Secret Agent War gets a name change

70 November 15, 2012November 14, 2012

by girlfriday

girlfriday: So Secret Agent War is getting a name change… back to Level 7 Civil Servant. Um, does a step backward count as forward movement?

javabeans: It does if you’re pointed in the wrong direction.

girlfriday: Hold on… *gets up and tries it* Now I’m just dizzy.

javabeans: Why even change your name a bunch of times if you’re just going to readopt the original title in the end? Between this and School 5/School 2013/2013 School, we’ve got a year of really lame name-fiddling.

girlfriday: You’ve left out Chicken Man, aka Nice Guy, also Full House Take 2, and the totally unwieldy To The Beautiful You. It’s a whole year of bad titles.

javabeans: At least those sort of made sense? But I’ll play. There’s Childless Comfort, Five Fingers, (Time Slip) Dr. Jin, and the king of them all, The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts (they were all different in hangul).

girlfriday: Ducking Too, Hurts?

javabeans: Or Da King, Too, Hurts. Punctuation is very important. Eats shoots and leaves.

girlfriday: My favorite is always I’m Sorry I Love You vs. I’m Sorry, I Love You. So, so different. I’m pretty sure I don’t even know which is the right one. Is it the one with low self-esteem, or the one who’s just coincidentally both sorry and in love?

javabeans: There’s a comma. I know this because it’s the less interesting one. Coincidence is always less interesting than self-hate.

girlfriday: Agreed. Coincidence is pretty much the least interesting thing of all.

javabeans: So anyway, drama. Apparently it has also added a few more actors in the supporting roles: Jang Young-nam, who is brilliant and was also in the movie, by the way (she’s been in everything, from Vampire Prosecutor to SNL Korea to Moon/Sun to Man of Honor).

girlfriday: She’s surprisingly funny on SNL.

javabeans: I first saw her in comedy (Dal Ja’s Spring) so I was more surprised that she’s so awesome in drama. I love her in everything, though I don’t necessarily love everything she’s in. Then there’s Ahn Nae-sang (Moon/Sun, High Kick 3).

girlfriday: And Chansung, who’s an idol. Does he have any credits?

javabeans: I saw him in Unstoppable High Kick, briefly. He was a tertiary character. What’s below tertiary? Quad…riery?

girlfriday: Qua… um… let’s just go with satellite.

javabeans: The latest addition is Ha Shi-eun as the heroine’s friend, who’s a carryover of this writer-producer from Chuno. Oh! Apparently the hero with the weird name has a full name now. It’s not Gil Ro (which is weird), but Han Gil-ro (which is still weird).

girlfriday: Oh it’s helpful that he finally gets a last name. It’s like almost Gilroy but not. I find it weird to name a character something that is hard to pronounce in your own language. But that’s just me.

javabeans: Can we just call him Gillow? That’s what it sounds like. Or, you know, if he wants to be cool he can just be ‘Lo.

girlfriday: That’s what we should call him.

javabeans: Yo, Lo. I’m going to say that ALL THE TIME. With inflection. And rhythm. I’mma dance to it. Yolo.

girlfriday: E’erybody, do the Yolo!

Via Osen

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1 deluxe

November 15, 2012 at 5:12 AM

LOL, I always enjoy your conversation.

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ailee

November 15, 2012 at 5:21 AM

haha i second that motion :D

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kakashi

November 15, 2012 at 7:12 AM

LoL, me too.
my favorite comma-pun:
Let's eat Grandma vs. Let's eat, Grandma

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Hannah

November 15, 2012 at 7:58 AM

HAH

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mary

November 15, 2012 at 10:50 AM

HAHAHA :D

That's soooo weird. O_O

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maria

November 15, 2012 at 2:18 PM

hahahaha! mine is:

go ahead and eat my children. vs. go ahead and eat, my children.

NYAHA!

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exquisitemelody

November 15, 2012 at 2:31 PM

Commas save lives.

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girlinterrupted

November 17, 2012 at 4:29 AM

hooray for commas!

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gaeinalee

November 15, 2012 at 4:35 PM

LOLOLOLOL :D

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whimsicalnet

November 15, 2012 at 7:50 AM

*nods. hehe.

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2 meenuby

November 15, 2012 at 5:18 AM

Haha, you guys are crazy and I love you.

