I know it seems like most of the attention for My Fair Lady is squarely focused on the three main leads, leaving out fourth wheel Moon Chae-won, but she’s not really being overlooked in the greater scheme of things. (I do think her presence in the story is markedly less important than the other three, however, which makes her more of a second-tier character thus far.) Here’s an interview with the rising star:

“I want to show my smile more often”

This is a golden time for Moon Chae-won — dramas, advertisements. She has to smile broadly at the feeling that she’s hitting one home run after another.

Following the popular SBS Brilliant Legacy, which drew in ratings surpassing 40%, her recent drama My Fair Lady also feels like it’s headed for success. Furthermore, she is pleased to be acting the character of “Yeo Eui-joo,” which is a role that suits her perfectly.

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Read the rest of Moon Chae-won promises more smiles in My Fair Lady (398 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brilliant Legacy, Moon Chae-won, My Fair Lady, The Painter of Wind

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

How should one convey bad news in writing? By creating a buffer first. Avoid traumatizing your audience with the bad news all at once, but instead cushion the blow so that you can maintain goodwill. That textbook approach (business communication, by the way) would be dandy if the crop of 2008 dramas I watched was anything like the stellar quality of 2007. But no, this was a harvest to make one downright grumpy.

This time last year, eight dramas vied to be in my Top 3. Even the ones that disappointed weren’t half bad and at least I finished them. Not this year. I picked up around twenty dramas and dropped at least fifteen. “Dropped” is putting it mildly. I ran from some of them like a kid fleeing an apparition: hands in the air and hair standing on end. As the year wore on, my patience wore thin and my grumpiness increased.

So, no, I can’t use the buffer approach when reviewing this year’s dramas. Hedging doesn’t work for this grumpy cookie. I will present to you the worst dramas first, followed by the so-so ones, and then the few gems of 2008. Even though the year was overcast and gloomy, the sun broke through the clouds occasionally and when it did the effect was glorious. Let’s get the bad news out of the way and we can enjoy the good stuff, shall we?

SONG OF THE DAY

Jin Yi-han – “This is the Moment” which he sang (live!) in Episode 3 of Who Are You. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of A Grump Reviews 2008 [Year in Review, Part 2] (4,881 words)

© thunderbolt for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 89 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beethoven Virus, Bulhandang/Robbers, Conspiracy in the Court, East of Eden, Gourmet, Hong Gil Dong, I Love You, Kingdom of Wind, La Dolce Vita, On Air, One Mom, Rivals, Strongest Chil Woo, The Last Scandal of My Life, The Painter of Wind, The World They Live In, Three Dads, Who Are You?, year in review

Year in Review – 2008
- In which I practiced my ?? face a lot.

Well, I’m but a wee babe in dramaland compared to Sarah, thundie and Dahee – I really started watching kdrama in earnest in late 2007. *pause while everyone picks their jaws up from the floor*

Caveat: I don’t have a huge base from which to compare, so this is all in my own humble opinion. You don’t have to agree, and you are definitely welcome to discuss. (No trolling, though, or I will start waving the Baton of Baleetion.) First of all, I’d like to say that my watching dramas is purely for the sake of relaxation – I have enough stress and overwork from school already, plskthx. Therefore it’s rather unlikely for me to take a huge tearjearker and run with it, if you know what I mean.

(And the concept of tearjerkers in general just baffle me a little. Why make yourself unhappy? I do love Atonement to the itty bitty pieces of my fairly battered heart, though that’s neither here nor there.)

So, looking over at the ones I watched this year, I’m actually fairly monogamous about my dramas. (Yay for having schoolwork?) The one thing that kind of stood out in my memory of this year, however, is that mostly all of them tended to have many ‘bleh’ moments – including the ones I’d loved and watched like an obsessed thing.

SONG OF THE DAY

Alanis Morissette – “Orchid,” as it is currently my favourite song ever and I wanted to share it.
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Witterings on 2008 Dramas [Year in Review, Part 1] (2,043 words)

© Sevenses for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 49 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beethoven Virus, Gourmet, Hong Gil Dong, Iljimae, The Painter of Wind, year in review

Kim Sang-kyung and Moon Geun-young are the newest recipients of the 2008 Grime Award (pronounced gree-may) for acting, presented by the Korean Television Directors of Photography Association. The honor goes to their roles in their sageuk dramas, Great King Sejong and Painter of the Wind, respectively.

All other awards went to directors; the Daesang, the top award, went to directors Ha Jae-young and Jung Seung-woo for their work on MBC’s East of Eden.

Upon receiving his acting award, Kim Sang-kyung said, “I’m particularly happy to be receiving this award from directors. The most important mood-setter on the set is the director of photography; I wish him good health.”

Moon Geun-young said, “The director of photography, the lighting director, and the staff are always the ones on set who enable me to act my utmost, and enjoy myself the utmost. That’s how I was able to live whole-heartedly as Shin Yoon-bok.”

The full awards list below.

