Gumiho’s Revenge’s new name and cast additions

Kim Yoo-jung, Seo Shin-ae

The drama initially called Gumiho’s Revenge has been renamed Gumiho: Tale of the Fox’s Child [구미호: 여우누이뎐]. With the Hong sisters putting out their own series this year (My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho), there were initial questions of similarities between the two dramas, but I don’t think that will be a concern, as Gumiho: Tale of the Fox’s Child will be a suspenseful sageuk series. And now that the details of the story are out, I have to say it sounds pretty intriguing (though a lot rests on the direction and execution).

This title is actually closer to the original name under which the script won a prize in a KBS script competition last year, which literally means “Fox Sister” but in this particular case means “Fox’s Child,” according to a source with KBS. The change was made to preserve the feel of the original work, and the child in question is the half-human girl born to the gumiho (a shape-shifting fox with nine tails that takes human form) played by Han Eun-jung.

In the story, Han’s character endures ten harsh years of marriage in order to become human, but the night before the ten-year mark, her husband breaks his promise and ruins that for her (which explains the previous title, “Gumiho’s Revenge”). She leaves her husband and takes her 9-year-old daughter away that night. A gumiho must turn ten years old before her powers manifest, so in order to keep her daughter safe, the mother comes to a village of humans.

That daughter will be played by Kim Yoo-jung, the child actress who played Han Hyo-joo’s younger counterparts in both Iljimae and Dong Yi. Another familiar young face belongs to Seo Shin-ae, who was plucky and adorable in Thank You and High Kick Through the Roof. She plays the daughter of a noble family who is born on the same night and in the same city as the gumiho girl, and comes to live with the mother and daughter pair as they “become entangled in a peculiar story.”

Seo Joon-young, Baek Bong-gi

Two men have also been added to the cast: Seo Joon-young (Great King Sejong, Radish Kimchi, Sharp 3) and Baek Bong-gi (Pasta).

The 23-year-old Seo will have a romantic storyline with Han Eun-jung, with whom he has briefly worked before; they were in SG Wannabe’s music videos for “Crime and Punishment” and “As I Live.” (In the former, he played a high school student harboring a one-sided crush on his teacher, played by Han.)

Baek Bong-gi, meanwhile, has a comic role playing a servant who acts as a love messenger between the gumiho daughter and his master.

According to director Lee Gun-joon, Kim Yoo-jung’s and Seo Shin-ae’s roles will have “more focus than people think,” and voiced his confidence that they will be able to handle that weight because both actresses have accrued a lot of experience and because their skills are on par of adult actors. He added that this drama is making an effort to visually depict the gumiho in a fresh way that differs from what viewers have come to expect in summer horror shows like Hometown of Legends.

The 16-episode Gumiho: Tale of the Fox’s Child will follow current comedy series My Country Calls on Mondays and Tuesdays, premiering on July 5.

credit : javabeans

f(x) Victoria and 2PM Nich Khun to join MBC We Got Married as first foreigner make-believe couple

2PM Nich Khun and f(x) Victoria will become make-believe couple.

The 2 idol couple had recently participated in the filming of MBC We Got Married on 1st June. It is their first filming together on the show.

And they will also be the first couple on the show consisting of foreigners. Great anticipation is for the couple’s interaction on the show.

Meanwhile, the current 2 couples on the show are Jo Kwon and GaIn, and SeoHyun and Jung YongHwa. Nich Khun and Victoria will join as the 3rd couple on the show.

credit : sookyeong@ kbites+as labeled

Goong, Iljimae director takes on Playful Kiss adaptation

Okay, now THIS I could really get behind!

When I first heard about the adaptation of Itazura na Kiss for Korean television, I was not impressed — I’m tired of the constant Japanese-manga-to-kdrama efforts, and I was skeptical about Group Eight’s ability to handle it well. The production house’s biggest success to date has been Boys Before Flowers, and they seem to have a particular eye for translating trendy manhwas to television, but for every decent show (Tamra the Island) they’ve had a bomb (Goong S). And we all know that Boys Before Flowers was a success despite numerous flaws.