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3 jєѕѕα™ 주원사랑 (@jung_kYro)

November 15, 2012 at 5:27 AM

I really like how Ahn Nae Sang portrays his roles. He really does well, whether he's an honorable king, a carefree detective, or an affectionate father. :-)

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dbsklove

November 15, 2012 at 5:49 AM

LOL i remember him in sungkyunkwan scandal :D

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Saima

November 15, 2012 at 6:02 AM

I absolutely LOVED him as Detective Bae in God's Quiz 3. His derp faces were LOL-worthy. :D

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jєѕѕα™ 주원사랑 (@jung_kYro)

November 15, 2012 at 9:39 AM

All his roles actually left a deep impression on me. He's a wise king in Conspiracy in the Court, a loving father in May Queen, an irresponsible eldest son in Three Brothers, oh yes..a considerate professor in Sungkyunkwan Scandal. And of course, my favorite is his role in God's Quiz 3.

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4 wowow

November 15, 2012 at 5:29 AM

'The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts (they were all different in hangul). '

EEEEPS HAHAAA! :D
Hangul can be a lil complicated

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gingeranna

November 15, 2012 at 9:38 AM

I literally read it like 5 times to search for differences before noticing what was written after it! XD

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5 JoowonLover

November 15, 2012 at 5:42 AM

You guys are off the chain!
#YOLO

And yay for progression! They should be starting to film soon, I presume?

I was thinking the shortcut name would be SAW, but now it's L7CS? That...doesn't look as spiffy. Looks like a human genotype in my physiology textbook, pfft.

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Awe

November 15, 2012 at 10:28 AM

we've all heard the 1966 song: Secret Agent Man

first time i heard it, i thought the lyrics were: Secret ASIAN Man. always thought that would be good spy title.
anyone?

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JoowonLover

November 15, 2012 at 3:24 PM

YES! omg that would be awesome.

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6 Mystisith

November 15, 2012 at 5:42 AM

You know who I love in that list of supporting actors? Jang Young-nam. She was blowing in the role of the adversary for VP1 and I keep seeing her here and then. I would love to see her as a female lead in something.
For the rest, I'm still mildly interested in that project. Change the title people, it won't help you with the angry fanbase of Joo-won: They still want your head for the casting of the female lead. lol.

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nomu nomu nomu

November 15, 2012 at 7:38 AM

*wispers* shhh, your last sentence will wake the sleeping giant. lol

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Awe

November 15, 2012 at 10:35 AM

lead fem role and support fem role---wish they could switch but that would make it a different drama. i actually like both actresses, because they both got moves...like Jagger...so i'm game for (at least) the first episode.

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7 HaibaraChristie

November 15, 2012 at 5:42 AM

Isn't Quaternary after Tertiary? Like Quaternary Protein Structure? :)

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Awe

November 15, 2012 at 10:23 AM

greets Hai B-
the one to ask is WACA...and i haven't seen him post in weeks. wah!

but WACA could totally answer the Protein Structure Q and weave it into dramaland sense for the rest of us. :)

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nomu nomu nomu

November 15, 2012 at 1:58 PM

Here's TEN levels:

primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary, senary, septenary, octonary, nonary, and denary

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8 dbsklove

November 15, 2012 at 5:48 AM

LOL I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE CHANSUNG BACK IN DRAMALAND

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nayomaise

November 15, 2012 at 6:48 AM

Did he even have any lines during his dream high cameo?

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skelly

November 15, 2012 at 9:24 AM

No matter how horrible they are, idols are always given two or three - or even more - tries to act their way out of a paper bag (for example, KHJ in BOF and then the even worse PK). After all, they have to "learn their craft" - a ridiculous conceit.
Maybe he has graduated to the Taecyon level of emotive sweeping with this drama. Just another stupid piece of beefcake, at any rate.

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9 Jae Shin

November 15, 2012 at 5:53 AM

^_^
You gals do tend to make this lil' Asian's day. ^_^
And EEEEEEEEE
I can't wait to see Jang Young nam!! She is awesome in every drama she's been in... ^_^

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10 nomu nomu nomu

November 15, 2012 at 6:11 AM

Since we are in the midst of a melodrama storm of Nice-Guy-I-Miss-you (anybody's eyes still swollen from yesterday?) I'll evoke a quote from a famous (infamous?) play.

"O be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet"

I always wondered why dramaland was obsessed with a name. Just worry about giving us an awesome show. I'm still going to try out this show regardless if they named it something stupid (the reverse is true for some other show, I wouldn't try it out , no matter what they named it)

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pogo

November 15, 2012 at 2:38 PM

I haven't caught up to I Miss You (will start properly once Nice Guy ends and I finish being sad about Maru's inevitable Death By Untreated Secret Hematoma/Other Causes). but those two kids are SO GOOD together. As are Song Joong-ki and Moon Chae-won, who make me ship their characters now.

