Han Hyo Joo 한효주 - [FIN: Happiness (2021) || NEXT: ThePirates: Goblin Flag (Jan 2022)]

[frozentundra]

I thought she looked kind of reserved and not her usual self, too. I didn't know if she was sick, or sad, or just really stressed, or what, and was a little concerned for her during the event. It looks like she got more cheerful at the end, and hopefully the day ended well for her. Her awards were definitely well deserved!

[MaxT]

Anyone able to find the English subtitles for 2016 MBC Drama Awards?

[MaxT]

I was surprised to see LJS won the Daesang award and not HHJ.

[frozentundra]

The reporter from Section TV who kept popping up to ask embarrassing questions (it looked like HJ wanted to hide under the table when she was asking if HJ remembered all those kissing scenes from W, and were they nice?) thought they should have gotten it jointly. I don't know if they ever do that, though.  I LOVED her acting in W. I do think LJS has done a lot of fantastic performances up until now, and felt it was well deserved. I didn't get the feeling that HJ was sad not to get it again--she seemed if anything, relieved that he did.

@MaxT there are at least some clips with subtitles on the Jongjoo thread.

[adeleyam]

Our girl's gaining more fanboys recently.. now it's Jae from boyband Day6 of JYP Ent..

[hhj22]

18 hours ago, keisha15 said:

Happy new year hyolics! I'm so happy for our girl for winning top excellence award in the recent MBC Drama Awards! Glad that she wore dress that is not black(lol)..She really looks gorgeous! But is it only me who thinks that she looks a bit sad and reserved? Seems like she cried before the event! I can't see her cheerfulnes, hope it's only my imagination!!! Anyways, so happy for her, 2016 had been a great year for our girl.. Praying for a greater 2017 for our hyojoo and may she have a blissful and blessed year ahead! 

I'm so proud of her especially knowing that she ranked 4th for film actor brand reputation rankings and the 1st for actresses!

I'm happy to be a part of this thread and looking forward for a more colorful journey with you hyolics...more endeavors for our girl and this thread! Have a blessed and blissful year to all of you! Happy new year and God bless our dear hyojoo, fellow hyolics and this precious thread!

no I think she was not sad ! she just shy for questions about W kiss scenes ! after she was so happy and have laugh!please  don't attention to your thinks my friend !(^_^)

Our angel is so powerful (^_^)

[bimini]

I definitely thought her vibe at the award show was really weird. She's usually pretty awkward at these televised award shows but you could tell she was anxiety ridden. No genuine smile from her for a while and she only seemed to be okay towards the end. I agree she was probably really relieved to not have gotten the Daesang hahaha. Probably afraid of the public backlash from getting that award... Even LJS got a lot of flack for it. 

Hope all is well with her though and that she's feeling better now. Can't wait for her to start filming her new film! I hope they rewrote the script so that she'll have more screentime. I really don't want it to be another Masquerade lol. 

IDK who Jae is or what Day6 is but good on him for answering with HHJ! Maybe he'll get the chance to be a part of an OST for one of her works. Look at ultimate fanboy JJY for goals lol.

Also, so happy to see the bangs are GONE now :3 Just dye it back to black too please haha

[frozentundra]

Aw, I like her bangs. (The wispy ones, not the super thick ones from older shows.) But it's probably more comfortable/easier to see on the wearer's part to be bangless.

It's been mentioned a couple times now, but as a new fan I am not understanding--why would there be backlash if she won? Is it because the award was completely audience-voting-based, and so people don't believe in it? Is it because people would think he deserved it more? Or that she didn't? I confess that I really don't understand the netizens who seem to be quite cruel at times to celebrities. (I read that an actress from one of the other networks didn't even show up for her own award because she was hospitalized due to stress from netizen persecution.

[Guest kaz11]

I am just glad that the year is done and she can concentrate on her next project lol. It had to hurt when you get criticized for something you have no control over like winning awards. For me, the most disappointing thing about being a long-time fan of hers is the fact that for some people, it's easy to disregard her talent when she turns in great performances and at the same time, it's also easy for them to devalue her as an actress when she's less than stellar. Well, netizens are never satisfied, but I am also relieved that she did not get Daesang. In my opinion, if there is someone from W who deserves it it's Appa Kim Eui Sung. I loved some parts of Hyo Joo's acting in it, especially her comedic acting (a lot of people loved her comedic acting, I believe) but it is also in here where I honestly saw her weakest acting. I can only say this with love and because I have seen everything she's ever been in, films, and dramas (the majority of them in full).

