Joo Won 주원 [Drama- The Midnight Studio/ 야한(夜限) 사진관]

[flutterby06]

@kittyna, wow...Nice writing. 

I also didn't notice the costume when I saw only the photo. Like you it's one of my really favourite Joo Won photo. But then one day I saw this video where I saw that these are actually character bears. I think it was gift from JWDC.

Here's the link:

 

And there is also another favourite of mine that I want to share is the birthday event video that was done by Tomorrow Cantabile production. It was really thoughtful of them to surprise him like that.

 

 

[kittyna]

35 minutes ago, flutterby06 said:

I also didn't notice the costume when I saw only the photo. Like you it's one of my really favourite Joo Won photo. But then one day I saw this video where I saw that these are actually character bears. I think it was gift from JWDC.

Here's the link,

I don't see the link...could you please try sending it again? Thanks!

 

And I love the TC surprise, too - that was so sweet

 

EDIT - I see the teddy video now. Thanks!

[flutterby06]

@lavender2love, Hi, hope you're doing well. Try seeing a new drama of Joo Won, won't you? How about Good Doctor?

 

Ha ha..This is just me recruiting new people to watch Good Doctor. Don't worry, you may take your time picking dramas for watching Joo Won. Thanks to you for stopping by and cheering us.

 

@sagaseed, you're welcome. 

 

[valinor500]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOO WON!!! 

 

Quote

 

And many hugs from Italy to all my dear Soompi Friends! 

[airplanegirl]

BoA and Lee Su Geun went golfing together, and their friend teased Joo Won in the caption: 

 

Translation: 

[kittyna]

lol - I love that series of tags there. I always think it's funny when tags end up turning into something like a telegram - in this case. "Gagman. Singer. I'm a fan. Europe. I want to go. Joo Won. How are you? By the way, light rain." I don't know why I find it so amusing - maybe it's because of the way it ends up sounding in my head....

 

By the way, while searching up photos to use in my birthday post the other day, I remembered that the Instyle Korea photoshoot from the summer of 2014 was one of my personal favourites. I ended up using one of the photos in the birthday post, but this time, I'm sharing the video they made:

 

 

Chances are, there's nothing new here and you guys are all familiar with it. But this is one of those videos that I like to pull back out and watch from time to time. I just think it's really well put together - minus the obvious product placement, of course

[lavender2love]

Dear @kittyna, that is a beautiful and heartfelt writing. It is warm and inspirational. Great title . I'm sure it brings joy to Joo Won who is such a good man and a talented actor. He is fortunate to have fans like you and ALL THE CUTIES HERE and surely your love gives him the support and encouragement.

As per Soompi rules I have to delete the pictures and also make a paragraph break in the middle.

 

On 9/30/2017 at 11:41 AM, kittyna said:

I know it's late, but it's nighttime on September 29 for me right now, meaning that it's almost September 30 here in Canada.

 

In other words: it's showtime!

 

I've seen list-style birthday posts on sites like Dramafever, and since this is the first time I'm marking my bias's birthday in any formal capacity, I wanted to try something similar myself. It might sound cheesy, but the title of the film "Ten Things I Hate About You" came to my mind - or, rather, its opposite: "Ten Things I Love About You". So that's the format my list will take: ten things I love, along with ten birthday wishes/prayers for the future.

 

So, without further ado...

 

Ten Things I Love About You - Joo Won Style

 

 

 

1. I love your name. I love that it sounds like the Korean for "Lord willing". I pray that you will keep that name in your heart, and always seek to do as your Lord wills.

 

2. I love your eyes. I love that they are sharp and observant and are a window to your soul. I pray that you will always be discerning and able to see the right path.

 

3. I love your smile. I love that it is genuine and warm, and brings a smile to my face, too. I pray that you will be happy and joyful, even when things get tough now that you are in the army.

 

4. I love your acting. You have brought so many beautiful characters to life - from Gu Ma Jun all the way to Gyun Woo, from Lee Kang To to Park Si On and everything in between. And I love that underneath it all, you are still Moon Jun Won at heart. I pray that your talent and skill continue to grow and that you can continue to challenge yourself in the roles you want.

