Awards, awards, awards! And tons of pretty people.

As with yesterday’s MBC Drama Awards, note that winners are decided in part due to popularity, in part due to ratings and politics. That said, I don’t think anyone will argue with their Daesang winner, Shin Ha-kyun (below), who has been tearing it up on Monday and Tuesday nights with medical drama Brain.

Also no surprise was the awarding of runner-up acting prizes to The Princess’s Man‘s pair, Park Shi-hoo and Moon Chae-won (above), which bagged a number of awards.
As did weekend hit Ojakkyo Brothers.

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Read the rest of 2011 KBS Drama Awards (2,271 words)

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Post tags: awards, Chun Jung-myung, Daniel Choi, Eugene, Han Eun-jung, Han Hye-jin, Hong Soo-hyun, Hwang Woo-seul-hye, Jang Nara, Joo-won, Jung Jin-young, Jung Woong-in, JYP, Kim Min-seo, Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Jang-woo, Lee Jong-hyuk, Lee Shi-young, Lee Yoon-ji, Moon Chae-won, Moon Jung-hee, Park Jung-ah, Park Min-young, Park Shi-hoo, Shin Ha-kyun, Suzy, UEE

I’d known Man of Honor was about baseball, and that it was from the Baker King producers, but it wasn’t till I took a good look at these latest stills that the story and conflict really sunk in.

And now that it has: Aw, man — it’s a sports drama and a total underdog success story? I know those two things tend to go together, but again, it’s one thing to know it intellectually, and another thing to put facts with faces. Cute, dejected, sad faces. Just look at that hang-dog, lonely look on Chun Jung-myung’s face and try resisting pulling for him. It’s a losing battle. He’s Tak-gu, but in a uniform and with bigger fists.

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Read the rest of Man of Honor releases poster, more stills (257 words)

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Post tags: Chun Jung-myung, Lee Jang-woo, Lee Jin, Man of Honor, Park Min-young

A week from its premiere, KBS’s new Wednesday-Thursday drama Man of Honor held its production press conference, with its main cast in attendance: Chun Jung-myung, Park Min-young, and Lee Jang-woo take the main three roles. Already I can see the Baker King-esque dynamic in the stills; nothing like a rich-boy-poor-boy rivalry in childhood to up the ante in adulthood, is there?

(Side note: Nice of them to keep the same hairstyles for their childhood counterparts, for ease of identification — but I’d hate to be the kid who stuck with the same haircut for over twenty years.)
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Read the rest of Man of Honor’s production press conference (556 words)

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Post tags: Choi Myung-gil, Chun Jung-myung, Lee Jang-woo, Lee Jin, Man of Honor, Park Min-young, press conferences

First shoots commenced with this scene of KBS melo-sports-romance drama Man of Honor, which stars Chun Jung-myung and Park Min-young. Funny how the “man” part of the title refers to heroine’s character rather than the hero; the Korean words used in the title happen to be a puntastic take on the leads’ names, Young-kwang (Honor, played by Chun) and Jae-in (Park).

In these stills, Park is dressed as 18-year-old Jae-in, in high school uniform, who grows up poor but plucky who then becomes a nurse’s aide as an adult. Jae-in grew up at an orphanage in her childhood, which pings my birth secret radar; has an orphan in a melo ever not grown up to lots of Sturm und Drang about said orphan status and its attendant abandonment issues? Jae-in seems to have done all right, in that she grows up bright and cheery, and developed close bonds with her nun caretakers. (I had quite a different picture in mind when I first used the term “nun on piggyback,” but I guess this works too.)

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Read the rest of Man of Honor begins shooting with Park Min-young (84 words)

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Post tags: Man of Honor, Park Min-young

Three weeks to go until the Baker King Kim Tak-gu team’s follow-up drama, Man of Honor, premieres on KBS. The sizable cast convened on the 10th for a table read, and while the three main leads are Chun Jung-myung (The Duo), Park Min-young (City Hunter), and Lee Jang-woo (Smile, Dong-hae), there are a ton of other names involved, including:

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Read the rest of Man of Honor holds script rehearsal (295 words)

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Post tags: Choi Myung-gil, Chun Jung-myung, Man of Honor, Park Min-young

This interview came out before the big news that Park Min-young was in fact dating her City Hunter co-star Lee Min-ho, but maybe that’s a good thing; anything published after that is bound to be overshadowed by questions of her relationship.

