The Talented Childhood Cast of Goddess of Fire Jeongi Starts Filming

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As much as I love Taiwan and Japan dramas aplenty, one thing Korea has that can’t be matched is a treasure trove of talented child actors. They aren’t necessarily the cutest or the prettiest, but hot diggity some of them can easily out-act their adult counterparts, and then some. I’ve actually found some terrible K-dramas memorable because of the childhood sections, and sometimes when the adults arrive I long for the kids to come back and keep gracing my screen. One of my favorite K-actresses Moon Geun Young fit that profile, getting her start as the teenage counterpart of Song Hye Kyo in Autumn in My Heart, and being so fantastic and memorable that it only made Song Hye Kyo more bland and boring for the remainder of the drama. Song Seung Heon got away with sucking because the kid actor who played his childhood counterpart was equally as terrible as him. It’s a a reminder of how fast time flies that Moon Geun Young gets her own childhood counterpart in dramas, which actually started back in 2008 when Kim Yoo Jung played the kid version of her character in Painter of the Wind. In the upcoming Goddess of Fire Jeongi, the childhood cast is about to start filming and the pairings have been revealed and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Jin Ji Hee will play Moon Geun Young’s character, Park Geun Tae plays Kim Bum‘s character, and No Young Hak plays Lee Sang Yoon‘s character. Jin Ji Hee looks like she’s grown quite a lot since she played the bratty teen princess character in The Moon Embraces the Sun, while No Young Hak has played tons of childhood versions of the male leads in sageuks but it was in The Duo where he played a young Chun Jung Myung that first caught my eye and he was fantastic. As for Park Geun Tae, I love him so much it needs no explanation, but a funny coincidence is that he actually acted opposite Kim Bum in East of Eden before. Kim Bum played the teenage version of Song Seung Heon’s older brother character, while Park Gun Tae was the teenage version of Yeon Jung Hoon‘s younger brother character. In real life Kim Bum is only 6 years older than Park Geun Tae, so it’ll be funny watching them played adult-kid versions of each other. Now that even Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love has taken a turn for the narrative crapper (maybe it’ll resurrect itself later, here’s to hoping), I’m starting to fret a bit about Goddess of Fire. It needn’t be filled with cliffhangers, shippy moments, or lots of intrigue, but it needs to flow with careful thought given to the world being created and the particular story being told. Continue reading →

SBS Promises Jae Hee Will Show Up in Episode 13 of Jang Ok Jung, Live In Love

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The powers that be over at SBS are really the sole culprit I blame for the sudden and precipitous decline in narrative and visual quality for Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love. The cast is still delivering swimmingly (aside from the over-acting since day one Dowager Queen Kim but I treat her as a deranged piranha and leave it at that), but they are asked to completely go overboard with the blatant scheming and indulge in the excesses of anger and thwarted frustrations. Don’t people have a day job? Didn’t Ok Jung devote her life to becoming a fashion designer? I hate girls who fall in love and suddenly that becomes her sole purpose in life. Didn’t Lee Soon want to pit Soron/Noron against each other and let the royal family reap the benefits? Suddenly he’s opposing them directly over a woman, as opposed to using cunning and tact to get them to accept Ok Jung. Sageuks are unique in that it’s larger than life and we see things on a grander scale of pathos – now JOJ has just turned into in-law bickering and board of directors plotting in a modern drama, but donning sageuk clothes. Nothing quite stands out as much that everything was reshuffled recently more than the non-appearance of second male lead Jae Hee. It’s a broken record, yes I know, but it’s so glaring (like a two inch mole on someone’s forehead that your eyes can’t help but focus on) that even SBS has come out to address his absence. The network made a press release today that Hyun Chi Soo will make his entrance in episode 13 of JOJ, as the man who loves Ok Jung and becomes a contentious player in the love between the King and his Consort in the Palace. I’ll believe it when I see it, SBS. The Chinese fans over at Baidu are so cute that a hilarious screencap comic strip was made explaining why Chi Soo orabeoni has been MIA in JOJ. Read on and be prepared to bust a gut. There is also a cameo appearance at the end by a certain adorable character that made me smile cheek-to-cheek. Continue reading →

