For those interested, the Seattle Times this morning had an article about Late Autumn finishing its filming in the Seattle area, with photos of the two stars in their roles.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011285408_koreanfilm08m.html

Does anyone else think that the plot of Late Autumn sounds remarkably like Before Sunrise? Well, if Binnie and Tang Wei have chemistry to spare, then its bound to be a lovely film.

@ isabelh - thanks for the article, have you seen them around Seattle?

@ everyone who responded to my Easy Bake question - mucho gracias! I went for it, but will make my own mixes for the kids to play with.

@ twin

Welcome back! I still can't believe you were gone for an entire month!! I wished I traveled even more than I did bf I started working, bc I have money now but no time. Life's terribly unfair that way. Btw, your attending the wrong wedding story was HILARIOUS! Seriously, I can imagine you hightailing it out of there whilst the paps snapped away.

Hubby has checked out of DoMD, because its headed staight into OMG so good, so serious, so gut wrenching territory in the latter 15 episodes or such (once WXB heads to Yunnan), and the laughs a minutes are fewer (still there!) and he's really just not a dramawatcher no matter what I tempt him with. Oh well, he enjoyed it a lot, which allowed us to bond a bit. But I'm sure he'll pop back in when we get to the infamous Yangchou LiChun Court Bed Scene.

I've been on a Roman Tam bender for the last week, tracking down his best songs to burn a CD. Roman was to Canto-music like Tony Leung is to HK-movies - the undisputed best!

Anyways, so I never knew what the lyrics of the songs he sang were since it was in cantonese and I speak mandarin. Until now, when I finally read the lyrics, and I discovered that not only was every song in LoCH 1982 like the best song lyrics ever written specifically for a TV drama, one of the songs 滿江紅 was a song with lyrics that took the FAMOUS poem written by General Yue Fei of the Southern Song Dynasty (for those non-chinese history buffs, think of Yue Fei like a Zhou Yu from Red Cliff) and paired it with a scourching soaring arrangement. Awesome song and so meaningful to boot, when he sings about the Humiliation of the JingKang incident, I was like, woah!!!, how come this level of musical nirvana can't be done anymore. Sigh, reading the poem make me feel patriotic for no good reason. :-)

Song with scene from LoCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-_RL_pNS2o

Wiki article about the poem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manjiang_Hong

I'm off to learn to download all those songs and k-drama songs into my iPhone.

And I have a feeling that this is be a VERY VERY good week for k-drama lovers as Pasta, WUAS and Chuno should all be delivering awesome episodes for us to enjoy. Yay, so happy!

Open Thread is great for commiserating.

Mookie speaking of weddings. I went to a wedding in europe where my husband and I were pretty much the only asians at the pre-wedding garden party. The english speaking relatives of my friend who was getting married kept asking me if my husband had flown over with me since they had heard I was married and when I would point to the lone asian in the crowd (he was predictably standing right next to the food station so I never had to look far for him) they would politely say something like "oh I thought he was your younger brother". One particulary outspoken relative of the groom said loudly, "Impossible! He is too young to be married". Mind you my husband is 2 years older than me! *hides face and cries in the corner*.

I think a lot of Asian men either look like major ajusshis or remain boyish. My husband's korean guy friends pretty much transformed into ajusshi in their late 20's while my hubby remains as he was in college much to my utter joy

@ epyc #8, page 2

Re: early language proficiency
While learning two languages may cause a slight delay in language proficiency during infancy, it is at most a couple of months, and then the child quickly catches up to his peers. Personally, I have never seen this delay. And brain research shows that the part of the brain that deals with language is more fully used when a person learns the second language early as opposed to in later years. Through brain mapping, researchers have found that a bilingual person (from the start) uses the entire part of that brain section, but one who learned the second language later on only uses a tiny fraction of that section. So, while a person is fully capable of mastering two languages as an adult, he/she will never use that part of the brain if it isn't used before the brain starts its "pruning" (I forget the technical terminology) at around age 3-4.

