The writing pair of Kim Young-hyun and Park Sang-yeon were behind one of the biggest dramas of the past year, Queen Seon-deok, so interest is high to see if they can replicate that success in their new series, A Tree With Deep Roots [뿌리깊은 나무]. (Other titles they have penned include hit sageuks Dae Jang Geum and Seo Dong Yo.)

Adding to the anticipation is the fact that the new drama is based on a bestselling book of the same name which was published in 2006. It was authored by popular writer Lee Jung-myung, who also wrote bestselling novel Painter of the Wind, which was turned into the critically acclaimed sageuk drama in 2008 starring Park Shin-yang and Moon Geun-young. For her performance as a young woman dressing as a man to pursue painting in the Joseon era, Moon won a Daesang at the age of 21.

A Tree With Deep Roots takes its name from a famous poem that says that trees with deep roots do not sway. It takes place a prosperous time — the era of King Sejong, who invented the modern Korean writing system in the 15th century. The book deals with a series of murders that occur in Gyeongbok Palace (or Gyeongbokgung) that targeted scholars of the Hall of Worthies (an institute set up by King Sejong for scholarly research). According to the director of the production company, the project has been under preparation for a long time and is taking particular care in building its large-scale sets of Gyeongbok Palace.

Queen Seon-deok may have had some crazy writing (due to tailoring scripts to satisfy the audience’s tastes) but it was decidedly a hit; Painter of the Wind, on the other hand, was a modest ratings success but had superior production values (gorgeous cinematography, for one) and wonderful acting. Add a murder conspiracy in the mix, and this should be one to keep an eye on.

A Tree With Deep Roots will begin casting in May, but doesn’t plan to hit airwaves until early 2011.

Via OSEN

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Queen Seon-deok

Here we are! The last of the year-end review series.

This post is something new, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. Although each of us reviewers has our personal favorites, which we outlined in our personal reviews, it’s a different thing to move past preference and try to be objective in a sort of Dramabeans Awards — hence, these Editors’ Picks.

We voted in rounds, first nominating all potential candidates, then narrowing them down to a small pool of finalists, then culling that to one or two picks. As a result, not all of us got picks that we may have personally felt were most fitting, but we all respected the process and the opinions that led us to these selections.

SONG OF THE DAY

Queen Seon-deok OST – “아라로” (Araro) by I.U. [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of 2009 Editors’ Picks [Year In Review, Part 6] (4,806 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 112 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Again My Love, Assorted Gems, awards, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Story of a Man, year in review, You're Beautiful

December 30 was, once again, the night of the 2009 MBC Drama Awards. Unlike last year, there was no split Daesang award nor the ensuing controversy, but then again, there really was nobody with whom it could be shared. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Go Hyun-jung was named Daesang winner for her delicious portrayal of Mi-shil in Queen Seon-deok, which had a monstrous night. Full awards list below.

(...)
Read the rest of 2009 MBC Drama Awards (1,259 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 103 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: awards, Choi Chul-ho, Go Hyun-jung, Im Joo-eun, Im Joo-hwan, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Nam-gil, Kim Nam-joo, Lee Hye-young, Lee Seung-hyo, Lee Yo-won, Na Young-hee, Nam Ji-hyun, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Seo Shin-ae, Seo Young-hee, Yoo Seung-ho, Yoon Sang-hyun

After a pretty meh 2008, I was ready for the drama landscape to fire back up with 2009. And while there were a number of misses and disappointments — isn’t there always? — I was pretty satisfied with the dramas I watched in 2009. I still don’t think there were as many top offerings as, say, 2007, but I found a number of series to entertain me and satisfy my drama craving. There were a few selections early on that got me pumped for the year and things lagged during and after the summer months, but all told, I had an entertaining year.

(Okay, this is LONG. I tried to contain myself, really.)

SONG OF THE DAY

IRIS – “Empty” by Juni [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of All Told, A Pretty Fun Year [Year In Review, Part 4] (7,596 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 141 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella Man, Dream, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Style, Swallow the Sun, Tamra the Island, Triple, Will It Snow For Christmas, year in review, You're Beautiful

My pick for Drama of the Year: City Hall.

I’ll start of with an admission.  When javabeans asked me to give my thoughts on 2009, I was pretty excited, and agreed without much thought.  After all, 2009 was the best year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had.  But then it hit me: 2009 was also the only year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had. lol. And so, even given the number of dramas as I have seen this year (probably topping 50) I feel a bit out of my league.  How can I be critique-ing with any legitimacy?  

