They should send Cha Eun Woo to the stage LOL

They just hit the ground running, don't they? It should be mandatory for new actors to spend some time in stage plays before appearing on the TV screen.

There are some great idols in musicals. I love Kim Jun-su's "Dracula."

@kiara I think Junsu's most famous role to date is Death in ELISABETH, he's reached an absolutely insane for a kpop idol level of ticket sales and critical acclaim with it. My own fave was in one of the reruns and did quite well, but nowhere near as great ofc.

Not to be empty worded - his iconic super creepy solo "The Last Dance" from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WEzgSx-u58

I'm so glad Jo Jung Suk is getting a lot of love from "Captivating The King." I'm not watching it, but I read the comments.

@gikata,

Yes! ❤️ I can usually tell which show he is in from his hair color. 😂 Thank you for sharing. I want to watch it again. Have you watched "Death Note?" "Dracula" was my first Jun-su musical, so it will always have a special place in my heart. His voice is so distinctive that it cannot be confused with anyone else's. Love it!

@kiara *laughing hysterically at "guessing show by hair color" comment - so real in kpop world lol*

DEATH NOTE as in anime/manga (I think everyone collectively agrees that there is no live action series) or there's a musical too now? I watched anime AGES ago - gosh, time flies! - but dropped it after a certain widely beloved character's death point, read spoilers about how it ends, was like "yep, makes sense" and moved on. Hardly a huge fan, as you can guess)))

K-musicals looks and sound so good from the snippets I managed to hunt online. Such a pity they don't make DVD's to sell internationally.

Yes, his voice is fantastic and super distinctive))) He's probably my fave among all DBSK boys, even if I appreciate a lot Jaejoong's rock moments.

@gikata,
Sadly, we'll only watch part of it online, not the whole show. I don't think they will release it on DVD since musicals are meant to be experienced in person. Perhaps the discontinued older shows might have DVDs available."

I'm not into K-pop, but I have favorites from listening to OSTs, and Kyuhyun (Super Junior) and Jun-su have been my favorites for a long time.

@kiara I've been pretty into kpop for many years... not so much anymore - music trends changed way too much for my taste, groups I stanned experienced all kinds of killjoy things and currently I barely care as result.

The most I've heard of was one of the musicals releasing OST CD for some kind of anniversary... And ofc none of my faves tracks were there so I didn't bother.

Kyuhyun has an amazing voice too, but his OSTs/solo stuff are too sad for my taste generally. That was always super easy to predict - if SK general audience loves a certain ballad, I'm surely gonna hate it with passion lol)))

in some ways, stage actors are the real actors. a lot of drama actors these days (cough Cha Eun Woo cough) don't do much to win over the viewers.

it's that spirit of hustling and painstaking hours they spend rehearsing every line and move that shows and I can't help but respect

Stage training for the win!

Cho Seung Woo managed to be a top actor in Chungmuro, dramaland, and musical theatre. I loved it when he acted with his friends in dramas. Lee Kyu Hyung and Choi Jae-woong in "Stranger", Jung Moon-sung and Park Sung Geun in "Divorce Attorney Shin" etc. I think he purposely try to recruit his fellow musical actors for the same drama/film.

Yes, live theatre brings its own very special set of challenges, and pretty much everything you mentioned has actually happened in shows I've worked on (my favorite is when the mustache does fall off, and then you have to find something remarkably like an sticky eyebrow in the chaos of backstage).

lol! And honestly they are so hilariously funny after the fact.
One of my fav snafu was when an actor switched dialogues in nervousness. The backstage went into an uproar while the audience tried to figure out what the heck happened.
Another one was when a child artist in a historical play got very bored and started break dancing.

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I think it's unfortunate that some famous film and movie actors are taking work away from accomplished stage actors who would do a much better job. On the other hand, if a famous actor is attracting new audiences to live theater, it's a good thing. Hopefully, they have a great experience and become regular theatergoers.

