Lee Sung-kyung and Nam Joo-hyuk: A Visual Timeline

One of the best news I've got this year was the confirmation of Lee Sung-kyung and Nam Joo-hyuk relationship. It was one of a busy week for me after pictures of the concert-date got out (Thanks Cold play!) and more papapics got published after a few hours. The last time I was excited for a reel to real life Korean power couple was Yoo In Na and Ji Hyun Woo which we all know ended in a split and I was devastated.


After binge-watching Weighlifting Fairy and Cheese in the Trap earlier this year, I was already familiar with the two and have done a mini research on their projects together. Quite surprised at what I discovered that time: They were together a lot. They debuted almost the same time and became partners in many CMs which is unique if you actually think about it. It's no wonder they're close to begin with.

Brazilian Man Undergoes Plastic Surgery to Look Korean

"Xiahn", a 25-year-old Brazilian man went under the knife for the sake of looking like a Korean. You've read that right. While Koreans are busy making their eyes look big, this guy decided to go against conformity!

Now Watching: You Who Came From the Stars

You Who Came From the Stars is still on its sixth episode as of the moment, but it had already surpassed the 20% ratings mark, making it one of Korea's successful dramas. The leads, Gianna Jun and Kim Soo-hyun are both popular and respected. They have previously been together in the movie The Thieves, which only made this drama a must-watch as their on screen chemistry had been noticeable. It's no wonder the drama went off to a good start and steadily gaining supporters

Plus, when its broadcast rights was sold to China, it was at the highest price ever of all Korean dramas. Whoa man, that is amazing. This was in truth, the main reason why I decided to watch this. Now I'm hooked and I don't know how to let go.

The drama uses en medias res, a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle: We see an alien Do Min-joon, who landed on Earth 400 years ago during Joseon Dynasty period. He is still living in modern times but his looks remained unchanged. As the plot progresses, we got to know his story through a series of flash backs. Apparently, Min-joon is kinda stranded on Earth, but during his early days, he helped save the life of a 15-year-old girl newly-widowed girl named Yi-hwa and eventually fell in love with her. However their story ended in a tragic way as the girl was first betrayed by her in-laws and eventually her very own parents. HER OWN PARENTS. Why was that? Because of culture and reputation and shit. Humans are not to be trusted.

Due to his experiences, Min-joon, despite having superpowers c/o his alien origins (stopping time, enhanced vision, hearing and speed) he chooses to ignore the problems of the world  since he believes that there is this thing called fate and whatever he does, he won't make a difference anyway and that intervening would only makes things worse. Plus, humans are not to be trusted.

Now back to the present, Min-joon met a new neighbor, the popular Hallyu star Song Yi. She's bitchy, proud, stubborn, cunning, rude and beautiful. But deep down inside, she is lonely. Doesn't stop her from being mischievous and adorable though. Min-joon was at first, is (not surprisingly) annoyed at this noisy neighbor of his. Turns out, she is also his student at the university too, and he was able to save her in various instances. Really adorable, these two.

However, as far as I could see that it's still a one-sided love story as Min-joon was only one who is conscious with his deepening emotions for the actress, while on the other hand, the beautiful Song Yi is still quite busy with being drunk, problems with her failing career, and her broken family (which includes a lovable father, a hopeless brother and a social climbing leech for a mother). It might take time for their love story to become mutual it seems.

Now back to Min-joon, as he is slowly, and reluctantly becoming part of her life he made a surprising discovery: The younger Song Yi looks very much like his first love, Yi-hwa. It turns out they've met a few years before as a younger Song Yi was saved by Min-joon himself. It is also good to take note that Song Yi hates doing historical dramas set in the Joseon Era, and feels emotional towards a certain crystal hairpin in a museum which apparently was once Yi-hwa's. The two are as different as the moon and sun but it seems there is a possibility of reincarnation. Min-joon put the pieces together and bam! Too late, he's already in looove. It's not about Song Yi's resemblance anymore, it's there time together in the past two weeks. In fact Min-joon finds himself missing her once in a while, saying he's unwilling to do her favors but ends up doing them anyway. Aww you are so falling for her dude.

In the last episode, matters are getting sadder with Song Yi's childhood best friend Hwi-kyung proposes to her in a ferris wheel, with Min-joon on the grounds. As Song-Yi was about to answer, he stops time temporarily as he walks away.

“There is a moment I wish I could stop forever.
And even if I must do this to prevent it, there are words I don’t want to hear.”

Ouch. It was truly comical how the events worked, it's kinda predictable but Kim Soo-hyun and Gianna Jun's performances were amazing, bringing to life characters you could relate to (even if one is a 400-year-old alien)

There is more to the drama of course, and a lot of good characters. It's not usual to find a drama where the minor guys are actually decent and memorable. Take Jae Kyung for example, some of the YWCFTS fans don't like him much, but I kinda loved how he is supposed to love animals but is very much OK with killing people. Sounds like Hitler eh? Another favorite is Se Mi, played by Yoo In Na, who by the way is her third time to play an actress. Compared to the past two dramas however, Yoo In Na's Se Mi is the best friend of all ages, unrequited love, the supporting character, you name it! She has her own dreams too, that's why I couldn't really blame her actions as she proceeded to take Song Yi's place.

I'd like to on and on, but I guess I'll stop here for now.
It's a really good drama and I am praying so fucking hard that they will continue to be one in the next episodes, God knows how disappointed I was with Gu Family Book and how bored I became with The Heirs (which is is essentially OK, but I found myself skipping a lot of scenes in the later episodes, so I was disappointed in a way), I hope this one will end well. In the meantime, waiting for episode is a torture, my impatience isn't helping either =_=)!

