I still think of Yoo Min-kyu as Ha-jin the bassist and flirty half of Shut Up: Flower Boy Band’s bromancing duo, and it’s for that role that I carry a lot of residual affection for him. He was picked out of the Oh Boy! series’ Flower Boy auditions (which won him his debut in Shut Up), and now he’s been cast in a new film project which is particularly interesting to me for the fact that it’s the next film by Kim Jo Gwang-soo, an out director who has had modest success with two queer films: the short film Boy Meets Boy and the feature Just Friends? — which, by the way, featured early-career Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night) and Yeon Woo-jin (Arang and the Magistrate).

Both were small coming-of-age stories depicted with a sensitive touch, so I’m expecting a similar vibe from his new film, which is called One Night. Centering around three friends, Geun-ho, Yong-woo, and Sang-soo, the film follows one them on one “hot” night after they take their university entrance exams. (Read the “hot night” descriptor as a sort of intense-passionate-youth experience, not a sexual one.) They meet a man who’s traveling on business, and decide to follow him up to Seoul on a whim. The description doesn’t tell us whether the story will have any gay characters or feature queer lovelines, but there is the hint that Yoo Min-kyu, playing main character Geun-ho, has a “melo” encounter with the businessman Joon, and it’s their connection that leads the whole group on their overnight trip.

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Read the rest of Eye Candy’s Yoo Min-kyu takes the lead in indie film One Night (295 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kim Jo Gwang-soo, Yoo Min-kyu

Have you ever experienced the excruciating pain to stay away from a 9 minute preview? And how satisfying it is to see the premiere in its entirety? We were promised lots of pretty and heartwarming moments, and we got those. But we also got some disjointed and jarring ones as well. I’d attribute this to two distinctive styles that haven’t fully meshed together yet but I’m holding out that they find a nice middle ground.

And this song rocks my socks off. It’s right up my alley.

SONG OF THE DAY

J-Min – “일어나 (Stand Up)” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of To the Beautiful You: Episode 1 (3,498 words)

© gummimochi for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 184 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, first episodes, Kang Kyung-joon, Kim Ji-won, Lee Hyun-woo (2), Min-ho, Seo Joon-young, Sulli, To the Beautiful You, Yoo Min-kyu

No, it’s not the final poster, but here’s the first official group still of the high school flower boys (and girl in disguise Sulli) of To the Beautiful You, the Hana Kimi remake about a girl who dresses as a boy to enter a boys’ athletic high school.

From left to right in the above poster shoot, we’ve got:

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Read the rest of To the Beautiful You has its poster shoot (497 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 176 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Hyun-woo (2), Min-ho, Seo Joon-young, Sulli, To the Beautiful You, Yoo Min-kyu

I love this drama already; Episode 1 delivered just what I’d hoped for, and what I wanted. I’ve watched a lot of high school shows — an embarrassing number, actually — and if the rest of the series maintains the premiere’s moody atmosphere and underdog narrative, I think it can rank up there with my favorites.

True, we will be losing Lee Min-ki soon since he’s just an extended cameo, and he’s definitely one of the best, most charismatic aspects of the show so far. But I like what I see of the rest, even the newbies, and if the smooth directing can continue to showcase the strengths, I’m not too worried for the other cast members. Lee does have a star power that’s practically overwhelming, and I feel like the others will be able to shine more once he’s gone. (Hey, that glass is half-full, okay?)

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Min-ki – “Tonite, Tonite” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 1 (3,656 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 100 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, first episodes, Jo Boa, Jung Eui-chul, Kim Min-seok, L, Lee Hyun-jae, Lee Min-ki, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, Sung Joon, Yoo Min-kyu