I have to give special praise to Daniel Radcliffe, who has a huge following from the Harry Potter films. He brings audiences into the theater in droves, and he's also a fabulous stage actor. I really admire him for setting aside his star status and choosing to appear in smaller, non-commercial plays. He's currently appearing on Broadway as the second male lead(!) in a lesser-known Stephen Sondheim musical, Merrily We Roll Along. Haven't gotten around to seeing it yet, but it's on my list.

Not this song, the song before it is the Seung Gi song
The song that starts at 21:25

I saw the Stewart/McKellan production.

As expected, it was first class all around!

I know that not all artists are smart ... but I think, more than average, at least.
And of course, when artists are so much in the clutches of their bureau and their advertisers, nothing interesting, new, or good will come of them singing their scripted "opinions" under The Sword of Damocles, but in some countries where paid propaganda has a huge influrnce on who wins the election, artists who has on screen presence and glamour and maybe are a bit sentimental about things like "people who cannot buy their own politicians" and "climate catastrophes" are an important counterweight to all the force of money that otherwise buy not only their own politicians and, it seems, judges, but also all the advertising spots in all kinds of media.
I guess that was what I meant more than anything.

I wasn't particularly talking about romance, but the whole idea of a female character dressing (including the male hanbok and the black costume) and fighting like a male one. By JJS, did you mean Jo Jungsuk? He's in the show with Shin Sekyung, which I'm not watching. The one with Lee Hanee is Lee Jongwon.

Yes, Jo Jungsuk. I loved the Knight Flower amd she did a great job playing that character. It is not a critique for the show or the actress but more of a defense of others. It was just an observation that they had the liberty of having her in a moustache because the character was not supposed to be involved romantically in that costume. And the fact that she had her face covered when fighting most of the time helped her look more masculine.
It is a great perfect drama that I loved watching every minute of.

Yes, it's fair what you said. When I said the above, I thought more about Lee Hanee's build following the original comment about what is considered beautiful for women in Korean standards. Lee Hanee is not only tall but she's also not slim. Her mannerism helps too, which I'm not sure should be attributed to her talent or her natural traits, or probably both.

@claire2009 Is this what you call "not slim"? https://www.instagram.com/p/CvYK1BPOEQK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

This is what I mean when I say my body ideal starts several kg above the percieved "slim" standard of SK and goes from there and 10 kg up.
She is very slim, she just don't make me worry, thinking she should really be in hospital. And she could well put on more weight and still be slim.

@ceciliedk maybe “not as slim as many other actresses” is better wording. What I meant is she looks healthy.

The Tale of Nokdu with Jang Dong-yoon and Kim So-hyun.

I wasn't really convinced by the story but their couple and romance were great.

And not as a lead, but still an important character convincing as a fragile young beautiful girl, the crown prince in the recently finished The Matchmakers.

JJS looks very pretty here 😅

Also, but not so impressive, the "Strong Girl ______-soon" dramas have both featured
ML or SML disguised as a woman for a scene or two.

This is JJS's fifth time playing "Hedwig." I wonder what draws him to the character.

@ceciliedk
Thanks, good answer. I understand that not as a lead but, by not mentioning it, I assume you gave it as an example of being involved in a romanic relationship?

P.S. My guess is that you did. And forgive me by bringing up again, but my point about that subject (and the one we discussed earlier) has been made no matter how much some try to spin it. The subliminal message dressed in a beautiful package delivered by a charismatic superstar has made some believe that it is ok for that type of relationship between those kind of individuals. And is wrong in which way possible one could think and yet so easily accepted because you gave it as an example without even realizing it.

@kiara
The songs? 🤣
Do you know what is about?

No, not as an example of a romantic relationship. Just as an example of a main, though not lead, -character crossdressing convincingly.

Yes, but to do it over and over? I dunno.