The Weird Relationship of EXO with Some of Their Sasaeng Fans

The Korean music industry is bigger than the Japanese these days. Let's face it, they have more popular idol groups an the bigger fanbase worldwide. I like Kpop too but my world revolves around Norazo and old Girls Generation music videos. So when I first heard about EXO from a few friends I was seriously clueless. I haven't heard their songs nor do I even care to listen.

One day, I was reading through Asianjunkie's posts when I noticed a few articles were written specially for EXO's sasaeng fans and it certainly made me interested all of the sudden. The latest news I knew of them was that just this September 15, EXO had to cancel their fansign event in Daejeon because the situation was too chaotic. (Photo related)


I clicked around Google for a while and from the looks of it, EXO fans are unfortunately labeled as the worst fan base in KPOP industry. Worse than TVXQ's.
That is one serious allegation since if memory served me right, even if they are already JYJ and DBSK, the fans are still reported to be anything but sane. Now blogs are comparing those to EXO's. How and why? 

For those who doesn't know the term, Sasaeng fans are basically groups of batshit crazy obsessive Korean fanatics. They are the Korean counterparts of the Japanese Yarakishi. However, where the Japanese idols are heavily gaurded by their agencies, the fans of Korean stars could have a more direct access to their famed idols, stalking and harassing them to no end has became their favorite pastime, hoping for that one fateful day where their lovely Oppas would fall in love with them and shit.
So I find it quite unfair for others to judge the entire fanbase based on them alone.

So what is it that they've truly done against EXO all these years? Let me count the ways. Made the list from various sources, so I am not so sure with the accuracy.

Plastic Surgery in Korean Pageant

Recently there had been lots of debate regarding about this news:

" A Japanese blog raised a controversy after it suggested that Korea's plastic surgery craze may be transforming the country's beauty pageants into a parade of clones.
The blog, Live Door, posted photos thought to show Miss Korea 2013 contestants all spotting strikingly similar looks. The photos were then uploaded to Reddit by user ShenTheWise with the caption, "Korea's plastic surgery mayhem is finally converging on the same face. Here are the miss korea 2013 contestants."
The photos sparked a debate on Reddit although it was uncertain whether the almost identical features of the contestants were the result of surgery, makeup or Photoshopping."

To read more of the story, go HERE
The reddit discussion is HERE
Whoa, seriously they all look like a whole set of twins, can't blame the netizens for their reactions. I mean just look at the eyes, and the noses. The best part? Look at the eyebrows. However there is no need to be afraid, according to tumblr blog kpsurgery, contestants of Miss Daegu actually looks normal in personal, without all that Photoshop and make-up:

But the popularity of plastic surgery in Korea is still being talked about online. Koreans do have small set of eyes, I don't see anything bad from making it look bigger, its just eyelids. The same thing with chins, Korean plastic surgeons are like wizards in this sort of thing, and could help in a person's self confidence. The problem comes in when a patient actually looks ....OK. You know, he/she could do with out going under the knife again and again, because they already look good. You can't just help but think why they are doing it.
=(

Pretty Faces

One day, I read an article about how all the best known Batman actors were morphed together to create one perfect Bruce Wayne. Morphing all of them billionaire/hero faces got a nice result. Now I decided to try morphing four of Korea's most beautiful actresses Note: the women I chose are from my own preference, I'll try to add Han Ga In and Yoon Eun Hye's faces later.

UPDATED! Horang's Korean Horror Comics Translated!!!

Bwahaha, these animated webcomics must have been translated for a while now. I was genuinely scared out my wits when I first read them years ago. For those who have not seen the comics, it was made by the mysterious, and obscure Korean blogger known as Horang, who was assumed by fans to be a comic artist named Jong-Ho Choi. This is still unconfirmed, so we can never be sure. Using the ever-effective horror tale element: shock, Horang's two internet famous works are part of a special anthology series 2011 Mystery Sketch in naver.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, PRESENTING:

[ENG ver.] Ok-Su Ghost - HORANG 

Bongcheon-Dong Ghost - HORANG 

[ENG ver.] Ghost in Masung Tunnel

Nope, won't give out spoilers, this is for sweet fear, must read with headphones and loneliness...

The Trivial Matters Gets the Ratings

The months of April and May have been quite controversial for two Korean artists
Though Japan and Korea are related historically and culturally, the anti-Hallyu protests doesn't seem to stop, and instead, the Japanese media whose coverage can be overwhelming, focused itself, more than necessary, on the Korean stars.

Just last month the Japanese cyberworld is putting up a tantrum over Korean idol, Park Ji-yeon's "rude" and “barbaric”table manners that was shown in one of Shin Ramyun's CMs. Apparently self-righteous Japan cannot and would not tolerate a Korean eating from a pot being shown on TV.

"... the video pans to Ji-yeon sitting down to eat her finished meal when suddenly, for reasons unexplained, she removes the lid of the pot with one hand, plunges her chopsticks directly into the pot with the other, lifts up a mass of noodles and plops them down on the overturned lid as if it were a plate before transferring them into her cute little mouth...

Time for a Few Korean Urban Legends

Each and every cultures boasts their own share of urban legends and scary stories. who wouldn't want to hear a few? so today I would like to focus on the wonderful country of Korea. 

The scary one are almost always the same

Koreans have their own traditional ways and culture that dates back long ago, it is not surprising that we are able to see urban legends that had survived up until the modern age. Apart from the usual unmarried girl/guy still haunting beyond the grave and girls who are nine-tailed-foxes in disguise, there are also new stories to enjoy too, Here are my three faves and let us start with the weird one:

Fan Death 

Oh no, Kpop has nothing to do with this. It is all what you read. Literally dying because of electric fans.

Here is an excerpt from a korean english language newspaper, Korea Herald June 28, 1997: