More dramas for me. Oh noooo. Oh YES

[dangermousie]

I just added another kdrama to my already immense viewing list (you do not want to know how many dramas I have on disc/harddrive that I haven’t seen yet): Hotelier an oldie (2001) but goodie 20 ep drama that revolves around the complicated lives and loves of a bunch of people in the hotel indistry.

Why? There are ruthless men in suits with messed-up background, who discover what it is to love. There are spunky, unmaterialistic heroines. Rain scenes and smoochies and angst and happy ending. What’s not to like?







I guess this will be my first Bye Young Joon drama, which is odd since Winter Sonata is so super famous (I still saw posters with images from it in Japan) but I am watching this first. I do own WS and intend to watch it relatively soon (amnesia! Blindness! True love in the snow! :D) but later. It’s going to be weird, since unlike most people familiar with BYJ, my first exposure to him wasn’t as the sweet romantic of WS but as the unscrupulous, slutty, horrid but fun lead in Untold Scandal, the Korean take on ‘Dangerous Liasons,’ a movie which has more nudity and sexual activity in the first five minutes than all of the Korean dramas I’ve ever seen put together. And now the word ‘exposure’ is beginning to seem oddly unfortunate :D

Actually, this leads me to the question. How come Korean dramas are so very chaste (even more so than Taiwanese dramas) but Korean movies can be very explicit: Untold Scandal, Chunhyang (I adore that movie, but oh boy, it’s clearly a very hard R), and I haven’t seen 3-Iron yet but on the back of my DVD it says it’s rated ‘R’ for sexual content so it can’t be all flowers and puppies. Odd.

But to get back to dramas I want to see: there is Which Star Are You From, (or Which Planet Are You From, I've seen both) about a man who loses his gf but learns to love again when he meets a woman who looks exactly like her.





So cute:



























And because I shouldn't have a post without The Devil pics, here are a few yummy and a few creepy pics of JJH.















Not The Devil but some event but who cares! I love the pic! And that's Jae Hee in the audience, as an extra bonus:

Comments

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

I saw Hotelier ages and ages ago with my mom, and I can't really remember too much about it, except that I actually liked it. I've heard that there is actually a jdrama remake of it in the works, which has me quite interested indeed. "Winter Sonata", on the other hand...okay, you know I still have very violent reactions to the mere THOUGHT of that drama, and the thing is that it probably wasn't that bad, but good grief. The montages. The crying. THE BIG BLUE SCARF.

*shakes head*

I never quite realized that JJH could look so...maniacal. I love it!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Doesn't JJH look deliciously evil. My Goong-drooling brain is all confused now :)

Re: WS. LOL. Surely it couldn't be that horrid. At least not the blue scarf :D (I am now imagining a mnstrocity the size of Mars). I must watch WS now if only out of curiosity.

[partypaprika.livejournal.com]

Awhile back, before I really got into dramas, I saw an episode of Hotelier on television. I'd completely forgotten about it until you just mentioned it! The main girl from Full House is in it, which makes me want to watch it. For Which Star Are You From, is that the girl who's in My Name is Kim Sam Soon? Because that looks really cute! And I just can't wait until the Devil comes out with subs...!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love Song Hye-Kyo and she is a big part of the reason I want to watch Hotelier. And yeah, the female lead in WSAYF is the same as in Sam Soon...

I can't wait for The Devil either...

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

(*^#($*&^Q&(*#)%#@*#4

Everytime I see pics of Ji Hoon I just lose my coherence :D

I've thought about watching Hotelier before 'cause it's got Song Hye-kyo, but since it's an old serial I've put it on hold for the time being. I've heard very good things about Which Star Are You From, too, but the official DVDs haven't been released yet, and the pirated ones have really sucky subs :/ But from the pics you've posted, it seems like a very cute dorama ^^

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am going to try to get my hands on some DVDs of WSAYF that might have good subs. Let me check it out.

I have so many dramas, I am getting bewildered with how I am going to watch them all, especially since new ones keep coming out. I haven't even had time to get past ep 9 of SQ with the schedule. I need to have 50 hour days :)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Heee... I can sympathise, though I don't think I have as many "to watch doramas" in my list as you do :) I actually have about the same amount of (Asian) movies to watch as doramas. They're just sitting there collecting dust for the time being :D

Oh you should totally finish Snow Queen 'cause it's really one of the most enjoyable k-dramas I've watched in a while ^^

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am finishing SQ before anything else. Finished ep 9 and it's really good.

