Lee Min Ho & Park Min Young Share a Kiss!

On April 19th, Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young visited a club in Kangnam to film a scene for their upcoming drama “City Hunter.” Lee plays Lee Yoon Sung, a MIT graduate who works at the Blue House as part of the National Communications Team; while Park acts as Kim Na Na, a former Judo athlete and current Blue House secret service agent.

The two shared a sizzling kiss at a club for their first shoot together. It was said that those behind the scenes held their breaths as the two amazing actors completed the shot. The kiss is already labeled as the “substitute kiss” because of how the two characters met in the drama.

Lee Yoon Sung and Kim Na Na coincidentally meet at a club in Kangnam while carrying out their respective duties. Yoon Sung was conducting a mission, and Na Na was undercover while escorting the President’s daughter. For whatever reason, Yoon Sung surprised Na Na by kissing her spontaneously. As fate (and Korean producers) would have it, the two shared an unpleasant first meeting before this epic incident as a drunken customer and substitute driver.
While the kiss scene is relatively short, it took 90 minutes to complete the shoot from various angles. Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young showed great chemistry and professionalism throughout filming; thus raising the bar and expectations from their fans.
Representatives of the production company stated, “The kiss scene is crucial to developing the characters relationship to one another. Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young’s hard work and perfect on-screen chemistry made it a lot easier for us to film the important segment.”

“City Hunter” is based on the best-selling Japanese manga by Hojo Tsukasa and will air its pilot episode on May 25th.


By: hotshotlover30
credit: Soompi

Q10/Kyuto

I'm currently watching Japanese drama "Q10", another humanoid story. This drama is somewhat similar with "Zettai Kareshi" with regards to human falling in love with a robot and vice versa.  It's more light and cute compare to Zettai Kareshi and the characters are young high school students. 

I always find it cute when one of the characters is starting to have feelings to the other lead character.  But in this story its unusual and it's a forbidden kind of love story.  Well, obviously how can a human fall for a robot?  Gee! A robot is made by human. Anyway, a love story is a love story and I love watching love stories.  :)  I haven't finish it yet as I'm still waiting for the remaining two episodes with English sub to be uploaded.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series as I'd really like to know what will be the ending of this unique love story.

Funny! In this drama it seems that a robot is acting more human than the real human.  She's compassionate towards other people.  Lend a helping a hand when someone in need without any hesitations.  I guess these were the reasons why Hetai Fukai (Sato Takeru) fell in love with her.  I really, really would love to watch the remaining episodes.  Hopefully, I wouldn't wait for too long.  Although this is similar with Zettai Kareshi, I prefer Zettai Kareshi because it has a deeper story and it was presented very well that I got carried away.

Atsuko Maeda as Karen Kyuto (Q10)

Sato Takeru as Hetai Fukai

Title: Q10 /Kyuto (2010)
Genre: Romace, Comedy, Fantasy
Episodes: 9
Casts: Sato Takeru as Hetai Fukai
          Atsuko Maeda as Karen Kyuto (Q10)
 
Synopsis: After a night of drinking alcohol, the principal saw a girl in the garbage.  Thinking it was human, the drunk principal takes her to his home.  The next morning the principal notices that the girl doesn't move nor breathe.  He immediately asked help from Hetai's homeroom teacher.  The homeroom teacher suggested that they should hide the girl in the science lab of their school and asked help for the Doctor of Engineering in the lab.  The Doctor of Engineering immediately found out that the girl is a robot. 

One day, Hetai was walking towards their classroom when he noticed a girl inside the science lab leaning her back at the window.  Out of curiosity, he entered the science lab to look who was that girl.  He found the girl sleeping mouth open.  He touched the girls’ mouth and her mouth light up, she suddenly open her eyes and looked at him.  She asked Hetai to give her a name, nervously thinking of a name for her he saw a mark in her foot Q10 and that's what he named her.  Since then, Q10 followed Hetai until through his classroom.

The principal is afraid of scandal, he proposed a solution that they keep Q10 being a robot as a secret.  They'll pretend that Q10 is a transferee student.  Since Hetai was the one who woke her up, he'll be the caretaker of the robot.  So, here it all began where Hetai fell in love with Q10.

I found this Q10 video and thought of sharing it with you.  It's not mine but I found it very nice and sweet.  :)

Lee Seung Gi & Han Hyo Joo’s “Brilliant Legacy” Wins Platinum Award at the 44th Houston International Film Festival



Han Hyo Joo and Lee Seung Gi

On April 14th, Korean fans were able to hear great news from the 44th Annual WorldFest – Houston International Film Festival, held in Houston, Texas. Brilliant Legacy (2009), starring Lee Seung Gi and Han Hyo Joo, and Father’s Home (2009), starring Kim Soo Hyun of Dream High (2011), took home the Platinum Remi for TV Series Full Length and TV Series Special respectively.

