Joo Won 주원 [Current Drama 2024 - The Midnight Studio/ 야한(夜限) 사진관]

green_cardigan · May 26, 2018

Thank you @kittyna for welcoming me! And thank you for sharing your story about how you found Joowon and what you like about him. It’s always interesting to read those stories. I haven’t backtracked this forum very far, so most of what I’ve read have been your posts haha. You make the posts so interesting that I have to stop and read everything

I still need to learn how this forum works, how to quote and link pictures and such. I was here last time in 2016 and the mobile version was so clumsy to use. During past 1,5 years they haven’t updated anything...

green_cardigan · May 26, 2018

17 hours ago, kittyna said:

And now I'm learning something new - that Hallyu's also made it over to Finland

@kittyna Actually, I think there are many Hallyu fans here in Finland. You can’t hear k-pop on the radio but top songs usually chart, and I’ve met many Finnish fans online. Almost my whole family listens to k-pop and j-pop and watch dramas, and when I call to my mom we sometimes talk about music and idols and which dramas we’ve seen and recommend. I’m a 30+ fan but it’s okay since my mom is older haha. Hallyu attracts people of all ages

17 hours ago, kittyna said:

Just so we're even, I'll give you a little bit of my own story: I only started watching K-dramas in the middle of 2015, and I became a fan of JW's from the beginning of 2016 until now. So, maybe that's a long time compared to two months, but I'm not one of those who's been following him or his work from the start either. If "Good Doctor" was the drama that got you started, then "King of Baking, Kim Tak Gu" was mine - I found Gu Ma Jun really intriguing as a character, but what made me really like JW as a person was watching an interview he did for that drama, where he said that he was "more innocent" than either Kang Dong Won or TOP (in case you hadn't heard: when he first started out, a lot of people said JW resembled both of those guys in terms of appearance). And that really blew my mind, since 1) growing up and living here in the West (I'm Canadian), I seldom hear people talking about innocence or purity as a matter of pride, and 2) I'm someone who really wants to be like that myself, and so I immediately latched onto JW as a potential role model. So far, he hasn't disappointed me yet, so I like to think I made the right choice

As for my own favourite dramas of JW's....hard to say. But if I had to rank them....I think my favourite JW dramas were "Bridal Mask", "Good Doctor", "Nae Il's Cantabile" and "Yong Pal", in no particular order. And my favourite of the characters JW's played are Park Si On, Cha Yoo Jin, and Kim Tae Hyun.

(Sorry if I'm gushing a lot - it's been, as I'd said before, really quiet here lately. So I'm always hoping to be able to chat with someone about this, and, like you, this forum seems to me to be the place to do it.)

I haven’t seen King of Baking yet... I think it’ll be next after I finish 7th Grade Civil Servant. You made me curious about Joowon’s character. The drama itself is a little bit too long for me, but after managing to watch total 10 episodes of My Sassy Girl, I can take anything

I’ve been a fan of Madtown’s Jota (now actor Lee Jonghwa) for a long time. He’s a guy with a lot of talent but has a humble and kind personality. Hardworking, honest, kindhearted, cute but manly Joowon is just my type so no wonder I opened my heart to him as well.

Please feel free to gush haha I will be here reading it all. Yeah my timing with JW sucks, but better late than never, right? He will have his comeback in less than a year. He sometimes does IG lives or vlives with fans, doesn’t he? I can’t wait!

17 hours ago, kittyna said:

So I personally like sharing some photos each day if I can, but my main gig is fan-fiction (which, if you've backtracked through this forum prior to posting, you may already know). But different people have different talents - some are great with photo-editing or video-editing, but I suck at both of those, so I leave them to that while I just write So just go with whatever you're the most comfortable with.

My impression is that this is a forum that doesn't have all that many people actively posting, but there are always people reading, so even if you don't get a reply per se...just know that whatever you share is being seen and appreciated

Thank you for keeping this forum alive Yes, there are many who read the posts (especially new fans who want to know everything about their new crush, ahem). I haven’t read fanfics so I’m kinda noob in that, but you definitely have the talent of writing! I’d love to share some Joowon pics here, but apparently I’d need to save them someplace at first e.g. on Instagram..? I’m trying to figure that out later.

Something that I’ve been watching over and over:

[ENG] 151012 Healing Camp - Joo Won - Part 1

[ENG] 151012 Healing Camp - Joo Won - Part 2

Edited May 26, 2018 by green_cardigan

soomoi · May 26, 2018

Hello everyone! Another Newbie onboard…

Since Gooddoctor I’ve been lurking around Joowon’s news everywhere. This forum is the most interesting with @kittyna @moonstrike ’s lovely conversations and fanfics. The older Moat and Garden things are so funny that I couldn’t help laughing hard. I must make sure I’m in my private space before visiting the forum. This forum is so well established, over so many years and pages, kept up by generations of super fangirls ( I assume you are mostly ladies) just really amazing. I’m not a creative person, somewhat dull, with very limited contribution but I think I must show some support at least by giving sort of response at quiet days. Hope that will cheer up our best contributors to continue on their writings.

My road to JW fandom began with Park Si-on. Before Gooddoctor, Kdrama was not in my world of entertainment. Park Si-on was so special that at first I thought the director found a real autistic person (or someone not as reactive as usual) as the actor. Later on I saw an entertainment news that JW appeared in an airport for fanmeeting. That surprised me “is that him? You kidding me – so tall, so fresh, so normal”. Then I started to look for news and video to know more about him. The more I read, the more I admired his personality. Just like being attracted by a huge magnet. Until now, I’ve watched every drama of JW many rounds. Each time I enjoyed with more findings about the story, the plot and the character through his superb acting. I love every hero he portrayed, which was so vivid and real that my emotions followed the character’s up and down easily. Now when I look at a picture of JW, I can tell which character is that or its himself actually behind the scene. I never recognize any other actor having such a talent.

kittyna · May 26, 2018

5 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

Actually, I think there are many Hallyu fans here in Finland. You can’t hear k-pop on the radio but top songs usually chart, and I’ve met many Finnish fans online. Almost my whole family listens to k-pop and j-pop and watch dramas, and when I call to my mom we sometimes talk about music and idols and which dramas we’ve seen and recommend. I’m a 30+ fan but it’s okay since my mom is older haha. Hallyu attracts people of all ages

Well, I don't want to say exactly how old I am, but I will say that I would actually count many of the current big Hallyu stars as peers rather than really clear-cut "Oppas". I am still younger than JW, though, so he's still "Oppa".

I do want to say, though, that I'm definitely more a K-drama fan than a K-pop fan - so I don't really listen to the bands or artists or stuff like that (the main one I do listen to is BoA - and, before anyone asks, my doing so completely predates her relationship with JW, so I like her music on its own terms, and not because of that connection). But K-pop is a big deal here in North America as well, although things get a bit iffy sometimes, with people accusing each other of being "koreaboos", fan wars, and stuff like that. I...try to stay out of it and just leave my fangirling to two main places: this site, and my Pinterest account, where all I do is maintain a huge collection of pics of various Hallyu stars, JW included.

5 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I haven’t seen King of Baking yet... I think it’ll be next after I finish 7th Grade Civil Servant. You made me curious about Joowon’s character. The drama itself is a little bit too long for me, but after managing to watch total 10 episodes of My Sassy Girl, I can take anything

"King of Baking" is an interesting drama, as far as I'm concerned. It is a bit soap opera-y (i.e. makjang) so you'll have to take a lot of the plot with a grain of salt. But I found Gu Ma Jun (a.k.a. Joo Won) to be a very fascinating character, as far as antagonists go - he's the sort of guy who completely gets on your nerves, but rather than wanting to see him crash and burn like some other villains, you want to see him make a turn-around and redeem himself

5 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I’ve been a fan of Madtown’s Jota (now actor Lee Jonghwa) for a long time. He’s a guy with a lot of talent but has a humble and kind personality. Hardworking, honest, kindhearted, cute but manly Joowon is just my type so no wonder I opened my heart to him as well.

I'm actually finding that to be a bit of a norm in the Korean entertainment industry so far. Of course, it's not perfect - and I live in constant fear that some big scandal's going to come along that will just crush my hopes (like, I've literally had a "Me Too"-style nightmare about JW once, and it's one of the rare times that I was so agitated that I jolted awake) - but for the most part, stories like the drinking and drugs and sleeping around and things like that that I associate with the entertainment industry back home in North America are relatively few and far between in Korea. At least from what I've seen; I could be wrong, but let's hope I'm not.

5 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

He will have his comeback in less than a year. He sometimes does IG lives or vlives with fans, doesn’t he? I can’t wait!

He does. If you haven't seen his Instagram or V Live accounts, I highly recommend them.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zu.won_moon.jun.won/

V Live: http://channels.vlive.tv/FD143/video

He's a bit of a dork in both of these social media accounts, but that's what makes them interesting. If you go through his posts, you'll see someone who's more of a shy boy-next-door than a celebrity, and I love that.

