Skip to content

Category Archives: Celebs

LKL Celeb of the Month #3: Lee Dong Wook

21-Jul-08

Reviewing my website statistics one month I was surprised and delighted to find that there was so much interest in one of the artists I had written about. But then, when I saw that many googlers were not interested so much in his artwork as in seeing pictures of him naked, I realised that there was more than one Lee Dong Wook. So this little post is not about the young artist who specialises in sculpting tiny deformed human figures - even though he might look very nice in his birthday suit. It’s about the Lee Dong Wook who appears in all the TV drama series.

Lee Dong-wook

The actor Lee Dong-wook (이동욱) was born on 6 November 1981. He is sometimes known as Milky because of his pale complexion - can we look forward to his appearing on a CF for skin lightening cream?

Lee is probably best known for his performance in TV Drama My Girl (2005), where he enjoyed a good on-screen chemistry with Lee Da Hae - to such an extent that fans were desperate to believe in an off-screen romance as well.

Here’s a good video of him practising that chemistry. It’s a hard life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnEsfuyR0Vo

Lee has appeared in a couple of films - the horror flick Arang (2006), which did well in Taiwan and Thailand as well as pulling in 1.2 million viewers in Korea (but which got a decidedly lukewarm reception from Q at koreanfilm.org) and more recently in Perfect Couple (2007). He is currently appearing in the TV series La Dolce Vita, which co-stars another My Girl actress, Park Si-yeon.

And now, the pictures.





Links

Filed in Celebs | Comments (1) »

LKL celeb of the month#2: BoA

11-May-08

I had been planning on giving Lee Dong-wook the honour of being LKL’s second celeb of the month. But Chinese netizens had other ideas. A massive spike in interest in BoA during the month resulted in certain posts about her getting ten times as many visits as any other page on this blog. So, BoA it is.

BoA

Full name: Kwon BoA (권보아), born 5 November 1986.

BoA is an artist that has LKL’s quiet respect. While popstrels such as Lee Hyolee never seem to be out of the gossip blogs, BoA seems to be more focused on work than PR. That’s not to say that she hasn’t an eye to a bit of brand-building. She’s just launched a range of jewelry. And her huge success in Japan shows that you don’t have to show off to the Korean media in order to rake in the cash.

In fact, she seems to be more popular across the East Sea than she is back in Korea, and her more recent album releases have been geared at the Japanese market, where she regularly tops the charts. And, with her 2006 Japanese album “Outgrow” she got to #2 in the worldwide charts, beaten to the #1 spot by British bleater James Blunt.

Her first album launch, from SM Entertainment, was in 2000, when BoA was just thirteen years old. She had huge success in Korea and Japan as a teenager, and now she is coming of age. More recently she was seen promoting Hite beer.

Her most recent album launch in Japan, The Face, hit the number one spot in early March. There are plans of a US debut later in the Spring.

If you speak Japanese, check out her blog. Shenuepop occasionally translates a page or two of it here.

So now, the pictures.

boa-011.jpgBoABoABoABoA Hite cfBoAboa-003.jpgBoA

Filed in BoA, Celebs | Comments (0) »

LKL Celeb of the Month #1: Lee Da Hae

12-Apr-08

The first in a series - we select the celeb who’s come to our attention this month, often driven by the number of times readers have searched for the name.

Lee Da Hae

My GirlLee Da Hae (이다해), real name Byun Da-hae (변다해), born April 19, 1984.

Best known for her role in My Girl (right), a TV Drama from 2005, which co-starred Lee Dong-wook (이동욱), Lee Jun-ki (이준기) and Park Si-yeon (박시연). LKL reader favourite Lee Eon-jeong also had a role. Other dramas include Love of a Thousand Years (2003), Sweet 18 (2004), Green Rose (2005), Hello Miss (2007) and Robber (2008).

While best known for her appearances in TV dramas, she’s also been seen hosting the 2007 Mnet Korean Music Festival, and starred in the promo video, I love Rock n Roll:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwPlgt3GPgQ

Her English benefited from a five year stint in Australia before she launched her acting career. And like many actresses, she has appeared in numerous commercials. Regular readers of the Chosun Ilbo’s website will know her as the face of that infuriating kimchi fridge advertisement at the top of the page:

Lee Da Hae kimchi fridge commercial

Lee Da HaeLee Dae HaeLee Da HaeLee Da HaeLee Da HaeLee Da HaeLee Da HaeLee Da Hae

Links

Lee Da Hae

Filed in Celebs | Comments (4) »

Easter celebrity round-up

22-Mar-08

It’s been a while since I rounded up some of the celebrity news as an excuse for posting some pictures, so here’s some recent items:

First - Brits with Korean connections:

Korea Beat has a translation of an interview with David Beckham, recently in Korea with LA Galaxy

David Beckham in Korea

Kate Moss gets an advertising contract with Korean fashion brand GGPX

Kate Moss GGPX

Next, Korean celebs with Chinese actors in Hong Kong:

Jeon Do-yeon picking up Best Actress at the Asian Film Awards (for her performance in Secret Sunshine), with Tony Leung (best actor, for Lust, Caution).