Smash hit Brilliant Legacy portrayed the love story between Go Eun Sung (Han Hyo Joo), whose life was turned upside down when her evil stepmother snatched away her inheritance and left her penniless, and Sun Woo Hwan (Lee Seung Gi), an immature spoiled successor to a famous Korean restaurant chain.

Korean documentary Don’t Cry Tones (2010), which chronicled the life of deceased Priest Lee Tae Suk, and TV movie The People’s Son also won the Platinum Remi in their respective categories. TV documentary series Asiatic Black Bear’s Return to Nature was awarded the Silver Remi. SBS’s TV Animal Farm and Story of Seung Il: What it Means to Live won the Special Jury Awards.

 

Written in Korean by hurlkie@soompi; translated by hotshotlover30@soompi
credit: www.soompi.com

Korean singer Rain No. 1 in TIME's 100 poll

Rain, a South Korean actor and singer, has been voted the most influential person in the world in an online poll.
In a poll conducted by TIME magazine, Rain ranked first in the voting for this year's most influential people.

 
The 2011 TIME 100 poll closed on April 14 with Rain in the lead. Taiwan's Jay Chou and Britain's Susan Boyle took second and third place.

Rain received the highest number of votes out of the 204 candidates with 439,251 people voting for him. Jay Chou, a Taiwanese director-singer-songwriter, received 229,442 votes and Susan Boyle, a Scottish singer, received 167,711 votes.

Rain has been making onto the TIME 100 online list for six straight years since 2006.

Rain has outranked some of the most well-known figures in the world. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook and The Person of the Year for 2010 selected by TIME magazine, was ranked 28. Michelle Obama, the first lady of the U.S., ranked 32, outpacing Barack Obama, her husband, who was placed 46th. Oprah Winfrey, a famous TV show host, was ranked 84.
 

Source: AsiaOne

Credit: AsianFanatics

Rain looks forward to enlistment, confident of retaining superstar status

SHANGHAI: Korean singer-actor Rain revealed that he was not worried about losing his popularity after he enlists for National Service in Korea, during an appearance at a publicity event in Shanghai on Tuesday.

"Two years will pass by quickly. I believe after two years (of National Service), my fans will continue to support me.

"These two years are very important and meaningful to me. I will enjoy these two years in the armed forces and make myself stronger," said 28-year-old Rain who will have to serve his National Service obligations this year.

Rain received notice to enlist last year but successfully deferred his enlistment to the end of this year.

South Korean men are required by law to serve for 21 months in the armed forces and must enlist before they turn 30.

With the clock ticking, it is no wonder the Asian superstar is making the most of it – Rain is currently shooting his last film before enlisting, the war film "Red Scarf" where he plays a fighter pilot, and will embark on a concert tour during gaps in the filming.

His concert tour will see him perform in Beijing, Thailand as well as in Singapore on May 22.

It had been nine years since he made his showbiz debut and Rain is working harder than ever.

However, the "Full House" star hopes to take things slow in his 30s.

"I worked very hard in my 20s. I hope after I turn 30, I can have some time to myself and enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle, do things I want to do," said Rain.

He also expressed that he would not rule out getting married and starting a family if he met the right girl, lamenting that "the right lady hasn't appeared yet".

If the right person came along, he would not hide their relationship like some stars but will instead go public with it.

"Actually, I tried it before. Evading the media is a very hard thing to do.

"It is better to let everyone openly photograph you than have people secretly take ugly photos of you," said Rain.

Source: ChannelNewsAsia Credit: AsianFanatics

Smiling Pasta

Yes, another Taiwanese romantic-comedy series. I just can’t get enough of it.  It makes my days relaxed and I felt carefree every time I watched a romantic-comedy Asian drama and this drama is one of those.

“Smiling Pasta” is a lighthearted and fun to watch Taiwanese drama.  I got addictive in watching it until the last episode that I finished it for 3 days. J It has a nice and entertaining love story and has a good soundtrack. The opening song has been sung by Cyndi Wang entitled “Rainbow Smile”. This song is catchy that I even have a LSS (last song syndrome) after hearing it.  J The ending song “Tears From Polaris” was also good and this was sung by Nicholas Teo.  After hearing it, I immediately search for other songs of Nicholas Teo.  I got hooked up with his voice.  It was indeed pleasant to the ears.  And I found out that he’s a Malaysian singer.

