Posted 4 hours ago: KBS’s weekend drama Three Brothers is a frustrating watch for me, but it has performed consistently well in the ratings, with numbers in the 30% range. Despite increasing complaints that the drama is becoming decidedly makjang (as in, loaded with over-the-top dramatics purely to score ratings), KBS has decided to grant it a 20-episode extension, bringing the total run to ... [
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Posted 17 hours ago: Surprisingly, rewatching these two episodes weren’t as torturous as I thought it would be. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but just as soyjoy mentioned in her last recap, I can sympathize with the writer’s plight to stretch out a storyline by 16 episodes. Now that Smile has ended, I can look back and see how the frustrations of these ... [
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Posted 20 hours ago: Aw man, now I may have to actually watch Giant. The drama that stars Lee Beom-soo and unfolds around the economic and urban growth of the 1970s hasn’t really tickled my interest, but I DO have a lot of interest in watching the growing career of Kim Soo-hyun, the rising actor who recently caught viewers’ eyes in Will It Snow ... [
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Posted 23 hours ago: There’s a new weekend drama premiering tomorrow, SBS’s Life Is Beautiful, written by drama hitmaker Kim Soo-hyun (Mom’s Dead Upset). And in the intergenerational storyline, Song Chang-eui (Golden Bride) plays one of the younger generation, a doctor of internal medicine with a gentle, kind personality. He is also gay. Song said of the homosexual aspect, “When I received the casting ... [
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Posted 25 hours ago: Hm, conflicting reports on this one. Although a few news outlets have reported that Ha Ji-won would take the lead in the IRIS sequel drama, Athena, the actress’s side has come out to say that this isn’t the case. On the 19th, it was reported that the Taewon Entertainment CEO had said that they were in negotiations with Ha. In ... [
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Posted 31 hours ago: SONG OF THE DAY First Rate People – “Girls’ Night” [ Download ] RELATED POSTS Open Thread #126 Open Thread #125 Open Thread #124 Open Thread #123 © javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 140 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: [
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Posted 41 hours ago: These two are too cute. Kim Bum is so much better as a noona-killer than as the oppa. He should really be banned from playing oppa roles until he’s out of the army. Two episodes left and I still don’t know how things are going to end. Because this drama is more realistic than most others — in the relationship ... [
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Posted 2 days ago: Last episode we see that at long last, Song Tae-Ha’s men have been reunited at the Sleeping Buddha statue at Un-Joo Temple. They greet the Crown Prince Seok-Kyeon with reverence and a determination to see this conspiracy through to the end. All of these men of Song Tae-Ha have given up their lives to this cause. And Un-Nyun is awed ... [
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Posted 2 days ago: Having just ended her recent drama project, Pasta, actress Gong Hyo-jin has picked her next movie role. She’ll take the lead in How To Travel With a Cow [소와 함께 여행하는 법], the next project from director Im Soon-rye, who helmed the hit sports movie Forever the Moment. This movie is an adaptation of a novel of the same name ... [
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Posted 3 days ago: I knew Bae Soo-bin would be playing the part of the handsome guard in MBC’s Dong Yi, so I wasn’t expecting to see this side of him; he’s dressed as a beggar in these latest shots, which the actor released on his homepage. These scenes will be featured in the first episode, which airs next Monday. (...)Read the rest of ... [
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Posted 14 hours ago: Here are the next fifteen films produced in Korea in 1970. Click the image below to see the full-sized plate or access the images through the tab at the top of the page marked Movies of the 70s where they are indexed by director. , , , ,,,,,,,,,,, [
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Posted 4 days ago: Wow–I have been busy. Putting most of my classes in the first two days of the week may look great on paper, but I didn’t take into the account reality. Oy–I’m exhausted on Monday and Tuesday I can barely walk. However, now I can just sit and catch up with things–starting with the Box Office. I was very surprised to ... [
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Posted 7 days ago: FOR THE GLORY OF THE FAMILY–An SBS drama that ran from October 2008 to April 2009 with a total of 54 episodes is being released on DVD with English subtitles. It can be purchased as an 18 disk set which includes the entire run of the show or two separate 9 disk sets (Vol 1: episodes 1-27; Vol. 2: episodes ... [
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Posted 7 days ago: The below was sent to me and, while I usually stay out of politics, I feel it is a worthy cause. There are only a few days left to sign. Take a look at what has been happening here recently and please sign if you agree with the petition. ___________________________________~ Thanks for helping ACT NOW to save MediAct & Independent ... [
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Posted 7 days ago: Here are the next fifteen movies produced in Korea in 1970. Click the image below to see a full sized plate or you can access all the films through the tab at the top entitled Movies of the 70s where the films are listed by director. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, [
