Last one!

The 2009 KBS Drama Awards were also held on December 31, and as with the other two station awards ceremonies, there weren’t a lot of surprises, particularly with the Daesang, which went to Lee Byung-heon. (Lee was outstanding in IRIS, but I think he practically had the Daesang in the bag even before the drama aired — no way KBS was going to score a big star like him and not reward him. Refer to: Song Seung-heon’s MBC Daesang last year.)

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Lee Seon-kyun (34) married his 33-year-old bride Jeon Hye-jin on May 23; the event was closed to the media but the couple has released official photos of the ceremony.

The day was emceed by Lee’s good friends, actor Oh Man-seok and Hong Sung-bo, and featured a serenade by the groom himself, as well as songs by actor Kim Chang-wan (Coffee Prince) and indie artists Zitten and Tearliner. I am officially jealous not only of the bride’s good fortune but their awesome musical lineup.

The song Lee sang was the one he’d also sung for Coffee Prince co-star Chae Jung-ahn (who was in attendance), titled “Ocean Voyage” (listen below).

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Seon-kyun – “바다여행” (Ocean Travel) [ Download ]

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Following MBC’s Acting Awards on the 30th, the 31st saw awards ceremonies for the other two stations. First up: 2008 SBS Drama Awards. (KBS coming up next!)

The big news is that the SBS Daesang was awarded to the very young but very talented Moon Geun-young for her gender-bending role in the gorgeously shot historical drama Painter in the Wind. It had been widely speculated that her co-star, shunned star Park Shin-yang, might not appear after being shut out of the nominations and criticized for his exorbitant asking fees, and he in fact did not show. (I think Park’s management did not handle the War of Money pay situation well, but making a point to blackball him from SBS seems like scapegoating to me.)

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You know how at the prom, everyone goes for uber-glitz and black-tie formal, only it’s done through the filter of a 17-year-old fashion sense — or rather, what a 17-year-old would think was formal black-tie fashion sense? So the end result is a really weird mix of over-the-top gaudiness that may have been expensive but looks cheap?

That’s kind of the feel I get from looking at pictures from the 7th Annual Korea Film Awards.

Of course there are some standouts — Han Ye-seul glammed it up with the appropriate touch of class and sexiness — but there were also a lot of beautiful women in ugly dresses that looked more off-the-rack Jessica McClintock (hey, it’s fake prom!) than red-carpet awards ceremony.

So if we’re talking red-carpet wow factor, it was a decided step down from, say, last month’s lovely Blue Dragon Awards.

As for the awards themselves, no surprises if you’ve been watching the accolades accumulate all year long. The Chaser was the overwhelming winner, with The Good, The Bad, The Weird taking up (a distant) second place. A few notable exceptions from the rule were Kang Ji-hwan (A Movie Is a Movie) and Gong Hyo-jin (Crush and Blush), but you can check out the full list (and, of course, the fashions!) below the jump.

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Oh Man-seok (King and I, The Vineyard Man) got his start in musicals, and now he’s taking on his debut directing role for the upcoming production of The Happy Life.

Not only does Oh direct the musical, which is currently in the midst of rehearsing, he polished the script himself and wrote the lyrics to the songs. Most of the actors are musical theater veterans, although there are a few screen actors as well, including Yoo Joon-sang (Tell Me Something, Catch a Kangnam Mother) and boy-bander Ryan of Paran.

The story centers around two guys who are crazy about music. One is a high school music teacher, “Beom-jin,” who has broken up with his girlfriend and now eats sadly alone in front of his mirror out of habit. Another is the younger “Sae-ki,” whose mother left and whose father died in a sudden accident, leaving him an orphan. In this rather dull world, the only thing that makes these two feel alive is music, offering them their “happy life.”

Oh explains, “The title ‘Happy Life’ is somewhat ironic. None of the characters have much to be excited about, and are depressed. But it’s about the music, love, and lives of people who do what they can to ignore that aspect and live each moment of their lives joyfully. It’s a musical that’s both cheerful and emotionally weighty.”

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