5 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I haven’t read fanfics so I’m kinda noob in that, but you definitely have the talent of writing! I’d love to share some Joowon pics here, but apparently I’d need to save them someplace at first e.g. on Instagram..?

I'm not sure how to share pictures via the mobile version of Soompi (since I use my computer), but here's hoping you manage to figure it out!

As for the fanfics, if you would please forgive the shameless self-promotion for a second, you can find links to all of mine by going to the "About Me" tab on my profile page. Again, I'm not entirely sure how to navigate to that in the mobile version of the site, but feel free to explore around and you should find them

1 hour ago, soomoi said:

Hello everyone! Another Newbie onboard…

Since Gooddoctor I’ve been lurking around Joowon’s news everywhere. This forum is the most interesting with @kittyna @moonstrike ’s lovely conversations and fanfics. The older Moat and Garden things are so funny that I couldn’t help laughing hard. I must make sure I’m in my private space before visiting the forum. This forum is so well established, over so many years and pages, kept up by generations of super fangirls ( I assume you are mostly ladies) just really amazing. I’m not a creative person, somewhat dull, with very limited contribution but I think I must show some support at least by giving sort of response at quiet days. Hope that will cheer up our best contributors to continue on their writings.

And...yet another new face! Annyeong, @soomoi!

As I'd said to @green_cardigan the other day, please feel free to share anything: short, long, a little, a lot, it doesn't matter

1 hour ago, soomoi said:

My road to JW fandom began with Park Si-on. Before Gooddoctor, Kdrama was not in my world of entertainment. Park Si-on was so special that at first I thought the director found a real autistic person (or someone not as reactive as usual) as the actor. Later on I saw an entertainment news that JW appeared in an airport for fanmeeting. That surprised me “is that him? You kidding me – so tall, so fresh, so normal”. Then I started to look for news and video to know more about him. The more I read, the more I admired his personality. Just like being attracted by a huge magnet. Until now, I’ve watched every drama of JW many rounds. Each time I enjoyed with more findings about the story, the plot and the character through his superb acting. I love every hero he portrayed, which was so vivid and real that my emotions followed the character’s up and down easily. Now when I look at a picture of JW, I can tell which character is that or its himself actually behind the scene. I never recognize any other actor having such a talent.

That's an awesome story, too; thanks for sharing!

There isn't really anything like Park Si On when it comes to JW's acting. I've heard some people say that that's his best performance to date - not necessarily his best drama, since there's more going into that than just his acting, but his own personal best in bringing a character to life. It's like, even from a still, you could tell that Park Si On was a character with autism, and that's because JW finely honed in on all the little details: posture, expression (including the really subtle micro-expressions), the look in his eyes, everything. It wasn't just about the script or how he delivered his lines; it was completely immersive full-body acting.

With JW's other characters, what you'll really see is the contrast between when he's in his role and when he's being himself, because the personalities will be really different. However, JW himself has said that he and Park Si On were alike in personality, and I could see that, too.

And speaking of "Good Doctor", this just came out: KBS drama 'Good Doctor' will also be re-made in Japan

To be honest, I was really excited for the American re-make at first, and then I watched the first episode - and while so many people were saying how good it was, I was sorely disappointed. I think they did a great job with the main character, and the actor in that case, Freddie Highmore, did win me over in his portrayal. But it was the stuff outside of the original story that they added (like an obligatory sex scene - I call it that, because it feels like no American TV drama can exist without one, even if it's barely relevant to the plot) that made me lose interest in watching it myself really early on. I'd gotten into Korean dramas to get away from that sort of entertainment here in Canada, so I didn't appreciate it all being thrown back into the "Good Doctor" re-make.

But I did want to see the American version of "Good Doctor" do well, and I was happy to see it getting good ratings and being nominated for awards.

Here's hoping that the Japanese version will also succeed!

And - finally! - time for pics!

Spoiler

This picture is one that I know I've shared before, but I'm sharing it again for the new folks. It's one of my personal favourite shots of JW ever, because I love the really innocently trusting way that he's looking at his fans here.

I'm liking this collage of pics from the first episode of "Yong Pal"

Some miscellaneous shots from JW's travels - I know the picture on the upper right is from Thailand in 2016, and the one on the bottom right is from Hong Kong in 2017, but I'm not sure about the one on the left

Cute moment from "Good Doctor"

Someone put together these shots of Kim Young Kwang and JW - I love how JW's sitting here; he looks like a bored little kid

JW with Shim Eun Kyung during promotions for "Nae Il's Cantabile" in Japan - I don't ship them romantically (although I do their characters ), but I think they had a really cute oppa-dongsaeng relationship in the actual brother-sister/friendship sense.

green_cardigan · May 27, 2018

@soomoi Hi, nice to meet you! It was amazing to read how your story about finding Joowon through Good Doctor and Park Si-On is so much like mine Joowon was really phenomenal in that role, like @kittyna so accurately analyzed here:

17 hours ago, kittyna said:

There isn't really anything like Park Si On when it comes to JW's acting. I've heard some people say that that's his best performance to date - not necessarily his best drama, since there's more going into that than just his acting, but his own personal best in bringing a character to life. It's like, even from a still, you could tell that Park Si On was a character with autism, and that's because JW finely honed in on all the little details: posture, expression (including the really subtle micro-expressions), the look in his eyes, everything. It wasn't just about the script or how he delivered his lines; it was completely immersive full-body acting.

With JW's other characters, what you'll really see is the contrast between when he's in his role and when he's being himself, because the personalities will be really different. However, JW himself has said that he and Park Si On were alike in personality, and I could see that, too.

This blew my mind, really. How come you know how to write exactly what everyone is thinking but can’t describe with words?! Talent, I say. I will definitely check your fanfics later on.

I’m following Joowon’s Insta and VLIVE accounts and yes, he’s so ordinary and sweet and awkward that I can’t wait to witness one of his real-time lives one day

17 hours ago, kittyna said:

I live in constant fear that some big scandal's going to come along that will just crush my hopes (like, I've literally had a "Me Too"-style nightmare about JW once, and it's one of the rare times that I was so agitated that I jolted awake)

I saw a fan made video of movie Sweet Sixteen and I was a bit shocked... I haven’t seen the movie so I didn’t know what kind of character JW was playing. So based on the video I thought that Qu Weiran was that rich guy who falls in love with a girl, treats her coldly at first but completely transforms later on and showers her with love... then I read the movie review and appears he’s the villain in the story! I know Joowon wants to try all different kind of roles, but I didn’t expect him to play a rapist... It’s amazing how such an innocent guy can play such menacing character.

(I need to do some research on how to add and embed pictures and videos here. Please be patient with my experiments.)

green_cardigan · May 27, 2018

I’m testing stuff and may delete this post or its content later if it doesn’t turn out well. I desperately want to post pictures here and try to find the best method for it. /update/ Testing done!

Spoiler

Okay, looks like I figured it out haha. This is one of my favorite pictures of Joowon. It’s beautiful, he’s handsome and I like green color. Is this from Singles photoshoot, maybe from last year? Since I haven’t followed him for long, my “Joowon timeline” is still very much in progress.

Spoiler

I love this scene on Naeil’s Cantabile! I remember watching the first episode and laughing so much at the main couple’s love/hate relationship. NC was another drama that got me hooked right away, making me fall in love with the story and all the characters in it. I don’t understand why it didn’t get better ratings at the time. Definitely in my personal all time top 10 dramas.

Spoiler

He’s so cute I can’t Is this from an old IG live? Do you know if someone records his IG lives and shares them on YT or DM?

kittyna · May 27, 2018

8 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

This blew my mind, really. How come you know how to write exactly what everyone is thinking but can’t describe with words?! Talent, I say. I will definitely check your fanfics later on.

Thanks! I...actually haven't given that much thought before, though. I do think it does help that I speak English as a native language (I'm actually Chinese, but have lived in Canada since I was a baby, and English is the main language where I am, so....), but otherwise, I think it's just because writing is something that I like doing...?

8 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I’m following Joowon’s Insta and VLIVE accounts and yes, he’s so ordinary and sweet and awkward that I can’t wait to witness one of his real-time lives one day

Another thing of his that I would highly recommend, especially since you also mentioned you liked his appearance on "Healing Camp", is "Joo Won's Life Log". This was from 2014, while he was doing "Ghost: the Musical" and also prepping for "Nae Il's Cantabile" and "Sweet Sixteen", and it gives a very good behind-the-scenes look at how the Korean entertainment industry works in general.

Here's a link to the entire series (24 episodes, each about 20 minutes long) with English subtitles: Cutie’s Lilo

8 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I saw a fan made video of movie Sweet Sixteen and I was a bit shocked... I haven’t seen the movie so I didn’t know what kind of character JW was playing. So based on the video I thought that Qu Weiran was that rich guy who falls in love with a girl, treats her coldly at first but completely transforms later on and showers her with love... then I read the movie review and appears he’s the villain in the story! I know Joowon wants to try all different kind of roles, but I didn’t expect him to play a rapist... It’s amazing how such an innocent guy can play such menacing character.

