Bae Yong Joon 배용준

[Guest TY_KSW]

Credit to baeyongjune.com

Credit to geocities.jp

[caroline]

The Seoul Times

Tuesday, October 18, 2005, 17:56

Asia-Pacific

In Japan, Korean Actors Set Hearts Aflutter

By Todd Crowell

South Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon waves to his supporters.

TOKYO — Ikuko Kamia can't wait until Saturday comes around. The Japanese housewife, who lives in the western suburbs here, awakens with a light heart. It isn't because it is a holiday. It is a day when she can watch not one but two of her favorite Korean love dramas on television.

"Now I only watch Korean dramas," says Ms. Kamia, who thinks Japanese television dramas are boring. She is one of tens of thousands of mostly middle-aged women in Japan who have been captivated by the televised imports from their Asian neighbor. They've turned several Korean actors into superstars and sparked Japanese interest in all things Korean.

But for women viewers, it's the type of romance in the shows that has inspired such fervent devotion to the soap operas. In the Korean dramas, the leading men are positively old school in their display of gentlemanly qualities. The success of the shows has led some observers to interpret the popularity of the dramas as an expression of cultural yearning on the part of Japanese women.

Fans of the Asian soaps aren't shy when it comes to expressing their ardor for the hunky actors.

South Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon

When Korean actor Bae Yong Joon visited Japan in November to open an exhibition of his photographs, Japan witnessed airport scenes last seen in the 1960s when young women swooned to the Beatles. Thousands of women turned up at Narita airport to greet their hero. Hundreds more besieged his hotel. "Now I can die happy," said Noriko Fukawa, one of the star's fans.

Bae - universally known here as "Yon-sama," using the honorific suffix for idols - was a relatively obscure Korean actor until the Japanese success of his popular drama "Winter Sonata" catapulted him to international stardom. He has many fans in countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, too.

They have been captivated by Yon-sama's soft good looks, killer smile, the sensitivity with which he plays his roles, and his polite demeanor. No other Japanese or Western actor even comes close, admirers say. The Korean stars are also seen as being humble and polite - gentlemanly qualities seemingly lacking in the current crop of Japanese talent.

South Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon in Winter Sonata

The Korean stories are popular because they depict "pure love." Pure love, or jun ai in Japanese, has a special meaning in Japan, explains Kaori Shoji, who writes frequently on social issues and trends for the Japan Times. "A jun ai couple would face many obstacles contrived to keep them apart and pining for a romantic reunion."

That, of course, is precisely what Korean love dramas portray. In "Winter Sonata," a young woman played by Choi Ju Woo meets the love of her life in high school only to lose him in a traffic accident. Ten years later, she meets a Korean-American (played by Bae) who looks just like her long-lost love.

The tales are full of obstacles that the protagonists must overcome in the quest for true love. They unfold slowly, dreamily, with lots of long shots of the couple walking hand-in-hand through snowy woods, or Yon-sama giving the heroine long, searching, loving looks.

Many fans say the Korean dramas hark back to an earlier, golden era of Japanese films and television dramas of the 1950s, when the male stars were more stoic, manly, more protective of women. Many had "pure love" plots with lovers separated by war or soldiers returning to find their loved ones married to someone else.

South Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon

The fabulous success of these TV dramas has created widespread interest in Korea among the Japanese, who in the past tended to look down on their neighbor across the Sea of Japan (or East Sea as Koreans call it). Indeed, Yon-sama may well be the first Korean who the Japanese have unabashedly admired in their nation's long history.

Japanese producers are beginning to get on the "pure love" bandwagon, on the big screen at least. If "Winter Sonata" was the uncontested hit of 2004, then the second biggest phenom of the year was a Japanese tear-jerker with a jawbreaker of a title: "Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu (Crying out for love in the center of the world)," or "Sekachu" for short.

One intriguing question is whether Japan's new interest and respect for Korean culture will spill over into better treatment for Japan's own Korean minority, known as Zainichi, who have been the object of many forms of discrimination and disrespect in Japan since the end of World War II.