Anyway, I have a very good feeling about her upcoming film so I am looking forward to it. And she absolutely looked fantastic as she ended her public appearances and I am going to say that it's my favorite look all year.

Also, it is nice that she's gaining more fanboys why am I not surprised? Lol I love that even though she has matured over the years, you can still see the dork in her from time to time. 

[frozentundra]

If that's her weakest acting, then her good acting must be amazing. I found her character incredibly sympathetic in W, and yes, it would be nice to see her in some more comedic roles, too (although some of her sad moments in the middle of that one hit pretty hard, too.) I haven't seen every single thing she's been in (Dong Yi is 60 episodes, after all... It's easier to watch several films for the time of that one), but I'm constantly impressed at a) the wide range of characters and emotions she can convincingly play, and how, no matter who the character is, I always end up feeling for her (even if I don't *like* the character per se--Love 911 wasn't someone I would naturally get along with). She's definitely become my favorite actress, both for her talents and for her positive off-screen attitude. So I really hope all is well with her.

[Guest kaz11]

I remember being amazed after I watched Masquerade and then Love 911, both characters and performances completely different. Those films after the emotionally powerful Always. I think Ha Jung Hwa will always be one of my favorite performances, I saw the most convincing blind acting there. And then she went on and did Cold Eyes:) For new fans, I recommend watching her films in order. Sometimes I feel that she should get more credit for how varied her roles are. That is why I am happy that she's recognized and loved in Chungmuro. Even Kim Eui Sung tweeted that Hyo Joo is a better actress than he  thought or she's better than her looks lol (Cold Eyes). 

[frozentundra]

She's even convincing as an old person. I wouldn't say that Love, Lies is a film for kids, but my daughter watched just the last scene of that with me, and even without the rest of the movie, my kid was in TEARS at her performance. I think everybody has seen films where they try to age actors up for a scene or two, and it never flies--but we were completely convinced. I could see HHJ in there because I am familiar with her work, but if I wasn't, there's no way I would have guessed it was the same person in say, Cold Eyes. !! I would love it if in some future interview, someone asked her how on earth she goes about creating all of these distinct characters. (I am a writer and spend a lot of my life thinking about this very thing, and I am so impressed with her results.)

I've only seen about six of her projects. I'm glad there are many more left to catch up on...

[Guest kaz11]

Oh yeah Love Lies T T kinda hard to move on from that one because it should have been much better. For me the most heartbreaking scene is when she was alone in her room, singing to Yeon Hee's song, all the powerful emotions were movingly portrayed, jealousy, sadness, anger, love. I cried. But my favorite is when she totally lost it in that scene with Yoon Woo. 

Wish she would do another serious character after Golden Slumber. 

[frozentundra]

It seems like people tend to prefer her in either films or dramas, depending on what they saw her in first. I think I'm on the drama side, since I feel like there is more time for her to explore a character (and maybe a bit more of her own self leaks through, too?). But yeah, she was killer in Love Lies. That's not the kind of story that I normally care for, and usually I just don't like characters in true tragedies, where the tragedy is due to their own unfortunate actions. With a different actress, I would have really disliked it. But man, I walked away from that one really feeling for her character, and wanting to have a bucketload more compassion for other people. Such an emotional film.

I think that because she can pull off both humor AND pathos, it makes both of them stronger, and her characters feel more well-rounded and believable.

[Guest kaz11]

Brilliant Legacy is my introduction to her but I prefer films simply because her roles are MUCH better in them. Hence I think they do justice to her as an actor. I had a lot of free time during the holidays and I tried watching Legend of the Blue Sea and while I thought JJH is funny and good at comedy, I feel like I have completely moved on from dramas lol. It's so much easier to see the cheesiness now.. but it's just a personal opinion. 