But since that romance IS bound to attract the most interest, let’s get some of those details out of the way first. As noted when the news was first confirmed, the two actors had known each other before working together on City Hunter, although they hadn’t been that close until this project. They shot a CF together before either was well-known, and a few years later she was the lead in the 2007 high school drama I Am Sam. Lee played one of the supporting characters as one of her schoolmates.

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Read the rest of Park Min-young: Over her slump and keeping busy (1,688 words)

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Post tags: City Hunter, interviews, Lee Min-ho, Park Min-young

javabeans: The City Hunter and Nana Bear?!! They’ve just confirmed it, via Park Min-young’s agency.

girlfriday: They’re DATING? In REAL LIFE?

javabeans: It’s like my fantasies have collided with real life and now I’m all confused where one starts and the other stops.

girlfriday: And that’s different from a regular day how? Maybe it’s a sign that we should just give into City Hunter being reality.

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Read the rest of Lee Min-ho and Park Min-young confirm they’re dating (350 words)

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Post tags: conversation post, Lee Min-ho, Park Min-young, star romances

First it was a rumor, and now it’s confirmed: Chun Jung-myung (The Duo, Cinderella’s Sister) has indeed been cast alongside Park Min-young (City Hunter, Sungkyunkwan Scandal) in the upcoming KBS drama Man of Honor, aka Round 2 for the PD and writer behind last year’s ratings titan Baker King Kim Tak-gu.

Also, it turns out that the title [영광의 재인] is a big ol’ pun on the main characters’ names: the words meaning “man” [재인] and “honor” [영광] are both also names, so you can read it Man of Honor, or you could read it Young-kwang’s Jae-in. Chun is Kim Young-kwang; Park is Yoon Jae-in. Get it? Get it??? I am simultaneously laughing and groaning — it’s so cheesy that it goes all the way ’round to being (sorta) funny.

It’s also a working title, so there’s always the chance it’ll change, although frankly I want them to keep it now. It’s SO corny. It’s like when girlfriday and I heard that Discovery of Affection (Ae-jung eui bal-gyeon, a pun on Ae-jung’s name) was being retitled the boring Best Love (Choi-go eui sarang), and were hoping that the hero’s name was Choi Go. Oh, puntastic Korea.

Chun will play baseball player Young-kwang, who used to be a hotshot hitter on a pro league team who’s now been downgraded to second string. He and a first-string player on his team are admitted to the hospital after sustaining injuries, where he meets nurse’s aide Jae-in.

Not much else is given about the plot other than that it follows the heroine as she overcomes hardships. It’s a fairly bland description, but if we look to the producers’ previous work, I’m pretty sure we can expect lots of dramatic twists and tense conflicts along the way. And maybe a birth secret or ten?

Man of Honor — or, um, Young-kwang’s Jae-in, HA — will take the Wednesday-Thursday timeslot after The Princess’s Man wraps, and premieres in October.

Via Star News

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Post tags: Chun Jung-myung, Man of Honor, Park Min-young

Am I dead? I think I might be dead. City Hunter may have gone killed me dead.

This finale hits all the right notes for me, wrapping up the plot and giving us some emotional payoffs along with the narrative resolutions, and doing it with suspense, tension (my blood pressure is still spiked, I swear), and satisfaction. The ending leaves me feeling wistful and bittersweet at the cost it took to get to this point of resolution, but the series signs off with enough openness that I can imagine my own continuation of the story from here.

Or, you know, they could give us a Season 2.* JUST SAYIN’.

*Seriously! We have such ideas for another season! Really good ones. Auuuuugh, Season 2 aja!

SONG OF THE DAY

Mate – “Play” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of City Hunter: Episode 20 (Final) (5,418 words)

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Post tags: City Hunter, featured, Lee Min-ho, Park Min-young

Not like you didn’t own me before, Show, but this finale-lead-in? Kicks so much ass. I honestly didn’t think City Hunter was going to go out as strong as it came in, but I’m happy to be wrong. So giddy. I knew my love was not for naught.

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Read the rest of City Hunter: Episode 19 (4,303 words)

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Post tags: City Hunter, featured, Lee Jun-hyuk, Lee Min-ho, Park Min-young