Why you would bodybuild if not to attract women? or the female gaze?
Same reason people build plane models, breed orchids or dogs, braid their hair, or play golf. With an element of wanting your own body to look like that, and at the top, the possibility of making it a livelihood. and a community where you can nerd it out with other men.
I heard one guy ask a man for advice and then admiringly comment on the inhibition of that man's arms because his chest muscles were so big. So he couldn't put the underarms from the elbow to the wrist together in front of himself, which would otherwise have been what was expected with that gym machine they were at.
I don't know that posing in itself is a sport, but building your body in a way that demands strict disciplin and many hours at the gym, wouldn't that be a sport? And if Ballroom Dance is a sport, then you could probably call the coregraphed exhibition of meticulously built musclery a sport, too?
A lot of superheroes had begun to be drawn with that kind of absurd muscle in the eighties, I think (but even more, because "super"). Some call that a parallel to the way female superheroes are drawn - to the gaze of the opposite sex. But the male superheroes have always been for the male gaze on male - not necessarily homosexual, unless you will argue that a larger than average percent of superhero comic readers are homosexual men.
I don't know that the men in beauty contests have a narcissistic self obsession. And there are probably som gays, but I don't think it's a 1:1. Not all female beauty contest winners are homosexual, either.
I know a girl ... woman now ... who won a beauty contest when she was 15 and went on to be a model for several years. She was not narcissistic at all. For her, modelling was a horrible job but also a job where you could make in ten hours of tedious waiting, needled clothes (because the models are too thin and long to fit any normal size) and strange photographer choices (I remember her showing how she was supposed to "smile" with her mouth wide open for a German magazine. It looked at one time insane and strangely familiar - I had def. seen that kind of photos). Oh, and she was not a homosexual.

I forgot to finish a sentence.
... make in ten hours (...) what others made in a week or if at her age, in a month of hard work.

Thanks @ceciliedk very thoughtful. But your point about your acquaintance who was a beauty queen and a model confirms my feeling that there is something very different from male beauty contests in Korea and female beauty contests in Korea and around the world. If I could put it simplistically: men participate in beauty contests as a privilege and opportunity brought by their beauty; women join beauty contests in hope that their beauty will bring opportunity.

Yikes!!! The girl with a huge appetite yet is super skinny is one of those ever present tropes.....makes me crazy!!!

Oh, that way. Actually, I knew a woman like that. As a child she had been prescribed mayonaisse sandwiches by the doctor. She had liked them, so she still used that to prevent her bones ticking out.

*CommenT not commend
* quotations sign
*Of course I know that .... people is a loathsome thing to do, disrespecting the work others do to keep the place nice, -

Cecilie, no one but you is policing your English!! 😄

If I had to guess, I'd actually say just the word "naked" might have done it above...or "naked" + links to things.

It's truly just one of those things, and is one of the reasons veteran Beanies say to write somewhere else than directly on the site, because you won't lose your hard work to these "rules you can't see."

I am so dumb ... of course it those words and links could have been a sign at something way more vulgar than the sharp intellectual image analysis Art Scholar Hannah Gadsby performs in that link.

It did. Post.

So specialist and commercialised are no more banned words. Unless this disappears later.

The other day I posted a very long post on your wall and it got swallowed, and I didn't not type it anywhere else. Was so bummed.

I do remember to copy paste it now a days most of the time.

I don't know why exboppedipert is banned, but maybe those words became part of discussions about covid that just made this page tiresome, or maybe it was used in scams, like, "[that word] say this shampoo will make your hair grow three inches a week" or something. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Never mind. It didn't show up earlier.

So I still don't know why my earlier posts were swallowed.

Oh, I AM wordy, no need to sugarcoat this hard fact))) I do admit the "cracking up" aspect too - I'm doing my best at that^^

@gikata Let's agree to disagree ;-)

Ofc I am lol. In all seriousness, idk why it hasn't been properly updated yet - they add cast according to rumors just fine. It's this drama: https://mydramalist.com/690711-the-days-of-seclusion-and-love
There are links in comments regarding plot and FL actress fans not liking the idea of her taking the role (they feel like it's too controversial and might get her bashed). At least they don't seem to have any issues with him personally... There's no decent translation of the novel, I believe - only messy MTL out of order that I couldn't gain any valuable info from.

