tvN hasn’t had a true saguek in the Sat-Sun time slot and the last sageuks it aired in a different time slot were The Crowned Clown and 100 Days My Prince. It’s time to bring the gravitas and the upcoming Queen Cheorin seems like the comedy soul-swap element will merely be an appetizer comedy before it gets into the heady … Continue reading →
Next year’s big dramas is definitely led by the wilderness survival K-drama Mount Jiri. Starring Jeon Ji Hyun and Joo Ji Hoon with the script by Kim Eun Hee of Kingdom and Signal and the PD of Mr. Sunshine, this drama screams both arthouse cred and Hallyu reach. The two leads play park rangers working in Jiri Mountain and encounter … Continue reading →
Four episodes of Start-Up in, I’ll fight anyone who says Nam Joo Hyuk is still a bad actor. He was wonderful in Dazzling (The Light in Your Eyes) but it was easy to chalk up his improvement to acting opposite consummate veterans Han Ji Min and Kim Hye Ja. He has picked bad dramas like Bride of the Water God … Continue reading →
The inexplicable and bizarre lack of romantic chemistry between the leads in Tale of Gumiho is really dragging down the energy of the drama, but conversely it makes the other parts work harder to keep this thing afloat. Episode 8 is the midway point and got ratings back up to 5.137% and still delivered the good and the dull in … Continue reading →
These drama posters are boring but very very pretty, which accounts for something. Upcoming jTBC drama Run On has an airing date finally of December, after already having two separate 2-week filming shutdowns due to COVID-19 positive testing in the production team. It’s been filming since early summer so I think it could have enough footage in the tank by … Continue reading →
The 2020 Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards took place this week in Seoul with an actual ceremony though very understated as it’s a government sponsored function. It’s organized by the government’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the awards go to all entertainer groups. Of the actors and actresses here are the winners: Order of Cultural Merit went … Continue reading →
The ratings have been dropping for four consecutive episodes of Tale of Gumiho (Tale of the Nine-tailed) and that’s not a good sign since it’s only episode 7. But I totally understand why and while I will probably watch this through to the end it’s starting to go on FF mostly to see what happened in the past and also … Continue reading →
Oooh, I totally forgot that year end is coming (though still two months away) so it’s starting polling season on best/worst lists. Kicking it off is Joynews Korea which held a poll this month to celebrate it’s 16th anniversary. It polled 200 entertainment industry insiders including agency heads, television producers, movie and drama producers, and entertainment news writers for their … Continue reading →
If I try to think even one brain cell more on the whys/hows/whats of SBS drama Alice I think my brain would cave into its own black hole the way the writing did in that drama. As awful was it was by the end, the journey was well worth it for the chance to remember why K-actor Kwak Si Yang … Continue reading →
There were nice snippets in Record of Youth but everything else was so anemic and rudimentary I felt like throwing a temper tantrum just to elicit some emotion around me as I watched. The drama finished this Tuesday with series high 8.740% AGB nationwide ratings, quite remarkable for a thoroughly dull drama and buoyed from beginning to end by the … Continue reading →
K-actor Park Bo Gum may be in the military but he’s all over television the last two months and soon will be on the big screen as well. The sci-fi action big budget movie Seo Bok has started promotions for a December 2 release so just a month away. Gong Yoo is carrying the promos with his costar in the … Continue reading →
There are already less than half the K-dramas that used to air from a decade ago during the heyday of Hallyu shows and now we have to account for understandable filming delays and halts. Looks like COVID-19 isn’t under control yet in South Korea as another production has to pause this week. K-drama Hello It’s Me starring Choi Kang Hee … Continue reading →
I finally get what’s fundamentally missing from the central OTP romance in Record of Youth. Aside from the lack of onscreen chemistry between leads Park Bo Gum and Park So Dam, each are better with other characters in the drama actually, it’s that their youthful romance is devoid of any heady passion. They look like they’ve never even had a … Continue reading →