Ha Ji Won Confirmed for 60-episode MBC Anniversary Sageuk Hwatu

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I seriously cannot recall a year in K-dramas where there are so many sageuks in every shape and form, from primetime 24-episoders to daily dramas to cable thrillers. MBC especially is really stacking its line up with an unending line up of sageuks in the Mon-Tues timeslot – starting with the anniversary 50 episode sageuk Horse Doctor which premiered in late 2012 and continued all the way through the first quarter of 2013, which led to Gu Family Book, which paves the way for Goddess of Fire Jeongi. This sageuk chain looks to continue into 2014 now that Ha Ji Won has been confirmed as the lead in the upcoming mega-sageuk Hwatu. When I say mega, I mean mega at a whopping 60 episodes! MBC anniversary dramas are always long, Horse Doctor was on the short side with 50 episodes, but Queen Seon Deok ended at 62 episodes while Lights and Shadow went for 64 episodes. And who can ever forget slogging through 81 episodes of Jumong, I swear when I emerged for air I thought a new decade had dawned since when I started watching. Writing will be the duo behind History of the Salaryman, Incarnation of Money, and Giant, which was a 50-some episode anniversary drama on SBS and hands down their best work ever. Directing is the shitastic hack PD who did Personal Taste and Dr. Jin. The drama centers around the legendary historical person of Empress Ki of the Yuan Dynasty, a Goryeo high-born woman who was forced to marry the Yuan Emperor and ended up becoming a powerful figure in the Yuan court. This sounds so much like Queen Seon Deok, and I still remember what a crack drama that was (not great but addicting). Now the million dollar question is – who is A-list enough and available and age-appropriate to play her leading man when this drama starts filming in August for an October premiere? My picks are below. Continue reading →

Kim So Yeon Joins Lee Jun Ki and Song Jae Rim in Thriller K-drama Two Weeks

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2013 really has been a year of K-drama casting randomness. I don’t think there has been a single lead pairing that I’ve longed to see, almost every one feels like it came out of left field and bonked me over the head. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, just that I never thought about putting those two together in the same project. Lee Jun Ki ended up turning down the 1930s Shanghai rebel period drama Inspiring Generation and is instead coming back to television with what sounds like a modern-take on the currently airing Mandate of Heaven. He plays a man falsely accused of murder who goes on the run, and discovers that he has a young daughter with leukemia that needs his help. This one has a twist beyond the time period, the drama is called Two Weeks and the duration of the drama will span exactly two weeks in the story. It’s written by So Hyun Kyung, who recently wrote the ratings champ weekend drama My Daughter So Young, but I know her for the memorable 49 Days, the different but not quite there Prosecutor Princess, and the addicting but pedestrian Brilliant Legacy/Shining Inheritance. She doesn’t exact have a style or MO based on her previous works, though the two week gimmick has shades of the 49 days conceit. This drama doesn’t air until August but its getting all its ducks in a row by finalizing casting now. Joining Lee Jun Ki as his leading lady has just been revealed to be Kim So Yeon. I’m sure this will send squeals of pleasure in some circles, but I’m rather nonchalant about it. I like her, she’s a fabulous actress, so stunning and classy, but there is this aloofness about her that has never caused me to warm to her beyond appreciating her leggy charisma and nuance onscreen. While Jun Ki plays a man on the run, Kim So Yeon plays a righteous prosecutor, who is obviously going to be his foil and likely later his ally. Rounding out the male cast as the antagonist is pretty (stone-faced) boy Song Jae Rim, who was singularly unmemorable as the King’s bodyguard in The Moon Embraces the Sun. He plays the man who chases after Lee Jun Ki, which is a dream job if you ask me. All I can say is – the cheekbones on these three actors are so sharp they can slice cheese, prosciutto, and bread each to make me a nice snack when I watch Two Weeks. Continue reading →

Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love Episode 12 Recap

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With episode 12 of Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love, the rumblings of the last few episodes are finally complete in its transformation. This drama has jumped the shark, people! It is now no longer a fusion sageuk romance with thoughtful political intrigue and subtle power plays. It’s now a full blown daily makjang drama wearing pretty hanboks and produced with the money and quality of a prime time drama. If the ratings don’t rise because of this then I have no choice but to accept the domestic audience hates a complicated and sympathetic Jang Ok Jung, because otherwise the makjang is through the roof now. Everyone is suddenly shouting, screaming, publicly battling, and making decisions without any careful consideration. Episode 12 reminded me so much of those daily drama moments where the mother-in-law hates her daughter-in-law and spends time devising pointless but cruel put downs, all while the poor hapless son is caught in the middle. I have to preface by saying I’ll probably keep watching JOJ despite this drama going off the rails of its original trajectory, made all the more obvious by being MIDWAY done and still Jae Hee’s second male lead has not appeared. Forget feeling bad for him as an actor, clearly there was some major script reworking going on.

if this is what the brain trust decided to turn JOJ into, then I’m game to see how it all unfolds. But the love is gone, I can’t even feel the passionate tumultuousness between Ok Jung and Lee Soon. Their love was supposed to be the emotional centerpiece of this story, so that we feel how the world is against them as they strive to find a measure of simple happiness together. Now I just think Lee Soon is a terrible thoughtless King, one who hasn’t a clue about how to balance all the elements and find the right way to earn his love with Ok Jung. As the King he’s not supposed to have simple happiness, his father’s dying words explained that love is a luxury and not a right as the ruler of Joseon. Yet Lee Soon tries to cram his love with Ok Jung down everyone’s throats, all while treating his classy Queen with no respect and thumbing his noses at the ministers in power. How can I root for him when I think he’s an idiot? I hope the drama rights itself in at least making Lee Soon more strategic, because right now Ok Jung is the brains of this show. Continue reading →

Video Preview for Episode 19 of King Flower

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King Flower crack feels like those old after-school special commercials. This is your brain on KF crack, accompanied by the image of an egg sizzling on the frying pan. Will I be able to pick myself up after experiencing this wild drama filled with ups and downs? Most assuredly, for every single brain-dead line of dialogue to come out of Da Hua and Guan Jun’s lips in the last few episodes is evened out by exquisite thoughtful discourse from Terry. I watched the preview for episode 19 and since it was after my epiphany, I actually laughed out loud at how the drama keeps heaping on the absurdity. Da Hua, who has never once gotten a second glance at Guan Jun in 20 years only to recently get his returned affection for a brief scant month, suddenly develops a raging infection and is hospitalized over her heartbreak. Contrast her to Terry, who saw his beloved fiancee fall off a cliff and then held her in his arms as she took her last breath, and the man powered onward and kept on going. How can KF ask us to take this latest “Da Hua will die if she doesn’t have Guan Jun’s love” seriously when the drama itself doesn’t acknowledge severity versus superficiality?

It felt like watching a person stub her toe and then scream that she needs to go the ER and her toe will never be the same again and HOMG she needs physical therapy afterwards. And conversely the person who just got a limb amputated is standing there practicing to walk quietly and unobtrusively. I think both Da Hua and Guan Jun are such drama queens its pretty amusing just to watch them mope and whine over minor things if I didn’t care so much about Terry getting a fair shake from Da Hua. I really don’t need her to love him back, he’s right that love can’t be forced, but love has to be understandable. And watching Da Hua ignore her feelings for Terry while insisting on loving Guan Jun makes no sense whatsoever, not to mention the zero romantic chemistry or connection between them. Episode 19 will likely throw more awesome Terry moments at us (the hospital, the trip, the proposal), and I’ll surely lap it up and ask for more. I’m glad KF has Terry to keep it afloat and retain my interest with his consistent character, whereas last year around this time in Miss Rose everyone went insane and nothing made sense. Nothing. I’m still waiting for the real Yi Chun to return after getting personality hijacked in the last few episodes of MR. Here we get one out of three. That ain’t so bad, right? Continue reading →