Jeon Do-yeon and Tony Leung

And Choi Ji-woo with Chow Yun-Fat. For full explanation, visit the Marmot.

Choi Ji-woo and Chow Yun-Fat

Next, Korean celebs earning money (or not) from product promotion

Rain, who has been rather invisible of late, pops up in a Nikon commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww894XeJD2w

Jeon Ji-hyun, now known as Gianna Jun in the West as a result of her appearance in The Last Vampire, launches the Gianna jeans brand

Gianna Jeans

Next, Ivy, who according to the Chosun is being sued by a cosmetics company which Ivy “promotes”.

The company claims Ivy’s lies and scandal-plagued private life have tarnished the company’s brand image, as cosmetics are greatly dependent on the image of their spokesmodels.

Ivy

Finally, wedding wishes to Jumong star Song Il-gook, who tied the knot last weekend (15 March)

Song Il-gook wedding

Filed in Celebs, Choi Ji-woo, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeon Ji-hyun, Rain | Comments (0) »

Rain 8 - Colbert 4 (Cowell 6)

14-Feb-08

Devoted followers of Korean popular culture will remember the Rain v Colbert battle in Time magazine last year.

The much smaller population of devoted LKL readers will remember that I did a straw poll of my US co-workers last year: how many out of an unrepresentative sample of US bank regulatory specialists had heard of the famous US comedian Stephen Colbert? The answer was 40%: 6 out of 10 had never heard of him.

Rain

So I decided to repeat the exercise out in Hong Kong. At a similar team-building dinner yesterday, I asked the assembled company how many people had never heard of LKL Man of the Year 2006, Rain (above). The nationalities present were: 1 Indonesian, 1 Malaysian, 1 Philippina, 2 Japanese, 1 Korean, 1 French, 3 Hong Kong Chinese. The answer: only two of them had never heard of Rain (The Indonesian and, hardly surprisingly, the French lady). 8 out of 10 had heard of him (which didn’t necessarily mean they liked him, though there were one or two of the female members present who seemed to admire his physique).

So I make that 8-4 to Rain.

Someone else on the table (the Indonesian) did a similar cultural awareness exercise with Simon Cowell. Cowell scored 6, which is a pretty respectable score. He was known to the locals through American Idol, though, rather than the X Factor.

The assembled company were also well versed in Korean TV drama. Inevitably Dae Jang Geum and Winter Sonata were the most well known.

Yonsama 

Surprisingly, the two Japanese ladies professed not to fancy Yonsama (Bae Yong-joon, above). But when Lee Byung-hun (below) came up in conversation (in the Japanese film Hero) they were much more enthusiastic.

Lee Byung-hun

But before promoters of Korean popular culture sit back and smile too smugly, many people present were also fans of Japanese TV drama (they don’t go on as long). And we were all chatting in a familiar fashion about Hong Kong, Chinese and Taiwanese film stars. And the Indonesian present invited me to visit him in Jakarta where he promised to show me where to buy authentic pirated versions of the Korean soaps, with English subtitles, for next to nothing.

InshallaAn interesting (to me, at any rate) little case study in the cross border nature of popular culture.

And the evening was capped by a quick trip to the local HMV where I found a copy of a film (which is probably complete rubbish) for which I’ve been searching for ages and never been able to find: Lee Young-ae’s first film, Inshalla. With English subtitles, for under a tenner. And the food at the restaurant was very nice too. Work isn’t all that bad.

And because Lee Young-ae’s come up in conversation, and because I’ve now posted three Valentines Day pin-ups for the lasses, here’s a pic of her for the lads.

Lee Young-ae

Filed in Celebs, Hallyu, Lee Young-ae, Rain | Comments (1) »

Deadly Elves and other recent tabloid stories

28-Aug-07

It’s a while since I did a round-up of celebrity news, which means that I’ve almost forgotten all the things I was going to mention, and lost most of the links that I was going to use. So before things get completely out of hand, here’s one of my not-so-regular posts shamelessly plundering the celebrity blogs.

