Choi Ji-woo likes Lee Byung-hun’s kisses

Published on September 11, 2007 by in Dramas

Hancinema’s second most wanted actress, Choi Ji-woo (32) has worked alongside so many of Korea’s leading men. What a lucky lady.

I just completed watching Choi and Kwon Sang-woo in Stairway to Heaven (2003). Despite several irritating moments in the plot, i liked Choi’s portrayal of ‘tortured Cinderalla’ in the drama.

Recently, i had the opportunity to catch Choi in the 2004 movie Everyone Has Secrets. Here, she shows her versatility by playing an innocent bookworm, seduced by smooth Casanova Lee Byung-hun!

In one of her older dramas, Beautiful Days (2001), Choi stars opposite sexy Lee Byung-hun (again!). Lee’s character is a man who takes over his father’s successful music business after returning from studies in USA. Choi plays an orphaned who suffers from leukemia who falls in love with Lee.

Check out these kissing NG scenes from Beautiful Days. It certainly looks like Lee Byung-hun can give fantastic kisser Kim Jae-won a run for his money.

After the 3rd NG, the producer was telling JW : “You are supposed to be forced, but you look like enjoying the kiss very much.”

BH replied: “This is becos my kissing skill is very good.” Everyone laughed.

 
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Winter Sonata’s theme song in Bahasa Malaysia

Published on September 11, 2007 by in Dramas, Music

I was listening to Winter Sonata’s theme song – From the Beginning Till Now – from my new K-drama music compilation CD (more on that next time) and my friend asked whether I was listening to a Bahasa Malaysia (BM is Malaysia’s national language) track.

The original Korean version

I scoffed at him thinking he had a hearing problem and showed him my very Korean CD cover. “Korean song-lar,” I haughtily answered.

To which he replied: “You know, there’s a Malay version of that song. It’s called Sonata Musim Salju (direct translation: Winter’s Sonata!)”.

I surfed the Hallyu and whaddaya know! Malaysians – especially the Malay community – were so crazy in love with the Choi Ji-woo/ Bae Yong-joon drama that a BM cover version of the track was produced.

It is sung by Hazami. Watch the video below to see Hazami singing the BM version with Malaysia’s pop darling Siti Nurhaliza.

Oh, there’s also a Vietnamese cover of the song! Can you believe it? Wow my friends, witness the universal appeal of music.

 
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Naver is South Korea’s Google

Published on September 11, 2007 by in About Korea

Naver is South Korea’s most popular search engine.

Naver currently has a 77 percent share of all searches from within South Korea. Daum.net follows with 10.8 percent, Yahoo! with just 4.4 percent and Google with a tiny 1.7 percent of Korean Web searches.

Everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Chart showing the popularity of web searches in Korea.

Why isn’t Google popular in South Korea? According to an analyst, “No matter how powerful Google’s search engine may be, it doesn’t have enough Korean-language data to trawl to satisfy South Korean customers.” Well, when you want to search the web using Hanguel characters, use www.naver.com okay?

Google and Yahoo! are making efforts to catch up with Naver. For example, Google tried to jazz up its minimalist homepage. Google’s New ‘Animated’ Home Page in Korea is designed to cater for South Korean users. Google’s classic home page was intended to load quickly. But South Korean’s like a lot of animation on their page. Why? They have a very fast connection and a near universal presence of broadband in the country.

Google departs from its minimalist homepage
approach to cater to South Korean users

References:
Naver, The Google Of South Korea
Google’s New ‘Animated’ Home Page In Korea

 
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Soo-young to hold comeback performance at hospital

Published on September 11, 2007 by in Buzz, Music

I’m really impressed with how compassionate Korean stars are. Instead of getting drunk, flashing their privates to the public or getting arrested for DUI, these talents actually put their money and star power to good use. The world is definitely a better place with them around.

Ballad singer Lee Soo-young, who just released a new album after a 20-month hiatus, is set to hold her comeback performance at a hospital. She will be performing tomorrow (Sept 12) at the Yonsei University Severance Hospital in Shinchon. And who will be her audience? Children from the hospital because she absolutely adores kids.

The showcase is entitled Tomorrow’s Children with Lee Soo-young. The child patients and their parents will be serenaded with new songs from the 28-year-old’s latest album (her 8th!) as well as previous hits, including Grace.

To make the showcase even more special, Soo-young’s celebrity friends have also volunteered to appear in the show. Park Soo-hong will emcee while Lee Hyo-ri, Park Kyeong-rim, Lee Ki-chan, Jang Nara and Kim Yoomi will be attending.

 
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André Kim Lighting collection

Published on September 10, 2007 by in Fashion

Don’t play play…top Korean designer André Kim does not only design clothes and washing machines (for Samsung), he also designs chandeliers! Kim launched the André Kim Lighting collection through a fashion show at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul recently.

The lighting products and chandeliers were made for a Korean company, Daebang Phostech.

The André Kim Lighting collection boasts ornate chandeliers
inspired by ancient Korea and Asia


Also during the show, Kim unveiled his fall and winter fashion art collection. Check out his fabulous designs. If you look at enough of his designs, i think you would be able to recognize his work.




Lee Ji-sun (24) who was crowned Miss Korea 2007 in July
is seen here modeling at Kim’s fashion show


 
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Limited Edition Vengeance Trilogy boxset

Published on September 10, 2007 by in Movies

Here’s some good news for all you movie buffs and collectors.