However! Now director Hwang In-roi has signed on, and that makes me very, VERY excited. Hwang In-roi did Goong and Return of Iljimae, and turned those two projects into sumptuous feasts for the eyes. I didn’t love Goong’s pacing, but as a work of directing it’s a gorgeous feat, and Return of Iljimae. Those two dramas, which were both based on manhwas, have breathtaking cinematography and two of the best soundtracks and scores of any kdramas I’ve ever seen. Hwang has a sharp eye and brings out the best in his actors, including a few who were not known for their acting before working with him (Yoon Eun-hye, Joo Ji-hoon, Jung Il-woo), and has a wonderful, delicate touch with emotional beats.

Writing is Go Eun-nim of Bungee Jumping of Our Own, the 2001 film starring Lee Byung-heon and the late Lee Eun-ju.

Playful Kiss (aka Mischievous Kiss) was adapted into a hit Taiwanese drama in 2005, It Started With a Kiss, and was so popular that it produced a sequel series.

The Korean drama version will soon finish casting and begin filming in July, and is aiming for a Fall 2010

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SS501 releases full MV for ‘Love Ya’!

Back with the new album ‘Destination’, SS501 released the full music video for the title song ‘Love Ya’. Coming back even stronger than before with a mix between strong instrumentals and a powerful beat, they plan to be appearing on the various music shows with the new hit this week. What do you guys think about the new music video and concept?

credit: nulsaranghae@kbites+as labeled

K-pop group Super Junior’s concert causes stampede at Shanghai Expo, one death reported

A Korean pop concert held yesterday at the Expo Culture Center caused something of a stampede – reports of how bad it got vary, from the Epoch Time’s rumor that someone died to Shanghai Daily’s blithe announcement that the streets were “blocked by fans.”

If anything, this event was a warning about the power of K-pop: South Korea had planned a “classical and pop” concert that included insanely huge acts – Kangta, BoA and Super Junior, whose Shanghai shows sell out at 10,000+ seated stadiums each year they come. They’re so insanely huge that it almost makes you wonder what organizers were thinking when they arranged that show.

To get in, all you supposedly had to do was get an Expo ticket and line up at the center, an act which, if you’re a student, costs 90RMB. That’s way less than the Super Junior 2009 show’s ticket prices at Yuan Shen Sports Center, where the cheapest you could get in for was 480RMB. Unfortunately, there were only 5000 tickets available, and half of those had already been given to South Korean groups – a fact that eager Chinese K-pop fans hadn’t been made aware of.

By midnight on Saturday, according to Lianhe Zaobao, there were already 2000 people waiting outside the Expo’s Pudong door. Night watch people were blindsided. By the time the limited amount of tickets sold out (The Standard reports there were less than 500), roughly 5000 people were waiting around.

When the crowd realized all tickets were gone, they began to get violent. A witness on the internet said that “several girls were stepped on and over by several guys. So messy, so messy, All the crying and yelling turned into one big wave. There were so many shoes. One girl even fell from the second floor.” The original post has already been harmonized on Tianya. Lianhe says the rumor that this girl died hasn’t been confirmed, though Hong Kong’s Apple Daily seems to be reporting it as fact (watch the YouTube video in that link or below, it has some images of police guards frantically running to contain the crowd).

What they both agree on is that hundreds of people were injured, whether from the pushing and shoving or from heatstroke. The Expo official report itself said that “In the event, several tourists suffered from heatstroke and abrasions and were rushed to nearby medical facilities at the park.” That’s a little more than “blocked by fans,” isn’t it?