Nevertheless, I do think a newbie’s perspective on dramas is not necessarily a bad thing - since everything is new to me, it is tougher for me to be jaded.  Like when I saw Save The Last Dance For Me (my third k-drama ever!), I spent days afterwords thinking about what it would be like to have amnesia and then a second round of amnesia where I would forget what I had promised to remember while being forgetful the first time time around…

So while I can’t do an expert review, since I’m not an expert, I can give a newbie opinion on what worked for me, and what didn’t.  First though, a little background on me so that you know where I am coming from.  Sample of pre-2009 dramas that I liked:  My Love Patzzi, Who Are You, Full House, Save The Last Dance For Me, Two Outs In The Bottom of the Ninth, and Super Rookie.  These dramas tend to mix cuteness and heart together in a way that Western television shows still haven’t figured out how to do consistently.  I think it has something to do with the soundtrack songs that act as demi leit motifs and burrow the sentiment of the drama into your heart and mind. I mean would Full House have been as good, without “I Think I” by Byul? Or how good would Save The Last Dance For Me have been, without Edward Chun’s breath-y lyrics?

And taking it up a notch, here is a sample of pre-2009 dramas I loved:  Goong, Coffee Prince, Bad Family, Dal Ja’s Spring, Hong Gil Dong and My Girl.  Even more than the first group, these latter dramas did more than just create a nice balance of cuteness and heart; these dramas created a love story so palpable and real that, if you wanted to, you would need both hands to reach out and hold onto one.  And lastly, my first and still favorite drama of all is My Name is Kim Sam Soon, which combined everything – the cuteness, heart, love story, wonderful acting and a kickass OST.

Enough with the old, however. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on 2009 (oh, btw, hit “play” for the mp3 so you get the full technicolor and sound effects of this review. if the song ends, and you’re not done reading, then just scroll back up and hit play again. hehehe!):

SONG OF THE DAY

City Hall OST – “웃어봐” (Laugh) by Chae Dong-ha [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of A Newbie Reviews 2009 [Year In Review, Part 3] (3,980 words)

© samsooki for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 155 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Assorted Gems, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Job Well Done, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Tamra the Island, Temptation of Wife, year in review, You're Beautiful

Have you watched The Good, The Bad, The Weird? If you haven’t and the movie is available for rent in a store near you, pick it up and invite a few friends over. It’s truckloads of fun and will fit in perfectly with the fêting and feasting this time of the year. Moreover, you’ll find yourself clutching your sides because he who plays “The Weird” is so funny. Between the figurative good, bad and weird in the movie, I’ll take whoever makes me laugh the hardest.

Likewise, in a year where I watched fewer dramas but finished more of them, my favorites were the ones that made me squeal and giggle. As the months passed and it became apparent that this was going to be another so-so year, I lowered my expectations and decided a good drama need not be perfect in every aspect. All I asked was that the writing was alight (not necessarily crackling in every scene), that it worked my laugh muscles, and that it wouldn’t leave me with hives or a nauseating hangover.

SONG OF THE DAY

You’re Beautiful OST – “Promise” (A.N.JELL version) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of The Good, The Bad, The Middling [Year In Review, Part 2] (8,683 words)

© thunderbolt for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 147 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Again My Love, Assorted Gems, Brilliant Legacy, City Hall, Hometown of Legends 2009, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Loving You a Thousand Times, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Smile, Strike Love, The Man Who Can't Get Married, year in review, You're Beautiful

And to think that I headed into 2009 feeling so hopeful, too.

2008 was an awful year for K-dramas. That year ended with me feeling like I’d just swum through an ocean of excrement, and I figured that I’d need to soak myself in some good dramas for at least another year before I’d manage to wash the stink off of me.

Alas, that was not to be the case.

Thinking back on which dramas I saw in 2009, it occurred to me that, goddammit, I’m a lot more resilient than I’d thought. It awed me that I’d managed to watch crap like Cain and Abel and Everybody Cha Cha Cha all the way through, without even any fastforwarding! A year ago, this would not have been possible. A year ago, my stomach would have protested three seconds in, and I’d have had to be rushed to the doctor’s, only to be told (again) by dear old Dr. C that my condition is a complete mystery to him.

But this year, I discovered the secret to watching bad dramas without ending up gagging over a toilet. That secret has been spread so thick over my digestive organs that no amount of stress or disgust can penetrate it. We’ll get to what that secret is later, but the point of all this rambling is, I’ve discovered other reasons for watching dramas besides their innate quality. Call it a survival instinct. Reasons for drama-watching are a lot more complicated than I’d once thought.

So for this year’s write-up, I’m dividing the categories into the various reasons I watched the dramas in the first place. It’s going to be kinda embarrassing, but honest. I’ve found that honesty is always best in the end, whether people like it or not. As my mom likes to say: “If I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll turn your legs black and blue.”

SONG OF THE DAY

Broccoli, You Too? – “2009년의 우리들” (Us in 2009) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Duds and Delights of 2009 [Year In Review, Part 1] (6,376 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 240 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Boys Before Flowers, Cain and Abel, Everybody Cha Cha Cha, Friend Our Legend, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Queen Seon-deok, Smile, Style, The Man Who Can't Get Married, Will It Snow For Christmas, year in review, You're Beautiful

Two dramas wrapped up today, paving the way for several new entries in the new year. On MBC, its long-running ratings monster Queen Seon-deok posted up a very respectable 35.7% with its finale, but while its number would be huge by any other standards, with Seon-deok it was met with mixed reaction. After having shot up to the mid-40s, they were hoping to be the first drama to break 50% in a long while, and didn’t achieve it.