One thing that a child may get confused with is if a parent uses two different languages at the same time. (What usually happens is that the child will choose to go with one language or the other.) So it is recommended that the best way to teach your child two languages is to have one parent speak solely one language to the child, and the second parent speak solely the second language to the child. I have dealt with many bilingual (and tri-lingual) children, and they have had NO problems with language proficiency whatsoever. Remember, we only use a tiny portion of our brains, and children's brain have an enormous capacity for learning.

Example of trilingual child:
Parent 1 speaks language A to child.
Parent 2 speaks language B to child.
Parents speak language C to each other. (This can be any of the 3 languages, it doesn't really matter.)
Child speaks language C at school.
Child becomes fluent in languages A, B, and C.

Another thing about learning a second language as an adult is that you end up having to make an extra translation step in you head.
Ex: In Korean, noon means snow.
If your bilingual from when young, then when you read/hear the word snow, you think of white, cold stuff that falls from sky in winter. Same thing happens if you read/hear the word noon. But if you learned Korean as an adult, when you read/hear the word noon, you think
noon -> snow -> white, cold stuff that falls from sky in winter.

Ah, men...they think they know everything, don't they... ;)

@ hjkomo

Wow, thank you for that wonderfully insightful POV on mutilingualism. I think I'm going to throw a third language into the mix (mine are both 100% fluent in English and mandarin already, in fact, they probably speak mandarin better than their dad), and speak Taiwanese to them. I am lamenting the loss of that language as my hubby is a mainlander descent, but now know that if I speak to them in that language, that might be enough to pick it up.

Anyone who stayed with the drama care to share final thoughts about Smile, You? I checked out a LONG time ago, but the goodwill I have towards the lead couple makes me curious whether the drama had a sweet ending?

haha too funny Cingdoc. I'm going to one up you. We were once waiting on line at Whole Foods and the cashier who looked as if she was barely 18 yo asked my husband out on a date right in front of me. She asked him if he attended NYU--she apparently assumed I was an older friend/sister. She never even thought I might be with him. The whole thing was pretty amusing. I got to tease my husband for weeks after that e.g. "what are you wearing on your date?" "Do you want noona to give you money for your date?"

-----
On another note. I'm watching Assorted Gems and while I'm enjoying this kdrama immensely the ending of episode 26 had me seriously thinking WTF. Anybody else had a wtf moment at the ending.

@ serendipity
If you are into something heavy watch White Tower. If you want something lighter Assorted Gems has been pretty fun so far

@ 42 serendipity : I can heartily recommend Flowers for My Life. I loved it. In fact, I still love it (present tense) b/c I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the final episode b/c I don't want it to end. And I know I'll cry buckets. But I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would.

To those worried about looking older than your husband... if you are thinking intervention, maybe Wish Upon A Star's Jae-Young can get you a botox discount; she clearly buys in bulk.

@ cingdoc: sorry, Wish Upon A Star, I meant. Totally agree, botox is yucky and expensive, but one of the actors clearly went botox overboard. Kind of freaky. Skincare wise, I'm into totally organic/no preservatives or chemicals stuff. My skin feels great and I wish I'd started years ago.

@ gallivanter

i marathoned jotei in about a day... i just couldn't stop watching. it is a bit on the ridic kdrama side (really, the hatred some of the girls had for poor kato rosa was just completely unfounded), and even if she did get kicked down everytime she made progress, i still wanted to see her kick some ass in the end. sigh. this is what i LOVE about jdoramas - it's actually possible to watch it all in one day since they're normally not more than 10-12 eps :)

next up: Love Shuffle. I know i mentioned watching it like... 7 months ago, but I'm finally going to get around to it. After Jotei I need to continue to Matsuda Shota love.. not to mention some Tamaki Hiroshi too!

Question for the more tekkie people here: I just downloaded the Gokusen Movie with embedded softsubs but I can't seem to play them! Why is that? Any advice on how to get those subs to play??

@Thundie

I'm about to start episode 27 but waiting for hubby to go to bed so I can marathon through another couple of episodes. Why isn't he sleeping already?!?! I am dying to find out how the WTF moment plays out. Little does he know I watched 6 episodes last night. And to think he thought I was working on finishing up my project. heehee...