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Posted 12 days ago: Alice in Wonderland bumped Secret Reunion from the top tier. I wonder what happened to Lee Byeong-heon’s new film, The Influece. It is listed as having been released on March 3, but it does not show up among the 70 films in the box office listings? Was it delayed or pulled from theaters? I will have to do a news ... [
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Posted 14 days ago: The new semester started on March second and even though my classes were just introductions to the subjects, it really wore me out. I guess that is the drawback of long winter breaks. While I am a little worried about the size of my classes–my film class has 80 students and my other classes for English average around 60–I am ... [
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Posted 15 days ago: These are the next 15 movies that were produced in Korea in 1970. Click the thumbnail to expand or you can access the plates through the tab marked Movies of the 70s at the top of this page where all the film are listed by director. ,,,,,,,,,,,,, [
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Posted 15 days ago: Continuing with the year 1970, here are the next 15 movies produced in Korea. You can click here to expand the image or you can access the plates by director via the tab at the top of this page ‘Movies of the 70s’. .,,,,,,,,,,,, [
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Posted 20 days ago: Well, not much change in the box office rankings from last week. The top five held on to their positions nationally although in Jeonju there was some minor shuffling. None of the new films generated much interest and Secret Reunion is doing quite nicely for itself. This might change next week with two strong releases. I expect both Influence and ... [
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Posted 3 days ago: Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER opened last weekend in the United States. Just six screens, but it opened to nearly $6,000 a screen -- good enough to be the No. 2 movie by per-screen average (for movies on more than one screen). So, just $35,000 so far... not sure if distributors are planning on growing MOTHER's release. Since my last post about ... [
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Posted 6 days ago: I came across a great interview with Bruce McKenna, the head writer and showrunner for the epic HBO series THE PACIFIC (and a writer for BAND OF BROTHERS). Totally worth a read. But at the end of the interview, they ask him if he would like to move on to the Korean War next. And this is what he said:HitFix: ... [
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Posted 8 days ago: Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER gets a limited release in the United States today, and so far the reviews are very good -- 87 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 80 metascore on Metacritic (which I find more useful than RT). Manohla Dargis at the New York Times gives the film a glowing review. And even more interesting, the New York ... [
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Posted 11 days ago: Well, I never would have imagined it, but Korean hiphop group Epik High is currently sitting on top of the iTunes US hiphop chart. Also currently are No. 1 in New Zealand, No. 2 in Australia and No. 3 in Canada. Pretty wild. Epik High's new album, Epilogue, was just released on iTunes on Monday (March 8). I am told ... [
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Posted 11 days ago: Bong Joon-ho's latest film, MOTHER, is getting a release in the United States, and with that comes a bunch of publicity. The Wall Street Journal has a nice blog entry about Bong here. And the Harvard Crimson here.Will post more as I find them. [
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Posted 11 days ago: The long, slow suicide by Hollywood's trade magazines continues, as Variety just axed their best movie reviewers, including their top Asia reviewer Derek Elley. Now, I can see getting rid of some expensive reviewers, especially in Hollywood (where, let's face it, reviewing the latest blockbuster means pretty close to nothing). But for less well known markets, like Asia, having reviewers ... [
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Posted 17 days ago: Now that I am not living in Korea and POP GOES KOREA has been published, I have been wondering how much sense it makes to continue a blog called Korea Pop Wars. So I have been slowly developing a new blog, that is more general and reflects the things I am working these days -- www.markjamesrussell.com. If you are interested, ... [
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Posted 20 days ago: For the first time in 11 years, the biggest movie in Korea is no longer Korean. It looks like AVATAR has finally become the most popular film ever in Korea, topping the admissions for previous record holder THE HOST. 20th Century Fox says that on Sunday, AVATAR reached 13.01 million admissions, making it the biggest selling film ever in Korea. ... [
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Posted 3 weeks ago: This is kind of random, but a long interview I did with the BBC Vietnam has just been published. In Vietnamese. So if you can read Vietnamese (and, really, who can't these days?), check it out.The reasons for the interview are because of the great popularity that Korean TV, music and pop culture is having in Vietnam these days, and ... [
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Posted 3 weeks ago: Kim Yuna blew away the competition with a 228.56 for Olympic gold in the women's figure skating.Asada Mao was second with 205.50, and Canadian Joannie Rochette was third.FYI, Yuna's score would have given her ninth among the Men, which is pretty amazing considering the women's program is shorter, so has less time to build up points. More to come. But ... [
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