I think a lot of JW's fans were shocked by that - and I wouldn't be surprised if he lost some supporters because of that, too. On the one hand, this is a character JW's playing, and not JW himself - but that still doesn't make the decision to play a character like that any less baffling or controversial. Like, while I'm almost 100% sure that JW would never do something like that in real life, I also find myself wishing that he hadn't agreed to take on such a role, because that association ("JW played a rapist once!") is always going to be there now.

That being said, though, I think this is where watching something like "Life Log" is helpful for getting the bigger picture. Because you get to see there that any project JW - or any other Korean actor - signs on for is the result of a negotiation between himself and his agency. And while I don't know if "Sweet Sixteen" was a film that JW was pushing for himself or one that his agency wanted him to take on, I have heard that some of JW's other really difficult or controversial roles (e.g. Lee Kang To in "Gaksital" and Park Si On in "Good Doctor") were ones that he wanted and argued for.

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I’m testing stuff and may delete this post or it’s content later if it doesn’t turn out well. I desperately want to post pictures here and try to find the best method for it. /update/ I managed to crash the app while trying to embed an IG post

Well, considering that you're just starting out, you're learning fast - with quotes, hidden content, and embedding images

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

Okay, looks like I figured it out haha. This is one of my favorite pictures of Joowon. It’s beautiful, he’s handsome and I like green color. Is this from Singles photoshoot, maybe from last year? Since I haven’t followed him for long, my “Joowon timeline” is still very much in progress.

This one is from "Singles", but it's a photoshoot from 2014 - you actually see the behind-the-scenes for this in one of the episodes of "Life Log", although I can't remember which one off the top of my head.

And, yes, that green sweater looks awesome on him

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I love this scene on Naeil’s Cantabile! I remember watching the first episode and laughing so much at the main couple’s love/hate relationship. NC was another drama that got me hooked right away, making me fall in love with the story and all the characters in it. I don’t understand why it didn’t get better ratings at the time. Definitely in my personal all time top 10 dramas.

I personally really enjoyed "Nae Il's Cantabile", but I think it's one of those dramas that maybe just wasn't everyone's thing. First of all, it was an adaptation of a story that had already been adapted several times over: "Nodame Cantabile" is a Japanese manga that got adapted into an anime, then a J-drama, and then - finally! - as a K-drama. So there was that really awkward tug-of-war between wanting to stay true to the original, but also having new stuff so that it's not just a complete rehash of a story that viewers already knew.

Personally, I never watched or read any of the earlier Japanese versions, so I just went into "Nae Il's Cantabile" as its own thing, and I enjoyed it. It does gloss over a lot of the realities of studying classical music (e.g. I'm pretty sure most of the students would be way busier than they actually look in the show, and the way the chairwoman/board of directors ran the school with the whole "S Orchestra must be disbanded!" thing just didn't make sense for an institution that was supposed to be for developing future musicians and artists), but I did like seeing each character's own individual growth and development. I really sympathized with Cha Yoo Jin in particular, since he had that weird position in the middle: someone who was looked to by the other students as a leader and a teacher, but who was also still a student himself trying to learn everything on the fly. It was, from my perspective, an interesting look at how leadership and teaching skills are developed: you can only cultivate those skills by leading and teaching others, but that also means that any mistakes you make can completely screw your followers/students over, and that's a huge amount of pressure.

And now for today's pics!

Spoiler

An awesome piece of "Gaksital" fanart - I also love the artist's caption

I don't know why I find the stripe on his shirt here to be so amusing, but it just is:

These are cute! I love his little "Oops!" expression on the top right there

A little taste - literally! - of what to expect from "Life Log": this was from an episode featuring the stuff that happens in the dressing room during one of JW's fashion photo shoots.

This shot turned out really cool - just casually suave

Another awesome piece of fanart: this time for "Yong Pal"

This moment from "Nae Il's Cantabile" cracked me up; I still remember Yoo Jin's reaction to finding out that Nae Il was beside him ("Your house is right next door - why did you sleep over?!?!")

Also, a fun bit of JW-related trivia for the new fans out there: the way you see Cha Yoo Jin sleeping in this scene (i.e. on his side with his knees tucked up and his hands between his thighs) is, according to JW's V Live broadcasts, how he sleeps in real life

Kim Tae Hyun's airport fashion....

VS. JW's real-life airport fashion

Finally, I do want to share a quick fic-related update: the one I'm working on right now still isn't finished (real life has been rather busy this past bit), but I decided to put together this preview for you all.

(For those who remember my earlier update - "Which drama is this for? Take a guess!" - well...I guess this will be a dead giveaway . And this fic is a hard one for picking out bits that aren't too spoiler-y, so let's see what happens)

Spoiler

Tae Hyun-ah…

There are so many things that I wanted to give you but couldn’t.

A safe neighbourhood. A good school. The nicest clothes and toys.

Instead, all you got was what little your father and I could afford on our simple workers’ wages: a rooftop terrace in a run-down part of Seoul, where the streets and alleyways became your playground.

But the one thing you asked for, over and over again, I was finally able to give to you when you were seven years old.

From the minute I told you that you were going to have a little brother or sister, you were a devoted older brother. You stopped some of your childish games and started offering to help more around the house. Instead of my reading you a bedtime story before you went to sleep, you started taking charge of that yourself, saying that you wanted to read to the baby, too. And you used to spend hours just talking: telling your future dongsaeng all the fun things you wanted to do with them once they arrived.

I don’t think So Hyun could have asked for a better Oppa than you, Tae Hyun-ah. As soon as she was born, you two were stuck together like glue. You held her when she cried; you fed her and changed her; you came home right away after school to watch over her so that I could get a few hours of rest.

[...]

Tae Hyun-ah…

If there is one thing that destroys a man, Tae Hyun-ah, it is helplessness. That’s what happened to your father.

Don’t think that he liked his new life, because he didn’t.

Your father had good days and bad days. The good days were when he would come tired and sad, but sober. The bad ones were when he either came home drunk or would start drinking afterwards.

But remember this, Tae Hyun-ah:

Your father never hated me. He never hated us.

It was the world he hated. It was himself he hated.

We were just the ones to take the brunt of it.

I know what you thought, Tae Hyun-ah, every single time you saw the two of us like this: raised voices giving way to slaps and punches, breaking glass and crashing furniture. You, terror in your eyes, would look back and forth between So Hyun and me, wondering which of the two of us you should shield first.

But I taught you well, because always, you picked your sister: covering her eyes and ears before scooping her up in your arms and running out the first chance you got to take shelter with the neighbours downstairs.

So Hyun would have calmed down by the time I finally came back for you after the coast was clear: your father either gone or finally in a harmless drunken stupor. But you were different. Every single time, once you were safely tucked into bed, you would cry; you would apologize for leaving me behind to face your father’s anger alone.

Don’t be sorry, Tae Hyun-ah. The bruises mean nothing when I know that you two are safe.

[...]

Tae Hyun-ah…

You really, truly are my son. You never let anything keep you down for long.

When, to our relief, we found out that So Hyun was no longer in immediate danger – that she needed a liver transplant, but that it wasn’t urgent and that medication could help tide us over until a donor showed up – you put all your effort into your schoolwork.

You told me you wanted to become a doctor: one that could heal So Hyun one day, and other sick children, too.

It’s a hard road that you chose for yourself. One that most people would find impossible without getting the best tutors, the best schools, the best universities.

All of that was out of our reach.

You would have no money to support you: only your wits and your hard work.

kittyna · May 28, 2018

Just stopping by with some pics for today, since things are quiet here once again

Spoiler

Really nice behind-the-scenes shot from "Gaksital"

Such gorgeous lighting here!

Another behind-the-scenes shot from a photo shoot

Such a dreamy shot from "Nae Il's Cantabile" - I love how this is how Nae Il imagines Yoo Jin when she first starts falling for him.

Again, for the new guys: the dragonfly you see in the second and third shot is not a prop That's a real dragonfly that the actors found on the filming site; there are numerous photos floating around where it's either sitting on JW's shirt (so still that it looks almost like a badge) or on his hand.

I think this was from when JW was doing "King of Baking, Kim Tak Gu", going by his look (that's the style his coordis came up with when he was first starting out) and the set for the photoshoot

Okay, it's definitely hot and humid summer weather where I am right now, but these are too cute not to share

As much as I like JW's "good kid" personality, he pulls off the "bad boy" look really well. Case in point: these photos from 2015 for Edwin (a clothing company oriented towards teens and young people). lol - He's even got guyliner!

green_cardigan · May 29, 2018

@kittyna Adding pictures etc was actually easier than I thought, basically copy-paste or copy & import from URL. The font size changes depending on if I copy it from elsewhere but I think we can live with that.

I don’t think your writing skills are result of you speaking English as your native language. My Finnish is as restricted as my English and although I read a lot, writing has always been hard for me.

I’m watching LiLo’s and you’re right it’s just the content I wanted to see! I had bookmarked Cuties website earlier but hadn’t browsed it thoroughly. I had seen one or two episodes before but thought that was the whole thing since I wasn’t familiar with the series. It’s fun to see different sides of true Joowon. He’s not plain at all!