But god, it looks like an angstfest.

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nomu nomu nomu

November 15, 2012 at 7:01 PM

I won't spoil anything away about Nice Guy, now that it's done. I'll say one thing about 'I Miss You', It's pretty hardcore. This might sums up what some people feel about it.
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mco6qiuF1l1rxl7ku.gif

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11 Bengbeng

November 15, 2012 at 6:19 AM

both of you are so funny! you just made my day =)

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12 lemonade candy

November 15, 2012 at 6:25 AM

Bwahahahhahahahaha! Da King Too, Hurts! So EPIC!!!

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13 Rei

November 15, 2012 at 6:51 AM

Ugh this drama is making me less excited by the minute. It's bad form when you cast an actress then change your character to fit the actress. How messed up is that?!

And I don't get it when Korean media keep touting Choi Kang-hee as looking young for her age. No, she's not. She looks every bit of her age.

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ravens_nest

November 15, 2012 at 1:03 PM

Changing a character to suit an actor you really want to cast truly depends on the work. They changed SALT to suit Angelina Jolie and I liked it.

I'm say reserving judgement until I see it.

As for her looks...that's subjective. If people think she looks young, then they think she looks young...no matter how much you want to say otherwise. :/

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mars

November 15, 2012 at 6:22 PM

I wish people would read their comment out loud so they could hear how ridiculous they sound. Tweaking a character to suit an actress is not messed up or weird. By the way Choi Kang-hee is all of 35 which is actually not that old. Isn't that a ~wild~ notion? The way people talk about her age and appearance (which is such a non-issue it's laughable that people KEEP. BRINGING. IT. UP.) you'd expect her to be a weathered old woman pushing 70 (not that there's anything wrong with that). So tired of these comments.

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Ash

November 16, 2012 at 5:25 AM

If they go a different direction than planned and DON'T alter the character to suit the actress, that's the time to have some concerns.

Man, I was kind of on the side that was making wtf faces at first, but now I want her to rock the hell out of this role. Looking her age means she looks thirty-fricking-five. She's not a shriveled husk of a woman, she's not knocking on death's door. She's thirty. five.

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14 jomo143

November 15, 2012 at 7:05 AM

I really love these posts!
You are better at words than Cyrano.
"Worms, Roxanne, Worms!"

Whoa, 'Lo!
He looks pissed.
It's because they wouldn't let him wear his jacket to cover his bare chest. His hair got all messed up, AND, he can't figure out why he has two zippers.
I will decode fashion statement inserting puncuation where necessary:
Cover Head 2 Zippers Bare Chest
Cover! HeadsNo2, Zipper the Bare Chest.

So obvious now.

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15 SoyB

November 15, 2012 at 7:26 AM

OMG, one of your more funnier conversations... I think just about every line made me laugh or snort.

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16 kcan12

November 15, 2012 at 7:28 AM

hahahahaha you're conversation posts make my day. It's really all I want for christmas (and new year, and my birthday, and easter,, and.. fourth of july?): conversation posts all day e'ry day!

also, the King 2 Hearts sounds alright in hangul.. but in english it just sounds like we skipped third grade.

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kcan12

November 15, 2012 at 7:30 AM

your*

eeeeesh I hate autocorrect.

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17 kaeseorin

November 15, 2012 at 7:57 AM

Chansungie was also in Jungle Fish 1 with Kim Soohyun ^^ he was cute and bumbly lol~

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18 sugarpunch

November 15, 2012 at 8:17 AM

Geez, recently I've been thinking about the silly show names this year. They're a bit of wet blanket for the shows. LOL and you guys put some perspective for the show I'm Sorry, I Love you. I've always thought that it was a show about regret -- that the 2 main leads were sorry that they loved each other, because I never knew the comma was there.

I'll reserve my comments about the show until after it has aired. It's so hard to speculate because these actors are good individually, but we'll never know how well their chemistry is until the drama has aired. hope they pull it off well!

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19 earthna

November 15, 2012 at 8:42 AM

Ducking Too, Hurts! Lol. I can never understand that title. With Gil Ro, it would be cool if they use Gil reo. Then it would sound like killer. Hoho

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20 jully moue

November 15, 2012 at 9:05 AM

can't be bothered with name change .... continue staring at joowon's photo .....