@cingdoc

How much you want to bet if we slept more and watched less kdramas we wouldn't need any expensive eye creams. I know part of it is genetics but hubby spends his time working out, riding his bike and getting his 8 hours of sleep when not working while I worry about anything from ozone depletion due to bovine flatulence to worrying about YG's mother's dementia in AG and this worrying is occurring when I should be in the land of nod.

thanks for welcoming me back (or remembering me...lol) my friends! ;)

actually I dont really have the luxury of taking a month off, let alone both of us.... planned for this for 2 yrs now, but I really really really want to do this for my parents on their 30th's wedding anni (and I'm already couple yrs late...)

I adore my folks, technically they r more British than Chinese, spending way more time in London than HK...after graduating college, they went on a backpacking/honeymoon yr long trip in China, imagining seeing the undiluted beauty that was absolutely untouched and opposite of anything touristy. *envy* my mom said I was conceived near ShangriLa, Yunnan (tmi right?!...haha...) when they were visiting the LuGu lake (and the infamous matriarchael Mosuo tribe). Tbh, I have to see things thro their eyes and anedotes now to appreciate how things were for hundreds of yr before this recent commercialization/bastardization....and I love my folks more on how all embracing, nonjudgemental or socialistic their views on the situation... they appreciate how fortunate they r to be able to witness the change of times, for good/bad who r we to judge?

And they followed the local tribe's custom and brought fresh PuEr tea bricks for their future baby as a dowry. A fresh brick of PuEr may not worth anything, but after years of aging and nurturing, it's price of gold (so organically poetic...). I still have those 30+ y o bricks of PuEr that I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

@51momosan
oh how sad..i'll just try to buy on soompi..thanks anyway :)

@ hjkomo

Thanks for your insight! We did read similar research findings but decided to go with 'English only' policy given the girl was to grow up in an English speaking country. (Mind you, I always think it some kind of wonder that people in Singapore and Malaysia are multilingual.) We did encourage our daughter to learn Chinese when she's young but she wasn't interested. Funnily enough, she then fell in love with learning Japanese and made it her second language at school. She is now probably getting into the phase of finding her root and is taking some Asian studies in her first year in uni.

@ nycgirl and Assorted Gems

Ep 27 is a very sudden turn that made you curse. Nonetheless, it is significant in shifting the direction for the second half of the drama.

@ djes

I'm with you on Oh! My Lady! Too many dramas too little time!

Hmm. Life has filled up, and the drama-watching window I thought was opening up seems to be snapping shut again. It was probably unrealistic anyway to think that I could add anything to following WUAS, Chuno and Pasta. But both White Tower and Flowers for My Life are definitely in the pipe-line!

@nycgrl

Yeah, for all I complain about Mr Dorian Serendipity Grey, I really like that he has not become a fat, bald and "prosperous" uncle. As handsome and lean as the day I married him 15 yrs ago, he's got the distinguished Asian gentleman of indeterminate age look down pat, and I likes it. :-)

@ mookie

Welcome back! I was in LiJiang ten years ago, and found it perfectly charming -- touristy enough to be comfortable, but still retaining lots of authentic sounds and smells. I shudder to think how bastardised it is now :-( But at least you got there before it doubtless gets even more horrendous in the next ten years.

@ cingdoc

My husband is the one who watches sports on tv endlessly, but I'm the one addicted to Top Gear!

@ lovenyc52

I enjoyed Love Shuffle. I felt very dubious at the start - GF/BF swapping, what a tired and ridiculous premise. But it gets more interesting as it goes along and unpacks and unpeels life and love.

Speaking of Asian men ageing, does anyone else worry for WUAS' Kim Ji Hoon? I do, I do so worry. He has the type of face which I can just see going all "prosperous". A couple more pounds laid on, and I fear he'll be stuck playing unctuous villains the rest of his career. Oh, Jihoonie, take care! Keep working those weights, we like you more oppa than ahjusshi.

@ serendipity

i tried watching it twice already and could not get past the first 15 minutes. it's just so weird seeing tamaki's character like that after i watched him in nodame. but i am determined to see it through!! because from all accounts i hear it's quite good.

