This is an interesting article, in that it looks at the low numbers faced by current Monday-Tuesday drama The Man Who Can’t Get Married and analyzes it from a cultural perspective. Most low-rated dramas (that aren’t disasters of writing/acting) tend to explain their disappointing numbers in terms of being too complicated for the average viewer or lacking in “makjang” (convoluted, unrealistically dramatic) qualities, but The Man Who Can’t Get Married is a bit different in that it’s also adapted from a Japanese series that enjoyed quite a lot of popularity. So why is the Korean version faltering?

The Man Who Can’t Get Married can’t attract popularity

Hidden birth secrets, mother/daughter-in-law conflicts, a handsome chaebol who falls for an ajumma without reason — it has none of those. All it has is the “man who can’t get married” who has reached the age of forty as a bachelor because of his extremely fastidious temperament.

KBS’s Man Who Can’t Get Married, remade from the popular 2006 Japanese drama of the same name, has been unable to shake off its low single-digit ratings. Compared to other dramas that have been remade from Japanese series like White Tower and Boys Before Flowers, it’s a disappointing result.

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Filed under: Drama Casting & News, J-Drama by javabeans - 108 Comments →

First of all, much thanks to Javabeans for letting me commandeer her site so I could post these recaps and putting up with all my questions. Second, I have to say that I’m really enjoying this show much more than I expected. I am watching the show ahead of where I’m writing my recaps, so I’m a few episode past the first one right now, and I will tell you that this show seems to be getting better with each episode, so even if you found the first episode lackluster, you should definitely continue.

Anyways, on to the Ji Jin Hee eyecandy!

Disclaimer: In the interest of full disclosure, I think I should warn everyone right now that I’m a kpop aficionado, and thus, kpop references and comparisons will almost definitely be popping up in my recaps, though I promise to try and keep it only to the really relevant stuff. I also take no responsibility for any harm caused by any pondering I may engage in on certain men and their relative eyecandy-ness.

THE MAN WHO CAN’T GET MARRIED Episode One >>

Filed under: Drama Recaps by Starling - 61 Comments →

Ratings battles are always part of the trials and tribulations of television dramas, but is the experience better or worse when one is going up against one’s own sibling? It’s not a common scenario, because while there are several sets of famous siblings in the biz, like Kim Tae-hee and Lee Wan, it’s rare that they’re both in dramas simultaneously, much less in the same timeslot.

But now, we have not one but two sets of siblings in this situation. Older sister Chae Shi-ra is currently heading the KBS weekend sageuk series Iron Empress [천추태후], but will soon face competition from her own little sister, Chae Kook-hee, who has been cast in SBS’s Style [스타일], which premieres August 1.

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Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 7 Comments →

Kim So-eun trades her usual long, straight locks for a curly mop and a smoky eye in the July issue of Singles.

Inside the magazine, the interview with Kim talks of the roles she’s taken on as a child actor, as well as her breakout role playing Chae Shi-ra’s younger character in the historical series Iron Empress and, of course, by her popularity as Ga-eul in Boys Before Flowers. In the few months since the latter wrapped, Kim So-eun has picked up numerous endorsement deals for brands like Clean and Clear, Pocari Sweat, and Anycall.

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Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 46 Comments →

Oh, I love Kim Gun-mo. I love that he songwrites his music, starting back in the day before kpop singers wrote their own stuff. Well, most still don’t, but he always wrote his. I love that he has a playful touch to his music. And I love that in his cameo for the new KBS series The Man Who Can’t Get Married [결혼 못하는 남자], he apparently looks like a big ol’ dork as he goes on a blind date with Uhm Jung-hwa’s character.

The cameo was shot on May 12 at a restaurant in Seoul’s Yoido neighborhood, with Kim Gun-mo playing an (off-putting, nauseating) applied music professor.

SONG OF THE DAY

Kim Gun-mo – “너에게 (마음으로 하는 말),” or “(My Heart Says These Words) To You.”
Aww yeah, it’s old-school Kim Gun-mo. This one’s from his third album (he has twelve), which is probably my favorite. [ Download ]

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Filed under: Drama Casting & News by javabeans - 11 Comments →