Nope, but someone on twt started translating some tiiiny snippets from it and lol, now I see why he was casted - his character's two main traits are ruthless assholery AND irresistible hot voice FL can't help but swoon over against her better judgement, bwahahaha))) It's not an actual novel though - more like a few (10 or so) chapters draft that was never properly finished feat notes about ending. I believe the author is a part of scriptwriters team so hopefully they'll flesh out whatever plans they've had for the story nicely.

Catch is that the rumored drama above and DREAM WITHIN A DREAM are reportedly start filming at the same time - late Spring/early Summer and no way he's gonna be ML in both simultaneously so take of that what you will *scratches head*

Authorities really need to show some flexibility and allow already made dramas to get aired at least - it won't do any real harm and certainly won't save the careers of blacklisted artists either. Ruining the hard work of hundreds and thousands over one person's misconduct doesn't seem very pro-community logic-wise... Oh right, this was never about logic - or community's interest - anyway.

Those endless OSTs must've pay nicely because from what I understood he's not earning much from his stage appearances, unless it's those trendy variety shows. Drama gigs are paid during filming, so at least actors aren't starving while waiting for a release date that may never come. Still nothing good for people's portfolios - how to prove to producers you're a good fit for a next role if your best works to date are still in dungeon where no one saw them?

Hope my efforts will match your expectations. Ah, wish I had some minimal video editing skills to just cut and reupload the parts I wanted to include there, that'd make everything so much easier! Like you and DB spam filter will probably forgive me an occasional YT link with a time stamp, but hardly a 4 hours untranslated weibo one, right?)))

You think so? I had to wait a few hours tonight to pass the moderation just because of the sand art link... *sigh*

I love his streams, translations or nah. He can murmur literally whatever in the background for the next few decades non-stop for all I care. Heard some people use his lives as a lullaby ASMR... Maybe I should try that too tho it probably will give my freaky brain very, very wrong ideas miles away from an intended peaceful dreamless sleep. I'll stick to precise short videos for my playlists, don't worry. But maybe adding some headphones recommended stuff wouldn't hurt, hmm...

@gikata i am really not sure. It ate up one of my comments one time and I have no idea if it ever passed moderation.

@jillian I've experienced that a few times - once my comment magically reappeared after a day or so... other times it never did.

That's exactly what I mean. The bulldogs and Persian cats who can't breathe, shepherds with hip dysplasia, Scottish folds with cartilage concerns, etc. Corgis and sapsalis are ancient breeds; though it is true their conformation likely changed a bit because of human interference they are not unrecognizable from historical accounts and images.

Some of Yoo Ah In's projects have disappeared from channels. I hope he can return to acting and we can see his unreleased shows along with his older works again. It seems to me he needs treatment not prosecution. But then I'm not Korean so my perspective is different.

I don't have precise statistics, but roughly half the people in the U.S. get their news from social media.

The point I was trying to make with my initial statement was that while the evil chaebol may have been able to block the mainstream media from exposing his misdeeds, he would not have been able to prevent his wife and other individuals from airing his dirty laundry on social media. There would be enough people reading and believing the posts to ruin his reputation, or at least tarnish it a bit.

I think that the social media companies can control the visibility of the messages. Social media sites can legally keep your posts from being seen by other users, even if the post does not violate any terms and conditions.
They also have the right to remove or restrict content at their discretion.
If people can see it, they cannot read it.

Supreme Court will decide soon about a case in this matter.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-supreme-court-considers-state-laws-regulating-social-media-giants

And more about those cases and what is about it:

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/ttv/debates/should-social-media-companies-have-the-power-to-remove-content-from-their-platforms