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21 risa

November 15, 2012 at 9:29 AM

Haha-- thanks for amusing me once again.

I wish they would rename "That Winter, The Wind Blows". Every time I hear it, I think, "That title, the grammar blows". With the millions spent on making dramas, I don't get why they can't come up with better titles (in English and in Korean/Japanese/etc.). There's a J-dorama airing called "Going My Home". Couldn't they check with at least one native English speaker before deciding on a title in English?

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nomu nomu nomu

November 15, 2012 at 9:51 AM

lol, yeah those are some horrible names, but, I don't judge a book by its cover or in this case, its name. I remember seeing the title "9 End, Two outs" I was thinking, "did they ask a kindergartener to come up with the title" Anyways, it was a good thing a tried it out because it was a well written and acted drama.

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Anaïs

November 15, 2012 at 9:52 AM

LOL!!!

As for the hero's name Han Gil Ro, I haven't seen the Korean but the reverse phoneticization from English to Korean would result in his name meaning, "to (ro) one (han) road (gil)." And without his surname, "to the road." I actually knew someone whose name was "yi (this) gil (road)." Obviously not that his name actually meant that since I don't know which Chinese characters made up his name, but I always thought it still funny.

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22 addylovesbwood

November 15, 2012 at 9:59 AM

Haha!! I love you guys!! I don't care what they call this drama. They should just name it JOO WON and we'll all be happy!

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23 sm16

November 15, 2012 at 10:28 AM

Yolo! strangely i wanna break out in song... 'everybody's kung fu fighting!' :p

I'm so going to depend on your recaps to keep my sanity intact during the airing of this drama.

Thanks jb & gf!

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24 Diana Hansen

November 15, 2012 at 10:32 AM

you guys are cracktastic! i always need a lift to make the day brighter and i can't wait to read dramabeans everyday! yolo!
and yeah, i vote for JOO WON! for anything! and, you couldn't forget that name hehehe

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25 Roxy

November 15, 2012 at 11:09 AM

LOL I was trying to figure out what was different about The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts/The King 2 Hearts for the longest time, and then read: "it was different in hangul". I just lost it and cracked up.

You girls are hilarious as always!

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26 okitokki

November 15, 2012 at 11:14 AM

길로 is a dumb name. i will be unsatisfied with his name unless someone in the drama makes fun of it. idk, somehow i think that'd make me feel better about it.

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27 crazedlu

November 15, 2012 at 12:00 PM

So sad that a Joo Won drama is in I Don't Care territory.

Friggin casting. ~

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28 maon

November 15, 2012 at 12:18 PM

Wow, Ha Shi-eun is a hottie! Haven't heard of her before, so I guess she's a newbie. Hope she shows up in more dramas in the future.

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29 Tgi

November 15, 2012 at 12:29 PM

Da king 2 hurt funny joo won i am so eager to watch it's first ep and decide ones for all

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30 pogo

November 15, 2012 at 2:35 PM

Titles never stop me from trying something out, but I legit snorted when you guys said Nice Guy had Chicken Man for one of its alterna-names even though laughing is not something one does when watching Nice Guy.

(at this point, the only thing I can hope for from the finale is ONE clear confession from each of them to the other, admitting that he loves her and she loves him back. I'll be happy with that.)

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31 howforwardsale

November 15, 2012 at 2:51 PM

Has anyone seen Kaito Royale? I'd like to know how Chansung did in it. His role there wouldn't be too far from the role in Level 7 Civil Servant. Secretive bad boy is the same no matter which side of the law you're on, right? Jewel thief or newbie spy.

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32 Noelle

November 15, 2012 at 2:58 PM

Ha! Drama name changes. I don't understand them and they never seem better than the first.

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33 ck1Oz

November 15, 2012 at 3:45 PM

While you guys are talking?She has a more impressive chest than Chansung.Since that is all most people talk about when they come to this drama. Looks I mean. The 2nd female lead.

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34 varms

November 15, 2012 at 4:43 PM

LOL!!
Blinked a few times at the first two pictures. That is a dreadful pic of Choi Kang Hee. And a hilarious pic of Joo Won squirming.

I'm pretty sure that was done on purpose.

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zsa

November 15, 2012 at 7:09 PM

haha...his expression says 'who's my leading lady again???!!!'.............

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35 Alligator

November 15, 2012 at 9:29 PM

Lol your articles always makes a work day better :)

But really should not read your articles when at work. I end up staring down at my desk trying not to burst into laughter and I end up looking like a total weirdo