Dramabeans » Queen Seon-deok

Swine flu strikes Kim Nam-gil

javabeans — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:27:04 +0000

Swine flu strikes the entertainment industry again: this time it’s Kim Nam-gil, aka “Bi-dam” of MBC’s Queen Seon-deok, which can only make the production team of that drama nervous as it heads into its final stretch of episodes (the drama will wrap by year’s end).

Kim’s management company confirmed on November 19 that the actor, who came down with flu-like symptoms two days ago, was confirmed with the H1N1 virus. For the time being he will have to focus on recovering, and the producers of the historical drama are making amendments to the scripts to account for his absence.

Kim Nam-gil said of his situation, “First I had a horse-riding accident, and now with the swine flu I’ve caused another difficulty for the broadcast, for which I feel very regretful. I’ll return to filming as soon as I have made a complete recovery. I’m sure it won’t take longer than this weekend, and afterward I will take more care to keep healthy.”

Via Mk.co.kr

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Hwarang warriors get their own musical

javabeans — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:20:42 +0000

Queen Seon-deok’s incredible success has raised the popularity of the group of men who play the Hwarang, or elite Silla warriors, within the drama. Now they’ can be seen onstage, as they are featured in a musical of their own called Hwarang, which follows their growth in a “lively, touching” story.

In contrast to their roles in the drama, in which the Hwarang are involved in politically motivated storylines, the musical takes a look at each of the five Hwarang members’ respective origins and dreams as they mature into their warrior roles.

To be accurate, the musical is not a direct spinoff from the drama — it had been preparing quietly over the past year under the name “H” — but no doubt its production is aided by the raised profile from Seon-deok’s success. Interest is also high because the musical comes from producer Choi Mu-yeol, who produced Maria Maria, which was the first small-theater production to win a musical Daesang.

Hwarang opened this weekend with its first performance on October 30, and will run through January 3.

Via TV Report

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Seon-deok stars’ $136K gift to drama staff

javabeans — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:35:13 +0000

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

Go Hyun-jung gives extravagant gifts to drama crew

javabeans — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:56:23 +0000

You often hear of actors giving out presents to crew members, but it’s usually something small — T-shirts, jackets, or cosmetics that they endorse — and there’s no shame in small gifts. Go Hyun-jung, star of the MBC drama series Queen Seon-deok, however, has given 150 portable game players (Nintendo DS Lite) to her staff as a thank-you and Chuseok present. The gift set her back a cool 20 million won (or $16K total — yowsa!); each player retails at $130 here in the States.

I know, Go Hyun-jung is a huge star and it’s likely she’s making tons of money off the super-hit series, which has been extended an additional 12 episodes, but she sure didn’t have to shell out for 150 Nintendo players. Definitely a nice gesture to the hardworking crew for the upcoming holiday weekend.

Via BNT News

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© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Go Hyun-jung, Queen Seon-deok

The business of kdrama extensions and cuts

javabeans — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:03:38 +0000

Queen Seon-deok

Yep, we as drama-lovers tend to have a love-hate (mostly hate, I think) relationship with drama extensions and, even worse, unexpected cuts. Even a good drama can be ruined in the end by unnecessary extensions — a long-running epic series may suffer less from adding episodes than a short drama whose story was never meant to go beyond 16 or 20 installments. I know that this trend stems from that pernicious habit of broadcast stations’ knee-jerk reactions to ratings, but as much as we hate that, I think we all kind of understand why a station places so much importance on ratings. Here’s an article that discusses the trend.

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© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 44 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama ratings, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Strike Love, Tamra the Island

Movie in the works for Queen Seon-deok

javabeans — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:04:13 +0000

Ooh, interesting. Producers have announced that Queen Seon-deok, MBC’s successful historical epic series, will be re-edited down to movie format, just in time for the approaching holiday weekend.

This version will not be a mere rehash of highlights and clips, but will actually tell a complete story. Its focus will not be on the drama’s current state of events, where the battle for the throne is heating up between Mi-shil (Go Hyun-jung) and Princess Deok-man (Lee Yo-won), but on the first half with the characters’ childhoods and development.

MBC’s 2007 fusion historical series Legend is similarly planning a re-edited movie version — but unlike Legend, the Seon-deok movie isn’t getting a cinema release. Instead, it will broadcast as a TV movie as part of the station’s special Chuseok programming. (Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays in Korea and falls this year on the first weekend of October.)

The TV movie will air in two 90-minute parts, and its specific timeslot has not yet been fixed.

Aside from satisfying viewer demands, this is probably a really shrewd move on MBC’s part to play up its big cash cow, produce two likely-to-be-watched Chuseok broadcasts, and ensnare additional viewers who haven’t been watching and would like a quick recap on the story so far — just in time to start watching as the drama heads into its second half. Hey, I’ll probably be watching.

Via DongA

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Queen Seon-deok has SBS running scared

javabeans — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:04:13 +0000

The upcoming Angel’s Temptation

Wow. It’s one thing to admit your competition is tough. But it’s another thing entirely to rearrange your station’s prime-time broadcasting schedule specifically to avoid going up against said competitor, as SBS is doing next month to give its dramas a shot against Queen Seon-deok.

Starting in October, they will actually air their Monday-Tuesday drama in the 9pm hour, rather than the standard prime-time 10pm hour where Seon-deok has been so dominant.

This is a pretty drastic — one might say desperate — move. It’s not unusual for rival stations to fiddle with drama premiere dates, pushing back a new show until a strong competitor wraps (as Ja Myung Go did to avoid going up against East of Eden and Boys Before Flowers). But shifting its prime-time schedule entirely is a big surprise. On one hand, it’s good that their drama(s) will be getting a shot to survive, but on the other, it feels like an admission of weakness.

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Post tags: Angel's Temptation, drama ratings, Queen Seon-deok