Stepping into Jang Dong Gun’s shoes
Jang Dong Gun, Lee Seon Kyun
Oh man. What a trip back to the old-school days of Korean drama.
The Voice, aka Lee Seon Kyun, recently recorded an episode of the MBC talk-variety show Yoo Jae Seok and Kim Won Hee’s Let’s Play airing on the 23rd, wherein he shared a story about his acting “senior” and friend, supa-star Jang Dong Gun.
Back in his university days, Jang Dong Gun was playing basketball with fellow basketball enthusiast Lee Seon Kyun, when one day he turned to him (Lee) and said, “Your shoes look too worn — it must be uncomfortable playing with those.” With that, he handed him a pair of shoes, saying, “These are my sneakers from when I filmed The Last Match — if that’s okay with you, wear them instead” — and gave them as a gift. Lee Seon Kyun was so touched by the gesture that afterward, he always wore those sneakers when playing basketball.
(Of course, things got tricky when the sneakers started to smell because off Lee Seon Kyun’s peculiar habit of wearing them without socks! File that under “too much information”?)
Dude. I remember The Last Match fondly because it was one of the first Korean dramas I ever watched, way back in 1994, and was one of the earliest projects for two of the most famous all-time Korean actors, Jang Dong Gun and Shim Eun Ha. Along with Jealousy [Jiltu] (starring a very young Choi Jin Shil and the current sageuk pro Choi Su Jong) and Feelings [Neukkim] (which I’ve mentioned here and starred a very young Lee Jung Jae and Kim Min Jong), those three dramas composed a early-kdrama trifecta that helped shaped my current trendy-drama watching habit.
(Old-school soundtrack) SONG OF THE DAY
The Last Match OST - “다시 시작해” (Start over) by Lee Chang Kwon. Thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was able to raid some of my long-ignored stacks of ancient kpop and kdrama CDs. Yay nostalgia. This was one of the most prominent themes of the series. Played a lot while Jang Dong Gun was off running around (literally, i.e. basketball training). Also played while he did a lot of pulling-up by his metaphorical bootstraps. [ zShare download ]
Read on for a total ’90s-drama digression >>
Tags: Feelings, Jang Dong-gun, Jealousy, Lee Seon-kyun, old-school dramas, Sohn Ji-chang, sports dramas, The Last Match
With the start of MBC’s new drama Air City, my somewhat dormant crush on Lee Jung Jae woke up in full force and slapped me in the face. Sure, I’d seen (and enjoyed) some of his movies, like 2001’s Il Mare (시월애 / siwole) with Jeon Ji Hyun, but I’m a drama series freak at heart, and it’s been nine whole years since his last one.