1 Bada

After my recent post defending Bada against the assaults of Popseoul I exchanged a few emails with the Popseoulites. They don’t have an issue with her singing ability, just her sense of style. I’m coming round to their way of thinking, based on one of their more recent posts.

Bada as ajumma - from PopSeoul

A weird vision. And the singing ability? Well, I’ve now listened to Made in Sea and … it’s a big disappointment. So you won’t catch me posting another defence of Bada until she produces another album to match her second.

2 Rain

Rain

He had such a good start to the year. I thought he was a dead cert for the award of LKL man of the year two years running. But then things kind of went off the rails. That inconvenient lawsuit in America was not of his doing, and ultimately the judge came to the right decision. But all those cancelled concerts? His parting with his manager JYP Entertainment? The prize is now wide open again.

3 Jang Dong Gun

Jang Dong-gun

The hunky action hero from Taegugki and Typhoon is now the face of SK telecom’s 24 hours service, replacing Rain.

4 Big 4 in the Big Apple

While Rain seems reluctant to appear in the States, four other acts appeared in Manahattan and Las Vegas. Hyolee, SG Wanna Be, SeeYa and Epik High made the journey for concerts on 4 August (Manhattan Center aka Hammerstein Ballroom) and 11 August (Caesar’s Palace)

Hyolee SG WannabeSeeYaEpik HighStony Skunk

Meanwhile Cho Sung-jin, from Korean “reggae” band Stony Skunk, made it to number 5 in the Billboard Hot R&B / Hiphop singles chart the same week.

5 KimYun-jin

She’s lonely, she’s wealthy, and she’s had a book published.

Kim Yun-jin book: The World is Your DramaUhm Jung-hwa: 38 Days and 107 Hours in New YorkKim Yun-jin’s book “The World is Your Drama”, is selling well according to the Chosun. It is joined in the bookstore by another book about travels in America by a Korean actress, 38 Days and 107 Hours in New York by Uhm Jung-hwa.

Coverage is in the JoongAng Daily.

Incidentally, I’d forgotten until recently that Kim Yun-jin starred in Byun Yung-joo’s (변영주) film Ardor (ë°€ì• ). Well worth searching out, apart from the feeble ending which was so predictable that I had discounted it as a possibility — and then I was caught by surprise when the obvious happened.

6 And now, the Elves

Firstly, an Elf is a fan of Super Junior [1], and as it happens my most significant category of reader, so I have to be careful what I say. Where do I start? I kind of lose track with who’s been injured in what car accident, how many spin-off bands there are, and whether the main band is splitting up or not. Fortunately a dedicated SuJu scholar makes sure that Wikipedia is kept up to date with all the latest gossip.

But I’m grateful to PopularGusts for having researched and exhaustively catalogued the long and complex story of how the Elves had an indirect hand in the death of a school girl, Lee Eun-ji. Read on there, because it was taking me far too long to assemble all the pieces. Or, if you’re short of time, there’s a two-part cut-down version at PopSeoul: part 1 and part 2. But as ever, PopularGusts is well worth the visit.

Kim Yeon-ahLee TeukNext (and this is the really weird one) there is the Kim Yeon-ah (김연아) Cyworld incident. It goes something like this. Lee Teuk (이특), the cute one (OK, I know, they’re all cute), like everyone else in Korea, is on Cyworld. And for some reason or another he invites star skater Kim Yeon-ah to be his online Cyworld-buddy. She’s kind of cute as well, I guess. She accepts. Except that Lee Teuk says she refused. So the poor girl gets harassed by angry SuJu fans, with 2,000 hate messages left on her minihompy [2]. Am I going to be the next target of irate Elves, after having trashed SuJu T’s first single?

While on the subject of insecure and angry netizens, check out the story of how Chinese netizens concocted a diplomatic incident and forced a small-town Korean pet-shop owner to change his cute marketing strategy. Anyone would think the poor guy had defamed the Prophet.

7 Jeon Do-yeon

Jeon Do-yeon taking it easy

She’s made it into the world’s top 50 most influential women, as chosen by Variety magazine. What puzzles me, though, is how a showbiz publication gets to opine on this. And also why this story is all over the blogosphere and some of the Korean news & entertainment sites (eg here), but not on the Variety website itself.

8 Jeon Ji-hyun

Another ad for a mobile phone - featuring a miniskirt that’s too long:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t2QT4VewZ4

There seem to be as many ads for mobile phones in Korea as there are for cheap car insurance websites in the UK.

9 Honey Lee

Bless her, she’s now modelling jeans.