Which actually makes me wonder – it seems that Shanghai Daily is still the only China-based paper that’s picked up on the news and their version was way more sanitized than the dozens of Mandarin reports in Chinese media. It almost feels like Chinese media controllers, for the first time I’ve noticed, are more scared about what the outside world thinks than what their own people think.

credit: sookyeong@kbites+as labeled

Kim Jung-eun takes over I Am Legend

Kim Jung-eun is taking the role vacated by Kim Sun-ah as the lead character in the ajumma-turned-rocker drama, I Am Legend.

While I was more excited about the prospect of Kim Sun-ah heading this drama, I do like Kim Jung-eun as an actress and think she’d do quite nicely with her knack for comic timing. She has also performed multiple times while hosting her music-talk show Kim Jung-eun’s Chocolate, which is where the above photo comes from. I can’t think of too many actresses in their thirties who can portray trophy wife, ajumma, and lead singer of a band all in the same drama, but I have hope that Kim Jung-eun will be able to pull it off.

Kim’s last television role was in MBC’s General Hospital 2, a year and a half ago, and she has been hosting Chocolate since then. In fact, I Am Legend’s director Kim Hyung-shik (Surgeon Bong Dal-hee) sought out Kim because of the live music program, and as she has always had a strong interest in music, Kim accepted the offer. In addition, music director Lee Jae-hak has come onboard; he worked on the hit sports film Take Off and the music-world-based 200 Pound Beauty.

The story centers around Jeon-seol (which means “Legend”), who was the lead singer of a band in her high school days and ruled her neighborhood as the coolest of the cool. As an adult, she marries into an upper-crust family who treats her poorly, and she ends up divorcing. She decides to get her groove back by forming a new group, which becomes an “ajumma band” of women who use music to heal themselves and deal with their own personal issues. The three other band members who had been cast back when Kim Sun-ah was headlining are still with the project — drummer Jang Shin-young (Winter Bird), bassist Hong Ji-min (a musical actress who was in Style), and guitarist Juni (former singer of rock band BellaMafia and hacker in IRIS).

I Am Legend will air on SBS after Coffee House ends, premiering in August.

credit : javabeans

Another celeb detained on drug charges

A year after star Joo Ji-hoon was busted for drug use, another drug scandal is breaking. At the center of attention is an as-yet-unnamed singer-turned-actor who was taken for police questioning as one of 23 people rounded up in a large drug bust. Those involved are charged with regular use of marijuana and methamphetamine (crystal meth).

Eleven were charged and held in custody on May 30, including one Ms. C, age 29, who is the director at an English hagwon (academy). Twelve were charged but not detained, including the celebrity in question, who is identified as Mr. Kim, 24. He is alleged to have bought both meth and marijuana, and smoked the latter a total of 18 times between December 2009 and April 2010 in his Kangnam home. They were supplied by a Mr. Lee, 26, who sold them the drugs and is a teacher at the English hagwon. Lee was reportedly deported from the States for a similar charge.

Naturally, this has netizens curious about “Mr. Kim”’s identity, who has been identified by the media as a singer with his acting debut in the works, and many believe they’ve narrowed it down to one pop star in particular.

The facts as outlined in news reports:

• He is 24, and a singer turned actor.
• He made his solo singer debut about a year ago. His screen debut in a movie is upcoming.
• His mini-homepage is reportedly attracting massive attention, drawing close to 10,000 visitors in 12 hours.

This has led to a lot of speculation that he is Hero Jaejoong of DBSK, and for a while his was the top name in online portal searches. But that seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the age and singer aspect, and it appears that not all the details fit. (It’s been many years since Jaejoong debuted as a singer, and his acting debut was last year.)

Now the name drawing most attention is Taegoon, and the facts seem to fit his case more closely.

Taegoon

Taegoon debuted in 2009 with a mini album. He is 24. His acting debut was announced last month in the film Piano on the Sea, where he plays a genius pianist and was set to star with Jo Ahn as his love interest. His mini-homepage has close to 9,000 visitors today.

credit:javabeans