I don’t know if I’m going to watch Sweet Sixteen, because having this image of JW in my head that I don’t want to be ruined. But villain roles definitely gives an actor a chance to grow and explore his darker side, so choosing this role (or chosen by the company) doesn’t effect my opinion of him in the slightest. Actors take risks all the time with different kinds of results. I hope Joowon gets an opportunity to play a role like Ryan Gosling’s in The Notebook haha that’d be a dream come true. One of my favorite k-dramas is Another Miss Oh, so something like that would be perfect for him.

Spoiler

This commercial brought a smile on my face Always keep your cool

Gosh!

kittyna · May 29, 2018

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I don’t think your writing skills are result of you speaking English as your native language. My Finnish is as restricted as my English and although I read a lot, writing has always been hard for me.

Forgive me if this is too personal, but does "My Finnish is as restricted as my English" mean that neither Finnish nor English is your first language? If so, what would be the language you're most comfortable with, then?

Please forgive me for being nosy; I just love how this forum brings in fans from all over the world, and like to get a sense of what sort of cultures/languages/ethnicities are represented here. But feel free not to answer if you don't want to.

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I’m watching LiLo’s and you’re right it’s just the content I wanted to see! I had bookmarked Cuties website earlier but hadn’t browsed it thoroughly. I had seen one or two episodes before but thought that was the whole thing since I wasn’t familiar with the series. It’s fun to see different sides of true Joowon. He’s not plain at all!

Yeah - "Life Log" is awesome, and even though I've watched the whole thing already, I sometimes like to pull up favourite episodes and re-watch them.

There are a couple of segments/sequences I really like - Episodes 8-10 (the cooking bit) are a lot of fun to watch, and I also like seeing all the moments when he was preparing and rehearsing for "Nae Il's Cantabile" and "Sweet Sixteen".

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I don’t know if I’m going to watch Sweet Sixteen, because having this image of JW in my head that I don’t want to be ruined. But villain roles definitely gives an actor a chance to grow and explore his darker side, so choosing this role (or chosen by the company) doesn’t effect my opinion of him in the slightest. Actors take risks all the time with different kinds of results. I hope Joowon gets an opportunity to play a role like Ryan Gosling’s in The Notebook haha that’d be a dream come true. One of my favorite k-dramas is Another Miss Oh, so something like that would be perfect for him.

lol - Don't worry; if you decide to hold back from watching "Sweet Sixteen", you won't be alone, because I haven't seen it yet, either. I'm still a bit on the fence about it, since, well, watching scenes like that are really not my cup of tea, no matter who's playing the character

Some of my favourite Korean actors are ones that caught my eye because of their work playing villains - Park Ki Woong (Kimura Shunji in "Gaksital") is one that I think most JW fans would agree with me on And I do like seeing JW playing the antagonist or the bad boy type, too.

As for "The Notebook", I know that JW's said numerous times that he'd like to take on a story like that - which, I'm assuming, also entails him playing a character like Ryan Gosling's there. To be honest, I'm not sure if romance is JW's strong suit - he does it well enough, but I think there are other genres and feelings that he does better - but if that's where he wants to go for his dream role, then who am I to say otherwise?

Speaking of Western actors, I've also seen a number of people comparing JW with Leonardo Dicaprio - what do you think of that?

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

This commercial brought a smile on my face Always keep your cool

lol - That commercial never gets old Thanks for sharing!

And now for my pics for today

Spoiler

Because there's a lot of buzz going around about today being the one-year anniversary of "My Sassy Girl"'s premiere

(Such a cute and shy smile in this next one....)

FYI: JW pulls off modern hanbok well, too These are all older pictures from when he was just starting out, but they're cute.

Loving this candid shot - he looks so cute and funny trying to talk into the microphone and open the water bottle at the same time

green_cardigan · May 30, 2018

Just quickly passing by before continuing with Life Log

21 hours ago, kittyna said:

Forgive me if this is too personal, but does "My Finnish is as restricted as my English" mean that neither Finnish nor English is your first language? If so, what would be the language you're most comfortable with, then?

It’s okay, of course you can always ask Finnish is my first language but talking is hard. Only writing is harder. I admit that I’m the kind of typical(?) Finn who doesn’t really want to talk with people That’s why I wrote “restricted”. In Finland we have mandatory English studies for about 6+ years and Swedish for 3 years. Of course you can study more and choose additional languages but this is the minimum. I’ve studied English, Swedish and German.

21 hours ago, kittyna said:

Some of my favourite Korean actors are ones that caught my eye because of their work playing villains - Park Ki Woong (Kimura Shunji in "Gaksital") is one that I think most JW fans would agree with me on And I do like seeing JW playing the antagonist or the bad boy type, too.

I agree, and Bridal Mask is a good example of many great villain roles. It has many characters you love to hate. Lee Kang To rocked my world. I hate his brutality but admire his fierceness and resilience.

Spoiler

I know this scene has a deeper meaning to it but

21 hours ago, kittyna said:

Speaking of Western actors, I've also seen a number of people comparing JW with Leonardo Dicaprio - what do you think of that?

I can definitely see the resemblance. I’m not a fan of Dicaprio but have seen many of his movies and he’s a great, versatile actor.

kittyna · May 30, 2018

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

It’s okay, of course you can always ask Finnish is my first language but talking is hard. Only writing is harder. I admit that I’m the kind of typical(?) Finn who doesn’t really want to talk with people That’s why I wrote “restricted”. In Finland we have mandatory English studies for about 6+ years and Swedish for 3 years. Of course you can study more and choose additional languages but this is the minimum. I’ve studied English, Swedish and German.

Ah, okay. That makes a lot more sense

By the way, since you do know German, I should probably say this right off the bat: I do sometimes use German words and phrases in my "Nae Il's Cantabile" fanfics, but I haven't formally studied the language myself. So please forgive any mistakes I make.

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I agree, and Bridal Mask is a good example of many great villain roles. It has many characters you love to hate. Lee Kang To rocked my world. I hate his brutality but admire his fierceness and resilience.

lol - I remember watching "Gaksital" and wondering, "What's going to be worse: seeing JW beating someone up, or seeing him getting beaten up?" As it turns out...both equally suck to watch But that being said, Lee Kang To's definitely one of the most intriguing characters I've seen JW play.

He's also gotten a TON of respect from fans for taking on the role, as explained in this video, which is a clip from a television program that featured 10 different celebrities who were known for their patriotism.

So in case anything is still unclear after watching the clip: "Gaksital" came out in 2012, at a time when Japan was still one of the biggest - if not the biggest - overseas market for K-pop, K-drama, etc. So it was Japan, not China like it is today, where an actor had to make it to achieve Hallyu star status. But because of the plot in "Gaksital", there was a lot of worry during the casting and pre-production process that the show wouldn't sell well in Japan, so whoever took on Lee Kang To's character risked hurting his international reputation.

Of course, at the end of the day, those fears didn't happen: JW was just as well-loved in Japan after doing "Gaksital" as he was before But what is remembered is that the risk was there at the time and that JW, with no guarantee that that drop in popularity wouldn't happen, signed on for Lee Kang To's character anyway.

But my favourite thing about this story is that it was not so much that JW signed on despite the political concerns, but that those never actually crossed his mind at all. Not until he noticed people starting to ask him about it during press conferences and stuff. He just saw it as an interesting story with a challenging part that he wanted to play - one of the things he most wanted to try when he first started out was a "Jekyll and Hyde" sort of character, and Lee Kang To certainly fits

And one last thing about the video: some of the subs seem to be missing in the part about his military enlistment. So what was going on was that JW had applied for and qualified as a conscripted police officer, but that he later retracted that decision and decided to go in as a regular active-duty soldier instead, and in one of the toughest units (the White Skulls) to boot. Since the general view in Korea is that performing one's enlistment as a police officer is a bit of a cop-out and, thus, not as manly or patriotic as joining the actual military (army, navy, air force or marines), that meant that JW earned a lot of brownie points from the Korean public for changing his mind like that.

I think, to summarize, I'd put it this way: I personally think, based off incidents like these (the "Gaksital" casting and the enlistment) that JW is one of those celebrities who's more famous domestically (i.e. within Korea) than internationally. There's been a lot of debate in this forum about whether he actually could be considered a "Hallyu star", and - at least for the phase of that discussion that I participated in - it seems that the consensus is that he's popular, but he's not necessarily a "Hallyu star" compared to a lot of the really big names out there. There were a lot of different reasons why we ended up deciding on that, and I can't remember them all, but the seeming focus on domestic over international popularity, I think, does have to do with it.

2 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I know this scene has a deeper meaning to it but

lol - Don't worry! Eye candy is good, too

And speaking of eye candy...here are my pics for today!

Spoiler

Loving this shot from "My Sassy Girl" - JW looks awesome, but the costume is also serious eye candy in its own right

Since you would have seen JW's manager (who, by the way, is oftentimes called "Angel Manager" by fans) on "Life Log"....

