This is one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken. It was shot during Gong Hyo Jin’s brief New York visit when she and So Ji Sub came to accept their “Rising Star of Asia” awards given to them by the New York Asian Film Festival.

Anyway, I’ve been a complete fangirl over Miss Gong the last few weeks. I managed to watch a good portion of “Thank You” for her (terrible drama, so circular in logic, really heavy-handed with the AIDs theme) and she’s a stunningly graceful actress. What I love about her is that she feels so natural and at ease. “Thank You” is a melodrama, so a lot of angst and tearing were expected, but Gong Hyo Jin has that quality about her that lessens your fear of melodramas, lol. Her expressions and her speaking don’t stress me out. Characters in melodramas, regardless of actor/actress, always have the tendency to act like the end of the world is coming, but watching Gong Hyo Jin act, I just felt like I was calmly observing a woman living her days peacefully, despite turmoil.

Right now I’m watching her in “Pasta,” and she makes watching a chef cook the same dish of pasta 75 times very watchable. Did I mention that I LOVE her speaking voice? There’s something soft and hard about it at the same time and her line delivery is always perfect.

CAN’T STOP GUSHING.

Read the rest of this entry »

Song Joong Ki has a cameo on Will it Snow on Christmas? and I’ve been marathoning Triple, so naturally he’s the object of my current affection.

Even though I’m starting to be really bored of Triple, I think Song Joong Ki’s scenes with Min Hyo Rin are the best. He’s just so refreshing to watch as an actor and he’s always so BRIGHT. I wonder how he’d fare with a darker role, but for some reason I think his baby face is one of those things about him that will have him playing happy-go-lucky roles for the rest of his career.

(He also looks *so* much like Onew from certain angles that it alarms me. And let me tell ya, I love me some Onew. His and Song Joong Ki’s forever baby faces are the reason why they would both have a hard time carrying the “mature” image. See: Onew in the Ring Ding Dong music video.)

Anyway, I’ve digressed. Song Joong Ki is an actor with tons of potential and I’m really anxious to see him get a bigger role for his next project, and hopefully he’ll go down the route a la Kim Bum, once he starts playing the darker, non-cutesy characters.

Moar, moar, MOAR!

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t even play like you didn’t see this coming.

I feel like I tell this story every chance I get, but I first got into JGS when I watched Hong Gil Dong. That was an insane period of picture-chasing, video-watching, and fangirl-tarding. I love his speaking voice and I like that he improves with every project. I don’t really care about “Beethoven Virus” but rediscovering how good he is now makes me want to go back to all his older stuff and give it a shot.

I know, I know — enough talk, get on with the spam!

Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like I’ve got another actress on my “can do no wrong” list. Han Hyo Joo is not a superb actress, but there’s something about her that’s just so likable. For me, she’s just like Shin Mina in that respect. I think Shin Mina is generally pretty good at what she does — not spectacular, but pretty good — but she’s got that something that allows me to disregard whatever flaws she might have at her profession. That makes me sound intensely creepy / unable to separate reality from dramas, but it’s aight, I’m still sane.

But I enjoy finding new actors and actresses to like, because it allows me to keep up with their work and see if they improve in their trade. Like the fact that Han Hyo Joo has already picked up a new project excites me because I’ll want to follow it. (Jang Hyuk too?! Sign me UP.)

Does anyone else think Han Hyo Joo looks ridiculously like a less diva/overly sexified version of Hyori? Or maybe a lovechild between Hyori and Han Ji Min??

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve watched the first two episodes of Partner and I’ll get around to recapping/reviewing those, but just the mere watching of Lee Dong Wook in something new makes me superbly happy. So happy that I rewatched “My Girl” just for him. (I just have to say — of all the old-ish K-drama classics that almost everyone watches after they get into K-dramas, “My Girl” is probably my favorite. Even if I didn’t rewatch every single minute of “My Girl,” I would never, ever make myself re-experience “Goong,” “My Name is Kim Sam Soon,” etc etc over again. I’ve still never watched hardcore classics like “Lovers in Paris,” “I’m Sorry I Love You,” or any of those seasonal dramas (and I don’t plan on doing so), but if I had one comfort drama, it would be “My Girl.”)

Anyway, off on a tangent. In the leagues of Hallyu wave actor-leaders, I don’t think Lee Dong Wook ranks high — even though “My Girl” is one of the best examples of dramas in Hallyu’s waving of drama and angst — and that’s always surprised me. He’s done a decent amount of acting in dramas, even if everything before MG was virtually unknown, but then he disappeared off drama-making for three years after MG and came back with the dark “La Dolce Vita.” LDW is a pretty good actor and even though I wish he were a teensy, teensy bit better with the anger/rage/tears-n-snot scenes, he gets the job done and is really pleasant to watch. He really surprised me with how good a comedic actor he was because I had expected a lot of the Joo Ji Hoon-esque stiffness of playing a really sober chaebol/high-status male lead but LDW totally let loose when it was required of him in MG.

There’s also the way he tends to carry himself for the characters he plays. As Seol Gong Chan in MG, he knew how to look annoyed in the patient, restrained way only chaebols can look (lol) and he was amused in a very precise I-must-not-let-my-hair-get-ruffled way. That’s why despite the story flaws in “Partner” so far, I can’t wait to see more of how LDW’s character develops. He’s really getting down the sleazy, arrogant, prickbastard role down pat — can’t wait to see him taken down a notch or two and see what LDW does with his character.

And in terms of comparison, I finally get what people mean when they say that Lee Minho reminds them of Lee Dong Wook. It is COMPLETELY true, y’all. Except, I think Lee Minho is even better than Lee Dong Wook, but they both have a really great sense of cool and stoicism that makes their characters completely believable. And maybe it’s because I keep smushing all my K-pop crushes together, but Super Junior’s Kyuhyun’s real life demeanor also really reminds me of Lee Dong Wook’s characters’. Their speaking voices also sound similar to me, and what a coincidence, they always play Kyuhyun’s part in SuJu’s song for the Partner OST when the scene requires it.

Okay. The rest of this post is mainly a “let me show you how attractive Lee Dong Wook is” post.

Read the rest of this entry »