Uh, do we really need this?

Both Le Grand Chef and Tazza were originally manhwas that were turned into movies that were turned into drama series. Now, both franchises are getting a movie sequel.

A rep from the production behind Le Grand Chef 2 said, “Currently we’re busy working on the screenplay. New director Baek Dong-hoon will take this on as his debut film. It will show a different side and new entertaining stories from the previous film.” The original film released in November 2007 starred Kim Kang-woo, Lee Hana, and Im Won-hee and sold over 2.5 million tickets. The drama version, Gourmet, starred Kim Rae-won and Nam Sang-mi and was a hit for SBS last year.

Tazza 2 will be both written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan (Hair) and is currently casting. The original gambling-themed film sold more than 6.8 million tickets in 2006 and starred Jo Seung-woo and Kim Hye-soo; SBS’s series adaptation starred Jang Hyuk and Han Ye-seul and was a modest success last year.

Talk about trying to milk that dead horse. Uh, I think that metaphor got a little mixed, but funny enough, makes more sense that way anyway.

Via OSEN

RELATED POSTS

• Tazza ends (Open thread)
• Tazza: Episode 1
• Gourmet (SBS)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gourmet, manhwa adaptations, sequels, Tazza

2007 was a rich year for drama-land. There was something for everyone, whether your tastes ran toward dark thrillers (Devil), intense dramas (White Tower), heart-warmers (Thank You), off-the-wall eccentrics (Mixed-up Investigative Agency), trendy fare (Coffee Prince), romantic comedies (Dal Ja’s Spring), and so on.

2008, on the other hand… not so much.

Every drama has its good and bad points, but it’s a lot easier to decide how you feel about one when those qualities are expressed in the extreme — i.e., very good, or very bad. When everything is a muddle in the middle, though, it’s harder to draw the lines.

That’s why in contrast to last year’s “Best” and “The Rest” designations, this year I don’t really distinguish “good” versus “bad” — or even “favorites” and “hated dramas” — and can only grade on a spectrum. I call that spectrum “MEH” with the extreme poles representing “generally watchable” and “generally unwatchable.” It’s just been that kind of year.

SONG OF THE DAY

Painter of the Wind OST – “색” (Color) by JOO [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Finding Merit in the Mediocre [Year in Review, Part 4] (4,967 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 75 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Star's Lover, Beethoven Virus, Bulhandang/Robbers, East of Eden, Gourmet, Hong Gil Dong, I Love You, Iljimae, Love & Marriage, On Air, One Mom, Rivals, Strongest Chil Woo, Tazza, The Last Scandal of My Life, The World They Live In, Three Dads, When Night Comes, Who Are You?, year in review

The K-drama world rolled into 2008 still riding the high that was 2007, a year in which a startling number of quality dramas were made, and enjoyed. Maybe it rolled in too fast. It ended up getting smothered by the waves of its previous success. In fact, you could say that it even got hit on the head by a stray surfboard, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Depressing enough intro for ya?

But seriously, 2008 was a dark year for the K-entertainment industry, with not only dramas, but also movies suffering and generally showing poor quality. And not only that, but the economy went kablooie, and we suffered a sobering amount of tragic K-celebrity news.

Personally, this was a supremely frustrating year for a longtime and devoted K-drama fan like me. Before this year, I always gave dramas the benefit of the doubt, and would usually watch at least a certain number of episodes before I passed judgment on them, and decided to continue or discontinue watching. But this year, with every stomach-churning dud, I became more and more impatient, and started going through drama episodes like a vulture searching for roadkill. And boy, did I find a lot of roadkill.

I’m pretty sure 2008 was a record year for me in terms of abandoning dramas. And to think that I used to be the girl who would finish every drama she started, no matter how bad or how boring they were! But the older I get, the less patience I have, and the more critical I become. Besides, I’ve now realized just how precious my time really is. I don’t want to waste it on useless pap, thankyouverymuch.

Still, despite all that, there were a small handful of quality dramas this year. None of them quite matched the heights of some of the dramas of 2007, but still, any kind of quality was more than welcome in this gloomy year.

SONG OF THE DAY

La Dolce Vita – “사랑 꽃” (Love Flower) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Dahee Fanel’s 2008 Review [Year in Review, Part 3] (4,255 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 60 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Star's Lover, Beethoven Virus, East of Eden, I Love You, Iljimae, Kingdom of Wind, La Dolce Vita, My Sweet Seoul, On Air, Rivals, Spotlight, Strongest Chil Woo, Tazza, The Painter of Wind, The World They Live In, When Night Comes, Who Are You?, year in review

Okay, I’m trying something new here, so please let me know what you think.

SBS’s Tazza ended its run today on episode 21, and to send it off, I’m kicking off an open thread. I can’t possibly cover all the dramas out there, but I know you all are watching a bunch of stuff and may have a few things to say about them, so run wild. If response is good, I’ll keep it up for future dramas.

I’ll start: You know, I had a generally positive reaction to episode 1, so I’m not quite sure why the drama fell off the radar for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll go back and give it another try. While Tazza wasn’t as successful (ratings-wise) a movie-to-drama adaptation as, say, Gourmet was, it performed well, particularly given how strong East of Eden has been. By all accounts, the acting was decent (despite initial criticism for Han Ye-seul, but that’s par for the course these days in dramas starring pretty starlets) and the story kept viewers compelled.

Taking over the Monday-Tuesday timeslot for SBS is Han Hye-jin‘s wine-themed Terroir.