@ rambutan

i'm not sure about the codecs - i usually use a GOM player which pretty much plays all my files, both soft and hard subbed. Maybe i'll need to use my Real Media player in order to read embedded softsubs. Thanks though! I'll have to play around with it at home :)

@serendipity

on LiJiang:

it's still every bit awe-inspiring and a UNESCO Heritage Site when I use my imagination picturing what it used to be like, or when my parents visited 30+ years back or when u visited 10 yrs ago...and I can even extrapolate how the water villages of Suzhou must've looked like sans those glitzy sore thumbs hotels that should be burnt. I researched on the time of visit (right after lunar new yr's 'exodus'), but I really really hate the bars and all the half ass western resto there. *hatehatehate*. my mom tried to comfort me equating HK, but at least all that westernization in HK is relevant to its identity. HK is a Susie Wong who never pretended to be any lady other than a high end materialistic escort and I <3 that brash honesty in its being. I exhausted my limited mando and tried mightily to convo with my Nakhi tribe guide. he gingerly told me though the old city is his hometown, he's born in the city, his livelihood is IN the old city, no Nakhi leads a normal, real daily life in it anymore, every bit of property is leased out to 'foreigners' to sell carbon copy cheapo souvenirs or fancied up 'hotels' or bars, restos. He cant even show me his ancestral home since it's catered out for a visit by some big gun officials fr another province. I asked him if he's saddened by it at all, he tried to hide his wry smile and said, everything is a 2 way sword. Call me a butthead, but I honestly can live with couple days of faint-inducing pungent ancient pissholes (I have my supply of tangerine skins handy as weapons in my nostrils to brave the smell) when the province of Yunnan is in a historically devastating drought. those pristine brand new lavatories everywhere in old town where the attendants r way too enthusiastically scrubbing and cleaning after every single use make me sad. I still HEART LiJiang and its Nakhi. u can bastardize buildings but u cant take away a heritage and the soul of living beings.

Dali and its temples r suffering fr the same state, but it's just sooo breathtakingly pretty. that blue sky with those lonely puffs of rare clouds, that gorgeously ridged mountain (and I had a super memorable hike) and that deep blue 'sea' (lake) provided such a breathtaking backdrop to a surreal cluster of pristine temples....it's so vastly majestic that I dont think mere humans can destroy its natural beauty, and no new gold leaves or bright ornate paints can steal any of its natural glorious beauty. but rant: it's just soo very wrong when an ancient temple is dustless and the gold is soooo glaringly abundantly blinding. And Chinese r sooo addicted to their 'reflective' pools, they'll build a fake one wherever they felt it's worth a kodak moment, as if the original is only worthy when there's a pirated 'shadow' of the real thing RIGHT below it....no matter if it's some 1000 yr old pagodas or an enormous snow mt

ignore me, I'm just having a very ugly angry moment of '$ is root of all evil' while sipping my free Starbucks( which I silently complain and dislike, but drink up) ;)

@45 cingdoc

Thank you, but no, I'm still in Japan. I went home, stayed there and came back here on Friday...

@56 hjkomo

Very interesting. Right, some people at my day job, they are bi/ tri/quad lingual... I read somewhere that cut off is about 10 years old to be completely fluent in multi languages. Ah... I wish...

@lovency 52

Here's my two cents:

Sometimes the titles of the video (avi) and the subtitles (srt) don't match. eg

video: SmileYou.E01
Subs: Smile.You.E01

You need to make sure every single character matches. If there's a period, make sure you didn't keyed a comma or have a double space instead of a single space between words. You may delete as many characters as you wish as long as your video and subs for each episode match and you can identify them clearly.

e.g.

SmileYouE01.avi *
SmileYouE01.srt *
SmileYouE02.avi
SmileYouE02.srt

This way you may have a whole series in a single folder and not have problems viewing the desired episode with the corresponding subs.

I hope this helps.

* You don't need to add the suffixes avi or srt to the file name

@cingdoc

Hubby is very much like Chun Jung Myung both in build and boyish face and yup he is very much the athlete. He lettered in three sports in HS for 4 years e.g. football, basketball and soccer. I think the only sport I enjoy is snowboarding otherwise I prefer reading and going to the museum. We are like the greek and the geek in our family.

