K-ent Reporter Derides KBS for Scheduling 4-Hour Long 2022 Year End Drama Awards When It Has No Hits Despite a Sterling Assemblage of Top Stars

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• It was pretty bad year for KBS...

  The Law Café, If You Wish Upon Me and Café Minamdang were so disapointing.

  Love All Play was cute but could have been so better.

  Jinxed at First was creepy.

  Bloody Heart was beautiful and the actors were good. I think the King's showed his strength too late in the story.

• Is there an award for noble effort, well directed, but with a weak last 8 episodes or so? If so it goes to King of Tears. Park Jin-hee was a standout there, a great performance.

• I still can't get over the pairing of Ha Ji Won and Kang Ha Neul... who thought this was a good idea?!

  • Probably people who thought they could re-create the success of the Gong Hyo Jin-King Ha Neul pairing, but failed miserably.

    • Probably! Gong Hyo Jin has a cool young vibe that Ha Ji Won lacks and she ends up looking like his aunt in all the stills I've seen for the show. She would have looked so good with an age appropriate actor.

    • Well originally it was Son Ye Jin that was up for that role. I have only seen the opening of the first ep of Curtain Call, so I can't speak on the Ha Ji Won-Kang Ha Neul pairing, but I think I could see a lot of potential in a Son Ye Jin-Kang Neul pairing.

  • victory contents and the pd i guess. they've been eying for khn since 2020. so ambitious.

  • Ha Ji-won does not look like she could pass as Kang Ha-neul's aunt. She looks the same she did in her last drama, and she's the type who appears younger than her age. In the stills, she just looks more strait-laced than she usually does because of her formal hair style and outfits. And when I saw her on screen, I did not get the feeling she was miscast as Kang Ha-neul's potential love interest. You shouldn't just judge people's appearances based on stills alone.

    • Exactly! Anyone who says she looks like Kang Ha Neul's aunt is obviously exaggerating. And judging from the stills or short snippets is plain shallow. You have to watch actual video footage to judge. In fact, compared to some of her past co-stars like Lee Seung Gi or Kang Min Hyuk, the age gap here isn't so apparent because Kang Ha Neul looks mature (in a really good way, of course!).

      I have to agree that the styling here does make her look older than we're used to seeing. The makeup done on her also seems to be rather hit and miss, sometimes it looks fine but sometimes it is overdone and makes her look older and more stark. But in a way, it is good for her to look older than usual in this drama. You can't please everyone - if she looks too young people will say she's acting well below her age. Anyway, filters can be applied even in dramas or movies so they're not completely accurate. The best way to judge would be fancam footage and judging from the most recent videos taken of her at the airport and in Japan for her fanmeeting last month, she looks so much younger than she does in Curtain Call.

      Anyway, Curtain Call is rather old-fashioned in its plot and execution and I get why it might not appeal to certain younger audiences. Having said that, I certainly don't feel that there's any mismatch in the casting here. Have watched up to Episode 12 so far and I find her chemistry with Kang Ha Neul very natural and easygoing (don't expect that type of sizzling hot romance because it's not meant to be that way).

      Gong Hyo Jin is also a fantastic actress (for some reason I like her serious work more than her rom-coms which she's famous for though), but I don't think she looks any younger than Ha Ji Won, and the young cool vibe which she radiates in real life or in some of her other dramas wasn't apparent in When The Camellia Blooms. There were also comments about her looking like his aunt, which I definitely don't agree with, but it's not like the age gap was completely unnoticeable either (and it was clear from the start that that drama was meant to be a noona romance type).

      P.S.: Have to agree to disagree with Koala and some others about lack of chemistry between Lee Seung Gi and Lee Se Young in Law Cafe. The drama had some of the hottest and sweetest love scenes (by drama standards, at least) he has ever done to date and his chemistry with her was definitely better than with his co-stars in his recent dramas like Vagabond or Mouse.

• If all else fails with their weekday shows, usually KBS can rely on at least one weekend drama for ratings high. But, even that is missing for them this year, so yikes on that.

• How far KBS has fallen. Just decade ago this channel is the one which Song Joong Ki starring at. From Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Innocent Man, and DOTS. such a sad circumstance.

  • Yeah I remember that last golden era of KBS between 2009 and 2010. They produced monster hit dramas in those two years with 35+ and higher ratings with Boys Over Flowers, Iris, Chuno, and Baker King. Iris finale had ratings over 40 and Baker King spent half the series in the 40 and over range with ratings for the it's finale over 50. And these dramas were regular Mon-Tues (in the case of BOF) and Wed-Thurs dramas.

    This year may be a bust for KBS ratings wise, but if they all show up, it looks like it's going to be a night of some of my fave actors. Seo In Guk, Kang Ha Neul, Jang Hyuk, Kim Jae Wook, Ji Chang Wook, Im Ju Hwan, Oh Min Suk, Lee Seung Gi, Lee Joon, and the cherry of top of Yonghwa being an MC. Looking forward to the interactions too. You've got the idol contingent with Soohyung, Seohyun, Krystal, D.O., Hyeri, Lee Joon, and Yonghwa. There's also goo gobs of potential reunions I'm looking forward to as well. You have Ha Ji Won and Ji Chang Wook of 'Empress Ki', Seo In Guk and Lee Hana of 'High School King of Savvy', Kang Ha Neul and Krystal of 'Heirs', Yonghwa and Seohyun of 'We Got Married', Jang Hyuk, Oh Yeon Seo, and Im Ju Hwan of 'Shine or Go Crazy', and Lee Seung Gi and Oh Yeon Seo of 'Hwayugi'. I didn't even watch 'Voice', but you also have a Lee Hana, Jang Hyuk, and Kim Jae Wook reunion in the makings as well. Really hoping to see Kim Jae Wook and Krystal get a Couple award; they were a lot of fun. Their ladder kiss has joined the ranks of my favorite drama kiss scenes.

• There weren't any hits but it's not like they were all trash. King of Tears was good for a broadcast drama before the horse death overshadowed the drama.

  It's tough on the actors who have to go to multiple channel awards all within the same few days. 4 hours is long. And if you're acting and singing/doing variety...gotta go to those too. I guess Koreans are used to enduring after work gatherings

  • KBS is likely doing this because the competition that night is stiff. It's airing New Year's Eve opposite the SBS Drama Awards with it's multiple buzz worthy dramas reaching double digit ratings. SBS has Business Proposal, Why Her, Again My Life, and One Dollar Lawyer and the mystery of who will win the Daesang going for them. Then you have MBC Gayo Daejejeon which might be on as background music for families ringing in the New Year.

• All the drama are really good..views rating is not everything...I enjoy watching law cafe..

• I think that's unfair of the writer. Ratings aren't everything and whether the dramas were hits or not the cast and crew still worked very hard in them and deserve to be recognised for their work.

  I do think no drama award needs to 4 hours long though. They could decrease the length of the ceremony by about an hour.

• I just want to see my rabbit boys Seo In Guk, Lee Seung Gi, Ji Chang Wook plus others like Kang Ha Neul, Jang Hyuk, Kim Jae Wook and DO grace the red carpet and perhaps perform some songs in the 4 hour ceremony. I still remember the 2014 KBS Year End Awards show. There were some great couple pairings that year. This year is really meh in terms of KBS couple pairings. There were hardly any sizzling chemistry at all even for Chemistry Kings SIG and JCW. Sigh. All the best for next year.