As most stories of a common girl meets celebrity guy they of course end up together.  As He Jun (Nicholas Teo) being a popular idol singer caught by the paparazzi kissing an unknown girl, it was indeed a hot topic for showbiz industry.  As to Xiao Shi being a beloved daughter of Smiling Pasta restaurant reputation is as important to her as to He Jun.  He Jun’s manager of course has to find a solution for this chaos.  As not to put both parties in an uncompromising situation he declared that Xiao Shi and He Jun has been into a relationship for a year that they were already engaged.  That makes Xiao Shi as He Jun’s fiancée.  Hence, a contract has been made that everything is all an act.  This solution should put a stop for the controversies but it wasn’t.  For the press being a nosy people, this created more questions in their relationships.  In proving to the press and to other people that they’re really a couple, they eventually developed real feelings towards each other. 

Aside from making their pretend relationship into a real one, they also resolved family issues of He Jun with his father and brother.  Through an unfortunate accident, Ah Zhen’s girlfriend Xiao Ru died and blamed it to He Jun.  Unable to forgive and forget Ah Zen left their house and severed ties with his brother He Jun. 

In the end, Xiao Shi and He Jun publicly declare their love for one another and He Jun propose to Xiao Shi.



Nicholas Teo as He Jun



Cyndi Wang as Cheng Xiao Shi



  



Nicholas Teo and Cyndi Wang



Title: Smiling Pasta (2006)
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 17
Casts: Cyndi Wang as Cheng Xiao Shi
           Nicholas Teo as He Jun
           Gino as Ah Zhe
           Joyce Zhao as Rita     
Synopsis: Cheng Xiao Shi (Cyndi Wang) is a beloved daughter of the owner of Smiling Pasta restaurant who believes that she was cursed with a three-month curse by Ah Zhe because she has gone through seventeen relationships but always broke up by the third month.  He Jun (Nicholas Teo) is a famous idol singer and he was evading the paparazzi when he bumps on Xiao Shi on the street and end up kissing.  This was the scene that the paparazzi had seen and photos of them immediately spread in the tabloids.  He Jun’s manager worried about He Jun’s career and image.  Hence, he announced that Xiao Shi has been He Jun’s girlfriend for a year and she’s his fiancée.  Thus, a love contract was made and their entwined lives begin. 

Here's the opening song of "Rainbow Smile"...

  

  

And the ending song "Tears From Polaris"...

 And of course the cute "Turtle Song"...

 

 

 

Rent a Girlfriend Home for New Year

I just finished watching this series and it was entertaining. At first, I was having second thought if I'll continue to watch this as I'm not familiar with the lead actors. But I found it quite unique romantic-comedy series with a blend of modern and ancient tradition of China. The actors are good in potraying their respective characters. The lead actor Du Chun looks a little geeky with his eyeglasses and acting which made his character believable. So, I checked the internet for his photos and he looks even better without his eyeglasses. But the actress who played as his ex-girlfriend looks a bit old for him. Xue Jia Ning's character as Xiao Xiao was cute and bubbly. She has optimistic view in life though she grew up with her mother only. Unlike Du Chun's character as Yi wei had a big traditional family with a stern father, soft spoken mother, three naggy older sisters, and a warm grandmother who has full authority over them. He also had two brother in-laws and nephews and nieces.

There are some funny moments and memorable dialogues. What's just so funny in this drama was Yi Wei's ex-girlfriend keeps on fainting. Well, I guess it's understandble considering she was sick. As well as Xiao Xiao, when she received a phone call that her mother was arrested. Oh, she fainted several times. The story revolved on a car accident which caused the death of Yi We's brother and his unborn nephew. Yi Wei and his family put the blame on Yi We's ex-girlfriend which I found very ridiculuos and unreasonable. Yi Wei was the one driving the car when his ex-girlfriend called to broke-up with him that caused Yi Wei to lost focus in driving and his brother and pregnant sister in-law are his passengers.

So as Yi Wei's family are pressuring him to bring home a girlfriend, his bestfriend posted an advertisement for a rental girlfriend. This ads have seen by Xiao Xiao's bestfriend and suggested Xiao Xiao to take that job as she was in desperate need of money to repay her mother's creditors. When they met regarding the ads Xiao Xiao and Yi Wei rejected each other because that wasn't their first time to met. They first met when Xiao Xiao mistook Yi Wei as her bestfriend's boyfriend who betrayed her bestfirend and Xiao Xiao who knew Taek Won Do beats up Yi Wei. Circumstance forced Yi Wei to hire Xiao Xiao as his girlfriend. As Xiao Xiao was desperate to find a job they made an agreement that Xiao Xiao will pretend that she's Yi Wei girlfriend for two weeks Chinese New Year celebration.

