A lot of famous faces showed up to the 3rd “Love Your W” Breast Cancer Fund-raising Party on October 23rd, held at the Villa de Bailey in Seoul’s Kangnam district.
By the way, the “love your W,” as nonsensical as it sounds, refers to loving thy bosom. One guess as to what the W indicates. (Honestly, don’t Koreans find that kind of thing the least bit vulgar?)
But onward to the stars (and the colorful clothes!).
The following article from OSEN takes a look at the difference between the types of dramas on the air these days. I find a lot of mainstream entertainment press to be oversimplified (I’m sure I’m just not looking in the right places), but it’s something to chew on, for those of us who are curious about the relationship between ratings and the popularity/quality/success of a drama — as much as we all like to say it doesn’t matter.
Popular Dramas, Buzzworthy Dramas — There’s a Difference
There are dramas that bring in high viewership ratings but don’t get talked about much. On the other hand, there are also dramas that don’t pull in strong ratings numbers but are constantly being discussed. A drama’s content, actors, and its PR are all potential factors in drawing attention, but they don’t necessarily correlate to good ratings. Because there are many ways to watch a drama these days, the significance of ratings is gradually receding, but it’s still the primary factor in deciding advertising, and is the standard for measuring popularity. …
SONG OF THE DAY
Gourmet OST - “너에게” (To you) by Casker. I’m still trying to catch up on Gourmet, but for now I will say it has a standout soundtrack. [ Download ]
Finally, Lee Dong Wook fans can see him back on television! After rising to stardom in the romantic comedy series My Girl, he’s focused mostly on films and kept a relatively low profile; this will be his first television project in more than two years — and he appears with another My Girl co-star (although probably not the one fans most would like to see him with again), Park Shi Yeon.
The upcoming weekend drama The Sweet Life takes the place of MBC’s just-wrapped Last Scandal of My Life, and held its press conference on the 29th. In the drama, Oh Yeon Soo and Jung Bo Seok are a married couple whose lives become complicated in mystery and drama with the appearance of the Lee Dong Wook–Park Shi Yeon couple. Lee Dong Wook’s character goes to Japan on a trip and chances to meet Oh Yeon Soo’s housewife character; the two “fall in passionate love.”
While filming in the snowy mountains of Hokkaido in February, he’d experienced temporary paralysis of the limbs and had difficulty breathing. “I saw white lights and thought, ‘I’m going to die like this,’” he added. It was the result of filming for eight hours in subzero temperature — 16 degrees below zero, Celsius — at an elevation of above 3,000 meters, and sent Lee Dong Wook to the hospital.
Reuniting with his My Girl onscreen girlfriend after two years, Lee Dong Wook explained that it was comfortable having a familiar face around (ooh, holding back a face joke here), particularly at first because the other two leads were older and new acquaintances.
(A note on the title: I’ve seen this translated as “Bittersweet Life,” which may be because its Korean name shares a title with the Lee Byung Heon movie which was translated as “bittersweet,” probably in an ironic twist on the literal meaning. But it actually means “sweet,” and the promo poster bears the subtitle “La Dolce Vita,” so I think “The Sweet Life” may be more appropriate. Even though they may be using irony here too. In any case, the main website uses “sweet” over “bittersweet.”)
The Sweet Life films under the direction of PD Kim Jin Min of Shin Don and writer Jung Ha Yeon of Shin Don, Wife, Queen Myeongseong. It premieres this weekend on MBC.
