Former pop singer of SES fame Shoo is joining her groupmates in branching out to an acting career (Eugene has appeared in several dramas, most recently Three Dads, One Mom, while Bada had a recent turn on the musical stage).

She’s also ditching her stage name, Shoo, instead reverting to her real name, Yoo Soo-young, for her acting career. It’s a move that many a former idol star does — Rain, Eric — in an attempt to be taken more seriously (although it never really works, in my opinion, because it feels like the public uses those acting names to humor the celebrity, but not because they’ve actually changed the way they think about the star).

Shoo’s role (see, I did it just there) comes in the movie Wrongful Encounter (or “bad meeting”) [잘못된만남], directed by Jung Young-bae (Cherry Tomato), in which she plays an pure-hearted, pitiful (*yawn*) lead role. Her character is the wife of a cop (Jung Woong-in, The Last Scandal of My Life) and the first love of a taxi driver (Sung Ji-ru, Forever the Moment), and the balance is upset between the fifteen-year-long best friends. It sounds like the plot of every tragic kdrama ever, I know, but the movie is billed as a comedy.

Shoo has acted in musicals, but this marks her screen debut as an actor. Co-star Sung Ji-ru said, “Back in her singer days, I was a fan, but now I think of her as an acting colleague.” The movie releases July 10.

Via Newsen

SONG OF THE DAY

Eugene (of SES) – “폭풍의 언덕” (Stormy hill) [ Download ]

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• SES lead singer Bada gave a performance as lead character Esmerelda in the musical Notre Dame de Paris on the 26th to positive reviews, particularly in the dance segments. Guess all that pop-star training came in handy.
• Ha Jiwon takes on a role as a pianist in the film co-starring Cha Tae Hyun (My Sassy Girl) and Park Hee Soon (badass Baek Min-chul in Mixed-up Investigative Agency), which is titled Fool. The movie’s written by the screenwriter of The Host 2, also an internet manhwa writer of the original work the film is based upon, and is a “warm, genuine” story about a simple-minded neighborhood character, no doubt the titular “fool.” I’m guessing Cha Tae Hyun’s the dummy? (Will he ever play someone who isn’t?)
• Actress Lee Bo Young (who’s doing press for her latest film, Once Upon a Time) admits that she’d attempted to be a news announcer, and even took the MBC announcers’ test in 2002, which she failed. Well, at least she’s pretty.
• Speaking of pretty, actress and former pop singer Chae Jung Ahn has signed on as the exclusive brand model for women’s fashion line ab.plus by ab.f.z (yeah, try pronouncing that) for the next year. A rep for ab.plus explained contracting Chae for her “refined” and “mature” image, a side we definitely saw in Coffee Prince.
• Ten years after her debut, singer Lena Park, also known by her Korean name Park Jung Hyun, gives a five-day series of concerts starting March 26, wrapping up her promo activities for her sixth album, “Come to Where I Am.”

SONG OF THE DAY

Lena Park, aka Park Jung Hyun – “눈물빛 글씨” (Tear-colored writing), her big single off her sixth album. [ zShare download ]

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Speaking of SES, the ladies of the pop group are in the news again. Or at least two of them are.

Eugene and Shoo (wither Bada?) have just opened their new website selling their brand at the “SES Mall” (www.sesmall.co.kr), and have named their new fashion line SHB — which stands for “SES Happy Brand.”

This isn’t the first time actors and pop stars are branching out into fashion — singer-actress Uhm Jung Hwa capitalized on her sultry sex-kitten image with a lingerie line, actress Lee Hye Young has her own fashion brand (”Missing Dorothy,” sold via home shopping), as do actresses Lee Seung Yeon (the “About Elle” line), Hwang Shin Hye, Byun Jung Soo, and others.

But Eugene and Shoo are attempting to set themselves apart from the other stars-slash-fashion-brands by having their own styles directly infused into their line, incorporating Shoo’s “cute and lovable” and Eugene’s “feminine, soft” styles. (Apparently Bada’s absence is explained because of her contract with a different line, which prevents her participation.)

Congrats to them, but what’s with every star these days wanting to be a mogul in every possible avenue available to them, rather than focusing on one or two things at which they actually excel? Next thing you know they’ll all be peddling novelty edible cosmetics, or random perfumes with terrible juvenile names.

Take a look at the ladies modeling their line after the jump.

SONG OF THE DAY

SES – “Just a Feeling” (remix version). This song reminds me of mid-career Mariah Carey, kind of. You know, the “Emotions” and “Fantasy” days. [ zShare download ]

Take a look at some of the fashions being sold >>

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SES, that bastion of ’90s pop girl bands, got back together for their tenth reunion at a special fanmeeting on the 9th, their first official event as a group since their unofficial breakup five years ago.

Prior to the fanmeeting itself, the group (Bada, Eugene, and Shoo) spoke with reporters, answering such questions like, “This is your ten-year anniversary fanmeeting. How did you decide to meet here today?”

S, E, and S

Eugene: “We all thought about it. From a long time ago, we’ve noted 2007 as our ten-year anniversary. We kept talking about it.”

Bada: “I’m excited and thrilled to have arrived at our tenth anniversary. If I had to express how I feel in words, I’d take all day.”

Eugene: “Today’s fanmeeting is a day for us to celebrate among ourseives, but also to give a big present to our fans. I think of it as a chance to repay our fans who’ve shown us love for the past ten years. I want to do my best performing today, to give them a reason to think that it was a good thing they stuck with us these past ten years. And it’ll become a nice memory for us, too.”

Shoo: “Ten years have flown so quickly, we don’t really feel it ourselves, but looking at those around us, I can sense that, Ah, time has passed. I’m so grateful to see that our fans from the early days of our debut have grown into adults and members of society and have still maintained their unfailing interest in us.”

SONG OF THE DAY

SES – “Red Angel” from album five. [ zShare download ]

SES talk about their early days >>

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