People just can’t get enough of “Winter Sonata”.

On September 28th, Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo met up for the first time in seven years for a press conference in Japan to endorse “Winter Sonata” the animated series.

Bae Yong0joon and Choi Ji-woo reprises their roles as the two high school sweethearts separated by circumstance, Kang Joon-sang and Jung Yu-jin respectively. Despite the fact that this is a Japanese anime production, the two actors speak in their native Korean, keeping to the original flavor of the drama series.

I wasn’t a big fan of the drama itself with the overly sappy acting, but looking at the previews, the anime looks semi-promising. The animation is beautifully done with the direction paying a lot of attention to aesthetics.

“Winter Sonata” the animated series will begin broadcasting on October 17th in Japan.

Check out the previews, trailers, and dubbing sessions~

It’s the battle of the celeb royalty.

These two beauties are both rocking a rose print Christian Dior dress that completely compliments their skin tones. This is quite a difficult one to decide because they both look quite flattering in their photos.

Choi Ji-woo’s big beaded pearl necklace provide good contrast to the dark tones of the dress for InStyle magazine, while Kim Ok-bin at Cannes film festival for her latest project, Park Chan-wook’s “Thirst“, pulls her hair back to reveal just the right amount of skin.

I just can’t decide. Who do you think pops it best?

DBSK may be in the picture, but is their trademark worth the most? Take a guess~

The August 17th episode of the MBC culture program “Good Day” investigated the estimated value of the top celebrity names/trademarks. What are the results?

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In ascending order, sixth place goes to thespians Won Bin and Choi Ji-woo who tied with an estimated value of 30-40 billion won. Pays off to always have a movie or television role on hand~

Fifth place goes to Dong-bang-shin-ki with an estimated 40-50 billion won. Their name may not be number one, but that amount is nothing to sneer at; no wonder SM Entertainment is clamoring to get the trademark rights to the name DBSK.

Shinhwa may currently not be conducting activities as a whole group, but their name comes in fourth place with an estimated worth of 50 billion won. Being a “legend” for ten plus years doesn’t amount to just any chump change.

Her success in American may be somewhat questionable, but there’s no question that BoA could be confused for the “Bank of Asia” as she snags third place with an estimated value of 100 billion won.

No surprise here, second place goes to the mega hallyu star Bae Yong-joon with an estimated worth of more than 100 billion won. That Korean language DS game with his name on it must be selling like hot cakes.

First place with an estimated 180 billion won goes to none other than the Korea’s rock god, Seo Taiji. No wonder he was the first celebrity to have his very own credit card and cell phone named after him. His name just screams “$$$”.

Surprised or fair assessment? What other celebrity trademarks do you think roll in the dough like these stars?

[Hat tip to babyg1rlll]

What a heart of gold.

The hallyu actress of Winter Sonata and Stairway to Heaven fame will donate 100 million won (approximately $77,797 USD) toward poor students in her hometown of Busan. Choi Ji-woo has previously donated a total of 300 million won since the year 2000 toward scholarships for needy children in Busan.

On July 1st, Choi Ji-woo will personally hand out the scholarships when she attends a conference dedicated to improving education and fostering human resources. It’s always nice seeing celebrities, especially those with an impressive resume and making bank with endorsement deals, giving back to the community.

Choi Ji Woo attended the LVMH party last Friday, March 14^th and according to the Hong Kong media, she was completely wasted and behaved inappropriately in front of the paparazzis.

Choi Ji Woo and her reps strongly denied these reports and stated that she didn’t drink at all and left the party around midnight. And they spun this incident as another Chinese media conspiracy to bring down Hallyu stars.

Conspiracy or not, Choi Ji Woo definitely has the Asian Glow.

Pop in:
Who gets married on a Monday night?!
Part I: Choi Ji Woo at Dior fashion Show
Air City ends with a whimper

Actress Chu Sang-mi (34) and musical star Lee Suk-joon(35) wed at Onnuri Church after 4 long years of dating. Although autumn in Korea is the best season to get married, Chu Sang-mi’s wedding date and time is considered a bit unusual. First, the wedding was held in the evening – most Korean weddings are planned around meal times – specifically lunch. At some weddings, you can watch the ceremony on the big screen while enjoying lunch. Second, the wedding is on a weekday and of all days, a Monday! Generally, most normal people prefer to get married over the weekend to maximize the number of guests. However, even though the wedding is on a Monday, the famous were out in full force. Some of the faces we haven’t seen in a while.

