Yoon-ah, Park Su-jin

The following article looks at pop singers who make the jump to acting and kind of falls into the “No duh” category with its statement of the obvious. But I think the topic is interesting, even if the article is overly simplistic. (It could have been a more persuasive piece if it had looked at more examples, for instance.) As a jumping-off point, it does the job, given how many idol stars are trying to make the leap into acting careers these days, some with more success than others.

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And wouldn’t we all?

Oh, Kwon Sang-woo. I understand that you’re in something of a career slump after being one of the hottiest hotties of the early 2000s, and yeah, both your best buds Song Seung-heon and So Ji-sub came off pretty strong series in the past two months… but is bargaining for more viewers really the way to go about it?

Ratings for his new trendy drama Cinderella Man have been low, and Kwon offered that if they rose above 20% (ha!), he’d personally ask co-star Yoon-ah’s girl pop group Girls Generation (SoShi) to make a cameo.

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On Wednesday, Cinderella Man premiered to a disappointing 9.3% rating, which dropped further to 6.7% on its second day. (It was up against Cain & Abel and I Hate You But Let’s Try Again, which both pulled in numbers in the 15%-19% range.)

I’ll always take the stance that ratings aren’t strictly indicative of a show’s quality, so I don’t think the numbers automatically say the show sucks. However, after seeing the first two episodes, I can see why the show received such a lukewarm response. Articles discussing the show’s first week point out the shaky quality, which range from complaints of Kwon Sang-woo’s muddy diction (”It requires subtitling!”) and exaggerated accent, as well as Yoon-ah’s acting and insufficient range of expression.

Personally, I didn’t think Cinderella Man was actually bad. It was okay. Inoffensive. It just… wasn’t very exciting.

SONG OF THE DAY

Biuret – “Dreams Come True.” Hm, maybe this song is too energetic for this post… Oh well. Just know that the drama ain’t anywhere near as upbeat as this fun song by Biuret, whose second album released a couple months ago. [ Download ]

CINDERELLA MAN Episodes 1-2 >>

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I admit to poking a bit of fun at MBC’s upcoming series Cinderella Man, but I will say from photos of the drama’s production press conference, it does have one good-looking cast. (Of course, merely casting pretty actors never ensures quality, but when you’re approaching a drama with low expectations of the body-switching, weirdly-cast, cliché-ridden story, eye candy becomes important.)

Kwon Sang-woo and Yoon-ah, above, still look a little more like “Daddy’s little girl” than romantic counterparts, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

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Here are some new stills of Kwon Sang-woo in his upcoming dual-role as the lead character(s) in MBC’s Cinderella Man [신데렐라 맨]. These were taken from a recent shoot on Jeju Island, before a group of Japanese fans, who tagged along to the site to cheer on the drama production.

According to a production staff, this Jeju shoot comprised three nights and four days, starting on March 18 at Jeju International Airport.

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