Honey Lee models Hilfiger

And the Chosun, bless them too, make the helpful comment:

During the shoot, Lee is said to have won the admiration of the crew.

…which could be taken on at least two levels.

10 And finally…

Supposedly, the ideal male face.

Ideal Young Korean Male

All I know is, if my surgeon left me looking like that, I’d hire myself a good lawyer.

  1. E.L.F. = Ever-Lasting Fan[back]
  2. Again, someone over at Wikipedia has reconstructed the story[back]
Filed in Bada, Beauty, Celebs, Honey Lee, Jang Dong-gun, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeon Ji-hyun, Kim Yun-jin, Lee Hyolee, Rain, SG Wannabe, Samsung, Super Junior, Uhm Jung-hwa, VoDs | Comments (0) »

The beauty of particular body parts 2

07-Aug-07

Thanks to Mrs Daeguowl for the nomination of Gong Yu (공유) for the competition of most sculpted six-pack. Here’s a sample:

Gong Yu

And something I forgot to include in yesterday’s post. With a big hat tip to Scott Burgeson [1], here’s an itemisation of how the body parts for Miss Korea should stack up, taken from an article about the scoring sheet used by the Miss Korea judges, in the Korea Herald in 18 May 2001:

  1. The contestant’s face should not be too big.
  2. If one has had plastic surgery on the eyes and nose, it should not be too obvious.
  3. Shouldes should fall 20 degrees from the neck.
  4. The size, position and lines of the breasts should be balanced.
  5. Arms and legs should not be too short.
  6. The stomach should not bulge.
  7. The “hips” should not sag.
  8. The contestant should be a minimum of 170cm in height, and boast a 34-24-34 figure.

And because I’d never heard of Hwang Soo-jeong (황수정) until Daeguowl left yesterday’s comment, here’s a pic of her as well.

Hwang Soo-jeong

  1. Sourced from Korea Bug[back]
Filed in Beauty, Celebs | Comments (1) »

The beauty of particular body parts

06-Aug-07

Browsing through the celebrity rags the other day I came across a report of a survey which struck me as rather distasteful: the actress with the most beautiful chest. I’m not sure why it struck me as distasteful, seeing as in the UK we have a light-hearted annual survey as to which female celebrity has the most shapely backside.

Anyway, the owner of the finest pair was judged to be Song Hye-kyo (송혜교)…

Song Hye-kyo

followed by Kim Hye-soo (김혜수 - also proud owner of Korea’s most beautiful face - below left) and relative newcomer Han Chae-young (한채영) (below right)

Kim Hye-sooHan Chae-young

To even things up a bit, shouldn’t there be something for the girls? How about Korea’s most sculpted six-pack? Two contenders immediately spring to mind: Kwon Sang-woo (권상우 - below left) and of course the ever-present Rain:

Kwon Sang-wooRain

Are there any other contenders?

And to wrap up this post, some more eye candy: the new Miss Korea, Lee Ji-sun, being crowned by last year’s Miss Korea, Honey Lee, on 27 July.

Lee Ji-sun and Honey Lee

Boy, these photos are a lot easier to get hold of ever since Hancinema realised that their search engine was total rubbish and so decided to instal google as well. The one of the Misses Korea comes from the Chosun though: neither Lee has yet appeared in a soap.

Filed in Beauty, Celebs, Han Chae-young, Honey Lee, Kim Hye-soo, Kwon Sang-woo, Rain, Song Hye-kyo | Comments (1) »

How many Koreans have never heard of Rain?

20-Jul-07

Colbert as RainI don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe a reader can help. But seeing as I’m over in the States visiting my US co-workers right now, I thought I’d do a bit of market research.

We had a team-building dinner yesterday. And on an impulse, I asked the person sitting next to me: so how famous is Stephen Colbert?

“Who?” came the reply. And a similar response from the next person. In fact, on my table 5 out of 7 Americans had never heard of him. On the next table, the hit rate was slightly better. But overall I estimated that, in the extremely unrepresentative sample of university educated US investment bankers, 60% of Americans do not have a clue who Stephen Colbert is [1].

Fans of Rain should take comfort from this.

Links:

  • Stateside celeb update, LKL 23 May 2007, with the Stephen Colbert / Rain video
  • The original Rain video which the Colbert Report video was based:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJab5yCLD7w

  1. And of course, the only reason that I, a Brit who doesn’t have access to Comedy Central, have heard of him is because of his Rain video.[back]
Filed in Celebs, Rain | Comments (0) »

Lee Eon-jeong can’t seem to escape her past

15-Jul-07

Lee Eon-jeongI’ve noticed that every six months or so, a 3-year old article in the Chosun gets into the list of the Chosun’s top five most-read stories. And that article has been in the ascendant this last week or so. The article in question is the one which started off as an innocent enough piece about the return home of Lee Sabi (real name Lee Eon-jeong), Korea’s first Playboy model. But at some later date someone pasted some Playboy pictures on top of the article, obscuring some of the text.