 

5. I love your voice. I love that it is so strong and powerful, yet can be so gentle and soft. I love that it reaches into my heart, even if it is in a language I do not know. I pray that you will once again have the chance to sing again on stage in a musical, sharing your gift with the world.

 

6. I love that you are a Joseon man. You show me that there is nothing wrong with keeping the old ways and traditional values. I pray that you will continue to use the Confucian teachings of our ancestors to guide your life.

 

 

Yes so glad he acted the perfect boy friend, son and brother in MSG. And favoured by the king was made  the made the National Treasure .He's a good man. I think he is a Christian but I'm sure he understands and values the teachings of on Confucius.

 

On 9/30/2017 at 11:41 AM, kittyna said:

 

7. I love that you are a family man. I love that they are such a big part of your life and that you want to honour them and not rebel against them. I pray that you will have a warm and loving family of your own someday.

 

8. I love your diligence. You put yourself through so much while acting. You go without food, without sleep, without breaks in order to bring your characters to life - yet no matter how stressful it gets, you never quit. I pray that you can realize your dream to act for the rest of your life, and become the sunbae that everyone looks up to ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

 

9. I love your innocence. Your aegyo makes me smile, because I can see that there is still a pure and innocent child inside of you. I pray that you will continue to stay pure and that this childlike faith will never die.

 

10. I love your hard-headed spirit. You are strong and able to stay on the path you have chosen for yourself. I pray that this path will be straight and righteous, and that it will lead you to greater blessings in the years to come.

 

Happy birthday, Joo Won! 주원 오빠, 생일 축하해요!

 

 

 

This is special because of the significance of his last drama before enlisting. He was good to watch and most of all I made great fans ( some JW first timers ) at the MSG thread . Not to mention the information gleaned from knowledgeable " sabu " there.

You were engaging too and with @flutterby06and others the thread brimmed with life. Love the buzz. 

Hi to @flutterby06.....  < wave > You're a good trooper. Yep... maybe one day. Wishing you well in your new job ( a few months now right ?  ) Take care.

 

 

Hello @mabelialong.. so surprised and pleased to see you send JW Birthday greetings. I didn't know you're a JW fan. You're so good at making posters and beautiful cards. I'm still grateful for the help you gave me at Oh Hae Young's wedding. 

 

 

Keiko is still making nice clips of JW. Such a dedicated fa. Here are two Birthday greetings that she made.I enjoy themThank you Keiko.

 

 

[airplanegirl]

 

 

[kittyna]

6 hours ago, lavender2love said:

Yes so glad he acted the perfect boy friend, son and brother in MSG. And favoured by the king was made  the made the National Treasure .He's a good man. I think he is a Christian but I'm sure he understands and values the teachings of on Confucius.

 

I used a photo from "My Sassy Girl", but calling him a "Joseon man" was a reference at his real-life self. I just remember JW being called that in "Win Win" when he mentioned something the hosts thought was really old-fashioned: that a kiss should be something sacred, so he makes sure that he's fully in character and in love before kissing his co-stars. Their response was general disbelief, with one of them saying, "He's from the Joseon dynasty!" And that stuck out to me a lot, and I really liked the label - although it was probably meant as an insult (i.e. "You're so old-fashioned - get with the times!"), but it was also so...HIM. And I loved that he was like that, and proud of it.

 

JW has mentioned in passing that he's Christian - and that shows up in his name as well. However, as someone who is Chinese and can therefore understand some hanja, I noticed really early on that while his stage name is a homophone for the Korean "Lord willing", he's NOT using the hanja that would mean that.