It may be too early to tell, but one encouraging sign is that Fuji Television's new "pure love" series, titled "Destiny of Love," has cast a Japanese-Korean as the female lead. It's the first time in Japanese television history that a series has been built around a Zainichi.

The article is from The Christian Science Monitor.

[ginagan]

Thanx syjfan for the info regarding the box office of April Snow in S'pore.

It's in my opinion a not bad record. Considering the fact that there were so many bad reviews of the movie here by magazines and etc. where most s'poreans get their hands on. I mean if i was not a fan of BYJ, i would have trusted the reviews of the movie from the magazine and decide not to spend money on it. Then regret it later for missing out such a good show. Not only that, it's not an easy movie to understand, hence not really well liked by the crowd.

I personally think that April Snow would be doing not bad if it could at least mantain this record for the next few weeks, remaining in the top 10 movie for the week.

[quteacho]

source: http://kr.news.yahoo.com/service/news/shel...101809251841876

18.10.2005 ~ Most Popular Male "Nose"

커뮤니티]대한민국 남자 성형 1순위는 ‘코’

[헤럴드생생뉴스 2005.10.18 09:25:18]

A survey showed that today most popular male "nose" selected as model for plastic surgery.

Males liked most by the forming operation model:

Chillan DONGON (34%)

Chong USON (23%),

Hyun Bin(16%),

BE YONJUN (10%),

Song Seung Heon (7%),

Won Bin (3%)

[Guest frances]

hey gina, dont get discouraged by nega reviews....& i'm sure there are lots of positive ones too remember that AS is not for the mainstream audience so its not surprising if there are some who will not be able to truly grasp the essence of the film & BYJ is a popular guy & there's this "hate celebrity syndrome" that is prevalent among reporters/writers or even online critics so its also not surprising if there's some bias in their reviews...anyways, here's a simple review and the writer seemed to have enjoyed watching the film

~ i omitted the last part where the writer discussed previous works of BYJ & SYJ.....~

SPOILERS ALERT

April Snow thoughts from imdb.com

by Harry T. Yung (harry_tk_yung@hotmail.com) from Hong Kong

"Oechu", or "Wae Chu" according to the Toronto IFF, means "going out". The English title for both Toronto and Hong Kong is "April Snow". It seems that director Hur Jin-ho has a high awareness of the seasons as the titles of his two previous movies were "Christmas in August" (1998) and "One fine spring day" (2001).

To many regular viewers of Korean movies (a few movies each year), "Christmas" was their first introduction and is still considered among the best (while the tombstones of those who died of boredom watching it would already be showing signs of weather erosion). "Spring" has mixed reviews, with many considering it a setback from "Christmas". "April snow" is sort of a comeback, although it does not have the depth of "Christmas" in which death is the subject matter rather than a plot device.

The plot of Oechu is simple. His wife and her husband, who are having an affair, got in an accident during their escapade and are both in a coma. Encountering at the hospital, they gradually find out that their respective spouses, who where college classmates, have been cheating on them. Starting with understandable animosity, they wind up falling in love.

The key to the success of the movie is the development of the relationship between these two people, which takes time and patience to render believable. With this director Hur has done a splendid job. For the critical turning point, he cleverly utilizes a situation where the two attend together the funeral of a third victim of the accident, a young chap. As the spouses of the careless drivers (it could not be established which one was driving), they obviously are met with extreme hostility from the family of the deceased. This incident creates the necessary empathy which breaks the ice between them.

There are some lovemaking scenes, which are more sensual than erotic. Very palpable together with the pleasure is also a sense of agony and pain. And those who think that these scenes are daring for a Korean movie have obviously not seen "Happy End" (1999).

One scene that left me with the deepest impression was when his father-in-law knocks on his hotel room door while they are in the room, not making love but simply enjoying being with each other. Millions of similar scenes must have been seen in movies and yet I've never seen one that moves me so deeply. There's light tension, but no panic, as he asks the father-in-law to wait a second, gathers her telltale belongings and leads her gently into the bathroom and closes the door, gently. He then meets the father-in-law at the door and suggests that they go out to lunch together. On the stairs, he asks the father-in-law to wait downstairs, saying that he has forgotten something. Back in the hotel room, he opens the washroom door. She is still standing there, coat in hand, looking very stoic. She then turns and faces him and very mildly, but reassuringly, says, "I'm OK". The scene ends in a light, affectionate embrace.