Although the pictures are nudes, the naughty bits are covered, otherwise I’m sure the Chosun would take action — but right now it’s generating the traffic for them, so why change anything? I’d post a full-size version of the page, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to because I like to keep my site work-safe: the photos are described euphemistically by Spice TV as “photos that show the beauty of a woman’s body”. So here’s a reduced-size version, together with a similar page from 6 weeks later. I’ve got full size versions should the Chosun ever spoil the fun and restore the pages to their original condition.

Screen capture 2Screen capture 1

In conjunction with the increase in popularity of the Chosun article, I’ve noticed an increase in Lee Sabi google searches, and an increase in the popularity of my own two line article linking to that Chosun post.

So. To redress the balance a little, and to encourage people to think of Ms Lee’s present rather than her past, here are a few more recent images, taken from her own website. Maybe there’s a part of her which is quite happy to hold on to her past, because there are very few current pictures to choose from, and I’ve posted most of them already.

Links:

Lee Eon-jeongLee Eon-jeongLee Eon-jeong

Filed in Celebs, Lee Eon-jeong | Comments (0) »

In defence of Bada

13-Jun-07

Monitoring my traffic statistics recently I noticed that Bada is surging in the popularity rankings. I approve of that, because her second album is my favourite mainstream K-pop album of all time (or, at least, in my rather small collection). So, in my semi-regular round-up of celebrity news and pictures which have caught my eye over the past few weeks, Bada is going to have a post all to herself.

Like many of you, I’m a huge fan of PopSeoul. The site has completely demolished all competition in the celebrity blogosphere. Prolific in their posting, I don’t know how they keep it up. And their unique selling point: most if not all of the material is, as far as I can see, original, rather than copied verbatim from the Chosun. I say “they” partly because I don’t know whether it’s a he, she, or more than one person (the volume of material might suggest composite authorship). But I have to take issue with one thing. They don’t seem to like Bada very much. Most recently they decided they didn’t like the colour of the leggings she was modelling:

Bada as a Smurf - from PopSeoul

A couple of weeks ago they decided she looked like a drag queen.

Bada or drag queen?

And at the recent Hallyu Star Festival, Bada showed her stuff - but I’m not sure whether PopSeoul’s description of her legs as “athletic” is meant to be complimentary or not.

Bada's athletic legs at the Hallyu Star Festival

I suppose it’s only fair that if a singer is going to start doing things other than sing, then people are going to comment on attributes other than her vocal and musical talents (which I think are pretty strong). But to redress the balance, here’s a cute photo.

Cute Bada

I’ve finally got around to ordering her third album from YesAsia. I hope it’s as good as her second. There will be a review coming soon.

I’ve got to agree with PopSeoul about the pudding basin hairdo though.

Bada with pudding basin

So keep visiting PopSeoul, as I know you will.

Filed in Bada, Celebs | Comments (1) »

Kayageum player #4 in Miss Universe

03-Jun-07

Honey Lee with KayagumHoney Lee, crowned Miss Korea in August 2006, studies traditional music at Seoul National University, specialising in the kayageum. Her mother is a professor at Ehwa, and was designated a “living cultural asset” in kayageum music earlier this year.

Lee was a strong contender in this year’s Miss Universe contest, recently held in Mexico. In fact, in the unofficial polling at Global Beauties, a site affiliated to the contest, Lee came top in many categories: Face of the Universe, Best National Costume, Best in interviews, Best in a gown, and overall unofficial winner.

It is of course the real competition which counts, and Lee came fourth. A rumour over at Popseoul suggests that a poor translation service cost Lee her victory:

Alert POPSEOUL! readers have pointed out that the translator made it sound that Miss Korea was a gold digger instead of the humanitarian motives for having a fat but endless wallet.

Maybe the official language of the competition was Spanish, because in her taped interview on the Miss Universe site her English seems fine.

