Singer/Model turned Actor or Actor who tries to sing

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We have a short list of models/singers turned good actors, and a shorter list of actors turned good singers… no matter the voice or the musical talent.

Go Hyun Jung  was the runner-up in the Miss Korea pageant in 1989

Lee Honey – Miss Korea 2006, 3rd runner-up at Miss Universe 2007, Kim Sa-Rang Miss Korea 2000, her second runner-up was …drums Park Si-Yeon

Cha Seung Won started as a model in 1988

Daniel Henney – model turned actor( with roles in USA productions and kdramas, winner at Newport beach film festival of the Best actor award)

Park Shi Hu – model turned actor

Lee Seung Ki – this guy is ratings magnet yet he is a singer

Rain 

Uhm Jung-hwa began her career as a chorus member of MBC and officially debuted as a singer in 1993 with her first album Sorrowful Secret

Yoon Kye-sang was in g.o.d yet now is better known for his roles

Sung Yuri – she ain’t on my fave list, yet she is an accomplished actress and ex-member of Fin.K.L,the same goes for S.E.S’s Eugene, Baby VOX’s Yoon Eun-hye, Sugar’s Hwang Jung Eum or Park Soo Jin, SuJu’s Choi Siwon

Big Bang’s TOP – I think he has a Baeksang and a Blue Dragon award under his belt

Alex of  Clazziquai is doing so and so

UEE  I love this girl as actress, as singer-I don’t even listen After School

JYJ = two kdrama actors : Micky YooChun and JaeJoong, and a musical actor Junsu

My favorite actor-singer : No Min Woo was in TRAX, now known for Park DongJoo or the ill bro from Midas

Go Ah Ra

Han Ye Seul won a supermodel competition

Actors struggling with their indie bands:

Kim Jae Wook modeled at 17 , he is a good actor , yet his band Walrus isn’t that well known

Ji Hyun Woo (Queen InHyun’s Man) has a band too – do you know its name? because I don’t… wiki says it’s “The Nuts”

Lee Hyun Jae was the drummer in Shut Up Flower Boy Band, yet in real life he is a drummer himself for indie band “Mate”-

Gu Hye-sun ( Boys Over Flowers ) composed a mini album: Breath ( she was advised by her own agency that acting is better for her rather than singing)

And now the short list of actors who really made it as singers after modelling or acting

Lee Jun Ki is in a grey area: started as a model but in the same time tried minor roles in dramas, and debuted as a singer in the year he won recognition as a talented actor My Jun, My Style (2006) was his first album (wikipedia) – he has a considerable fanbase for his singing abilities and not his dramas

Jang Na-Ra – SMEnt wanted for her a singing career yet she made it as actress too(she debuted in 2001 as a singer and actress)

Jang Geun Seok –  he really made it in Japan – I think he was twice number one on Oricon chart – which is huge considering the competition already existent in Japan

Yoo InNa is a peculiar case :  she was trained for 10 years to be a singer yet she is an actress.

Who says you MUST have a pretty voice? ask Lee Min Ho – he can do “Everything” except singing

However all the Korean actors sing and dance at their fan-meetings  … c’mon nobody would buy pretty expensive  tickets if the host doesn’t entertain the viewers for at least 2 hours. Therefore we can see amazing fanmeetings shows – see Kim Nam Gil singing to break your heart, Moon Geun Young dancing like she owns the stage, Diva … ops Jang Geun Suk sings, dance, mixes like a pro DJ, of course makes tons of silly things and obviously outrageous fashion, Jung Il Woo would play the piano, No Min Woo drums and plays the piano, Kim Hyun Joong even had such an expensive ticket for his fan meeting that his agency almost marketed it as concert – or it was a concert marketed as fan-meeting? – but he is rather singer than actor with all his wishes to be a popular actor too.

Actors usually don’t launch albums and if they launch one they don’t make promotions, therefore hardly we can see an actor turned popular singer, even though in theory it is possible, in practice there is a handful of actors who really can say that they have a singing career.

Usually Korean entertainers try the singing > acting route because it is easier to get some popularity and after that roles with a lot of screen presence rather than acting in tons of dramas as “extra” until one casting director or PD notices the guy/girl in cause.

