POPSEOUL!

Only in its second year, the Chungmuro International Film Festival managed to attract some big name stars, like Jang Dong-gun above, to the opening night on September 3rd 2008. The red carpet was sprinkled a bit of this and that- basically anyone.  The famous mixed with the not-so-famous; there were movie stars, tv hosts, girl group, comedians and even Korean speaking crew of Misuda.

Featuring 170 films from 40 countries, the Chungmuro International Film Festival will run from September 3rd to 11th. If you are in Seoul, check out the old classics at the Shinsegae Special Screening-it’s free! For more info on this and other films, go to the official CHIFF website (in English).

Lee Ha-na does the black dress right. The peekaboo panel of lace is subtle but also evokes an understated sexiness that many of the other dresses lack.

Chae Rim is not sure whether she should cover her boobs or not with the pink (SangA?) clutch that is awkwardly resting on her forearm. If she isn’t comfortable with the attention of wearing a cleavage-bearing dress, then why wear it? Is it to appear demure?

Uhm Ji-won, Chae Si-ra, stay low key by wearing black. Chae Si-ra attempts a new look with heavy bangs and too-bright red lipstick.

Choi Jung-won looks fuller in the face. Actually, she is barely recognizable with her chipmunk cheeks. Let’s hope that it goes away like her dress should. I don’t even know what to say about her dress- other than it’s not flattering (and I am being nice).

Couples:

Ha Hee-ra & Choi Soo jong look fabulous together- she is old-school glam in a shimmery turquoise dress holding hands with hubby in a classic black suit with bow tie. Simplicity is also the name of the game for Choi Eun-kyung and Nam Hee-suk (middle). Kim Min, with hubby film director Lee Jie-ho, is low key in a simple black shift dress.

Kim Min-joon & Shin Hyun-joon stick to the classics-bow tie in black suit.

Cutting her hair into a full bowl, Eugene is lights up in this dark pink mushroom cloud dress.

Ha Ji-won. The Korean media is proclaiming that she looks like a goddess instead of a massage parlor model but I’ve seen better dressed goddesses. The silver dress would look better hung on curtains.

Jang Dong-gun strays from the regular penguin suit for a brown satin shirt, matching belt and hanky for the red carpet walk.

The 2008 Miss Korea runner up, Jang Yoon-hee opts to cradle her assets in this boobage emphasizing dress and at the same time, showing off her legs with a super short length. Can we just tone it down a bit? We know it’s competitive on the red carpet, but if you are a Miss Korea runner up, you are going to get your picture taken regardless.

Kim Jung-eun falls a bit short on the goddess look with her messy pulled back hair and all that extra material in the front. In other words, it looks like 2 dresses were worn together.

Lee Duk-hwa and daughter Lee Ji-hyun, who is a spitting image of her dad, walk hand-in-hand on the red carpet- like all fathers and daughters.

Lee Mi-yeon obviously works out but it’s a shame that she couldn’t choose a dress that was more flattering to her figure. Rather, her empire waist dress would look gorgeous on a pregnant woman.

Shin Ae wears an unflattering dull gray dress that shows off saggage. But that’s ok, because there is something that can sag.

Girls Generation signal the upcoming winter holidays by wearing multi-tiered dresses that are reminiscent of christmas trees. Slap on a few ornaments and no one can tell the difference.

So Lee-hyun wears a little black dress that’s simple but also stylish. The wrap-around detailing and the off-balance straps add some extras to an otherwise boring little black dress.

So Yu-jin does a 180 degree transformation by whitening her teeth and getting rid of the dark eyeliner at the Doho fashion show a few nights ago. And who knew she had such great legs!

Yoon So-i. Another star wanting to be demure but sexy at the same time. So these stars end up wearing dresses that they are not confident in. If so, then why wear the dress? Wear something else.

Yoon Jin-suh should have left the glove, wedge heels, skinny scary and balloon dress at home.

Hong Soo-hyun should be hanging out with the SNSD christmas trees since she looks like a present. One pull at the ribbon and you can see the goodies.

Misuda girls look like they took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up on the red carpet because they are lost foreigners. Although it may be understandable that they probably cannot borrow dresses for the events since they are not famous enough, but that’s not an excuse to look like you walked off the street. Boo