SONG OF THE DAY

Tazza OST SBS – “인생은 한방” (Life gives you one shot) [ Download ]

RELATED POSTS

• The current drama landscape: An overview
• Tazza: Episode 1
• Han Ye-seul goes retro schoolgirl
• A black press day for Tazza
• Kim Min-joon gets a leg up on Jang Hyuk
• Taking a gamble with Tazza

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Han Ye-seul, Jang Hyuk, Kang Sung-yeon, Kim Min-joon, Tazza

It seems we suddenly have a ton of new dramas out, and I was starting to feel a bit lost. So here’s a brief overview of the dramas currently airing, some of which I’m following regularly and some that I haven’t committed to sticking with yet.

For the series I plan to keep watching, I’ll probably follow up with more in-depth posts, but for now I’m taking a general, overall look at the current lineup. (The two dramas pictured above, Kingdom of Wind and The Painter of Wind, are probably the two best series airing currently, but for different reasons.)

SONG OF THE DAY

Sorri – “Because of You” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of The current drama landscape: An overview (2,337 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 54 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beethoven Virus, East of Eden, Jang Geun-seok, Kim Bum, Kim Myung-min, Kingdom of Wind, Lee Jia, Lee Jin-wook, Love & Marriage, Moon Geun-young, Park Shin-yang, Song Seung-heon, Tazza, The Painter of Wind, Yoon So-yi

You know, I fully expected to dislike Tazza. I didn’t have many expectations, and I doubted that the drama version would be able to effectively capture what made the film version such a hit — I imagined it would be what you might expect if you had to cut down The Sopranos to air on network TV during the holidays. It would be a watered-down version at best.

And it is, for sure. Only one episode in (they only aired one last week), it’s a little too early to make predictions, particularly when much of the episode was spent in flashback. But although I started out the episode perilously near boredom, somewhere about halfway through, things started clicking for me dramatically, and I’ll admit I enjoyed it overall.

[Watch the series at DramaFever]

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Ssang – “야바위” (Swindle). This song is actually from the OST of the film version of Tazza.
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Tazza: Episode 1 (1,992 words)

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Post tags: first episodes, Han Ye-seul, Jang Hyuk, Kim Min-joon, Tazza

Before she was a femme fatale, she was a schoolgirl.

Han Ye-seul dons pigtails and a schoolgirl uniform to portray her character’s younger self in the upcoming drama Tazza. (Despite the clean face and the clothes, she still seems more like a grown woman in a costume than a genuine flashback. But we can’t all be Song Seung-heon and command name actors even in our childhood roles, can we?)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Han Ye-seul, Tazza

Tazza actors and crew (Jang Hyuk, Han Ye-seul, Kim Min-joon, Kang Sung-yeon) came out on the afternoon of September 8 for the drama’s production press conference, all decked out in black to observe the death of Ahn Jae-hwan, which they’d received word of just earlier that day.

Apparently the actors put on a bright face for photos, but they became solemn at the mention of Ahn Jae-hwan. The drama’s new Madam Jung, Kang Sung-yeon, expressed her feelings upon hearing the sad news: “I couldn’t believe it. This was to be a good day for me [drama press day], but now I don’t know what I should say… Afterward, I’ll go to his funeral service. I’m so heartbroken I don’t know what to say.”

Regarding the drama itself, PD Kang Shin-ho explained: “Because there were previously a famous manhwa and a movie, there was some pressure, and I went through a process of trial and error. I put a lot of effort trying to use the gambling world to portray the ups and downs of the larger world. I hope people will like it.”

The Monday-Tuesday drama takes its place opposite MBC’s East of Eden and KBS’s Love & Marriage on September 16.

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Read the rest of A black press day for Tazza (28 words)

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Post tags: Ahn Jae-hwan, Han Ye-seul, Jang Hyuk, Kang Sung-yeon, Kim Min-joon, Tazza

Stars Jang Hyuk and Kim Min-joon of new drama Tazza take a leap of faith (har, har) from a bridge in Busan in recent shoots for the series.

This particular scene takes place when the two hoodlums are chased to the bridge and escape by jumping the railing and landing on a speeding truck. To get the shot just right, Jang Hyuk and Kim Min-joon filmed the bridge sequence approximately ten times with the help of stunt wires, in spite of the muggy summer heat. Also present at the shoot were residents of the city of Busan, who’ll be able to see the finished product in the September 16 airing of the SBS drama.

(Not to belabor Tazza‘s comparison to its direct competitor East of Eden, but doesn’t this seem a teeny bit similar to EOE’s dramatic balcony jump scene?)

Via Go News

RELATED POSTS

• Taking a gamble with Tazza
• The new Madam Jung
• Casting calls: Lawyers and gamblers

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jang Hyuk, Kim Min-joon, Tazza

With a special broadcast kicking off the East of Eden extravaganza, eyes have turned to the upcoming Monday-Tuesday ratings rivalry, although Tazza won’t be making its debut until Gourmet ends in a few weeks.

Oddly enough, Eden chose to air a one-hour special on Monday, and plans to air both Episodes 1 & 2 on Tuesday, which they see as a method for grabbing viewers.

Thus it’s probably premature to draw conclusions based on ratings data on Day 1, but no matter how you slice it, the numbers were a severe disappointment to the high-budget, way-overhyped East of Eden. Some have even gone so far as to call its 6.2% first-day ratings (the special, mind you, not Episode 1) a “crushing defeat.” It came in last place, although just by a hair.

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Read the rest of “Eden,” “Marriage” off to shaky starts (553 words)

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Post tags: drama ratings, East of Eden, Gourmet, Love & Marriage, Tazza