One of Honey Lee’s ambitions as Miss Korea is to use her title to promote Korean culture. Her performance at Miss Universe has already done some of that, as not only did she give some publicity to the Kayageum (though strangely she felt she had to dumb it down for the Miss Universe audience, referring to it as a “Korean harp” instead of the more usual “Korean zither”): she showed herself to have a passing acquaintance with the changgo in the national costume section:

Honey Lee with Changgo

Some more conventional beauty pageant poses are given below:

Honey LeeHoney LeeHoney LeeHoney Lee

Other links:

Filed in Beauty, Celebs, Honey Lee, Korean traditional music | Comments (0) »

Stateside celeb update

23-May-07

Rain / BiAvid blogwatchers will find this particular post surplus to requirements. This post is for my own benefit, just in case I lose the various links which are hot at the moment but which may soon cool off.

Rain’s ongoing efforts to achieve the unprecedented feat of winning LKL Man of the Year two years running continue, with recognition from Stephen Colbert on US primetime TV:

I’m in two minds as to whether Colbert’s mock challenge to Rain is funny or not. Calling Rain “Kid Jong-il” doesn’t strike me as being terribly witty, “Rain, it is time to rein you in” is in the best British tradition of feeble puns, while “Rain, I’m gonna be all over you like egg on a bowl of bibimbap” suggest that he’s got some researchers who are earning their keep, which is good. But you have to take your hat off to him for his efforts at singing in Korean, and overall I found myself amused rather than bemused. I found it vaguely interesting that the standard US references for things Korean, reflected in Colbert’s lyrics, are kimchi and M*A*S*H. The KTO has its work cut out in updating these stereotypes.

Kim Yun-jinIn addition, in a canny piece of marketing to ensure their new movie Speed Racer is watched in Asia, the Wachowski brothers have given Rain the role of a driver. It may be a bit part, but the spin put out by Rain’s (new?) manager is that the role is the glue which will keep the whole film together.

Meanwhile Kim Yun-jin (right) never seems to be out of the news at the moment. She is adding to the growing pile of celebrity autobiographies with her upcoming book “Hollywood Story” (I’m not sure how common a celebrity autobiography is out in Korea, but the UK reading public is overwhelmed by the volume of often ghost-written celeb fodder thrust upon us). There’s a hilarious demolition job on the Chosun’s report of Kim’s experience of alleged Hollywood racism over at Party Pooper.

Links below.

Links:

Filed in Celebs, Kim Yun-jin, Rain | Comments (0) »

BoA’s aching feet and other celebrity updates

04-May-07

I’m conscious that I haven’t posted any celebrity pics for a while, so here’s an update.

The relentless rise of Kim Yun-jin

MSN’s recognition of Kim Yun-jin isn’t quite the kiss of death that I thought it was going to be. She’s now made it into the Stuff’s top 100 babes. A peculiar computer-enhanced photo of her accompanies the Chosun piece:

Chosun Kim Yun-jin photo

The Chosun also reports on her new Korean film project, Seven Days, focusing on the coverage in the international media. Rain, meanwhile, not to be outdone, has made it on to a list of the world’s most beautiful people.

BoABoA’s tired feet and blind dates

You have to admire the dedication and hard work of BoA. Sacrificing her feet and love life to her career. Fortunately, now she’s made it to the top, she feels able to wear comfortable shoes once in a while, and seems to be happy to allow Hyolee to arrange dates for her. Here’s hoping her inexorable rise continues, and she becomes better known outside of the far east.

Super Junior’s woes

Losing your temper with your fans at an airport is a fairly regular occurrence with jetsetting stars. SuJu’s Dong Hae is the latest to be caught out, but he had the nous to apologise afterwards. More seriously though, SuJu’s Lee Teuk reportedly had 170 stitches while Kyu Hyun was in intensive care after a car crash. Popseoul, as ever, was following the story closely and has an interesting account of life at the bottom of the food chain of celebrity minders.

JJHSassy Girl rebranded

Jang Dong-gunI’m looking forward to the Hollywood remake of the Japanese anime Blood — the Last Vampire, starring Jeon Ji-hyun. For the western market, she’s been renamed Gianna, which as many people have pointed out, is not a million miles from Ji-hyun-ah. Maybe the rebrand could bring her back up the commercial popularity stakes. According to a survey by Brand38 she’s slipped from her regular high position to only the fifth most bankable advertising model.

Laundry wars

As JJH slides down the advertising charts, the same survey has Jang Dong-gun in the ascendent. It can’t be for long though. His next project has the naffest title I can think of: Laundry Wars, a Korean / Hollywood co-production. The international pulling power of Zhang Ziyi should save the thing from complete oblivion, but really, what sort of plot is conjured up by the ridiculous title?

Filed in BoA, Celebs, Jang Dong-gun, Jeon Ji-hyun, Kim Yun-jin, Super Junior | Comments (0) »

Bae Doo-na in London

05-Apr-07

Bae Doo-na's London book

Thanks to Mark Russell over at Korea Pop Wars for news of a photo journal of Bae Doo-na’s visit to London. Can any Korean speakers out there have a read of what appears to be Ms Bae’s official blog at Naver, and tell me how to get hold of the book?