JW and beanies (they're actually called toques where I'm from, but that's a Canadian thing )

This is cute: a mural painted by JW's fans to celebrate his birthday - I'm loving all the references to the characters he's played, and there are some other important symbols here, too (e.g. the bunnies and butterflies)

And by the way, after looking at this more closely...a meeting between Lee Kang To and Kim Tae Hyun would be really freaking epic, wouldn't it?

JW with Kim Young Kwang - This is a behind-the-scenes shot from a shoot for GGIO2

Finally, just ending with a group collage, because why not?

soomoi · May 31, 2018

My apology for not giving response earlier as I had wanted to. I actually spent quite some time putting up a reply coz I’m still awkward with the skills using this forum. And the worst thing happened when I pressed the submit button – it kept on rejecting me saying error 403 and a strange long code!!! GRRRRR… I can’t even open the forum until just now!!! Better off than I once thought I can never read you again… tears…

Here are the things I had wanted to respond. Hope that it would not be boring for bringing up chats from long ago.

On 2018/5/27 at 4:08 AM, kittyna said:

And...yet another new face! Annyeong, @soomoi!

Thanks for the warm welcome by my favorite JW pic! Luckily I was there seeing the real JW - he was glamorous even in simple casual style. Such a perfect guy with the total package!

On 2018/5/27 at 4:08 AM, kittyna said:

There isn't really anything like Park Si On when it comes to JW's acting. I've heard some people say that that's his best performance to date - not necessarily his best drama, since there's more going into that than just his acting, but his own personal best in bringing a character to life. It's like, even from a still, you could tell that Park Si On was a character with autism, and that's because JW finely honed in on all the little details: posture, expression (including the really subtle micro-expressions), the look in his eyes, everything. It wasn't just about the script or how he delivered his lines; it was completely immersive full-body acting.

@kittyna your description of JW’s way of acting was too exact - you nailed it so effortless! I totally envy your talent. You’ll be an outstanding writer if you would like to pursue this path.

On 2018/5/27 at 4:08 AM, kittyna said:

To be honest, I was really excited for the American re-make at first, and then I watched the first episode - and while so many people were saying how good it was, I was sorely disappointed. I think they did a great job with the main character, and the actor in that case, Freddie Highmore, did win me over in his portrayal. But it was the stuff outside of the original story that they added (like an obligatory sex scene - I call it that, because it feels like no American TV drama can exist without one, even if it's barely relevant to the plot) that made me lose interest in watching it myself really early on. I'd gotten into Korean dramas to get away from that sort of entertainment here in Canada, so I didn't appreciate it all being thrown back into the "Good Doctor" re-make.

The remake of Gooddoctor is also not very much my favorite. The American version is adapted to the American culture so that the Korean value, about heart-warming family/friends/senbae-hobae relationships, is no longer the main theme. (I only watched three episodes, sorry if I am not getting it right but this was the reason I couldn’t hold on watching the full series) About the main characters’ acting, again I appreciate the Korean more for I can feel them through their subtle expressions. For the coming Japanese version, I happened to watch the male lead in another J-drama. He is so young and it will be a real breakthrough if he can act like JW did.

Anyway, we should be grateful because these two adaptations are really tributes to the Korean team’s achievement.

On 2018/5/27 at 4:08 AM, kittyna said:

This picture is one that I know I've shared before, but I'm sharing it again for the new folks. It's one of my personal favourite shots of JW ever, because I love the really innocently trusting way that he's looking at his fans here.

His eyes - there was once a journalist described his as “Bambi’s innocent look”. It reflects a pure soul the owner got to have before such a look can be conveyed strict through his eyes.

On 2018/5/27 at 4:08 AM, kittyna said:

Some miscellaneous shots from JW's travels - I know the picture on the upper right is from Thailand in 2016, and the one on the bottom right is from Hong Kong in 2017, but I'm not sure about the one on the left

The one on the left – if my mind works well, I saw similar thing in a video clip for his rehearsing the fanmeeting in Japan during the time of promoting L7CS in 2013.

On 2018/5/27 at 4:34 PM, green_cardigan said:

oomoi Hi, nice to meet you! It was amazing to read how your story about finding Joowon through Good Doctor and Park Si-On is so much like mine Joowon was really phenomenal in that role, like @kittyna so accurately analyzed here:

@green_cardigan Hi-five! I’m not alone hehe. You are certainly superior! See I can’t even figure out how to put your id as links!

On 2018/5/28 at 1:43 AM, kittyna said:

I think a lot of JW's fans were shocked by that - and I wouldn't be surprised if he lost some supporters because of that, too. On the one hand, this is a character JW's playing, and not JW himself - but that still doesn't make the decision to play a character like that any less baffling or controversial. Like, while I'm almost 100% sure that JW would never do something like that in real life, I also find myself wishing that he hadn't agreed to take on such a role, because that association ("JW played a rapist once!") is always going to be there now.

I heard a story on Sweet Sixteen production issues. It was originally a very popular novel on the Internet in China which the readers really expected good portrayal of the 3 main characters: the younger one played by Chris Wu, the older one played by Han Geng, and the antagonist played by JW. There were 3 parts written for the story of each of the 3 main characters and why tragic interactions were developed amongst them. About the antagonist’s story it was really heart-breaking. It was pitiful that QWR turned out to be dark and could not release his feelings about his past girlfriend in a proper way instead of destroying the familiar girl whom he couldn’t own. JW once said he fell for QWR after reading the novel and felt it a challenge portraying this character. The filming was much more in depth than the final cut appearing on the theatre. Seeing from the movie without pre-reading the novel, QWR is nothing but a jerk tycoon and psycho rapist. Also lots of comments were that the movie seemed only want to make Chris Wu a superstar (who at that time was a new comer in Chinese movie world). The other 2 main characters were thus poorly cut to leave only splits of appearances so that the story was not properly told. Scandals were revealed by Han Geng just before the final promotion event which was the one JW went to Shanghai but Han was not present. Han announced that he was tricked by the investors by giving him a different script for decision to act but yet another script for the final cut. The investors were using him (and JW might as well) who was more well-known in China to pave the way for Chris to be a new star. If this was true then JW’s awkward appearance in the movie was understandable. What we should complain is why JW’s agency, which is a joint venture with (or actually becoming a subsidiary of?) a major Chinese entertainment group, couldn’t manage to get a better/fair deal to save JW from such situation? This although was an invaluable bad experience for JW, broke many of our fans’ hearts.

On 2018/5/30 at 12:25 AM, green_cardigan said:

I don’t know if I’m going to watch Sweet Sixteen, because having this image of JW in my head that I don’t want to be ruined.

On 2018/5/30 at 3:10 AM, kittyna said:

lol - Don't worry; if you decide to hold back from watching "Sweet Sixteen", you won't be alone, because I haven't seen it yet, either. I'm still a bit on the fence about it, since, well, watching scenes like that are really not my cup of tea, no matter who's playing the character

Please don’t withhold yourself for Sweet Sixteen. I daresay JW is outstanding even though appearing in only a few minutes in the movie. He’s shining with subtle expressions that can change in split seconds, silently but noticeably. I can totally feel his grieve, struggle to control himself and yet the devil was let out. No other actor in this movie gave me comparable level of mastery skills. A side note that is interesting to know, was that JW performed QWR almost right after sending away Park Shi-on the cutie. I was completely amazed by his talent and professionalism.

I’m putting a picture of QWR here (wondering if I can do it successfully). Can you see any trace of Park Shi-on here? I don’t.

On 2018/5/28 at 1:43 AM, kittyna said:

Here's a link to the entire series (24 episodes, each about 20 minutes long) with English subtitles: Cutie’s Lilo

JW’s Life Log entire series with Eng sub – wow thanks for the resource! I used to watch on Tudou ( a Chinese shared video site) but the quality was no good with ads and poor traffic. I can now re-watch this, fingers-crossed. Am I too greedy to ask for similar links for 1N2D season 2?

On 2018/5/28 at 1:43 AM, kittyna said:

On 2018/5/27 at 8:28 PM, green_cardigan said:

I love this scene on Naeil’s Cantabile! I remember watching the first episode and laughing so much at the main couple’s love/hate relationship. NC was another drama that got me hooked right away, making me fall in love with the story and all the characters in it. I don’t understand why it didn’t get better ratings at the time. Definitely in my personal all time top 10 dramas.

I personally really enjoyed "Nae Il's Cantabile", but I think it's one of those dramas that maybe just wasn't everyone's thing. First of all, it was an adaptation of a story that had already been adapted several times over: "Nodame Cantabile" is a Japanese manga that got adapted into an anime, then a J-drama, and then - finally! - as a K-drama. So there was that really awkward tug-of-war between wanting to stay true to the original, but also having new stuff so that it's not just a complete rehash of a story that viewers already knew.

