Here’s a few of my favorite things (sorry, just watched The Sound of Music again) from this last week in Kpop: Big Bang in a Daze, 4LonelyMen, Women that Kick Ass, Asian Stars vs. The Dream Team, and The Best Love is a Happily Ever After. These are the 5 Things that happened in Kpop last week that I think were a little bit more special than the rest.
Big Bang in a Daze
Even if you’re not a fan, you gotta admit that the 5 special covers of Korea’s July edition of Dazed and Confused magazine were awesome. The only cover that I wasn ‘t quite as in love with was Taeyang’s. Why? The weird line drawn down his face gave me the creeps and flashes of Pinhead from Hellraiser… eek! I told you guys I was a ‘happily ever after’ kind of person, right? I still want all five covers though.
4LonelyMen
The guests on last week’s episode of Yoo Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook were Alex, Secret, and 4Men. I love 4Men’s voices and recently they’ve been doing some great covers of all your favorite Kpop hits. Check out this video of 4Men’s maknae Shin Yong-jae singing his take on 2NE1‘s “Lonely.”
Women that Kick Ass
More and more in Kpop we’ve been seeing women who are strong, independent, and that buck the norm in Korean society. From Park Min-young‘s Judo flipping secret service woman Kim Nana in City Hunter to stories and pictures of Ha Ji-won preparing and filming for her role as a bad ass-scuba diving-motorcycle riding-oil rig manager who has to make sashimi out of an ocean monster that attacks the rig.
For her role in the movie, Sector 7, Ha Ji-won endured strenuous weight training and swimming regimens as well as earning her scuba diving and motorcycle licenses while doing all her own stunts. If I didn’t already love her from Secret Garden, I think I would have after seeing her in this movie.
I also loved these pics of my favorite woman on the Kpop music scene, Lee Hyori. In a spread that she did for the July issue of Arena Homme she posed with a variety of males ranging from football players, body builders, models, rock band No Brain, and idol group Teen Top. I think we all know who the boss was at these shoots. U Go Girl!
Asian Stars vs. The Dream Team
It’s been a while since I last watched Let’s Go Dream Team 2. Imagine my surprise when I watched the latest episode and was able to catch the second of their Asian Stars specials with guests from China, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand (including Nichkhun‘s hyung Nichan), and Vietnam. The Asian stars took on the Kpop idol Dream Team members of Super Junior‘s Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, and Shindong, SHINee‘s Minho and Taemin, and TRAX‘s Jung-mo.
There was a pretty entertaining rose ceremony where all the male idols vied for the female Asian Stars’ affections, but after that it was all business as the males took on the obstacle course. The Asian Stars didn’t put up much of a fight with only one dude finishing the course. The Dream Team didn’t fare much better with a lot of missteps on the final obstacle and maknae Taemin getting the best time in the initial round. In the wildcard round, Taemin almost got an excellent time if not for a freak error on his part at the end. In the end, Minho proved with his second chance why he was an ace on the show achieving the winning completion time, check it out.
The Best Love is a Happily Ever After
I loved The Best Love. It was well written, well cast and acted, had depth and conflict. I watched it every week and enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t that craze inducing Kdrama for me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think in this round it was Lie To Me, but it wasn’t as addicting as say Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
There were several great moments, especially with the at times maniacal Dokkng Jin portrayed wonderfully by Cha Seung-won and the endearing Gu Ae-jung played by Gong Hyo-jin. One of my fave moments from the last episodes? This little gem when the couple is out at the movies and some petty girls next to them talk smack about them like they’re not right there within earshot. They expect the couple to not say anything, which most people would do, but not Dokko Jin. Ae-jung stops him and sings quietly in his ear to distract him.
So cute. And thanks to the Hong Sisters for the ultimate happily ever after- careers back on track, married, and a baby!
And in Kdramaland, I might just have forgiven Kang Se-ri and maybe am rooting for her and Yoon Pil-ju to hook up after all.
Those were the 5 things that I LOVED in Kpop last week, were they yours?