Check out the pics!

Wedding ceremony at Onnuri Church. With the light turned down low, the atmosphere seems more romantic.

Pre-wedding studio photos. Can’t believe the new husband is giving his new wife a pig nose. Is this a test for whether she got nose surgery? (FYI: Those with a silicon rod up their nose cannot do the pig nose)

Choi Ji-woo. Do I see a hint of a brown boot? Brown boots, black stockings and light gray dress? Somehow that doesn’t exactly match.

Han Go-eun looks fabulous, but the makeup is a bit too white against her skin. Also, her high-waisted pants look great just because she is so tall and thin.

Jo Min-gi shows us what you would look like after a face-lift. Notice that he has no hair at the sideburn area. That’s the classic sign.

Lee Young-ja. Look at the size of that mouth! A few big-macs could easily fit in there.

Kang Song-yeon is wearing a jewel-encrusted black dress with a ribbon belt. Nothing exciting.

Gil Gun is ready to party in a silver top and shiny black leggings. Totally inappropriate.

Kim Hyo-jin. Wow, her legs are so thin and long. Compared to her, my legs are stumps. Not feeling the outfit.

Kim Sae-a is a clash of brown leather – coat and LV bag. I think every woman in Korea and her dog has an LV (fake?) bag. Love the snakeskin pumps!

Lee Hae-yoon looks like a middle-aged old biddy in this shapeless coat.

Uhm Jung-hwa and Lee Young-jin. And the worst dressed of the night goes to… Lee Young-jin for this eye-sore. You would think a model would know how to dress. Ms. Uhm looks like she is trying too hard to look young ? bangs and short minis.

Does this mean that Uhm Tae-woong is still going out with this fashion disaster?

Lee Yoori must have borrowed her clothes from her man since the shirt looks 2 sizes too big. And is that a tux jacket?

Did Myung Sae-bin actually pay for that pink bag? And being the princess that she is, she went matchy-matchy with the pinks, as evident by her pumps.

Park Shi-hoon. Can’t say anything bad about a man in what looks like to be a nice suit.

Ryu Won has the newest permed center-part hairstyle, a la Park Ji-yoon.

Sa Kang does a fashion faux pas that I see Korean people do repeatedly. Guess what it is? Ok. I’ll tell you. It’s leaving the label on the sleeve. See the ugly dark blue tag. It’s a sign that what you are wearing is also cheap and ugy.

Woo Hee-jin’s cheeks belong to a chipmunks! The woman’s face looks like it is filled up with fillers. Poor thing. I bet that she regrets getting her jaws shaved down.

It’s good to know that Choi Ji Woo recovered from Air City’s failure rather quickly. Although she’s probably not the type to sit at home watching re-runs with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s nor the type to go out clubbing every night after a failed series, I never expected her to be all cheery in Paris, enjoying the fashion scene. Why? Because her previous roles as the innocent and vulnerable girl grew on me so much that I can’t even imagine her laughing out loud. But it’s obvious from her pictures that in real life, this classy actress can let go of herself once in a while and still look absolutely fabulous without the help of her ready-made characters.

The much anticipated drama, Air City ended with a whimper over the weekend with less than 10% Nielsen ratings. Ouch, but it wasn’t surprising at all. I personally gave up following this drama about three weeks ago when the storyline started to go downhill and it’s a shame because it actually had a lot of potential. They spent $6 million to produce the drama and they hired two mega stars, Lee Jung Jae and Choi Ji Woo, but the writers couldn’t make the story interesting at all. It got frustrating to expect more so I started to follow Air City’s competitor Bad Couple instead and what a treat that has been! It’s a total gem and I recommend it to those who love chick-flicks. It’ll make you tear, laugh and fall in love with the characters, especially Gi-chan.

Despite my initial disappointment with Air City, I continued to follow the drama, in hopes that it’ll redeem itself, but chances of that are proving to be slim as Air City’s rival Bad Couple is gaining more lead in the tv rating game (Bad Couple: 11.8% vs. Air City: 10.8%). Bad Couple, starring Shin Eun Kyoung and Ryu Su Young is about a career woman wanting to become a “miss mom” or an unmarried woman that want to have a child without the hangups of marriage. To become a Miss Mom, Kim Dang Ja (Shing Eun Kyung) tries to seduce Choi Ki Chan (Ryu Su Young), a professor with the best genes and Ms. Kim’s ways of achieving her goals are very funny, enough to make you burst out laughing during the episodes.