I watched a few clips of J-drama Nodame Cantabile which the very much exaggerated acting stopped me from watching it. Then the K-drama was a more pleasant entrée to me and I didn’t know why it was so underrated than the J-drama. After knowing the story, I went back to finish the J-drama and movies. My likings towards the K-drama version was unchanged although I appreciated the Japanese' creativeness and boldness. Perhaps people especially the teens need a stronger dose of fantasy in order to escape from the harsh real world.

On 2018/5/28 at 1:43 AM, kittyna said:

I don't know why I find the stripe on his shirt here to be so amusing, but it just is:

The stripe on his shirt reminds me of his habit to stick the splits together so that it does not reveal more than he wants wearing a shirt. Haha such a rare species of human being at his 20’s with a mindset of tradition at 50’s!

On 2018/5/29 at 2:55 AM, kittyna said:

Really nice behind-the-scenes shot from "Gaksital"

Gaksital – LKT’s suites are perfect fits on JW’s really awesome figure.

On 2018/5/29 at 2:55 AM, kittyna said:

Another behind-the-scenes shot from a photo shoot

It looks not easy for JW’s hair stylist to work on such a tall guy’s hair while on the set.

Again JW is one of the few artists who don’t afraid to try on different hairstyle and carry them mostly well.

********************

That's all for today. Wish me good luck to get pass the submit button.

*******return to edit***********

Bingo! my first reply edit was successful.

Edited May 31, 2018 by soomoi

soomoi · May 31, 2018

12 hours ago, kittyna said:

He's also gotten a TON of respect from fans for taking on the role, as explained in this video, which is a clip from a television program that featured 10 different celebrities who were known for their patriotism.

Before he went to the army, he appeared in a TV show that has a part filmed on the streets in Seoul. He was welcomed by a very big crowd and you could hear a lot of fanboys shouting "Gaksital!". Looked like JW had gained huge popularity from young boys who then growing up as teenagers, and also many were joining the army successively. Some videos of the Korean Army Festival 2017 showed that JW was particularly cheered by lots of fresh young soldiers, following him around for selfie and singing together!

The chaos starts at 7:05, so happy!

13 hours ago, kittyna said:

I think, to summarize, I'd put it this way: I personally think, based off incidents like these (the "Gaksital" casting and the enlistment) that JW is one of those celebrities who's more famous domestically (i.e. within Korea) than internationally. There's been a lot of debate in this forum about whether he actually could be considered a "Hallyu star", and - at least for the phase of that discussion that I participated in - it seems that the consensus is that he's popular, but he's not necessarily a "Hallyu star" compared to a lot of the really big names out there.

Agree. I think one qualification of a "Hallyu star" is the taking up by international brands for grand advertising campaign. That enables the star to be seen outside Korea and still be remembered when they are not having productions from time to time. Therefore they have to keep up the specific style/image throughout the years because this is where their commercial value is. This is where JW finds himself not achieving up to everyone's expectations. He's a chameleon in acting and can't keep a fix image for any particular brand.

However, I would regard JW's belongs to the class of renowned actors who gained high respect from the nation through professional acting skills and commitment. Nothing need to be picked and compared on commercial terms. The other class shall be the idol type and "hallyu star" which is rather not a long-live profession, frequently renew like trends as the term "hallyu" means in its Chinese translation- "Korean trend".

kittyna · May 31, 2018

Before I begin, can I just say, @soomoi, that your avatar picture is so cute? It's chibi Park Si On!!!

Okay. Fangirl-squeal moment over. Let's get on with replies, then

14 hours ago, soomoi said:

Thanks for the warm welcome by my favorite JW pic! Luckily I was there seeing the real JW - he was glamorous even in simple casual style. Such a perfect guy with the total package!

Wait...you've actually seen JW in person before?!?! That's so awesome! Please let us know what that was like, since that's something that's probably never going to happen to me (like, do you ever see Korean celebrities going to North America - besides BTS, that is? ). So, yes, please share

14 hours ago, soomoi said:

The remake of Gooddoctor is also not very much my favorite. The American version is adapted to the American culture so that the Korean value, about heart-warming family/friends/senbae-hobae relationships, is no longer the main theme. (I only watched three episodes, sorry if I am not getting it right but this was the reason I couldn’t hold on watching the full series) About the main characters’ acting, again I appreciate the Korean more for I can feel them through their subtle expressions. For the coming Japanese version, I happened to watch the male lead in another J-drama. He is so young and it will be a real breakthrough if he can act like JW did.

Anyway, we should be grateful because these two adaptations are really tributes to the Korean team’s achievement.

If you got through three episodes, then you got further than me - so your assessment of the American remake is probably more accurate than mine

But that being said, I think that there were pros and cons to how the American remake took the story outside of its original context about pediatric surgery and made it one about surgeons more generally. I guess that gave the cast and crew a greater variety of medical situations (sicknesses, injuries, etc.) to explore, but you end up missing out on a lot of the parallels that were drawn between Park Si On and the kids in the Korean version. Like...such a big part of the original story was about Park Si On's own coming of age: how he was growing from someone really innocent and childlike into a more mature person who could be a good doctor...and a good boyfriend So I don't know if that ever showed up in the American version.

I do agree, though, that although I liked the American actor's portrayal of the character, JW's was a lot more detailed. The main reason why I didn't mind the difference was that I had a friend with autism once whose symptoms were as subtle as what we see in that American version, so it was still believable for me. JW's depiction, though, was more in line with what people usually imagine with autism, so maybe that's why it felt more convincing, even to me.

15 hours ago, soomoi said:

His eyes - there was once a journalist described his as “Bambi’s innocent look”. It reflects a pure soul the owner got to have before such a look can be conveyed strict through his eyes.

Bambi eyes...that's one I haven't heard before, but it works

I oftentimes refer to JW's bunny smile - it's the one that just shows his teeth a little bit:

15 hours ago, soomoi said:

I heard a story on Sweet Sixteen production issues. It was originally a very popular novel on the Internet in China which the readers really expected good portrayal of the 3 main characters: the younger one played by Chris Wu, the older one played by Han Geng, and the antagonist played by JW. There were 3 parts written for the story of each of the 3 main characters and why tragic interactions were developed amongst them. About the antagonist’s story it was really heart-breaking. It was pitiful that QWR turned out to be dark and could not release his feelings about his past girlfriend in a proper way instead of destroying the familiar girl whom he couldn’t own. JW once said he fell for QWR after reading the novel and felt it a challenge portraying this character. The filming was much more in depth than the final cut appearing on the theatre. Seeing from the movie without pre-reading the novel, QWR is nothing but a jerk tycoon and psycho rapist. Also lots of comments were that the movie seemed only want to make Chris Wu a superstar (who at that time was a new comer in Chinese movie world). The other 2 main characters were thus poorly cut to leave only splits of appearances so that the story was not properly told. Scandals were revealed by Han Geng just before the final promotion event which was the one JW went to Shanghai but Han was not present. Han announced that he was tricked by the investors by giving him a different script for decision to act but yet another script for the final cut. The investors were using him (and JW might as well) who was more well-known in China to pave the way for Chris to be a new star. If this was true then JW’s awkward appearance in the movie was understandable. What we should complain is why JW’s agency, which is a joint venture with (or actually becoming a subsidiary of?) a major Chinese entertainment group, couldn’t manage to get a better/fair deal to save JW from such situation? This although was an invaluable bad experience for JW, broke many of our fans’ hearts.

15 hours ago, soomoi said:

Please don’t withhold yourself for Sweet Sixteen. I daresay JW is outstanding even though appearing in only a few minutes in the movie. He’s shining with subtle expressions that can change in split seconds, silently but noticeably. I can totally feel his grieve, struggle to control himself and yet the devil was let out. No other actor in this movie gave me comparable level of mastery skills. A side note that is interesting to know, was that JW performed QWR almost right after sending away Park Shi-on the cutie. I was completely amazed by his talent and professionalism.

Oh, wow...I had no idea about this, whatsoever!

I knew that JW was interested in Qu Wei Ran as a character, and from the way he described him, I was imagining a sympathetic villain like Gu Ma Jun: someone who's made a lot of bad decisions that hurt a lot of people, but someone you actually end up feeling bad for in the end. But the idea of the actors getting a different version of the script than what was finally used and his part getting cut so that QWR just wound up being the "villain" without the "sympathetic" part of it...I didn't know that.

I do wonder, though, when JW's agency had its change in management, going from SIM Entertainment to Huayi Brothers Entertainment. From what I've seen in "Life Log", when JW started filming "Sweet Sixteen", it was still SIM, so maybe that affected their bargaining position?

One thing that I have suspected for a while - and I'm saying this now since it's related to your comments about Hallyu stardom - is that JW's agency (whether SIM or Huayi) has been wanting to make a Hallyu star out of him. I think he was originally signed on due to his acting skills (someone from SIM saw him on stage during "Spring Awakening" and wanted to sign a contract with him), but if you look at the full roster of actors with the agency...JW's the best shot they've got for a Hallyu star. And that does include expanding into the Chinese market with things like "Sweet Sixteen" and "Love Express". Maybe it was just enough to get his name and face out there, regardless of the role he was playing, but I'm not sure how that worked either, to be honest, or why JW's part was cut so much.

