In these posters for new weekend drama A Thousand Kisses, we’ve got the two main couple in various states of embrace, and although we don’t get much info on them otherwise, I’m drawn to how loving and earnest they seem. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I like the actors, although I admit to being WAY more interested in the supporting pair — Kim So-eun and Ryu Jin! — than the main couple of Seo Young-hee with Ji Hyun-woo.

In the drama, Seo Young-hee (Bedevilled) and Kim So-eun (A Fine Windy Day) play sisters who grew up in straitened circumstances. As mentioned in the previous post about this show, age play is one of the points of interest with these characters, as unni then falls for someone younger than her (Birth of the Rich’s Ji Hyun-woo), while her cheery younger sister falls for someone 17 years older (Baby-Faced Beauty’s Ryu Jin).

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Post tags: Ji Hyun-woo, Kim So-eun, Ryu Jin, Seo Young-hee

Y’know, I wasn’t sold on the noona-dongsaeng pairing of Ji Hyun-woo (Birth of the Rich) and Seo Young-hee (Bedevilled), but they’re looking cute and comfy with each other in these first stills from MBC’s upcoming weekend drama A Thousand Kisses.

It looks like the drama’s playing with the question of age differences in romance, and promo descriptions state that it’ll explore a variety of love relationships. The main pairing, above, explores the younger-man-older-woman dynamic, with Ji romancing a divorced single mom. Seo Young-hee’s character is the hard-working type who’s faced a lot of bitterness in her life, while Ji Hyun-woo plays a former national soccer player who’s now a sports agent. And if anyone can do the doting dongsaeng role, it’s Ji, who combines leading-man status with boyish charm.

But main couple aside, I’m more interested in some of the side characters — namely, Ryu Jin (Baby-Faced Beauty) and Kim So-eun (Fine Windy Day). Furthermore, cranky grandpa Lee Soon-jae (My Princess, High Kick Through the Roof) even gets his own loveline with a May-December romance, featuring “80s flower heroine” Cha Hwa-yeon (Love and Ambition, Thorn Birds).

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Post tags: Ji Hyun-woo, Kim So-eun, Lee Soon-jae, Ryu Jin, Seo Young-hee

MBC’s new weekend drama A Thousand Kisses has added a couple more actors to its lineup, which is great for those of us who’ve been wanting to see more of rising actress Kim So-eun (Fine Windy Day, Boys Before Flowers).

The drama about a divorced woman’s rebound and success story has already cast Seo Young-hee (Bedevilled), Ji Hyun-woo (Birth of the Rich), and Ryu Jin (Baby-Faced Beauty) in lead roles.

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Post tags: Cha Soo-yeon, Kim So-eun, Ryu Jin

A Thousand Kisses for Ryu Jin? Yes, please. Hopefully with me involved somehow.

Too bad we’re just talking about a drama title, which will take up a weekend slot on MBC come August. And I fear that we’re looking at another second-lead role for Ryu Jin, which is great from a drama’s point of view since he’s so good at it, but sucky for those of us who want him to end up happy and not alone. (He’s currently being alternately adorable and swoony in Baby-Faced Beauty, where he’s the quiet, gentle, but stern boss who’s a single divorced dad to a kid who adores the woman he won’t win, Jang Nara. You’d feel worse about that if Daniel Choi weren’t so devotedly sweet.)

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Post tags: Ji Hyun-woo, Ryu Jin, Seo Young-hee

Baby-Faced Beauty has been performing well in its Monday-Tuesday hour, and now KBS has granted it a 2-episode extension, taking its episode total from a planned 18 to 20.

The Monday-Tuesday timeslot has been relatively close between the three shows, with Miss Ripley settling into second place and Lie To Me in third place, but Baby-Faced Beauty’s lead has been solid enough to merit the added episodes. (For the most recent episode, Baby held the lead with 15.5%, Ripley had a 13.7%, and Lie To Me a 10.1%.)

An executive at KBS stated, “The response to the drama is good, and there are places where the story can be woven together solidly, so we decided to extend it by two episodes. At the start, we’d planned for 18 but left the door open to bring it up to 20 if the reaction was good, so there won’t be any excessive dragging of the story.”

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

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

I hope you guys all stocked up on your sleep, because with the premiere of Baby-Faced Beauty coming on Monday, you might find yourself having to make some important decisions about how to use your time.

And while this drama wasn’t initially on my radar as much as some other higher-profile ones, the more I see of it, the more I’m warming to its frothy cuteness. If the drama has anywhere near the bright, fluffy fun promised by the stills, I’ll be a happy camper. Except for the part where I feel conflicted about how to watch everything I want to watch without turning into a zombie, of course.

So here we go, a little refresher on the story, with a few speculations thrown in the mix:

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Read the rest of Posters, previews, and predictions for Baby-Faced Beauty (436 words)

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

The trailer for KBS’s upcoming Baby-Faced Beauty is out, and it’s really pretty adorable. Not that I was expecting it to be bad, but I just expected more of the usual trendy type stuff, not something quite so quirky and refreshing.

In case you need a refresher: Baby-Faced Beauty is about a 34-year-old woman who looks a decade younger, gets fired from her old job because of her true age, and gets hired at a new, better job where she meets her love interests (one is a CEO boss, the other a younger guy with the opposite issue, as he looks older than his relatively young years) and pursues her dream of being a fashion designer. But wouldn’tcha know, her rival in business AND in love happens to be a beautiful young woman who’s already a designer. Funny how Fate likes to mess with us.

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Post tags: Baby-Faced Beauty, Daniel Choi, Jang Nara, Kim Min-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

KBS’s romantic comedy My Country Calls went out quietly on Tuesday with its finale episode, its 16th. The drama has performed under the radar in its Monday-Tuesday timeslot, having gone up against two heavy-hitters: MBC’s historical Dong Yi and SBS’s saga Giant.

Its ratings have been consistently in the 6% range, while its rivals have performed in the 20% and even 30% range (Dong Yi) or solid teens (Giant). The finale brought in a 7%.

As we know, ratings don’t mean everything, and despite the low numbers, My Country Calls generally drew favorable response for its laughs, its refreshing new tone, and the commitment of its actors (Lee Soo-kyung, Kim Sang-kyung, Ryu Jin, and Horan in her drama debut).

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Post tags: Horan, Kim Sang-kyung, Lee Soo-kyung, My Country Calls, Ryu Jin