While she was in the town of Long Men she discovered the difference of growing up and having a large family. Yi Wei's family might be a little annoying but they're very supportive to each other which a family should be. What moved me was when they helped Xiao Xiao with her mother's financial problem even though they already knew that she wasn't Yi Wei's real girlfriend. Actually, it was Yi Wei's grandmother who insisted on helping Xiao Xiao because she already claimed that Xiao Xiao is already part of tehir family because she's the only one who didn't know that Xiao Xiao was a fake girlfriend. Another thing that moved me was when Yi Wei finally admitted to his family that he already loved Xiao Xiao and it's not important at that moment for him to know if Xiao Xiao feels the same way for him. What's important was for him to help Xiao Xiao in her mother's financial problem. Aww...that was really admirable. :)

Du Chun as Sun Yi Wei

Xue Jia Ning as Chu Xiao Xiao

   

Title: Rent a Girlfriend Home for New Year

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 24
Casts: Du Chun as Sun Yi Wei
          Xue Jia Ning as Chu Xiao Xiao
          Yuan Zi Fei as Tong Jie
Synopsis: Chi Xiao Xiao is raised by her wealthy single mother. She grew up to become an independent and liberal thinking. She learnt taek won do and have passion in writing articles in a magazine. Unfortunately, her mother's company went bankrupt and her mother was missing. Xiao Xiao was forced to find a job to pay off the creditor who's harrassing her. Her friend then suggested to take the job as a rental girlfriend she has found in the internet.

Sun Yi Wei is a serious and stubborn 30 years old bachelor son of a prestigious ancestral family. His family has been pressuring him to find a girlfriend and bring her home for Chinese New Year. His friend helped him by advertising for a rental girlfriend in the internet.

Xiao Xiao contacted Yi We regarding the rental girlfriend and agreed to meet. Unknowingly, they already met before when Xiao Xiao beats Yi Wei up over a misunderstanding. So, when they meet they immediately rejected each other. Due to the course of events they desperately needed each other. Xiao Xiao needed the money and a story to write in a magazine while Yi Wei was really stressed out by his family who's been pressuring him. So, they decided to make a contract that Xiao Xiao becomes Yi Wei's girlfriend for two weeks Chinese New Year celebration.

Here's a nice music video of "Rent a Girlfriend Home for New Year" entitled "Give Me Your Love" sang by Yuan Zi Fei (Yi Wei's ex-gf) and Leng Zhong (Yi Wei's nephew)...  Enjoy! :D

The New Cast of "Extravagant Challenge"

Cast of Extravagant Challenge

As previously reported, Super Junior members Donghae and Siwon will be staying in Taiwan for two months to film the upcoming idol drama, "Extravagant Challenge". They held a press event to announce the start of their shooting, attracting a hundred screaming fan girls to attend.

Donghae and Siwon showed off their mandarin, which they have been practicing hard on; they complimented their co-stars Bianca Bai and Ivy Chen by calling them cute and beautiful. They even exclaimed in Taiwanese (dialect), "I'm very handsome!", "I can act very well!" causing another wave of ear-deafening screams from the fans.

Siwon will be playing a super star in the drama, which is very similar to his previous role in the Korean drama "Oh! My Lady". But he commented that his role will be more serious this time, so everyone should be able to tell the difference. Donghae on the other hand will be trying out in acting as a bad guy. He's not afraid of the viewers hating him, "(Because) it means that everyone acknowledges my acting!"

The fans' main concern was whether there would be kissing scenes for the leads. Producer Doze Niu told the media that after announcing their cast, SJ fans flooded his blog; some expressed their anticipation, while others said they don't want to see it, but the majority of the people did want to see some kissing scenes. Thus, Producer Niu said, "I think I'll arrange a kissing scene between Donghae and Siwon!" *Donghae immediately pointed at producer Niu and shouted in Mandarin, "That's ridiculous!" causing the fans and the media to fall in laughter.

*NOWnews reported that it was Siwon who shouted the phrase, Nexttv video clip confirmed it was indeed Donghae.

Source: NOWnews
Written by: fufu on 3/31/2011 @ CpopAccess.com



Ivy Chen as Kyoko Mogami

Choi Siwon as Ren Tsuruga

 

Donghae as Sho Fuwa

Bianca Bai as Moko Kotonami