Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kang Dong Won CF Music - French Cafe (Photos)

French Cafe 1


Fangirls do a lot of useless things for their obsessions or for showing off to other fans, but sometimes, they do something useful as well.

The emoticon-happy Naody here has posted a few songs that have been featured in Kang Dong Won's CFs. I have no idea if she found them herself or if others helped, but here are the links. In her post, that is.

I will only post one song here. Partly because it's the only one that really got my attention, partly because I don't want to post too many videos and get angry when they are taken down one by one by companies breathing down Youtube's neck and partly because I love any opportunity to watch and post this specific French Cafe CF. Kang Dong Won is breathtaking here. I don't even drink coffee and I drool when I watch this. Then again, I'm not exactly drooling over the coffee...

Here is the CF and the song. It's by Ruby Rough and it's called "Easier". Lady, it ain't easy to watch this video of his to such a sexy song, I can guarantee it.

For some pictures from this CF, scroll down.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

"Haunters" - Some Things Explained (Spoilers)

Haunters Explanation


There was an article a while back on Korea.net, about the 10th New York Asian Film Festival and its screening of "Haunters". It seems that a lot of people did not "get" some things about the movie, which I find quite strange. I find it strange because most of them were obvious to me and I am not some genius here.

Someone commented "Asian films are provocative and cutting-edge, but not always easy to understand." Well, you'd have trouble watching most of them then, because you would really be in the dark about many things.

So, allow me to shed some light here. Major spoilers for the movie ahead, of course.

Kyu Nam has 3 powers. He could resist Cho In's mind control, he had very quick regenerating ability and he had some sort of contact with the "other side".

His amazing ability to be indestructible can be seen quite early on. He is hit head on by a speeding truck and he recuperates unusually fast. Ali says that even the nurses were talking about it. Throughout the film, you can see hints to that ability. He gets stabbed by scissors and doesn't stop. Then he gets zapped with the stun gun, which knocks you out pretty fast, but he held on for a while before fainting. Having been zapped and stabbed, he gets up and grabs the stretcher with his boss on it in the hospital. And if you haven't understood by then, a train hits him and he bleeds all over, but survives it and wakes up after a short nap, all healed from major internal and external hemorrhage. After some sleep and no medical attention.


Bleeding
"This will take at least 4 hours of sleep to heal, you jerk..."

Use the Tech! - Why Entertainment "Suffers" from Piracy

Madness/Politics


With everything that has been going on surrounding SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, a lot of us are starting to think about the why's and also the solutions. Particularly concerning the movie and television industry. Some of us see solutions to piracy around and we can't help but wonder, why are they not being considered?

Someone posted an article at an online community I am an active member of and it is what inspired me to write this long post. Here is the link.

The Tech Industry Has Already Given Hollywood The Answer To Piracy; If Only It Would Listen

Indeed, there are ways for this technology to turn things into a win-win situation, for the majority of parties involved, but instead of it being utilized, they are trying to take it down.

Call me a dreamer, say I haven't thought this through, tell me it's "not that simple" or that it's wrong. I will state my opinion here, mention what I consider a possible and ideal solution and tell you why I think it's not being considered by these industries.

Someone on that forum I mentioned talked about streaming services. Such services already exist, true, and for some people, they work well. But not for all. We all know of places like Netflix and Drama Fever. They offer video-on-demand streaming services for viewers who pay a little something for a subscription. One major minus these have, is that they are for specific and only a few areas. But even if they were made available for all, there are still issues here.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Padam Padam - Tongyeong on Daum Street View

City Photo from The Chosunilbo


If you are watching "Padam Padam: The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats" you might have also been impressed and dazzled by the beautiful filming locations. Among other things, since this show is generally wonderful.

Well, as stated in the series, the town is called Tongyeong and it's at the very edge of South Korea, down South. It's a lovely location as it combines both higher ground and sea, it's small enough for comfort, but seems to be buzzing with life too.