15 hours ago, soomoi said:

The stripe on his shirt reminds me of his habit to stick the splits together so that it does not reveal more than he wants wearing a shirt. Haha such a rare species of human being at his 20’s with a mindset of tradition at 50’s!

Oh, yeah - I remember hearing about that and thinking it was funny.

15 hours ago, soomoi said:

It looks not easy for JW’s hair stylist to work on such a tall guy’s hair while on the set.

Again JW is one of the few artists who don’t afraid to try on different hairstyle and carry them mostly well.

I think JW pulls off a number of different hairstyles - and just overall looks - really well, although I do have my preferences. I've got a particular soft spot for when his hair's a little bit longer (like when he was playing Cha Yoo Jin in "Nae Il's Cantabile" or in the time just before his enlistment), but he also does short hair well.

10 hours ago, soomoi said:

Before he went to the army, he appeared in a TV show that has a part filmed on the streets in Seoul. He was welcomed by a very big crowd and you could hear a lot of fanboys shouting "Gaksital!". Looked like JW had gained huge popularity from young boys who then growing up as teenagers, and also many were joining the army successively.

lol - That reminds me of this moment from one of JW's interviews for KBS's "Entertainment Weekly" (I've already set the video to the exact moment I'm looking for, but the rest of the interview is fun to watch, too):

It's funny - everywhere he goes now, he's still recognized as being Gaksital or Park Si On

10 hours ago, soomoi said:

Agree. I think one qualification of a "Hallyu star" is the taking up by international brands for grand advertising campaign. That enables the star to be seen outside Korea and still be remembered when they are not having productions from time to time. Therefore they have to keep up the specific style/image throughout the years because this is where their commercial value is. This is where JW finds himself not achieving up to everyone's expectations. He's a chameleon in acting and can't keep a fix image for any particular brand.

However, I would regard JW's belongs to the class of renowned actors who gained high respect from the nation through professional acting skills and commitment. Nothing need to be picked and compared on commercial terms. The other class shall be the idol type and "hallyu star" which is rather not a long-live profession, frequently renew like trends as the term "hallyu" means in its Chinese translation- "Korean trend".

I think JW took on many roles that aren't the typical ones associated with Hallyu stars - characters like the male lead of a romantic comedy or the rich obnoxious chaebol heir whose heart is melted by a poor candy girl (although I do admit that "Nae Il's Cantabile" came close ). He started off with Gu Ma Jun (the antagonist), then Hwang Tae Hee (the lead in a family drama - but those don't sell well overseas), then Lee Kang To (which doubly wouldn't sell well overseas), then, after a brief rom-com stint as Han Gil Ro, he took on Park Si On (who's cute, but not exactly, "OMG! Oppa's so hot!!!" material).

Yeah...you get the idea

I don't think I've ever seen JW take on a drama that is the usual type for launching Hallyu stars - shows like "Boys Over Flowers" or "The Heirs" or the "School" series ("School 2013", for example)...he didn't even take on a high-school drama (although he did do a film with "Fashion King").

So I feel like, for the most part, JW seemed to just skip over the teenage-girl demographic altogether - the main ones who would drive the "Oppa" side of Hallyu. It's not that he doesn't have teenage girls among his fans - of course he does - but, like you were saying, he's also got a lot of teenage boys (who are now becoming young men), as well as a ton of ahjummah fans, who tend to wish that their own sons could end up as well brought-up as he is

10 hours ago, soomoi said:

However, I would regard JW's belongs to the class of renowned actors who gained high respect from the nation through professional acting skills and commitment. Nothing need to be picked and compared on commercial terms. The other class shall be the idol type and "hallyu star" which is rather not a long-live profession, frequently renew like trends as the term "hallyu" means in its Chinese translation- "Korean trend".

JW's said as much himself on "Healing Camp", when he was asked about the fierce competition among 20-something-year-old actors for Hallyu status, and for his opinion on how he's not as popular overseas as many others - "I intend to act until the day I die - let's see how many of us are still around then!"

And now, finally, replies are over, so let's move on to something new. Today's Throwback Thursday, so here are my offerings for that this time around!

Spoiler

Starting with a video first. This one goes all the way back to 2007, back when JW was really just starting out. For those who don't know, he had a brief stint on a children's TV show called "Frees", and this video is a behind-the-scenes clip from that.

You may also notice that this even predates when JW adopted his stage name "Joo Won" - his name is written as "Moon Jun Won" here

This photo's from when he did a brief advertising campaign for KFC - which, if you know his thing for fried chicken, is actually quite appropriate

I'm not entirely sure when this shot is from, but it looks to be an older one as well

Cute behind-the-scenes photo from "Ojakgyo Brothers"

And this one from "Good Doctor" is also cute - It looks like someone Photoshopped Moon Chae Won's headband back onto her head; you can see in the bottom right that she was originally holding it rather than wearing it

Some miscellaneous shots from "Level 7 Civil Servant" to end things off. Even though the drama itself wasn't my favourite (it wasn't bad, but it wasn't blow-me-away-awesome, either), I did think the camaraderie between JW and Choi Kang Hee was really cute. (More so in real life than in character, though)

It's a slideshow, so make sure you click on the arrows to see all the photos.

kittyna · June 1, 2018

So I guess today's another quiet one? That's fine - more fic-writing time for me, then

(I've been dealing with writer's block lately - where I've either had time but no ideas, or ideas but no time, or write out something and the decide I don't like it so I end up re-writing the same little bit over and over - so hopefully things work out there soon. I think I just need a moment to just get into the mood, so this break should help.)

But I still want to have something to share, so here are some pics!

Spoiler

This shot from "Fatal Intuition" (a.k.a. "It's Him" or "That Guy") has some seriously gorgeous lighting!

Balancing out the darker, more intense JW with this cute and fluffy one

Really liking this behind-the-scenes shot from "Yong Pal", too.

Lovely close-up

Looking cool with sunglasses - Is it just me, or is his eyebrow actually quirked up just a little bit, like he's thinking, "What are you looking at?"

Cute moment from the press conference for "Nae Il's Cantabile" - Yep, that's totally JW just being himself there

kittyna · June 2, 2018

Just stopping by with some pics for today.

Spoiler

Some really nice "Yong Pal" fanart - I'd mentioned before once that in fanart of JW's characters drawn in a more cartoonish style, it seems like the main feature artists focus on to make him recognizable are the eyes. That pattern applies here

I haven't seen this still from "Good Doctor" before

Okay, this one just looks gorgeous

His smile in this shot - from "Level 7 Civil Servant" - is so cute and sweet

And let's end it off for today with a cooler-looking vibe

green_cardigan · June 3, 2018

Thank you @soomoi and @kittyna for sharing those detailed stories about Joowon and his works Sweet Sixteen and Gaksital. It’s something that can’t be found by googling about him but more like silent information that is known only by dedicated fans like you two. Although I haven’t gotten the time to comment here but I read everything and it was super fascinating! I appreciate that you use your time and effort to explain everything thoroughly and share your own insight as well. I’m not participating in the discussion since I know so very little (and would need a laptop keyboard to express my thoughts more properly thb). I’ve been busy with work and other activities lately so I haven’t been able to finish up LiLo yet, and haven’t gotten any time for drama watching either. I try to watch at least episode every day and at the moment I’m watching him preparing for the first filming day of Sweet Sixteen, which is interesting since we’ve been talking about the movie here. Also, Joowon has a calming effect on me so I like to watch his videos before sleeping. The day before yesterday I made fried rice à la Joowon; with onions, bell pepper, ham and bacon It was an easy recipe and tasted good too! The only problem was the rice since I didn’t have the right kind of rice but it’s something that can be fixed next time.

Quote

18 hours ago, kittyna said:

Okay, this one just looks gorgeous

Joowon looks amazing in plaid shirts I saw these pictures the other day and had to search them again to share here:

Spoiler

soomoi · June 3, 2018

Let’s buckle up and turn fangirl mode on. Here is a video of the event from youtube, credits to the owner.

I spent the last Easter in Hong Kong when luckily it was the right time JW went to HK to greet his dear fans. He said due to language barrier he was once lost in the HK airport transferring flights alone. It was quite late at night and when he was getting frustrated almost missing his flight, some fans who can speak a little Korean recognized him and helped him. So he remembered and came back to greet all fans in HK. Touching eh? Not yet… He held his fanmeeting as a free of charge fan-signing event in a high-end shopping mall. If you spend a few hundred HK dollars shopping in the mall in the previous week, the mall will donate a few hundred to Salvation Army and give you a chance to get JW signage on his event poster. That was a meaningful event. Our Wonnie was such a kind-hearted man! In contrast, there were some other Korean entertainers went to HK for fanmeetings held at concert halls, and all required tickets at nearly a thousand dollars.

I did not have time to shop beforehand and thus no chance to meet JW face-to-face to sign on poster. However, I could stay at 20 meters distance to watch JW on stage. Even from afar I was stunned by his aura. He was polite and gentle. His features, side profile and silhouette are very sophisticated, showing different charms under different lighting and angles. Very outstanding and attractive even in a crowd. I just can’t imagine why his ex-s could let go such a perfect man.