Update 11 April: It’s OK, Seoul Selection have sourced it for me and it’s now on its way to London, where it belongs…

Bae Doo-naLinks:

(Images from the 두나 blog)

Filed in Ask an expert, Bae Doo-na, Celebs | Comments (0) »

Photos keep celebs in the news

26-Mar-07

Our lives would be so much more drab without the occasional celebrity pic to cheer us up. So thanks are due to the paparazzi, the lads mags, the celebrity bloggers and, not least, the celebs’ own PR teams, for adding spice to our daily fare. Here’s some recent and not-so-recent pics.

1 Kim Yun-jin: Spot the difference

Arena cover October 2006: Kim Yun-jin Maxim March 2007: Kim Yun-jin

Kim Jun-jin’s photos from Arena last year have been recycled into March’s Maxim magazine. I hope she got the fee twice over. I must say that she looks more comfortable in Maxim. Given the fact that photographers seem to think that models look better if they’re put in a wind tunnel, the blue tones on the Arena cover make you think she’s going to come out in goosebumps pretty soon.


Meanwhile, we recently heard via the Chosun that Kim has joined MSN’s list of world class beauties. With endorsement like that, she needs all the Maxim and Stuff photoshoots she can get: since when did anything to do with Microsoft have connotations of elegance, beauty or style?

2 Hyolee looking bored

The Chosun tells us that tongues are wagging and emotions are stirred in cyberspace as a result of some new posed pics of Hyolee in a hotel room. Why these dull photos should attract any interest at all is a mystery. A free subscription to the LKL RSS feed to the person who can think of the most witty caption to this photo:

Hyolee in the hotel, looking very bored

The thing which puzzles me about this series of pictures is what the narrative is supposed to be. Hyolee seems to have a remarkable number of changes of clothes, just to be sitting bored in a hotel room with a supposed lover. Maybe when you see the full set the whole thing makes more sense. If anyone knows where they are, please provide a link.

Korean Pop Music

Lee Sabi / Lee Eon-jeong3 Lee Eon-jeong, where are you?

I do wish Lee Sabi / Lee Eon-jeong’s publicity machine would come up with some new pics. I’ve now pretty much run out of respectable photos of her. How is she supposed to get media coverage without some nice images? I’d be happy to publish them. She needs a boost as she’s now rapidly dropping in the rankings of celebs being googled for.

All I know is that she’s trying to raise her profile as an actress, leaving behind her past as a playboy model. Does anyone know what she has lined up in terms of TV or films? I’m afraid, not being able to understand Korean, I can’t search cyberspace for news of her career. So another free subscription to the LKL RSS feed will go to the person who provides the most useful news update or links to current pictures of her.

She’s surely more eye-catching than some of the celebrity pics you see on the net.

4 Jeon Ji-hyun in stripping race

A fun commercial highlighted in the Chosun caused a small ripple in the blogosphere. Jeon Ji-hyun peels off several layers of clothes to highlight the versatility of some new Sumsung phone. If you have whatever software you need to run a video on Naver’s clunky pages, you can find the ad here.

Jeon Ji-hyun ad 1Jeon Ji-hyun ad 2

5 Lee Mi-sook

I’m sorry that the occasion for posting a photo of one of my favourite actresses is sad news: a reportedly amicable divorce. She joins the ranks of single parents, though the children are now pretty much grown up.

Lee Mi-sook

Lee is usually referred to as the “veteran” actress. I’m hoping she has many more years’ acting in front of her.

6 Who else?

I’m conscious that I’m more prone to posting nice pictures of actresses and female pop stars than I am of male stars. My personal preference. But to redress the balance, feel free to vote in the comment section below what male stars you’d like to see the occasional picture of. Except for Rain, of course. His six-pack is already my most popular picture.

Korean Fashion @ YesStyle

Links

  • Scans of Maxim’s Kim Yun-jin special
Filed in Celebs, Jeon Ji-hyun, Kim Yun-jin, Lee Eon-jeong, Lee Hyolee, Lee Mi-sook | Comments (1) »

Cyborg in Berlin

11-Feb-07

For a youtube of Rain at the Berlin film festival, visit PopSeoul. Just for once, he’s sporting a sensible hairstyle. But I didn’t realise he was so tall (or, alternatively, Park Chan-wook so short).