This scene says so much. There is nothing that they are ashamed of or need to hide, but tradition dictates that they should not be found together in his room. They face the situation together, with sensible and sensitive consideration for each other.

One thing I must say is that you'll be hard-pressed to find a better looking (in a very literal sense) Asian couple than this pair.

[Guest liezle]

cute artwork by canon which was posted in Quilt a few months back

[ginagan]

YEAH!!! i finally got a copy of the brochure for AS!!! I can't remember who is it but thanx to u for recommending to register to eclickKorea to get a free copy. Really didn't expect to get it flown here from Korea... A really big thanx to u again...

Liezle, dun worry i'm okay and not really disappointed... Coz i really tink that AS is doing well in S'pore...

[quteacho]

YEAH!!! i finally got a copy of the brochure for AS!!! I can't remember who is it but thanx to u for recommending to register to eclickKorea to get a free copy. Really didn't expect to get it flown here from Korea... A really big thanx to u again...

Liezle, dun worry i'm okay and not really disappointed... Coz i really tink that AS is doing well in S'pore...

Ehem... /cough

Yer much welcome ginagan!

Got mines too juz last week!

Should ev'ryone try it!!

[ginagan]

Haha my mum and dad just watched AS, and i tink they enjoyed it!! Dunno if anyone has mentioned this before but my mum gave me her point of view of a particular scene in AS.

It's the part where son yejin was cleaning up the hospital room of her husband. My mum says that it's not only the covering of blanket on her husband face that shows that she doesn't really care for him anymore, the wide open windows also explain so. If she was really caring for her husband , she would not have opened the window so widely. She would have opened the part of the window that was furthest from her husband, coz he was still someone who was sick.

really sorry for forgetting u quteacho. Really thanx a lot for the recommendation, for getting me the brochure indirectly...

[Guest Syjfan]

Haha my mum and dad just watched AS, and i tink they enjoyed it!! Dunno if anyone has mentioned this before but my mum gave me her point of view of a particular scene in AS.

It's the part where son yejin was cleaning up the hospital room of her husband. My mum says that it's not only the covering of blanket on her husband face that shows that she doesn't really care for him anymore, the wide open windows also explain so. If she was really caring for her husband , she would not have opened the window so widely. She would have opened the part of the window that was furthest from her husband, coz he was still someone who was sick.

really sorry for forgetting u quteacho. Really thanx a lot for the recommendation, for getting me the brochure indirectly...

The only time we see Seo young concerned for her husband was right in the beginning when she was waiting outside the operating room. Once she learnt of the betrayal, she hated him. And when she fell for In soo, her attention was no longer on him.

Especially in the scene when Doctor was asking her if she wanted to transfer her husband to a big hospital in Seoul, she was more concerned what would In soo be doing with his wife even though her husband condition was deteriorating. She was more concerned that if his wife was being transferred to Seoul, then In Soo would not be in Samcheok and they could not be together.

For the record, I love AS...I probably give it a 9 out of 10 and the 1 was the issues I posted a lot earlier.

Because it is a movie for Ye jin, I wanted it to be perfect...and it was close.

[Guest frances]

~reposting happiebb's piece of info on yong joon's canon digicam

from quilt

i'm pretty sure this is from the Canon EOS 1D Mark II series,

there're two different models under this range,

the Canon EOS 1D Mark 2 (Recommended Retail Px S$8,499 / approx US$5,000)

the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark 2 (Recommended Retail Px S$14,799 / approx US$8,700)

these are professional cameras, that's why the hefty price tags,

but still.... most of us would never have thought digicams can be so pricey right?

and... the lens you see in the picture is probably an add-on accessory...

[read: must pay for it la...]

phew... this man really loves his camera, huh?

price source:

http://www.canon.com.sg/index.cfm?fuseacti...type=comparison

cnet product review for photobuffs:

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcamera...39174184,00.htm

[Guest liezle]

Haha my mum and dad just watched AS, and i tink they enjoyed it!! Dunno if anyone has mentioned this before but my mum gave me her point of view of a particular scene in AS.

It's the part where son yejin was cleaning up the hospital room of her husband. My mum says that it's not only the covering of blanket on her husband face that shows that she doesn't really care for him anymore, the wide open windows also explain so. If she was really caring for her husband , she would not have opened the window so widely. She would have opened the part of the window that was furthest from her husband, coz he was still someone who was sick.

really sorry for forgetting u quteacho. Really thanx a lot for the recommendation, for getting me the brochure indirectly...

Gina dear, i'm so happy for you that you got your brochure already.

Glad that your mom and dad liked the movie. And that you guys were even discussing it after. I think if AS will be watched by people with too much expectation on Yong Joon and if they've followed the progress of the movie in the net (and not see the scenes that they saw in the net) they would really feel disappointed.

Frances, wish I could own that kind of camera Yong Joon is using. But geez, that one is so pricey. I can already buy a car with that price. Btw, I saw a Hyundai Sonata today

[Guest frances]

from cafe daum/byjfan

reposted in byjff

[Guest Syjfan]

My christmas wish for 2005

That Director Hur will release a Director's Cut with the DVD release and including all the unused scenes (no, I don't mean the 9 hours worth of bed scenes but that would be a bonus!)

[Guest pklteam]

My christmas wish for 2005

That Director Hur will release a Director's Cut with the DVD release and including all the unused scenes (no, I don't mean the 9 hours worth of bed scenes but that would be a bonus!)

I really wish to have the dvd on christmas time too, however, yesasia will only release it out by the end of December so I guest you can have your new year wish.

I might go to the theater to watch it on November here and buy the dvd later, I can't wait any longer to watch it.

I heard US already bought it and will release it out in theater on November, yay......

[Guest liezle]

My christmas wish for 2005

That Director Hur will release a Director's Cut with the DVD release and including all the unused scenes (no, I don't mean the 9 hours worth of bed scenes but that would be a bonus!)

Syjfan, we have the same wish and I told Frances about this ~ April Snow Director's Cut (which includes all the cut scenes we've seen prior to the release).

[caroline]

Good morning everyone....

For u to drool about........

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M4XZ4OQG

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KDMIHRIK

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=85X0BPBL

Hi Chili , thanks for the links ya....

.... oo la la..... :wub:

[caroline]

I'm back!!!! Finally I got to post here. I've been missing all my soompi sisters and I've been nagging my ISP provider to fix my connection but for now I have to be content to post at an internet cafe.

Hello vignette!.....welcome back!!

[Guest liezle]

Good morning everyone! I was in kob a few minutes back and read the post of Dreaming Yue. According to her Mgr Yang is in China and took photo with them. I guess Mgr Yang was there to fix things with regards to AS and "hopefully" Yong Joon's visit to China in November. I can feel the anticipation of our Chinese Baesisters already.

Here's a photo of Mgr Yang with some Baesisters in China posted in KOB.

Mr. Yang Keun Hwan meet some representatives of China family

in Beijing New Otani Chang Fu Gong Hotel on Oct. 18

Chili, i didn't d/l the links that you posted yesterday bec i thought it was there for vignette. So when Carol, made screencaps of the topless Yong Joon, i immediately downloaded them. Thanks unnie and likewise to you too Carol dear.

[Guest chiligoyo]

Chili, i didn't d/l the links that you posted yesterday bec i thought it was there for vignette. So when Carol, made screencaps of the topless Yong Joon, i immediately downloaded them. Thanks unnie and likewise to you too Carol dear.

Keke.. yeah, I think screencaps are really important to know what kinda vidz each link was so we won't have duplicated downloads ya? Carol is sooooooooooo important to us coz she's the expert in screencaps.. hehehe~!!