On SBS (an hour prior), the revenge drama Angel’s Temptation ended with a 20.5%. Although the first half of its run had hovered in the 10% range, once Bae Soo-bin came on the scene to put his own revenge in motion, ratings shot up. (Meanwhile, KBS’s Invincible Lee Pyeong-gang is still ongoing, and drew in a 6.1%.)

[SPOILERS - highlight to read] Seon-deok‘s finale pitted Deok-man and Bi-dam against each other as he believed the trust to be broken between them and entered into their last battle. She maintained her trust in him through the end, and Bi-dam was brought before her and killed, uttering his last words, “Deok-man…” In Angel’s Temptation, Lee So-yeon’s revenge scheme ended as she and her enemy Kyung-hee, who was responsible for killing her father, both committed suicide. Ultimately, neither could be happy and brought about their own tragic ends.
[END SPOILERS]

Lee Yo-won said after the finale had aired, “It still doesn’t feel like it’s really over. As the title role, there were many things I was lacking, and I could feel that. However, I learned a lot.” After filming for 11 months and enduring a lot of difficulties, she said, “If I get offers to return to sageuk dramas, I’d like to do one really far off into the future.” About the ending, she said, “It was different that what I thought it would be. I thought it would end on a political note, but it became about Bi-dam’s love. It’s true that a lot of people must have felt envious over Bi-dam’s popularity. Kim Nam-gil is a lot like the character, so it was a lot of fun filming with him.”

The trendy drama Pasta will take over Seon-deok‘s timeslot come January. Pick the Stars replaces Angel’s Temptation at 9pm, and will be followed at 10pm by Jejoongwon.

Via My Daily, Star News

RELATED POSTS

• Lee Yo-won feels the pressure of Seon-deok’s ratings
• Swine flu strikes Kim Nam-gil
• Seon-deok stars’ $136k gift to drama staff
• Go Hyun-jung gives extravagant gifts to drama crew
• The business of kdrama extensions and cuts
• Queen Seon-deok has SBS running scared
• King Yoo Seung-ho makes his Seon-deok appearance

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 82 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Angel's Temptation, drama ratings, Queen Seon-deok

With the year coming to an end, that means it’s time to take stock of the past twelve months (well, eleven really) in kdramas. The broadcast stations will be holding their awards ceremonies at the end of the month, and I’m working on my wrap-up of 2009′s offerings — as are some very talented (and prolific!) drama-watching fans — which I’ll post up closer to the end of the year.

But this is your turn to weigh in on what you liked or didn’t. I didn’t do a year-end poll last year (after putting one up in 2007) and people seemed to really want one, so it’s back.

(...)
Read the rest of How was 2009 for you? (1,304 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 410 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Star's Lover, Accidental Couple, Angel's Temptation, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, Cain and Abel, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Dream, Friend, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Ja Myung Go, Job Well Done, Loving You a Thousand Times, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Strike Love, Style, Tamra the Island, Triple, year in review

You’d think that with ratings in the mid-30% range, Queen Seon-deok would be satisfied with its performance, but the fact is that it has experienced a 10% drop in the past few weeks, meaning that it’s essentially lost nearly a quarter of its audience since Go Hyun-jung made her big exit. Since Go’s villainess character Mi-shil was the lifeblood of the show, now Lee Yo-won, playing the show’s titular heroine, is feeling the burden.

On the December 4 broadcast of MBC’s Section TV Entertainment Report, Lee Yo-won said, “Because Mi-shil is gone, the drama has lost tension and we see that in Queen Seon-deok‘s ratings drop. They were highest when Mi-shil and Deok-man were in direct opposition, but after Mi-shil’s departure, the audience’s focus has landed on Deok-man, and I felt a lot of pressure.” She said of the decline, “Naturally Deok-man and also Bi-dam [Kim Nam-gil] and Yu-shin [Uhm Tae-woong] have responsibility for that. In the future episodes, the developments will grow between Bi-dam and Yu-shin.”

The drama is now nearing its end; the extension added twelve episodes to bring the total to 62, and the upcoming week will show Episodes 57 and 58.

Via Now News

RELATED POSTS

• Swine flu strikes Kim Nam-gil
• Seon-deok stars’ 136k gift to drama staff
• Go Hyun-jung gives extravagant gifts to drama crew
• The business of kdrama extensions and cuts
• Lee Yo-won doubles her filming workload
• Queen Seon-deok gets twelve more episodes

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 43 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama ratings, Lee Yo-won, Queen Seon-deok