 

Joo Won (i.e. his name) - 周元

 

"joo won" (i.e. "Lord willing") - 主願意 (This is the Chinese phrase, but I imagine the Korean would be similar since Christianity came to Korea via Chinese texts - the hanja characters in question are the first two I highlighted)

 

What that suggests to me is that the homophone is supposed to be something personal - possibly even private, although it's now common knowledge because he's told the story in interviews. For instance, in this one from when he was just starting out:

 

Quote

My name is Joo Won. My given name is Moon Joon-won. My father came up the name Joo Won for me after I made it into college. It means 'what the Lord wants and what I should do for the Lord'.

 

I myself also identify as Christian - hence why I know how to use the language in the birthday blessing/prayer/thing - and one thing I know a lot of Chinese Christian parents do, at least, is give their kids "Christian"-sounding names. I see it among some Korean celebrities as well - e.g. Park Bo Gum's (朴寶劍) name meaning "precious sword" in a possible allusion to scriptural verses calling the Bible "the sword of the [Holy] Spirit"; and Lee Sung Kyung's (李聖經) name literally meaning "Bible". The thing is, though, with Joo Won's name, it's not so transparent or obvious that it's meant to be a "Christian" name - because it's relying entirely on a Korean play on words. For me, as an outsider looking in, I feel like that means that he and his family want him to remember his Christian faith such that he'll hear the phrase "Lord willing" whenever someone calls his name or he says it himself, but that they don't want to be really in-your-face "I'm a Christian" about it. And that's a decision that I personally can respect - faith and righteousness on the inside matters more than whether you look devout on the outside.

 

(By the way - I'm not saying that people like PBG or LSK just have the appearance of piety. I certainly think PBG is the real deal, or at least tries his best to be, for instance. I'm just saying that JW stands out to me as doing it differently from a number of Christian kids I've come across.)

 

All this being said, though, I'm of the same mind as JW in one thing: someone can be both Christian AND Confucian. I know many people say that Confucianism is a religion, but when it comes to how it's carried out in real life...it feels to me more like a philosophy and set of values. And a number of those values are compatible as well: things like being obedient and respectful to authority.

 

@airplanegirl Thanks for sharing that story! I know people talk about "noona killers", but honestly, I think JW is more of an ahjumma killer - he's got quite the track record for just bringing out their maternal instincts. And, as you and many others have noted, his aegyo is his best weapon

[airplanegirl]

Min Jin Woong mentioned Joo Won in his acceptance speech after winning 'Excellence Awards' at the 2017 Korean Drama Festival Awards. 

 

Source: http://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=109&aid=0003630783

[kittyna]

Congrats to Min Jin Woong! And that's such a sweet shout-out, too.

 

Also, since I generally don't like posting here without at least offering something JW-related to share, here are a few miscellaneous pics that cropped up on my Pinterest feed recently. I imagine some of these are old photos, but it was my first time seeing them, so....

 

 

 

[kittyna]

I know, I know - I'm posting twice in a row. But since it's already started in Korea, and I might miss it by the time I get a chance to come by tomorrow....

HAPPY CHUSEOK!!!

 

Chuseok is something that is celebrated by my family, too - although we call it by its Chinese equivalent: the Mid-Autumn Festival. But seeing how it's celebrated in Korea is a lot of fun, too.

 

I don't think I'm the only one who loves how everybody dresses up in hanbok for their formal greetings. But...correct me if I'm wrong, that's got to be harder to pull off whilst in the military. Fortunately for us Cuties, however, our ultimate Cutie, Joo Won, now has a sageuk under his belt with "My Sassy Girl".

 

Meaning: more hanbok pics for us!

 

So in the spirit of the festival, here are some of my favourite JW hanbok photos from "My Sassy Girl".

 

 

 

 

 

(Such a funny expression in this next one!)

 

 

 

 

And an extra "throwback" photo for good measure, where he's wearing modern hanbok:

 

 

What about you guys? Do you have any other JW hanbok pics to share? Please feel free to add to the collection!

[airplanegirl]

Joo Won's upcoming schedule:

 

 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BZxFKJxjZxZ/

[kittyna]

Ya...it's so quiet here again! Hopefully, after the jam-packed performance schedule that @airplanegirl posted has run its course, we'll have lots of new goodies to talk about.