Director Park Chan-wook’s vengeance trilogy — Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Old Boy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) — has been released in a special limited edition DVD box set. Each movie has already been released individually on DVD.

“Old Boy” was included on a list of the top 20 best plot twists by U.S. film magazine Premiere together with “Star Wars” and “The Usual Suspects.” (As reported on Chosun Ilbo).


You can purchase it from YesAsia.com

Park Chan-wook is also the director of “I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK” starring Im Su-jung and Rain.

 
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The man in Kim Dongwan's Handkerchief MV

Published on September 10, 2007 by in Music

Hey, can anyone give me more information on this mysterious “Handkerchief guy”? Spotted him in Kim Dong-wan’s (from Shinhwa) solo comeback music video – Handkerchief when i was watching Pops in Seoul the other day. I thought he looked like Won Bin. But found out his name is Yoo Geon. Who is he? An actor or singer?

The song is quite nice by the way, Handkerchief by Kim Dong-wan.

Who is he?
 
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Everybody Has Secrets (2004)

Published on September 9, 2007 by in Movies

Korean title: 누구나 비밀은 있다 (Noo-goo-na Bi-mil-eun Id-da)

What’s popping:

Wow, this clever little flick is absolutely entertaining and I enjoyed every minute of it! Initially, I thought it was some chick flick because it centres around three sisters but as the story unfolds, you realise that there is more going on than what you actually see onscreen.

The concept is quite similar to Love Actually (the British rom-com starring Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister of Britain) where there are different stories seamlessly woven into the main plot. However in this flick, you’re first shown a storyline and later, the film rewinds time to show the other plots that are running concurrently.

The film’s a little raunchy as it revolves around a lothario (played excellently by Lee Byung-hun) who waltzes into the lives of three sisters and seduces all of them. The Casanova has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve so whether his conquest is a girl who has been around, a virgin or a married woman, he has no problems scoring every single time!

Dangerous: Soon-hyon (Lee, right) works his magic
on Son-young (Choi)

Stairway to Heaven star Choi Ji-woo plays the innocent Son-young and her discovery of the pleasures of sex is at once adorable and hilarious.

Now, this is a comedy worth paying for. If at anytime you’re deliberating between the so-so Seducing Mr. Perfect or this little gem of a comedy, choose this one instead.

Everybody Has Secrets is written by Kim Hee-jae (김희재) and Kim Yeong-chan (김영찬) and directed by Jang Hyeon-soo (장현수). Fantastic.

The plot:

Soon-hyon (Lee Byung-hun, 이병헌) is the ultimate player. Rich, sexy and suave, the man catches the attention of Mi-young (Kim Hyo-jin, 김효진), a heartbreaker in her own right. She pulls out all the stops to seduce the man (or so she thinks) and they soon become lovers.

However as things turn out, Mi-young’s elder sister Son-young (Choi Ji-woo, 최지우) is actually being seduced by Soon-hyon at the same time. Ditto the eldest of the three, Jin-young (Chu Sang-mi, 추상미), who is already married to a gynaecologist.

Soon-hyon is bad news but the Romeo’s self-appointed mission actually spices up the lives of his conquests, leaving them with (very) naughty secrets to keep. Oh, behave!! ;-)

Watch it:

Get the DVD, this one’s for keeps ;-P.

 
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Korean drama crisis

Published on September 9, 2007 by in Dramas

Oh, say it isn’t so! Does this spell the end of Korean dramas?

Stars are reportedly demanding sky-high salaries resulting in production companies being on the verge of bankruptcy. Also, it has been noted that overseas demand for K-dramas is taking a plunge while domestic viewers are getting their entertainment high elsewhere.


The news was announced on Friday by the Corea Drama Production Association (CODA), which is made up of some 40 major drama production houses.

It is reported that actors and writers earn about W30mil (RM112,060) per episode. Thus, the average production cost per episode has increased to W150mil (RM560,299) compared to W90mil (RM336,180) four or five years ago.

Apart from that, exports are also declining. According to the Korean Broadcasting Institute, Korean soaps earned US$101.62mil (RM354mil) in 2005, but only fetched US$85.891mil (RM299mil) in 2006, the first time drama exports decreased since 2000.

Researchers claim that the downward trend is likely to stay.

Oh, 어떻게? 어떻게?

Full report here.

 
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Pop it, lock it, break it

Published on September 9, 2007 by in Culture

Funny you should blog about B-boying Orchid cuz South Korea’s top-notch B-boy team Gambler finished with 2nd place at the World Freestyle Session which was held last month in Los Angeles, U.S. of A, the country where b-boying and pop locking originated from. Woo hoo! Gambler has been invited to perform at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. These boys got SKiLLzZ yo!

Freestyling to 2nd place!

Gambler also performed yesterday for the KB B-boy World Class Masters competition at the Olympic Hall in Seoul showing off their best moves. Top-class B-boyers from all over the world and pop stars Lee Hyo-ri and Poppin’ Hyun-joon were also present at this event.

A shot of T.I.P., another hot South Korean B-boying team showing off
some moves at the 2008 B-boy Unit World Championship last weekend.

Related articles:
KBS Global: B-boy team Gambler wins global acclaim
The Korea Times: B-boy all stars to gather in Seoul
The Hankyoreh: Korean B-boy team wins in the U.S.

Related posts:
Hyori heats up B-boying competition
Korean B-boys
Learn how to dance from Poppin’ Hyun-joon

 
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