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

wow JJH looks a bit scary with those eyes and lips like that, but still incredibly hot by doing so...

and i'm planning to watch which star are you from as soon as i finish snow queen....

the whole having sooooo many dramas to watch is also my problem, i bought a few dvds and now with all theses new dramas in my harddrive i feel like there's not time to watch all of them since i still have some school work to do but oh well, i make time for my dramas..

and the whole tv drama versus kmovies, might have something to do with tv censorship. it's usually more tame in tv since it's public broadcasting they have stricter rules on deceny and in movies since you pick and pay for the movies, it's more privatized whatever indecent thing you see it's kinda like you paid to see it. when you watch tv, you pick the chanel and the program but it's being paid for by advertising and stuff, so they put what is is deemed alright to show for all ages...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

He does look gorgeous.

And the censorship thing makes sense.I guess I was so used to dramas I was taken aback (not in a bad way, just surprised). JJH needs to make a movie, then :)

And yay about WSAYF! I am planning to watch it pronto. The thing is, I already have all these other dramas I want to watch and they keep being pushed around in the to-watch list :)

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

yeah i agree on JJH should make a movie *that way we can see more of his gorgeous body*

and yeah i know what you mean i've been planning on watching goongs but i've been putting off watching the rest of it

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I'm worried about the ending of What Star Are You From (like surely it couldn't end with the girl dying "again"?) but I really wanna see it. The lady was in MNIKSS and I sorta liked her despite her character's bad moments and Kim Rae-won has been one of my various Korean crushes ever since I saw My Little Bride.

OMG that little smile JJH does is 100% evilllll. Holy craaap.

I guess the drama/movie distinction comes from the idea that you can watch a drama with kids running around or you grandma sitting next to you but the company is usually a fellow adult when you go to the movies. It's also a genre thing - romantic comedies are rather chaste.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The movie thing makes sense. Of course Chunhyang is a love story as well, but really explicit. But yeah, the 'family' thing with TV makes more sense especially since these aren't HBO type channels.

If you want spoilers, WSAYF ends happily.

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

Hotelier always reminds me of my mom. She was so obsessed with it. I've seen some of it since she watched that about 4 times, lol. Bye Young Joon is her favorite so she loves everything of his. The pictures of Which Star Are You From look really cute. I love Rae Won. I think I saw the first episode awhile back on youtube. I really don't remember a thing. I honestly cannot watch a full drama on youtube anymore. I hope you'll post about it if you watch. I'm interested in checking it out again. Gah, JJH pictures!!! Some reason I don't find it creepy but kind of hot? I'm sick. The 4th picture about kills me. Why is he so beautiful?? *dies* I'm dying for the subs! :(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am a bit torn about whether to watch Hotelier or Winter Sonata first. Hotelier sounds more interesting to me (icy tycoons! With messed up pasts! Who give up everything for the woman they love!) but WS is just such a 'thing.' Seriously, there were posters from it all over the pachinko parlors when we were in Japan in the fall and the drama is what, 7 years old now? I still can't believe I've never seen a BYJ drama. I remember actually posting an article about him (it was in the Times, I think) because it was dealing with the phenomenon in Japan and women coming over to Korea just to look at places WS was filmed. At that point, I had no idea who he was, never saw a drama and have watched about two Korean movies ages ago. So I posted that as 'oooooh, amusing' type item. Little did I know.

And JJH? Gorgeous.

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

I kind of remember Hotelier being pretty interesting when I had a peak. Winter Sonata just seems way too depressing.I agree, It really is a "thing". It's just one of those classic korean dramas. I was at Japanese supermarket today and it had a media section the only korean dorama they had was Winter Sonata. Wow, that's amazing people just going to Korea to see the place where it was filmed. (I actually thought if i ever go to Japan I need to go to Ebisu Garden Place :P) I'm glad I'm not the only person that hasn't seen BYJ drama. I don't know if I ever will. I did dl one of his movies "April Snow" but since I know it's sad I'm saving it for later on.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

WS does have a happy ending ;)

Re: going to places. But it's not like you'd be going to Japan for the purpose of seeing Ebisu :)

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

Oh, for some reason I thought WS had a sad ending. Maybe I'm messing that up with Autumn Tale. I'll have to reconsider watching it now. :)

That's true. I love Hanadan but not to that insane extent. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Naaaah, happy. Yay.

[aliterati.livejournal.com]

Okay, those pictures are adorable. But I thought you hated the someone-who-looks-just-like-my-One True Love-is-as-good-as-the-real-thing storyline idea.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh I do normally. But here the story is how she is, even though she looks the same, is nothing like his dead gf, personality-wise. And how he ends up falling in love with her for her. So I am all onboard with that.

[birdofpray09.livejournal.com]

Wow.

JJH Looks very very good in black.

I'm not sure anymore if I want him to be good or evil! When I first heard his character is supposed to turn evil in the drama I was all 'No, it's JJH! It's Shin, how can you turn him evil?' But now, seeing those pictures . . . I'm thinking JJH turning bad might not be such a bad thing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know. He looks so hot evil!!!