By using Daum Maps (read: Google Maps for South Korea), you can even find the house of character Jung Ji Na from the series. I have made a small visual tutorial on how to do that. In my post "Street View for South Korea", you will find a link to Daum Maps, as well as a picture tutorial on how to navigate it, as it is in hangul. It's really easy though. Same principles as Google Earth. All it takes is a few minutes of vigorous clicking, dragging and the occasional swearing when you end up some place random because you clicked the wrong thing.

So, here is a picture on how to find the town and the house, as well as a few links on the lovely Tongyeong, including its home page (in English).

Monday, January 23, 2012

Asian Entertainment Fans - Dark Days Ahead

CRAP!


There are many things I want to say about this recent shove they are giving the world, attempting to plunge it into darkness. I could go on and on about SOPA and ACTA. I could go on and on about the hypocrites and royal pricks who should burn in hell for wanting to turn us all into lesser people they can rule more easily over. If they don't mind letting people in poor countries suffer and die slowly, just because they won't let go of some of their money, they will have no problem taking our internet away.

But talking about these things we all know and feel is not necessary. As for information, I don't think I need to give much. Chances are, if you are an Asian entertainment fan, that you know what is going on already. It's a sad sad thing.

Fileserve has now joined the sites which are no longer filesharing ones.

This is a dire matter for fans. Asian entertainment is not force-fed to us like Hollywood is. We don't get Asian movies and series in video renting stores, we can't watch them in cinemas. The only way we can know if we like something enough to buy it, the only way by which we can watch it and find out if it's worth our money (as we CAN do with Hollywood productions) is by downloading it first.

Pretty soon, we won't have that luxury anymore and will therefore not be able to take the risk and go shopping blind. We will no longer be able to keep our contact with Asian entertainment, or any other kind of entertainment which isn't Hollywood. A bunch of rich pigs will control what people see and when.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Them Awesome Surveys

You Shall Not End
"I said you're not ending and that's final, World..."


Anyone who is very much into Korean entertainment, or any kind of mass drawing one, knows what I'm talking about. But let's explain this to others a bit.

See, when a person hears of a survey, they usually imagine rankings. People vote on something which will help others see what is best or maybe what is worst. Or maybe ask for a political opinion, as surveys are usually associated with research on an important subject.

But there are also the show business polls and surveys. Now, those usually have less dire matters to vote on, such as a celebrity affair, about their acting skills, maybe a ranking of the movies they've done and some are often made on gossip. But they are things that are happening or that need answering, since people would want to know.

And then there's surveys in Korea. I swear, the people that make them must be getting some type of grant from the government for them and just do them for "spending money". Polls in Korea basically ask the most irrational and useless questions, in order to give us an insight into the brains of masses. Hoo boy. Maybe those exist in Hollywood as well, but I thankfully managed to avoid the gossip side of things there.

Here are some examples (click them, they're links) and mind you, these aren't among the craziest I've seen. I just searched two sites for these, just to give you an idea.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Greece and Korea - "Kaimos" and "Han"

Friendship Pins


We have a saying in Greece. "Είδε ο γύφτος τη γενιά του και αναγάλλιασε η καρδιά του/Eide o gyftos ti genia tou kai anagalliase i kardia tou". It translates as "The gypsy saw his kind and his heart rejoiced". It means that we met or saw someone whom we hit it off with, who understands us or is like us and we love that. I could say it if I bumped into a relative or friend outside or mostly when I meet someone I have nice conversations with. Someone who "gets" me. My kind of person.

I have been talking about this issue for a while now, in different places, be it comments or posts. So I decided to make a piece on it a while back and then I postponed it a bit. But an article that came out today reminded me that I was supposed to have gotten this done already, on account of me wanting to do it. I'm weird, I know.

As I've mentioned a lot in the past, Korea feels like Asia's Greece, sometimes. I am not talking about history or politics. I am not educated on those issues and others could talk about them better than me. I am also not talking about our geography or love for food, as a nice post on this issue from the Korea blog mentioned. The one which reminded me that I need to do this piece. So, thanks to Angeliki for that.