-----
ok I'm on episode 30 of Assorted Gems. Its still not clear to me but maybe it will be a bit later. Also I just loved the busted wedding scene. How many of us have wished something like that to happen on someone we know personally. I know I have.

-----
BTW speaking of the word fob I call my husband a "fob" as an endearment when he insists on eating kimchi with pasta. When we were in Italy he actually had the audacity to say the pasta we were eating which was perfection would have been better with Kimchi.

@ Mookie

Li Jiang has clean public toilets?!! Golly, things have changed! Ten years ago, I would have given Yunnan the prize for Worst Loos in World. I even resorted to not drinking any water, as far as possible, until the evening when I could be reasonably sure of getting to my hotel room, just to reduce the number of gag-inducing trips (not to mention, humiliatingly public since most of the toilets didn't have partitions much less front doors). To be honest, I would give anything for non- awful toilets. I mean, I'm not fussy, I don't need it to be pristine, just not, well, you know... So in your bastardization-with-ok-toilets vs authentic(cally awful toilets) scenario, I have to confess I'm a little torn. But then again, I haven't really experienced the full horrors of full-on touristication. When I was in LiJiang there were the odd western-style restaurants, but they were all a bit feeble, and the old town while obviously aware of tourists still felt like a lived-in town, with natives going about their business.

I wasn't all that impressed by Dali, ten years ago. I remember the lake more for the filthiness of the ferry than anything else, and I think we stopped at a couple of forgettable temples. Hmm. Must be pre-tarting up days.

What really impressed me was the four-hour bus ride from Dali to LiJiang. One of the most beautiful bus rides I have ever taken. The rolling forested hills, the padi fields glinting in the sun, the farm buildings with the grey roof tiles, pointy roof corners and painted cornices...

@ cingdoc

Ah he's ok. Lets just say I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers. My mom on the other hand was a bit disappointed in my choice since I think she was secretly wishing I would bring home a tall Caucasian guy. She always had a thing for Tom Selleck.

Strangely enough when I watch kdramas, I tend to drool over guys who are the tall manly types like CSW in city hall or Lee Tae Gon in Assorted Gems. I have to chalk it up to my inner kdrama alter ego taking over when I watch those shows.

@ Lumi

Thanks - but i think it was just my GOM player that wouldn't play the embedded softsub, but it works when played on my tv through my media converter. there's no sub file for this as it's embedded, but since it's an embedded soft sub you're supposed to be able to turn it on and off, but for some reason my GOM player didn't give me that option and i guess it was just on 'off' mode. At least it works on my tv, which is more important :)

@ nycgrl

"Hubby is very much like Chun Jung Myung both in build and boyish face..."

you lucky, lucky woman. i <3s him... CJM i mean :)

OK. Finally watched The Good The Bad The Weird. And can I just say that I TOTALLY get Jung Woo Sung, and can now say along with everyone... IRIS2!!! SSQQUUUEEEEEEEE!!!!

Also, finally get the super-stardom of Lee Byung Hun which I couldn't get from Iris1 ep1. What a magnetic performance!

I don't know whether I'm getting old, but I found the movie's more violent segments hard to watch. Am I getting over-sensitive in my advancing years? Or is it a tribute to the immediacy of the filming? I frequently had to brace myself and tell myself "don't worry, girl, it's only a movie, it's only a movie..."

Eeps! DB family, I need your help. My poor little Toby (Toshiba) laptop has shut down for the last time (RIP) and I need a replacement – stat! I’m not a gamer so I don’t need a high-performing machine – just one that’s worth my money and going to last for awhile (….and can handle all my kdrama videos ^^). I’ve been told HP is the way to go now so I’ve narrowed it down to these two…

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/839772/HP-Pavilion-dv6-2150us-15-6/

and this one… http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/328437/HP-G71-340US-17-3-Widescreen/

Any opinion/suggestion you can give would be greatly appreciated!
(oh, and yea...I'd salivating for a macbook too...but alas, with student loans I don't think I can afford it right now...maybe in a few years..*sighs*)

@ serendipity

Ah yes! You finally made the acquaintance of my "I lub you" JWS! And with a double-dose of LBH in a kick-ass role. Actually, both guys kinda got out acted by the Weird, but damn if they weren't all sorts of hot and badass and crazy cool. I thought the violence in TGTBTW was stylized so I found it less stomach churning and more like art piece. I enjoyed the movie tremendously and find that upon a second watch, I come away with even more nuggets of goodness I missed the first time around.