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It looks like Lee Min Ho is hot and … single

People!!! some Korean celebrities are already divorced – just a few days ago a Jung Jun-il of the  boyband Mate confirmed that he wants to divorce his long time girlfriend and secret wifey  …remember the story of  Lee Ji-Ah and ex, Han Go-eun  (Bodyguard, Me Too Flower) said that the next relationship she will publicly announce it will be at her wedding because she felt like a divorcee when her break up went public, )

On the episode of SBS‘s ‘Pair – Star Love Village‘ that aired on January 24th Shinhwa’s Andy admitted, “When I was in a relationship with a female artist 8 years ago, I knew it would be bad if the news got out so I disguised myself and went to America.”
Another affair are secret weddings  I think the most shocking one was the one of the actress Lee Young-ae: she dated the guy for 10 years and all this time she denied it – why? netizens told that she was sponsored by the bf – really? It “never” crossed my mind!!! It is kinda impossible not to help the loved one in a couple… It would be weird if he would live in a palace and the woman in a cottage… oh well…. only in  a kdrama it is possible for her dirt poor and yet to live well while he loves her and doesn’t help her because it would hurt her pride.

Jang Dong Gun met Ko So Young on the set of the 1998 film “Love Wind, Love Song” and became “friends”. They made headlines in 2009 when they admitted that they had been dating since 2007. – my guess they’ve been dating since forever (aka when they met) but to avoid the scrutiny of knetizens told something nice like 2 years when in reality they denied dating rumors quite often.  In a 2006 article she replied at the accusation “that she is a snob who will marry into the owner family of one of Korea’s big conglomerates.” with “I just can’t cope with that. I want a man who is ordinary and takes good care of his family, and who stays faithful to me his whole life” she already knew who he was.

On the other hand all this needed secrecy has its downfalls people starting groundless  rumors about kcelebs like the ones for Kim Tae Hee in 2007 that she is married and pregnant with a chabeol

The divorce rate among stars is about the same as among ordinary people; it’s just that their divorces get special attention because they are famous and their private lives look like they are everybody’s business.  I think we can easily extrapolate to the rate of break ups…

Why?

It looks like the Diva is 4th in Japan when it comes about CF revenues

Accordingly to omona and women’s magazine ‘Josei Jisin’ it seems that Jang Geun Seok is very well paid to… make CFs  and have pretty mane of glory and be well….a DIVA that fujoshi girls just love to bits.

Here is the Top:

Translation belongs to kurogoma from omona

1. Arashi
2. SMAP
3. Ishikawa Ryo (golfer)
4. DIVA ups JGS
5. Exile
6. Davish Yuu (baseball player)
7. TVXQ

It gets even better as arama’s article says

Jang Keun Suk was the fourth most highly paid male star for modelling. At his highest, he used to be paid 120 million yen, but he soon lowered his fee to about 80 million yen “because Jang Keun Suk became too expensive, many companies started to pull out their contracts”.

It kinda look outrageous from my point of view to ask the same money as 5 seniors ask for the same job when those 5 people are SMAP, well the stupid isn’t the one who asks the money but the one who gives them and it seems that Tokyo‘s companies didn’t comply that easily. By the way SMAP has some funny CFs that I love to watch just because they are funny.

The Korean girls are doing just fine in earning their money in Japan, yet there is no drama to write about : as we are used to it KARA is doing better than SNSD. (Did SM just lost to another Korean agency? )

source:

Omona , Arama , enewsworld

9 Korean Dramas airing in Romania

It looks like Romania is a good market place for Korean dramas. In fact Romania is a good market place for South American telenovelas as Kassandra or Esmeralda with dedicated TV channels  and long run American TV series like Friends, Star Trek, Lost, Heroes etc. American shows  have more than special TV channels but a big piece of pie from main broadcast channels too.

However since 2009 when Dae Jang Geum had its first run, Romanians found  something new and interesting : sageuks. More it respects the norms about nudity and sexuality therefore kdramas can run during the day. In reality in Korea dramas are rated 15+, but after Romanian norms are rated 12+.

Sageuks:

• TVR1:(National television)
  • Secrets at the Palace also known as Queen Seon Deok – 10.10  rebroadcast (it aired on the same channel in 2010)  Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
  • Legends of the Palace: King Geunchogo – 18.25 premiere – on prime time -Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

• National TV (cable)
  • Dae Jo Yeong – 20:15 – (prime time) Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu

• National 24 Plus
  • Emperor of the Sea 16:00  Mon, Tue, Wed,Thu
  • The Iron Empress / Empress Chun Choo  14:30 Fri, Sat, Sun
• Euforia
  • Hwang Jin Yi 16:00 Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Trendy dramas:

• Euforia
  • Bad Guy premiere on 12. Jan  17:30 Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
  • City Hunter 19:45 Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
  • Boys Over Flowers rerun – 5:30 AM Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

The thing about TVR1  is that every sageuk’s name gets translated as Legends of the Palace: Insert some translation here. They started with Dae Jang Geum ( I think is the only one that kept its original name as Jewel in the Palace),  followed by Yi San (as Storm/ Hurricane at the Palace is it me or it was Wind of the Palace?), Secrets of the Palace for the rest of the mortals known as Queen Seon Deok, Legends of the Palace: Doctor Hur Jun, Legends of the Palace : Concubine (aka Dong Yi), Legends of the Palace: Prince Jumong, Legends of the Palace: The Land Of Wind, Legends of the Palace: Kim Soo Ro,  Legends of the Palace: Merchant Lim Sang-ok with of course now airing drama Legends of the Palace: King Geunchogo. Oh My God!! So many legends. Letting the titles aside this channel has a dedicated slot for sageuks, above all it has the best coverage in our country.

Advantage to watch a kdrama on TV: I love HD(TVR) or clear big images and these dramas are translated in our native language, therefore every Romanian speaker can watch them. Plus one: we really have equivalent expressions to Korean expressions  and a visible equivalent of banmal and jondaemal than English has and is nice to see the difference between polite language and familiar speech – for me , supposedly, English should look as a polite language for using YOU for singular and plural, yet it looks more like the familiar speech rather than a polite one.

Problems?!?  Missing lines. Without discrimination these channels don’t have the best subbing teams around – even viki does a better job and has less missing lines than our channel.It gets even better – Euforia has pixelated images – c’mon people isn’t fun to see Lee Min Ho with squares on his face. Funny enough they don’t have this problem with other shows. I can’t see pixels  even the other show with Lee Min Ho – Boys over flowers.

But the cherry on top of all problems is the editing Boys Over Flowers second episode ended a little earlier because the channel must have the right time for ads or sometimes TVR1 edits out the filling scenes to have exactly 1 hour per episode.

Hello kworld!

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testing my interface

some of the dramas I’ve watched I forgot about them because I’ve started to writem them down after “You’re beautiful”… when I noticed that I lost the track)

1 DaeJanggeum 2003
2 Yi San 2007
3 Queen Seon Duk (MBC, 2009)(I saw many eps about 5 times)
4 Last Scandal 2008
5 Several Questions That Make Us Happy (KBS2, 2007)
6 When Spring Comes (KBS2, 2007)
7 Lovers (SBS, 2006)
8 Goodbye Solo (2006
9 Coffe Prince 2007
10 What’s up Fox 2006
11 Iris 2009
12 Boys Before Flowers 2009
13 Chuno 2010
14 Family Honor2008/2009 -54 ep
15 Brilliant legacy 2009 -28 ep
16 YOu’re beautiful 2009 -16 ep
17 Beethoven virus 2008 -18 ep
18 iljimae 2008 -20 ep
## YOu’re beautiful 2009 -16 ep
19 Witch amusement 2007 -16 ep
20 Hong Gil DOng 2008 -24 ep
21 Oh My Lady 2010 -16 ep
22 Personal taste -16 ep
23 Prosecutor Princess -16 ep
24 Delightful Girl Choon Hyang 2005
25 Full house 2004
26 My girl 2005
27 Fantastic couple 2006
28 Hardtack Teacher & Star Candy (Hello my teacher)2005-16 ep

Pending(I’ve watched only first eps)
Capital Scandal
Gumiho Wehjun 2004(Kim Tae Hee)
Kingdom of the Wind
Hwang Jin Yi(15) and Thousand years of love ep( 11)

Give up
Damo
Terroir
A love to kill(with Rain and Shin Min Ah)
Mackerel Run(couldn’t find translations)

Movies

1 King and Clown
2 Hand Phone (2009)
3 Portrait of a Beauty (2008)
4 Modern Boy (2008)
5 Kang Chul Jung : Public Enemy 1-1 (2008)
6 No Regret
7 The Restless (2006)
8 Antique bakery (2008)
9 Baby and I (2008)
10 Happy Life (2007)
11 Itaewon Murder Case / Itaewon Salinsageon (2009)
12 Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do (2008)
13 Love so divine 2004
14 Seducing Mr Perfect 2005
15 100 days with Mr Arrogant – part 7
16 Boy meets boy + Love story both short movies
17 ARt of seduction 2005 Song Il Kook Sohn Ye jin
18 My Boss, My Hero

Give up(in the middle of the movie,now they are just waisted space on my hdd)
Sassy Girl
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
The good, the bad and the weird
Going Crazy Waiting(with JGS)
Marrying The Mafia 1