Air City was filled with lots of action and romance this weekend and Lee Sang Yoon aka male Kim Taehee finally showed his handsome face in the drama as a drug dealer and an old friend of Choi Ji Woo. This week wasn’t as torturous as last week’s, actually it was somewhat entertaining, but somebody needs to tell the casting director all of Choi Ji Woo’s friends/classmates look 10 years younger than her.  Anyhow, it’s going to be an interesting battle for the weekend drama line-up.

Related:
Oops, Shin Eun-kyung falls in the water
Air City fails to live up to high expectations
Meet Lee Sang Yoon aka “male Kim Taehee

Despite the huge hype before it’s premiere, Air City is having a hard time living up to it’s sky high expectations. This mega drama starring top hallyu celebs such as Choi Ji Woo and Lee Jung Jae cost around 60 billion won (US$6 million) to produce, yet the tv ratings are rather low, staying around 10%. Personally, I enjoy watching Air City but it can use some help.

There are a lot of interesting characters in the drama, but there are just too many of them that you start to wonder why they are there in the first place. In addition, the plot isn’t that intriguing – it’s good, but not the best. I enjoy seeing the behind the scenes at the Incheon airport, but there are just so many personal stories, secrets and character flaws flying around that it’s really hard to understand what the drama is all about. The only explanation I have for all this is that perhaps it tried too hard to live up to it’s expectations and ended up showing too much in one drama, forgetting that sometimes less is more.

Welcome to our virtual tour of the Four Seasons House. Before we begin our tour, I would like to clarify that this is the Four Seasons HOUSE not the the luxurious Four Seasons HOTEL – so please do not ask us for room services, extra towels, breakfast menus, etc. Instead we offer you the opportunity to experience all your favorite scenes from Director Yoon Suk-Ho’s four seasons drama series.

Let’s start with Autumn Fairy Tale room. Can’t you just feel the love Joon Suh (Song Seung Hun) and Eun Suh (Song Hye Kyo) were feeling as they were cleaning the pretty white window with the yellow curtains? Oh gosh, I think I’m going to cry if I stay here a minute longer.

Let’s head over to the Winter Sonata room. Just in case you forgot to bring your own wig to look like Yu Jin (Choi Ji Woo) or Jun Sang (Bae Yong Jun) for your pictures, we have extra wigs right by the mirror in the corner. Please do not fight over the wig and for the hundredth time they are not made from Choi and Bae’s real hair. They are the cheap synthetic wigs from doong dae moon.

And here’s the lovely Summer Scent room. Unfortunately I didn’t watch the drama, but the little blurb over here states that Min-Woo (Song Seung Hun) proposed to Hye-Won (Son Yeh Jin) in this room. I’m sure that it was a lovely drama and of course falling in love with the donee of your ex-girlfriend’s heart who tragically died in a car accident is very realistic.

Um…I can’t find the Spring Waltz room! But according to this brochure, you will feel like you brought Eun Young (Han Hyo Ju) to life just by walking into the replication of her room. Hey, look at what I found instead – screen shots of your favorite scenes. Isn’t it great to stare at it for the millionth time? Of course it is….

Thank you for visiting the Four Seasons House. If you have any questions about the drama, please ask the ajumma on your right. I’m sure that she knows the storyline, heck every line by heart. Thanks and come again! One last thing, please be careful on your way out. Kids are wildly running around this house as if this was a playground. Please understand their inconsiderateness, they are just too young to understand what it means to be in love with a fictional character in a drama series. Kids…

Other than being drop dead gorgeous, do you know why Kim Tae Hee is loved by all? It’s also because she attends Korea’s Harvard, Seoul National University. Her looks and smarts were enough to win over the entire nation, despite her disappointing acting performances. Now, new face Lee Sang Yoon, also a SNU student, is following Kim Tae Hee’s footsteps. He started out his career with various CFs and now he’s debuting as a supporting actor in highly anticipated drama Air City, starring Choi Ji Woo and Lee Jung Jae.

Hopefully his acting career will exceed that of Kim Tae Hee’s, but even if it doesn’t, it’s okay because he has the looks and the smarts to win over the nation just like his sunbae. Good luck in Air City!