Anyways, IRIS 2 cannot come fast enough for me. I am toe-tapping in my brain counting down to d-day.

Same for me. I thought both JWS and LBH were both outacted by SKH. LBH I thought overacted and JWS was a little too subtle but its plain both guys have tons of charisma. TGTBTW was one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a while.

I'm totally on the bandwagon for IRIS 2 since I'm going in with no expectations for plot or leading lady and I have JWS and CSW to distract me.

@ mookie-twin

I finally watched Storm Warriors.......and have only 3 things to say about it: (1) 10 years later and Aaron Kwok is even HOTTER as Cloud, looks younger, buffer and acting has improved by leaps and bounds (I'm not talking about his performance in SW, but the fact that he's won a couple of Golden Horses and other acting awards in the interim decade, so his performance as Cloud here is given a giant bump in goodness), (2) 10 years later and Ekin looks like he aged 10 years as Wind, WTH happened? he looked younger than Aaron in Storm Riders and now he looks his real age whereas Aaron has apparently founded the Fountain of Youth - plus, Ekin still can't act worth shit, and (3) Wow, what was the story about, bc I couldn't find one, other than a collection of awesome that was Kenny Ho and Siman Yam, with Nicky Tse in yet another head scratching "performance."

I thought The Restless was the dumbest RPG-esq

@ mookie-twin

Finally watched Storm Warriors, have 3 thoughts:

1. Aaron Kwok is hotter 10 years later than, in fact, he is THE hottest Four Sky King hands down, by about a nautical mile. And now he can act, too! Score for me. Yum.....I loved his Cloud in the first movie, and love him even more since he's now apparently found the Fountain of Youth. He's a 44 yr old that looks 30.

2. Ekin Cheng looks older than Aaron now 10 years later, and still can't act. WTH happened? Did dumping Maggie for Gigi place a curse on him. I still have a soft spot for him, but dude got PWNED by Aaron here, again.

3. Was there a story in that movie? I have no clue what happened plotwise, and don't think I missed anything important, so *shrug*.

I thought The Restless with My I Lub you was bad, Storm Warrior is worse, but I still liked Storm Riders.

And I discovered that I have an inexplicable and deeply shaming enjoyment of watching Ekin suck at acting. It's like my love for Song Seung-heon, or my drooling over Huang Xiao-ming's dimples while wanting him to get his act together and hit his potential. Thank god I don't like Wu Zhun, then I'd be a 4 out of 4 in terms of having a secret tendre for bad actors from Korea, HK, TW, and China.

Edit: sorry about the reposting, I thought I lost my first post so wrote a second one, and when it was posted, my first post showed up. Oppsie, my bad.

JWS!! Nothing takes me out of lurking mode other than the mention of JWS!! JWS and CSW!! Double *swoons*. And both of them may be heading to my country to shoot Athena!! Triple *swoons*. Above all, they should get rid of IRIS's writer first. No silly or forced love angle and bizarre plots...pleeeazzze!

ok, under that humongous rock I'm living, I just found out what the fuss was w/ IRIS2, or United We SQUEEEE

I have a soft spot for JWS since that giordano CF, and Mr City Hall, I have hots for him in the cheesy Bodyguard. (disown me but I'm the only girl in OT slightly bored watching TGTBTW...yes stylized, but storywise... and I've yet to find the urge to finish CH)