[frozentundra]

There are definitely dramas that are cheesy, and there are tropes that end up repeating. Blue Sea is fun and all, but it doesn't pack the emotional punch that others do (IMO--obviously other viewers have different experiences). For dramas, I have seen HJ in W, Brilliant Legacy (which had a really excellently written antagonist, IMO--every time HJ thought she was free of the stepmother, the stepmother would find a way to twist things again), and Spring Waltz. I thought she particularly shone in the middle episodes of W because her character was allowed to really be proactive and be a true heroine (not just the love interest or a set of eyes for the viewer to watch from, but actually driving the plot). I missed that in the ending episodes. She just really stood out to me as someone who could be strong while at the same time, true to her character, and that was a combination of the script but also largely due to how HJ brought that character to life. When I think about her films, yes, they do tend to be ones where her character drives the story. So I'm looking forward to whatever she comes up with next!

[bimini]

I personally prefer her doing film roles as well, but mostly because the script is fully finished so it's easier for actors, directors, etc. to have a good grasp of the work they want to portray. With live-filmed dramas like W, only the first couple of scripts were completed by the time the cast was announced. The trade off is dramas are good for popularity, which she needed.

I remember being so excited about Oh Yeon Joo after the first few episodes were aired because there was SO MUCH POTENTIAL there in terms of character growth and development. It became way too plot-driven instead of character-driven, and it's where I lost interest in it sadly :\ I think I stopped watching W around episode 13, so I didn't even watch the finale scenes that she got a lot of criticism for from both K- and international netizens. 

I'm also pretty much over the Kdrama-watching lol, but I've only really ever watched HHJ's dramas to begin with. I feel like in general, a lot of Korean drama heroines are just so uninteresting and formulaic. Too much concentration on the romance angle and not enough focus on character depth IMO. I want scriptwriters to do better for their female characters goddamn it lol. Jane the Virgin, an American TV show, does a great job at parodying telenovelas while writing complex female characters instead of relying on tropes. I wish there was a Korean drama that could poke fun at its genre while having interesting, well-written characters.

My favorite scene in Love, Lies hands down is also the scene where she's singing and crying alone in her room while her mother is listening outside. It's SO heart wrenching and she did such an amazing job. I was really amazed because I was otherwise so disappointed in the film. 

Hopefully 2017 is a great year for her. I'd love to see her fame/success/popularity be at another high point similar to around 2013 when she did Love 911 and Cold Eyes.  

[frozentundra]

I think Cold Eyes is the one I don't get so much--it seemed like one extended action scene, and while she was great in it, I feel like she particularly shines in emotion-driven performances, and Cold Eyes was mostly just...chasing. She was good in it--but there is so much more that she CAN do that I was sad not to see more of it. It would be fun to see her do an action film that also has complex character growth in it.

[Guest kaz11]

Yeah man, I am over drama-watching, especially after W and the way Oh Yeon Joo was written scarred me lol. There is nothing worse than seeing all that potential unfulfilled. But Song Jae Jung apparently writes her female characters that way. The most beautiful thing, which had that emotional punch that lacked in a lot of the things that I saw last year, is an animated film.

My favorite year in Hyo Joo's career is 2015, I don't know, maybe because The Beauty Inside is my favorite, and she got nominated for her outstanding performance at all those award-giving bodies and then she was set to do Love Lies which also seemed like it had that potential. But I am hoping that 2017 is another year of breakthrough for her.

ETA: I actually love how Cold Eyes is mostly chasing, that sets it apart from all the other action films where there's too much melodrama and emotions tend to run high. I loved how we were introduced to each of the characters because of what they did and we got an idea of what kind of people they were because of how they performed in their jobs. It is still my favorite ensemble cast:)

[bimini]

What I really liked about Cold Eyes is the character dynamics. Her character was this kind of quiet, intuitive person with an adept ability of observation and it was beyond the stereotypical "this person is super smart, so they must be socially awkward and borderline sociopathic and/or must have Aspergers" ala Sherlock Holmes or Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. She was compassionate and moralistic, especially when compared to her senior. She held firmly onto her beliefs and always did what she felt was right.

She was a really fleshed out female character in a heavily male-dominated genre, and she was the lead protagonist. I loved that about Cold Eyes. 

I liked Beauty Inside but I did have some issues with some of its writing, especially the ending lol. I still find it weird that they were willing to try to work things out despite the detriments to her mental health. That was the weirdest part for my boyfriend and me when we watched it in theaters.