I am talking about certain elements of living and culture, behaviors, habits, things that somehow feel so very familiar, things that I don't see in other cultures, past the ones I already know are like my own and also know the reasons behind our similarities. They are things that give me a feeling of watching something from my own country, unlike anything has ever done before.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Kang Dong Won - Calendar Photos Part 4

Calendar 46


This is the fourth out of 5 parts of some nice calendar pictures of Kang Dong Won.

The rest: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I am not sure they are from the same calendar, as some do appear to be from another batch. The quality is mostly very nice, but some are a bit smaller than others and of course, you don't need me to tell you where I got them because these girls' love stamps are all over them, often at very annoying places and even many times within a picture.

A lot of the pictures are of the same photoshoot, outfit and setting, but I scrambled them a bit to give you more variety in each batch.

Now, this may coincide with Kang Dong Won's birthday, but it most certainly isn't a gift for him. Why not? Because it's not my duty to send him gifts and I certainty wouldn't send him pictures of himself as a present. You'll find out more about my full thoughts on this in an article I will be writing soon.

I really like some from this batch. For one, we have a killer derpy one (4th set, first photo) and the last picture is also one of my favorites from this collection. It looks like he adjusting the scarf, so it may not have been a planned pose. Frankly, those pictures are usually the best, when captured by a good photographer. I also love black and white pictures and Kang Dong Won photographs really well in them.

The picture up on the top is also another very good one.

And because I am me and do notice these things, does his t-shirt say "sex" in the third picture bellow? Why do you torture your fangirls with such clothes, man?


Calendar 47 Calendar 48

Calendar 49 Calendar 50

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Camellia - Korean Release Date?

M-Line Distribution


Well, I may have said a while back (don't remember), that there seems to be a company called M-Line Distribution which promotes Korean movies abroad and in festivals. Article on that here.

They just added "Howling" in their list, with a release date for February 9th 2012, the official release date for this movie. But they also updated the "Camellia" release date. It is now "February 2012", as you can see on the picture here. All I can say is, "bring it on" and "finally".

Thailand and Japan have promoted this movie. They have websites for it, press conferences, trailers and even music videos made. But from Korea, silence. This movie is filmed exclusively in Busan. It stars Korean actors in every segment and it's mainly a Korean project, in collaboration with Japan and Thailand. But it seems that the only country to not promote it at all is the country of origin, which is just sad.

Well, maybe things will change now. Maybe it really will be released and get some proper promotion and press on it. I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know if there's anything there worth promoting other than heavy eye make up, vintage clothing and Busan, but let's see.

2NE1 Plagiarism - More Info

Ok, so this guy is apparently a netizen, for lack of a better word. He has profiles around and has his title as "semi-professional". So, he's someone who probably wants a career in music and is starting small, hoping to get picked up by some manager.

All that is fine and good on a young man trying to make his dream come true, but his "dream" comes from another damn band. I mean, he didn't even try and remix the song a bit. He plain copied it and then added his "singing" to it, which is not even rapping. It's talking. If he had credited them, I'd respect the guy, even if he sucks. But butchering music and doing it to music that isn't even yours? Nah, man.

He's probably too much of an amateur (and bad one) for YG Entertainment to pay much attention and I doubt the fandom will go too haywire on him, but he's still facing some pretty big embarrassment right now. I'd suggest he apologizes and removes the song from the public for good. Many people use old tunes, but unless you add something of your own to it and something decent, you're in bad taste.

So, to close this news for tonight, here is a live version of this wonderful song from some club. Sir, if you made money from that song, you really should be ashamed. I know the economy sucks, but have some decency.


Edit: The video was made private, just like the original. Will re-post if I find it again.

Greek Singer Plagiarizes 2NE1's "I Am the Best"

Well, Koreans take tunes from us and it seems we do the same. Now, while the "han" is indeed a good solid link between us, this song doesn't exactly have it. It seems as if our tastes in pop match too though. So, this "artist", Kristian Mexis apparently thought he could use the song without anyone noticing.

The funny thing is, the guy didn't even go through the trouble of remixing it somehow or redoing it. He even uses parts of it as is and just changed the way they sound a bit. Now, this song annoys me in the original version, but the Greek one is even worse. It's unbearable.

