 22.

The drama is now just under halfway done, with its title character (Lee Yo-won playing Princess Deok-man) finding her way as a princess and growing into her status, opposite her rival Mi-shil (Go Hyun-jung). The drama also got a jolt of energy with the recent entrance of Kim Nam-gil as the complicated Bi-dam, Mi-shil’s now-grown secret son, whom she abandoned in her quest for power.

Via Hankyung

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© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama ratings, Go Hyun-jung, Kim Nam-gil, Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok

Actress Lee Yo-won’s schedule has just kicked into double-time as she adds a project to her schedule, even though she is currently busy acting in the hit MBC sageuk Queen Seon-deok as its title character.

Filming on the movie Bean Paste [된장] began this week (August 11), which comes after a delay to accommodate Lee Yo-won’s filming for Seon-deok. Not that she was the only busy one; her co-star Lee Dong-wook also just wrapped up his drama series Partner.

The film is described as a mysterious melodrama about a condemned criminal who wishes to eat bean paste stew (doenjang jjigae) one last time before he dies. A reporter, played by Ryu Seung-ryong (Level 7 Civil Servant), grows suspicious about the man’s case and delves deeper to find some surprising truths. Lee Yo-won plays a woman who makes an especially delicious deonjang jjigae, which is so good it evokes an emotional response in all who eat it. Lee Dong-wook plays her love interest.

Bean Paste is filming in the southern province of Jeollanam-do, which means that the film production had to work out an agreement with the drama production of Seon-deok to share their lead actress. Lee Yo-won will continue to shoot the drama on weekends while she films the movie.

Via Star News

RELATED POSTS

• And the Seon-deok juggernaut rolls on
• All hail Queen Seon-deok
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• Queen Seon-deok’s first script reading
• Lee Yo-won in Vietnam

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Dong-wook, Lee Yo-won, overworking, Ryu Seung-ryong

Pretty.

The first actor to get into character for the upcoming historical series Queen Seon-deok [선덕여왕] was Go Hyun-jung (HIT) taking on her court lady character of Mi-shil. Now the stills have been revealed for the second leading lady as Lee Yo-won (Surgeon Bong Dal-hee) takes the throne as the titular Queen.

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Read the rest of All hail Queen Seon-deok (208 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 34 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Go Hyun-jung, Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok, sageuk dramas

Often, you’ll see the cast and crew of a drama holding a prayer ceremony as their production nears airtime, as a ritual to ask for future success and smooth sailing. Two upcoming drama productions just held their ceremonies this week on their respective sets — KBS’s Six Months (above) on the 7th, and MBC’s Queen Seon-deok (below) on the 8th.

KBS’s Six Months began filming on March 24 with stars Kim Ah-joong and Hwang Jung-min.

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Read the rest of Six Months and Seon-deok pray for success (214 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Hwang Jung-min, Kim Ah-joong, Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok, Six Months

Now for another upcoming drama: with a month till its premiere, MBC’s daeha sageuk series Queen Seon-deok got things going earlier this week by calling in its cast for the first script reading. The drama has been highly anticipated not just for its cast, but also for going head-to-head against SBS’s sageuk series Ja Myung Go, starring Jung Ryeo-won.

(With two long-running historical series settling in for the long haul on Mondays and Tuesdays — 50 episodes apiece! — it looks like I’ll be turning my attention to Wednesdays and Thursdays instead…)

Lee Yo-won takes the titular role of Seon-deok, which pits her against Go Hyun-jung’s Mi-shil character, described as a strong “Silla-era femme fatale” who checks the queen’s royal authority and seduces men of power.

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Read the rest of Queen Seon-deok’s first script reading (199 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Go Hyun-jung, Jo Min-ki, Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok, Yoo Seung-ho

Note: The following is taken from a Korean article, so the opinions therein aren’t necessarily my own. Still, it’s a look into the trends we can expect in the coming year of dramas. (For instance: Not one, but TWO figure-skating dramas?)

2009 looks like a bright new year. This year, there are many dramas to be produced and aired that may capture viewer hearts. Last year, the economic slump and the shrinking of the drama market caused many difficulties for drama production, a number of dramas still drew viewer notice.

Last year, the sageuk, which used to be a sure thing, fell back, and professional-themed series like medical- or broadcast-centered dramas came into the spotlight. Also, daily and weekend dramas that were strongly criticized had high ratings with trite characters, sharp contrasts between good and evil, conventional conflicts, extreme plot setups, and so forth. On top of that, there were many dramas looking to score success featuring top stars that failed.

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Read the rest of Drama trends for 2009 (1,390 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cain and Abel, Chae Shi-ra, Cinderella Man, drama production, Go Hyun-jung, Han Ji-min, IRIS, Iron Empress, Ja Myung Go, Ji Sung, Kim Tae-hee, Lee Byung-heon, Lee Yo-won, Min Hyo-rin, Park Min-young, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Shin Hyun-joon, So Ji-sub, Sung Yuri, Swallow the Sun, Triple, Yoon Kye-sang