After the event, JW attended interviews by a number of media and tv host. Here’s one for you where he’s cute even the host said that JW was “very charming, eyes full of charges (to kill!)”. I can translate if you want any part in detail. (while I have time and you don’t mind waiting )

On 2018/6/1 at 4:35 AM, kittyna said:

I do agree, though, that although I liked the American actor's portrayal of the character, JW's was a lot more detailed. The main reason why I didn't mind the difference was that I had a friend with autism once whose symptoms were as subtle as what we see in that American version, so it was still believable for me. JW's depiction, though, was more in line with what people usually imagine with autism, so maybe that's why it felt more convincing, even to me.

I have a friend who’s young boy is autistic. Since when he was a toddler up to age of 6, he only live in his own world. Pay no attention to anyone including his parents. My friend has to quit his job to take care of him. His wife can’t because of the strength needed to catch him especially outside home. It was extremely exhausted to teach him anything and sometimes he was violent when he got mad with what he couldn’t do. I can see their patience and perseverance and hope for their happiness at the end. Last year in a party, we the adults were casually talking but then we heard the boy (age 10) mumbling “uncle, uncle..”. We were surprised and start replying to him for what he want. This year we heard him repeating what we had been teaching him when he was very small. He could remember the detail very well. That was a really good improvement although he did not give eye-contact but at least he wanted to communicate! I can imagine how difficult it was like to bring up Park Si On to become a good doctor! He can remain so pure despite all the differential treatment by “normal” people. That gives a strong hope to parents with autistic child.

21 hours ago, kittyna said:

His smile in this shot - from "Level 7 Civil Servant" - is so cute and sweet

Talking about Han Gilro, I guess JW enjoyed filming it a lot because we can always see his lively cute expressions on the set and behind the scenes. I have some pictures to share but no idea how to upload them here. Anyone please shed some light on me?

kittyna · June 3, 2018

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

I’ve been busy with work and other activities lately so I haven’t been able to finish up LiLo yet, and haven’t gotten any time for drama watching either. I try to watch at least episode every day and at the moment I’m watching him preparing for the first filming day of Sweet Sixteen, which is interesting since we’ve been talking about the movie here. Also, Joowon has a calming effect on me so I like to watch his videos before sleeping.

"Life Log" is awesome for that - short episodes for a quick JW fix They do get addictive, though; I remember having a hard time sticking to just one a night when I watched it

If you haven't gotten there yet - since the filming process for "Sweet Sixteen" takes up several "Life Log" episodes - I'd like to draw your attention to the way that JW preps himself for filming the night before. Even though he said that the scene he was doing was one without any lines (I think he just had a reaction shot or something?), he still wanted to go over the script and make sure he knew exactly what was being asked of him. And he even managed to get some work done for "Nae Il's Cantabile" as well

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

The day before yesterday I made fried rice à la Joowon; with onions, bell pepper, ham and bacon It was an easy recipe and tasted good too! The only problem was the rice since I didn’t have the right kind of rice but it’s something that can be fixed next time.

Ah...I haven't tried that yet, but there are other things JW's made that I've attempted before, and they turned out pretty well.

For instance, I really liked this snack he made for an appearance on the talk show "Happy Together" while promoting "Good Doctor". Considering how popular snack balls like this are now as a health food item (no, seriously - even though he says this is old-school, the recipe is also gluten-free, dairy-free, possibly vegan if you don't use honey...you get the idea), maybe some of you guys will be interested

(Once again, I've set the video to start playing at the point I'm referring to, but please feel free to watch the whole thing if you have the time.)

A fun aside from this video is that JW was getting teased by the hyungs for being so good and so detailed with making the food - they were going like, "What kind of guy does that?!?!" The thing about JW, from what I've noticed, is that he's...I'd describe him as manly, but not necessarily masculine. What I mean is that he's a good guy to have around - kind, conscientious, a perfect gentleman, courageous, hardworking, etc. - but he's not the sort of person who sticks to conventional gender norms when it comes to how guys or girls should behave.

4 hours ago, green_cardigan said:

Joowon looks amazing in plaid shirts I saw these pictures the other day and had to search them again to share here:

Aw...thanks for those pics! They do look really awesome.

2 hours ago, soomoi said:

I spent the last Easter in Hong Kong when luckily it was the right time JW went to HK to greet his dear fans. He said due to language barrier he was once lost in the HK airport transferring flights alone. It was quite late at night and when he was getting frustrated almost missing his flight, some fans who can speak a little Korean recognized him and helped him. So he remembered and came back to greet all fans in HK. Touching eh? Not yet… He held his fanmeeting as a free of charge fan-signing event in a high-end shopping mall. If you spend a few hundred HK dollars shopping in the mall in the previous week, the mall will donate a few hundred to Salvation Army and give you a chance to get JW signage on his event poster. That was a meaningful event. Our Wonnie was such a kind-hearted man! In contrast, there were some other Korean entertainers went to HK for fanmeetings held at concert halls, and all required tickets at nearly a thousand dollars.

I did not have time to shop beforehand and thus no chance to meet JW face-to-face to sign on poster. However, I could stay at 20 meters distance to watch JW on stage. Even from afar I was stunned by his aura. He was polite and gentle. His features, side profile and silhouette are very sophisticated, showing different charms under different lighting and angles. Very outstanding and attractive even in a crowd. I just can’t imagine why his ex-s could let go such a perfect man.

Thanks for sharing your story, @soomoi! That must have been so cool, seeing JW like that - as far as I'm concerned, 20 meters distance is still...way closer than I'll ever get Not that I mind, actually: I'm someone who prefers my fangirling to happen at a distance, lest I embarrass myself doing it in person.

I do think free or charity-style fanmeetings happen with other celebrities, too - JW's not the first, nor will he be the last. And he's also done the more conventional sort of fanmeeting as well, although I don't know how much he charges for entry.

The story JW told about getting lost in the airport in Hong Kong is one I've never heard before, so thanks for including that. I'm just getting that mental image now of what that would have looked like - since I've seen JW looking agitated/flustered before on shows like 1N2D, it's not that hard to figure out the rest. Kudos to those fans who stepped in to help him out, then That's one thing I've noticed about JW's fandom: the fans seem to reflect him in terms of personality and character, so I don't see some of the pettier things I've seen in other fandoms (e.g. fan wars and flaming and stuff like that).

As for the reference to past relationships...maybe JW's just so awesome to have as a friend that that's where his relationships tend to end up? *shrugs* I don't know, to be honest, but he's mentioned remaining on good terms with ex-girlfriends before, so....

2 hours ago, soomoi said:

I have a friend who’s young boy is autistic. Since when he was a toddler up to age of 6, he only live in his own world. Pay no attention to anyone including his parents. My friend has to quit his job to take care of him. His wife can’t because of the strength needed to catch him especially outside home. It was extremely exhausted to teach him anything and sometimes he was violent when he got mad with what he couldn’t do. I can see their patience and perseverance and hope for their happiness at the end. Last year in a party, we the adults were casually talking but then we heard the boy (age 10) mumbling “uncle, uncle..”. We were surprised and start replying to him for what he want. This year we heard him repeating what we had been teaching him when he was very small. He could remember the detail very well. That was a really good improvement although he did not give eye-contact but at least he wanted to communicate! I can imagine how difficult it was like to bring up Park Si On to become a good doctor! He can remain so pure despite all the differential treatment by “normal” people. That gives a strong hope to parents with autistic child.

I think that if nothing else, "Good Doctor" as a drama and Park Si On as a character really got a lot of good conversations going about autism - not just in Korea, but more generally as well.

2 hours ago, soomoi said:

Talking about Han Gilro, I guess JW enjoyed filming it a lot because we can always see his lively cute expressions on the set and behind the scenes. I have some pictures to share but no idea how to upload them here. Anyone please shed some light on me?

Images have to already be somewhere on the Internet first, because Soompi can only embed URL links - you can't just upload photos from your hard drive and share them here (yes, it would be a ton more convenient if we could, but no luck). So that's why so many of us use other social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest - once the picture you want to share is uploaded there, you can just copy and paste the image's URL (for Pinterest) or the actual post's URL (for Instagram or Twitter) and they'll show up.

Speaking of pics....

Spoiler

Something that I personally really like JW wearing: high-collared turtlenecks. They really emphasize his jawline

As for JW in plaid, here's a shot from "Fashion King" - Personally, I thought everyone (not just JW) looked way too old to be in high school in that movie. But it was still a fun film to watch.

Airport fashion from several of his dramas:

I think this event would have been really fun to attend - it looks to be some sort of fanmeeting held on one of those small dinner cruise ships

Just loving his smile here

These shots are from the 2015 SBS Drama Awards, where JW got the Daesang for "Yong Pal"

And speaking of his acting, this image combines two moments from "Yong Pal" and "Good Doctor" - I remember both scenes as major "Aw...that's so sad!" moments.

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