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Read the rest of TV directors of photography honor sageuk actors (227 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: awards, East of Eden, Kim Sang-kyung, Moon Geun-young, The Painter of Wind

Eek! I am so, so behind. *facepalm* I actually considered mushing some of the episodes together into one giant recap, just so I could catch up, but then realized that this drama has waaaaay too many important details to leave out. Also, I don’t know when to shut up. But y’all probably already know that by now.

POTW has now entered what I like to think of as the second phase in its love story process. First was Yoon-bok and Jeong-hyang, and now, we get to see some Yoon-bok/Hong-do action. Also, Jeong-jo plays a much bigger role in this episode! Ahhh, the smell of sexy politics…I’M LOVIN’ IT!

SONG OF THE DAY

The Strokes – “Heart in a Cage” The first concert I ever attended was a Strokes concert, so of course they hold a special place in my heart. Fabrizio Moretti is too hot for this planet. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Painter of the Wind: Episode 7 (2,563 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 41 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Moon Geun-young, Park Shin-yang, The Painter of Wind

First of all, I’d like to apologize for the lateness of these recaps. Things are rather busy with school at the moment, and unfortunately, my education comes first. (Trust me, though, I would much rather be writing these recaps than writing a paper on Thomas King. My heart is with youuuuu!)

Anyway. This episode was: More lesbian action + feminist themes = one happy Dahee.

SONG OF THE DAY

Ani DiFranco – “Not A Pretty Girl” – I often listen to dear Ani whenever I write – she tends to get the creative juices flowing for me. This song in particular inspires me to write angry feminist poetry. Lol.
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Painter of the Wind: Episode 6 (3,244 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Moon Geun-young, Park Shin-yang, The Painter of Wind

• Actor Lee Wan (Insoon is Pretty) revealed on a Yashimmanman episode taped on October 20 that Kim Tae-hee (above) doesn’t look so hot when at home and that she’s prettier onscreen than in person. Spoken like a true kid brother out to annoy big sis.
• East of Eden is killing in the ratings, with its latest episode on the 20th bringing in a hefty 29.7%. We’ll see if it can hold up against The World They Live In‘s premiere next week.
• Unfortunately, Eden star Lee Yeon-hee (below) can’t catch a break. She’s been repeatedly criticized for poor acting, and now that extends to her pansori (traditional singing) skills. The 17th episode showed Lee’s character giving a pansori performance to the famous “Arirang” song, after which the drama’s homepage was flooded with scorn for her “embarrassing” and “inadequate” performance.
• Newlywed Kwon Sang-woo has been picked as the second favorite in a Top 10 list of Asia’s young actors as chosen by Japanese female fans (part of Asahi TV program SmaSTATION). He came in behind Taiwan’s F4, stars of the Hana Yori Dango adaptation Meteor Garden. (3rd: Jay Chou, 4th: Song Seung-heon, 5th: Jaycee Chan, 6th: Lee Junki, and Rain in 10th.)
• Moon Geun-young is back in action on the Painter of the Wind set after fracturing her nose during filming.
• Speaking of which, Painter of the Wind is set to pick up more fans throughout Asia to add to its already lavish praise as a “perfect drama.” It has already made contracts exporting the drama to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and now also Thailand.
• “Kimchi western” film The Good The Bad The Weird won double awards at the Hawaii International Film Festival, taking home the Achievement in Acting award for Jung Woo-sung (who played “the good” to Lee Byeong-heon’s “bad” and Song Kang-ho’s “weird”), as well as the Maverick Award (ugh, that word gives me twitches) for director Kim Ji-woon.

 
RELATED POSTS

• East of Eden: Viewers up, paychecks down
• “Painter” delayed due to more injury
• These boys don’t cry
• Now quite ready for her close-up yet
• Presenting the cast of East of Eden
• Press day for the Good, Bad, and Weird

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: East of Eden, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Tae-hee, Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Wan, Lee Yeon-hee, Moon Geun-young, news bites, The Painter of Wind

This episode had some aggravating scenes, which made me a little grumpy. But it also had some really beautiful scenes (GAYNESS!), and that pretty much balanced everything out. I will note, however, that I’m still waiting for a really stand-out episode from Painter, quality-wise. But good things come to those who wait, I suppose?

SONG OF THE DAY

Bobby Kim – “Weak Man.” Bobby Kim = coolness personified. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Painter of the Wind: Episode 5 (2,755 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 37 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Moon Geun-young, Park Shin-yang, The Painter of Wind

Ha! Park Shin Yang in drag. That image has been BURNED onto my BRAIN.

I guess that shows you just how much more lighthearted this episode was over, say, episode three, which was Angstfest to the Max. What I appreciate about Painter is that, although it can try a little too hard to be humourous at times, those light scenes always serve something to the plot and the characters. So I can tolerate things that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate in lesser dramas.

SONG OF THE DAY

Cherry Filter – “난 여자였다” (I was a woman). Dahee says: “From their first album, ‘Head-Up’. I adore Cherry Filter with my entire being, and this song seemed very suitable, for obvious reasons.”
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of Painter of the Wind: Episode 4 (2,997 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Moon Geun-young, Park Shin-yang, The Painter of Wind