I am not sure who this guy is, if he is professional or if he's just some guy on youtube, but I'll check it out and update with more info. I don't even know if he's making money out of this. He may just be a fan who's playing with the tune, so let's not hang the man yet. Until I know more, here is the song. Although I have a feeling they might take it down soon.

Be back with more news on this soon.


Edit: The video was indeed made private. If I find it in the future, I'll re-post.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Korean Movies 2011 - The Reviews (2)

Second Batch of 2011


This is the second batch of the Korean Movies 2011 reviews I am doing. Part 1 can be found here. You can also look at my Korean Movies 2011 posts, where I talk about all the movies of 2011 I want to see. Although I now have more to add there.

This time, I am talking a bit about "Moby Dick", "Suicide Forecast" and "Clash of the Families". For plot synopsis and more info, go to these pages before reading my mini-reviews.

There is an ending spoiler for Moby Dick in this review, but the rest are spoiler free. I warn before this spoiler as well.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Korean Drama Curiosities - That's One Mighty Phone

Some Cliches


While we all know kdrama has its cliches , there are some things that puzzle us, amaze us, delight or put us off as viewers. Korean drama is a very widespread entertainment by now, reaching fans all over the world. When something from one specific culture is available to so many others, there are bound to be things that get lost in translation, culture, values and mindsets.

A while ago, some users in an online community I am part of, including myself, decided to make a thread in the forums about all of these issues. The things in kdrama which we find curious or interesting for some reason. And such threads and discussions can be found in many places online. Asian entertainment fans come from different countries, we are different people and it is always interesting to discuss kdramas, their culture and our own.

Furthermore, it's difficult to know how much of these things we find peculiar are actual parts of Korean culture and everyday life and how much is fiction or things that are simply done or exaggerated for entertainment purposes.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Stills from "Dancing Queen" and "Howling" Trailer

Dancing Queen Poster 3


I'm making this weird "Howling Queen" combo since I don't have enough material from both and I'm already quite late in posting these. Been meaning to for a while.

But here they are. We thankfully also have a better poster from "Dancing Queen", because those first ones were tragic indeed. And there's a longer trailer from "Howling" too. Woo hoo!

Enjoy.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Camellia - Youn Sun Nah's "Hymn of Death"

Love For Sale Still


A while ago, I made a post about a song from "Camellia", which is heard at the end of the Japanese trailer. However, I could not find the version used in said trailer.

Well, I just did and here it is. I checked the movie for it (just for sound, so I wouldn't get more spoilers) and it can be found near the end of the "Iron Pussy" segment. Which is not giving me much hope for a happy ending there, but I kind of expect the whole thing to be one big depression inducing fest of sobbing and pain. Korean drama. Need I say more?

The singer is Youn Sun Nah and I love her version as much as I loved Lee Mi Bae's. When tears start falling and you get goosebumps all over, you know you have good music. Or depression, but I'm pretty sure I don't have that.

If I have understood the concept of "han" correctly and it is indeed like the Greek "kaimós", then this song is filled to the brim with it. It gets in your gut and makes your heart sink.

As for the picture above, I just put it there to strengthen my resolve not to watch this without sound and wait for the Korean audio version at the end of March. And to make the rest of you fangirls lose it like I did when I saw this scene. And so that I can stare at it... For some time...

But here is the song for you. Enjoy them tears.




Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fun With My Stats 2 - The Good, The Bad, The Naughty

Fun With My Stats 2


With the new year now with us, shining a bit of hope to my crappy 2011, I decided to do another one of these posts due to my good mood.

I did mention in my first "Fun With My Stats" post that this would be a semi-annual thing, as was my original intention. However, the interwebs are so busy that I keep getting oh so many lovely hits generated from even more lovely searches.

So, I decided to make these posts according to hits and not at specific time intervals, as long as such "unique" searches bring people here. Because some of these are just too precious to keep all to myself for so long.

I shall categorize them for easier viewing.

 
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