Filed in Celebs, Film, Park Chan-wook, Rain | Comments (0) »

Celebrity news round-up: January 07

09-Feb-07

Rain, LKL’s man of the year 2006 has started 2007 on a low-note with a speeding ticket in Hong Kong at the start of his gruelling tour. He also underwhelmed one reporter at a Singapore press conference who found him just a little dull. This wasn’t a reflection on his performance on-stage (and I’ve yet to find any proper reviews of these): more that, given Rain’s broad portfolio of interests and abilities the reporter thought he should have had something a bit more interesting to say. If anyone finds a review of any of his World Tour gigs, please let me know. Meanwhile, here’s a pic of his Malaysian gig, courtesy of Popseoul:

Rain in Malaysia

Meanwhile Hyolee, chastened by her disqualification from the LKL woman of the year 2006 award has vowed to do better in 2007. She commented:

In the end, I came through that experience with more than what I lost. The most valuable thing I got from it was realizing how much I love singing on stage. Hopefully this year will be better. Instead of looking for simple popularity, this year I’m hoping people will see I’m improving my singing, dancing and acting skills.

We wish her well. She starts the race for LKL woman of the year 2007 with a clean slate.

Hyolee pink

Other Hyolee coverage comments on her appearance in a one-off romantic drama on TV: 사랑한다면 이들처럼 (translation: Love like them). (Cue a not very in-depth discussion of an alleged image crisis for Hyolee in the Chosun). And guess what? In an effort to go one better than your average Korean melodrama, Popseoul reports that the plot involves both lovers having incurable diseases. Who’s gonna die first? And how many hankies will you need to get through that experience?

The same Chosun article from which the above quote was taken also reports that she’s the third most powerful woman in Korea, after GNP head Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. I love these silly surveys.

Other silly surveys in the past few weeks:

BoA

A celeb who was unjustly neglected last year was BoA. Yes, she topped the Japanese pop charts, yes she was even number 2 in the world charts for a week, and yes, she was Korea’s highest-earning pop star. But somehow people didn’t seem to be interested, which is a bit of a shame. Compared with Hyolee and the TV stars, BoA hardly seemed to register on the various amateur celebrity news blogs (and in respect of my sporadic coverage of the area, she attracted less than a quarter of the visits of Lee Sabi). Is there a lesson here: focus on getting the job done and avoiding the press, and you end up with more Won in your pocket? BoA has started 2007 on a high note, topping the charts in Japan again. Congratulations to BoA, the pop star who just seems to get on with it. And does it well, even though success comes at the price of loneliness, according to the Chosun.

Korean Pop Music

Moon Geun-youngOther news? A trifling piece in the Korea Times suggesting that big names from the commercials don’t pull in the crowds when appearing on the big screen. No analysis is provided as to whether it’s anything to do with the stars’ acting skills or the quality of the film itself. Never mind - it’s an excuse for some pretty pictures.

The Korea Times also reports how Moon Geun-young’s attempt to break free of her “Nation’s Younger Sister” image is attracting adverse attention, with accusations of plagiarism in respect of her TV ad. But the Chosun reports that she’s been a good girl at university, attending all her classes.

And, coming soon, get the complete hallyu experience at Hallyuwood, the latest Korean-wave-themed tourist attraction.

Filed in BoA, Celebs, Hallyu, Lee Hyolee, Moon Geun-young, Music: K-pop, Rain, Travel | Comments (1) »

New! Celebrity BlogWatch

28-Jan-07

Uhm Jung-hwaJung Woo-sung

Knowing that many of you visit my site looking for celebrity coverage, and knowing that I don’t really satisfy your needs, I’ve been thinking about what to do about that.

Also, I know that there’is a lot of English-language blogs out there which cover Asian celebrities, and it is almost a full-time job looking through them all.

Enter the world of RSS feed aggregation, and a wonderful little gizmo produced by the folks over at the Oz Politics Blog (and yes, despite the cricket, a Pom can still harbour warm feelings towards an Aussie). And thanks to these technologies I bring to you Celebrity BlogWatchTM. The latest headlines from all those blogs, on one page. See what’s hot. See which bloggers lead the pack, and which ones are asleep on the job. All your bloggers on one page (at least, those I’m aware of and importantly, who provide an RSS feed which is easy to grab; and if they cover Asian celebrities in general, that means they’ve got to be able to provide a category-specific feed for Korean celebs. Hence, regrettably, Asianbite and Asianpopcorn are not included).

Celebrity BlogWatchTM. For all your tabloid needs.

And, coming soon, Broadsheet BlogWatchTM. For the more cerebral coverage.

BadaMC Mong

Filed in Bada, Celebs<