This is a pairing I could get behind: Seo Ji-hye (I Love You) is teaming up with Song Chang-eui (Scale of Providence) as spouses in a new movie with the (working) title Tree that Sleeps Standing [서서 자는 나무]. Apparently the title speaks to the theme of a person’s desire to stay next to and support a loved one.

Song Chang-eui, taking his follow-up role to the drama series Cinderella Man, plays a warm-hearted, passionate firefighter. Having dealt with his father’s death at a young age and knowing the pain of losing a parent, he doesn’t want to subject his young daughter to the same kind of pain, yet his job requires that he put himself in risky situations, and that weighs on him as a burden. He finds refuge and hope in his wife and daughter, but one day things start to change.

Seo Ji-hye, known for her bright image, again plays an innocent, simple woman as Song Chang-eui’s wife. They meet when she finds herself caught in a revolving door, and he helps her to safety. However, after that incident, she has difficulty being in crowded places and suffers panic attacks. She is also dearly devoted to her husband, but begins to feel that he’s hiding something from her.

The film is described as a “heartbreaking love story” and will begin filming in September. (To be honest, I don’t love the description — melodramas, bah! — but I do really like both actors…)

Via Newsen

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SBS’s current Monday-Tuesday drama, sageuk King and I, is coming to a close, and moving to replace it is the upcoming drama billed as “a lively and sweet love story for a different, new-generation couple,” I Love You. The romantic-comedy series is based on a manhwa of the same name, whose creator also wrote the manhwa upon which the upcoming drama Gourmet is based. Following in the newer trend, the 16-episode drama has already finished filming, meaning its production will have completed well before its premiere date in March.

Starring are Ahn Jae Wook (Oh Pil Seung Bong Soon Young, Star in My Heart) and Seo Ji Hye (Over the Rainbow) in a somewhat mismatched pairing — he’s 36 (counting by Western standards), she’s 23 — although the unlikeliness of the couple is part of the point. Her naive 21-year-old bank employee character meets his 35-year-old comic-book-writer character on the subway, and mistakes his behavior for harassment. Thus begins their relationship, which complicates when she becomes pregnant and he’s less than thrilled about it.

Also cast are Hwan Hee of pop ballad duo Fly to the Sky in his second acting gig (his first was alongside Seo Ji Hye in Over the Rainbow), who’ll be paired with new actress Park Hye Young, as well as philandering lawyer husband Gong Hyung Jin (who played philandering Sae Do from Dal Ja’s Spring) and his long-suffering wife, Jo Mi Ryung.

The drama differs from its original source — the manhwa starts with the couple’s marriage, whereas the drama starts pre-wedding — and handles such issues as premarital pregnancy, abortion, cheating, and other sex-related topics “in a light fashion.” Ahn Jae Wook explains, “If the topic of premarital pregnancy is treated overly seriously, the drama becomes less like a light show that can be watched with family and more like a documentary.” Seo Ji Hye adds: “Filming this drama has made me think lots of happy fantasies of married life, and it makes me want to get married.”

Hmm, I’m on the fence about this one. I’m all for a light-hearted series, but Seo Ji Hye and Ahn Jae Wook seem such an awkward pairing — which I know is the point — that I’m not sure how I’ll like it. And I haven’t really enjoyed anything SBS has put out recently — their series have nice acting and nice moments but the ones I’ve seen recently tend to the low-stakes, low-tension end of the spectrum.

Via Kyung Hyang News

SONG OF THE DAY

Fly to the Sky – “Kissing You” [ zShare download ]

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Part of why HYANG DAN JEON works for me is because, although there’s an element of the ridiculous built in (it walks the line between farce and reality), at the center is Hyang Dan, and Seo Ji Hye plays her completely straight. The characters around her may be playing up the joke to some extent (the actress playing mean ol’ Weol Mae, for instance, is a hoot if you just look at her as a comic performer) — but Seo Ji Hye’s reading of Hyang Dan is entirely realistic, without a hint of meta awareness. And that’s a good thing — it saves the drama from sinking into overt jokiness. Choi Shi Won is good too, and they’ve got great chemistry together, but Seo Ji Hye is really the one who holds this story up.

While the first episode was more light-hearted and high-spirited, the second episode gets a little more serious (but not too heavy — there are still plenty of jokes and laugh-out-loud moments) as we get more into the trials and tribulations that befall Hyang Dan.

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Star Love Fish – “회색숲” (gray forest) [ zShare download ]

 
THE STORY OF HYANG DAN, Episode 2 >>

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MBC’s just-aired (Monday and Tuesday of this week) two-episode drama HYANG DAN JEON, which translates to The Story of Hyang Dan, isn’t really a sageuk drama, even if it takes place in the time of the Chosun Dynasty, which was founded in the late 14th century. This drama (really a minidrama, if even that) is much more like a fusion of period and modern elements (as well as comedy with drama) — to produce a cross between a Monty Python and a Shrek-ification of the famous story of the historical Chun Hyang.

I say this as someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy Korean historical dramas or films, no matter how good they are purported to be — Hyang Dan Jeon is A. DOR. A. BLE.

SONG OF THE DAY

Wanted – “Moonlight” [ zShare download ]

 
HYANG DAN JEON, Part 1 of 2 >>

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