Some red carpet pics from Korea Drama Awards 2008 which was presented on November 1 at Jinju Castle in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea…
Grand prize winner Kim Myung-min
Korean pop star Kim Jong-kook is making his comeback after completing his two-year military service in May 2008. He released his 5th album yesterday (Oct 22), titled “Here I am”… should be interesting to see if he still got what it takes to excel in showbiz.
Below is the English subbed music video for the first promotional track, “Today more than Yesterday”. The video is cute; the song was not really appealing at first, but quite nice after listening to it for a few times…
English subbed music video of “Rainisim”, second MV from Korean pop star Rain’s latest (same title) album. Although another MV “Love Story” was released earlier, it seems like Rainisim is the major promotional track instead…
Hallyu stars are dominating the Japanese Oricon singles chart for the past two weeks. The Koreans claimed the top three spots at the singles’ sales chart last week, and keeping their momentum with three of the top four spots this week.
Pop group TVXQ (known as Tōhōshinki in Japan) tops the singles’ sales chart for two consecutive weeks with their 24th Japanese single “Jumon-Mirotic”. This is their 4th chart topping Japanese single in 2008.
Actor turn singer Lee Byung-hun claims the 2nd spot also for two weeks in a role with his debut single, “Itsuka”; while Ryu Si-won dropping from 3rd to 4th with his 8th single “Kimito Boku”.
To be frank, I’m quite puzzled how the songs managed to lead the charts. I can understand that Mirotic is appealing to some audiences (although not to my liking), but the other two are just so average. Anyhow, sharing all three music videos below…
Korean actress Lee Hana performed a few songs at the Grand Mint Festival 2008 on October 18 at Seoul Olympic Park in what should be her first stage performance since making her professional acting debut [via K-popped]
The 26-year-old actress is known for her musical capability. Her farther is a composer, and she studied music in university. She once said in an interview that she thought she would become a singer, but somehow started off as an actress (which she is doing pretty well anyway).
Lee Hana did show her singing talent on a few occasions in variety shows and in TV dramas, but this is probably the first time she sang in a public event at such level. I guess she was covering some songs from other artists because she has not released an album yet.
Sharing a couple of videos below… the first one is said to be Hana’s performance at her graduation ceremony, covering “Be Be Your Love” by Rachael Yamagata; while the second a short snippet of her singing in Korean drama “When Spring Comes”…
The music video of “Eat You Up”, the English song that supposedly marks Korean pop star BoA’s US debut, has finally been released.
This MV was meant for the Korean (and Asian) audiences, with another MV targetting US market instead. There is however some changes of plans in midway; not sure if the heavily criticised US version would be released or not.
Update - the US version is also released; embedded further below.
Well, I shall refrain myself from commenting about this song anymore; I think I’ve talked enough since her American project was announced last month. So, best of luck for BoA; and here it is, both Asian and US music videos of Eat You Up…
Yiruma is a world renowned Korean pianist-composer. He is getting back into the music world in recent months after two years of hiatus to fulfil his mandatory military service.
Sharing one of his famous pieces here, “Kiss the Rain”…
Korean star Eric Mun becomes the first member from pop-group Shinhwa to join the Korean army to serve his mandatory military service. Over 300 supporters, including some oversea fans, bid farewell to the 29-year-old star before he was enlisted last Thursday (Oct 9) into Nonsan military training centre.
Korean guys whose parents are both Koreans are required to join the army for 22-26 months (depending on enlisted units). If not mistaken they can choose to fulfil their duty in between the age of 20-30; most of the Korean stars are enlisted rather late though, as their careers are normally booming in early 20s.
Four other members of Shinhwa, i.e. Dongwan, Junjin, Minwoo and Andy will be joining the army in the next two years, which literally means that Shinhwa could be in hiatus for up to four years. Hyesung is the only member exempted from military service due to medical condition.