@twin, yes Storm Warrior has absolutely NO story, I rem u finding Storm Raiders silly in story...this one upped THAT lol
I'm totally with u in ur 1.2.3. lucky me I was never a big Ekin fan...should be glad that I'm forever a Maggie fangirl and thus that Ekin/Gigi incident happend at my very gullible/ impressible age and both of them have no chance in redeeming in my books (esp talentwise, they r so not all sorts of amazing)
I actually find the first half of SW ok, but the second half... I dun recall lines! and that silly 'climatic' draggy fight put me to sleep....esp when they did not put in more Aaron fanservice.. BAD move.
and Ekin, sigh, this is one easy, juicy role!! there's no excuse for him to suck like soaked cardboard. and I suspect his 'muscle tone' is drawn on. I'm a slave of a game Plant vs Zombie, and the zombies at my backyard there r more animated than him as some evil incarnate. WTF

@ 73 serendipity -
"Speaking of Asian men ageing, does anyone else worry for WUAS’ Kim Ji Hoon? I do, I do so worry. He has the type of face which I can just see going all “prosperous”. A couple more pounds laid on, and I fear he’ll be stuck playing unctuous villains the rest of his career. Oh, Jihoonie, take care! Keep working those weights, we like you more oppa than ahjusshi."

Yes, I'm very worried. I've been worried from the start, frankly. 10 years from now his face may well be unbearably smug. I'm already sad.

I particularly like the specification of "unctuous villains"... so palpably descriptive.

Someone said they thought the problem in WUAS was that his hairline had been shaved. Is that really it? I thought it was a problem of insufficient foundation... and really, still, if they are shaving his hairline they need to cover up with foundation. Isn't anyone checking the rushes? It's so ugly and distracting. But also, then, my question is, if the problem is they are shaving his hairline, and if they aren't using foundation, is that orange his real colour? Has he (gasp, horror) been going to a tanning salon?!

I'm finding that the scenes I like of his best are the ones where the camera is in so tight it cuts off his forehead and I don't have to look at that white band. Such a pity. (as he's so easy on the eyes otherwise and may have so few such years left before unctuousness sets in... sigh).

@ reluctantbutaddicted,

may I just go berserk, do-not-compute at : SHAVING FOREHEAD?!?! what's the rationale?! When in our century does receding hairline = whatever?!?!

they r not doing a Qing dynasty drama where dudes have to have one long braid and top half bald or heads chopped off, right?!?! ( I'm not Manchurian, don't ask me y)

@ reluctantbutaddicted

"Yes, I’m very worried. I’ve been worried from the start, frankly. 10 years from now his face may well be unbearably smug. I’m already sad." -- Heehee.

Now, there's a topic for a whole dissertation -- Men's hairstyles and hairlines in K-dramas. I mean, the more "professional" and "successful" a man is, the more flipped up his fringe is. The more he is down to earth, or the more he is beaten down, the more his bangs are stuck to his forehead.

Hence, I reason, the shaving of Kim Ji Hoon's hairline, which is supposed to signal that he is UBER-profession/successful - not only does his hair flip, it does so neatly in line, indicating his neat, controlled, orderly mind and his neatly ascending career track. Of course, in reality, which professional could be arsed to shave his hairline every day is just beyond me. Ditto perfectly styled hair - most successful professionals I know barely have the time to eat breakfast, let alone coax a load of hair-products onto their heads every morning.

Well, I shouldn't complain about the hair thing. More-styled-more-successful is at least somewhat more logical than the whole thing with glasses. You know, when they stick glasses on their actors to signal that they are doing heavy cerebral work, like Jang Hyuk when he gets into evil-business mode in Thank You, like Jae Hee at his prosecutor's desk in Delightful Girl. Come one, what's with that? They are way too young to be long-sighted, and if you need glasses to work in the office, you need glasses all the time. Does no one notice the logic fail in this?

Rant over. Feel better. :-)

@ thundie

Oh good! It's not just me!

But, yes, I shouldn't complain too loud, because both JHs look yummy enough to eat in sharp suits and sharp glasses... (Me? Shallow? Never!)

Serendipity, JB and Thundie

This post is too hysterical. I'm not watching WUAS and not familiar with Kim Ji Hoon BUT that hairline is quite freaky and it is obvious they are shaving his hairline or threading it from JB's pictures. How are you guys watching WUAS without getting distracted?