I know, I’m way behind on weighing in on Baby-Faced Beauty, with it almost halfway done with its 18-episode run. Most of the time if I fall behind on a drama, I’ll just let it go, but I’ve been finding this one sweet and charming — and incredibly pretty to look at — that I wanted to give it a proper introduction, at least.

The drama, like many others past and present, is based on one lie that snowballs out of control, which in this case is about age/identity. The show therefore plays a lot with the concept of age, seniority, and rank in the workplace, which is an interesting motif upon which to hang a story since age is one of those things that plays a huge part in the social fabric of modern Korea. It’s a part of every introduction between people, and built into every interaction big or small, since the very language used between people is determined by one’s age/rank relation to the other. The drama manages to work in the topic without being too heavy-handed about it, which I appreciate, and Jang Nara does a good job being cute, conflicted, and compelling as the 34-going-on-25 heroine.

SONG OF THE DAY

Trans Fixion – “Cover Girl” [ Download | Alternate DL ]

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Read the rest of Baby-Faced Beauty: Episodes 1-4 (3,786 words)

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Post tags: Baby-Faced Beauty, Daniel Choi, featured, first episodes, Hyun Young, Jang Nara, Kim Min-seo, Oh Yeon-seo, Ryu Jin

With the upcoming KBS drama Baby-Faced Beauty, actress-singer Jang Nara has her first Korean drama in, oh, EVER — she’s been busy in China for the bulk of the last seven or eight years, and has consequently been pretty absent from the Korean entertainment scene. So already this is more than we’ve seen of her in ages, starting with the poster shoots (directly above and below) and the behind-the-scenes shots from the drama’s set.

The crazy thing is, if you compare Jang from her prior dramas back in the early 2000s, she actually looks exactly the same now. She just turned 30 this month, but she may as well have stepped right out of My Love Patzzi or Wedding. Minus the awful orange hair that was so popular back in the day, that is.

So she fits right in playing the 34-year-old lead, a woman whose baby face is her one advantage to offset her lackluster educational background (a mere high school degree) and her bad credit history. Her appearance allows her to pretend to be nine years younger in order to get a job working for a fashion design company.

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Read the rest of Photos from Jang Nara’s Baby-Faced Beauty (439 words)

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Post tags: Baby-Faced Beauty, Daniel Choi, Hyun Young, Jang Nara, Kim Min-seo, Oh Yeon-seo, Ryu Jin

It’s that time of year again: awards season!

On December 2, the 30th Blue Dragon Film Awards were held at KBS Hall in Yoido, Seoul, hosted by actors Kim Hye-soo and Lee Beom-soo.

Considering the recent slump in the Korean movie industry, it was a pretty good year for films, with several big hits breaking box office records, like Haeundae and Take Off, both of which amassed a number of nominations. It was also a good year for the smaller, indie movie, with awards being given to actors of Breathless, and both Kim Myung-min and Ha Ji-won pulling in top acting honors for their performances in My Love By My Side (aka Closer to Haeven).

Actress Jang Jin-young, who passed away this year from stomach cancer at the age of 35, was given a special award that honored her career in film, with roles in movies like 2001′s Sorum and 2003′s Singles.

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Post tags: awards, Cha Tae-hyun, Choi Kang-hee, Chu Ja-hyun, Chun Jung-myung, Go Soo, Ha Ji-won, Ha Jung-woo, Han Ye-seul, Jang Jin-young, Jang Young-nam, Jeon No-min, Jin Gu, Jo Ahn, Kang So-ra, Kang Ye-won, Kim Haneul, Kim Hye-soo, Kim Ji-suk, Kim Min-hee, Kim Min-joon, Kim Ok-bin, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Chae-young, Lee Min-ki, Lee Shi-young, Oh Yeon-seo, Park Bo-young, Sohn Ye-jin, Song Chang-eui, Sunwoo Sun, Wang Seok-hyun, Yoo Sun, Yoon Jin-seo

For the next ten days, the city of Bucheon, not far from Seoul in Kyunggi (Gyeonggi) province, is hosting the 13th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, or PiFan. (Like Pusan International Film Festival, the film festival has kept the old spelling and acronym although the city names are now romanized with the “B” instead of the “P.”)

PiFan is a genre film festival, focusing on thriller, mystery, horror, and fantasy selections. This year the festival screens more than 200 films in eight categories that include Family Fanta (fantastic genre films appropriate for families), Ani Fanta (animation, one of the festival’s main categories), World Fantastic Cinema, and Fantastic Shorts. The Retrospectives portion comprises a “City of Romance” subcategory, screening Hong Kong movies from the ’80s, as well as “Eroticscape,” featuring Korean urban erotica from the ’80s.

The festival opened on July 16, its red carpet walked by celebs like Jang Nara, Lee Jong-hyuk, and Gu Hye-sun. PiFan will close on July 26.

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Post tags: Ahn Sung-ki, film festivals, Gu Hye-sun, Jang Nara, Jo Jae-hyun, Joo Da-young, Kim Heung-soo, Lee Young-jin, Oh Yeon-seo

Check out the latest poster releases for the upcoming horror film Suicide Pact, which is the latest installment of the 여고괴담 “Horror School” (or Memento Mori) series.

The franchise has produced four films in the past decade, and with summer approaching, the fifth is set to premiere in a few weeks. The photos alone are enough to tell me I’ll be staying far, far away — but if horror-thrillers are your thing, it may be right up your alley.

The story features five high school friends dealing with different problems who swear to die together in the name of friendship — until one of them commits suicide first.

Suicide Pact opens on June 18.

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Read the rest of High school horror series continues with Suicide Pact (176 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: horror movies, Oh Yeon-seo