 

But in the meantime, in attempts to keep this going, here are some things that cropped up on my Pinterest feed and YouTube recommendations recently. Again, you might have seen some of these already, but it was my first time, so I'm sharing them anyway.

 

 

 

 

And this last one is a video from "Ghost". I've seen the press performance video of "Rain/Hold On/Unchained Melody" a lot, but it was my first time seeing this number: "Are You Believer?"

 

Okay, full disclosure: JW doesn't get all that much in this song - it's primarily Oda Mae's (played by Choi Jung Won). But he does get some really good "WTF?" reactions throughout - I especially like his "Oh my God..." at about the 2:30 mark.

 

 

[airplanegirl]

Joo Won appears in another newspaper article, this time as the official face of the upcoming Grounds Festival. 

 

Source: Joo Won DC.

 

 

[kittyna]

Thanks for all the updates, @airplanegirl! Glad to see that preparations for the Ground Forces Festival seem to be going well, and that JW is so well-loved in the middle of it all.

 

I'm here with this week's Throwback Thursday contribution. Since it was less than a week since we celebrated JW's birthday, this week's throwback takes us all the way to another birthday party nine years ago, in 2008. So he'd be turning 22 here - 21 by international reckoning

 

 

I'm not entirely sure, but since the watermark on the top right corner seems to say that this was made by Act 1 Scene 1 (JW's old fan club that he shut down in later years), I'm assuming that these are fan club members celebrating with him.

 

When I watch this, I'm reminded of how JW has commented that he really enjoyed being able to regularly get up close and personal with his fans in his early days as a musical theatre actor - and that such interactions were one of the things he missed after he made it big in drama and film.

[airplanegirl]

Another one of my favourites from Act 1 Scene 1, is this video

 

 

[airplanegirl]

BoA posted on her IG story of what seems like the 2 of them on a date

 

 

[kittyna]

"Nurturing this hunk's health" - lol that's awesome! I know this is JW's forum, but just on a side note, I love that BoA posts in both Korean and English, so I can actually get what she's saying She seems to have a rather quirky and simple sense of humour, too.

 

That being said...I think today's gonna be a day of tangents, because I found some things that, while not directly related to JW, made me think of them anyway.

 

Some of you may be familiar with HJ-Story already, but if not, they're little illustrations that the artist, Andrew Hou, draws to document his relationship with his then-girlfriend-now-wife Kate (a.k.a. HJ). He's Chinese Canadian, she's Korean, and they both live in Korea right now. His illustrations have gone viral, and are famous for being really sweet and romantic, because of how he focuses on the little everyday joys of being in a relationship (e.g. eating together, messaging each other, taking care of their pet dog, etc.).

 

The reason why I'm bringing this up here is that although the drawings are intended to represent specific people (i.e. Andrew and Kate), some of them reminded me of JW and his various comments about love and relationships over the years.

 

The one I most wanted to share was this one, because I couldn't help thinking of both JW AND BoA when I saw it:

 

The caption read: "This image is dedicated to Remembrance Day [Nov 11 in Canada]. Love is a battle where both people must be strong and fight together to overcome all obstacles. This image is also from the suggestion of the fans with loved ones away in army duty."

 

This one, too, reminded me of both JW and BoA - either now or in the possible future:

 

 

And some others where I felt like I was seeing JW rather than Andrew - can you catch the references?

 

 

 

 

 

[airplanegirl]

9 minutes ago, kittyna said:

"Nurturing this hunk's health" - lol that's awesome! I know this is JW's forum, but just on a side note, I love that BoA posts in both Korean and English, so I can actually get what she's saying She seems to have a rather quirky and simple sense of humour, too.

Those pink words are my translations actually. She only ever posts in English when she's in the US, and in Japanese when she's in Japan. 

 

But lol at those art works! The fattening up one makes me laugh so hard, cause this was around the time when BoA had to do her SM Town tour, and we found that both BoA and Joo Won looked like they spent the whole weekend going on a feast. They were both noticeably chubbier.