running across town after getting hit by a car to make sure your maybe girlfriend isn’t in danger–or so say our friends at Level 7 Civil Servant. Although in most cases I don’t think one has to go to such extremes, but it sure does make for good K-drama.

It was an exciting week in K-pop as we celebrated both the Lunar New Year and Valentines Day.  There was much that happened this week including the debut of two highly anticipated K-dramas: the celebrity packed IRIS 2 and the return of Jo In-sung and Song Hye-kyo to Kdramaland in That Winter, The Wind Blows.  But with the good, there is always the bad and in the realm of K-pop there was a great loss.

 

A Blessing…

  • Lee Jun-ki along with members of his fan club delivered 3,000 coal briquettes to families in the Seongbuk-gu, Seoul neighborhood as part of the Coal Briquettes of Love Delivery Movement for the Lunar New Year. It took them three hours to deliver the coal to the neighborhood which has a lot of narrow alleyways where vehicles can not enter. (xportsnews)
  • On February 23rd at the Sejong Culture Hall Theater, Gummy and 2NE1 will perform at a charity concert which this year will benefit the youth of the Tae-an area who were affected by an oil spill there in 2007.  This concert series has been run since 2008 by the Silk Road C&T companies for different charities and 2NE1 had previously participated in one of their concerts in Vietnam. (Naver)
  • News of Yoo Seung-ho enlisting in the military for his two years of compulsory service began after the completion of his last drama I Miss You as rumors of him rejecting CF offers due to his decision to enlist circulated.  His last civilian paycheck before entering the service comes from his first narration work for a KBS documentary called The Human Who Studies.  Yoo Seung-ho will be donating 100% of his paycheck for this work to charity. (SportsDonga)

 

A Gift…

  • NU’EST returns after a long break with the ballad “Hello.”  The song is a nice change of pace for NU’EST as it explores the insecurities one feels when in love. The boys’ vocals in the song are great.

  • In OST news, Davichi released the theme song for IRIS 2 “Don’t You Know,” Super Junior‘s Yesung released “Gray Paper” for That Winter, The Wind Blows, Lee Jin-sung of Monday Kiz released “Love and Hatred” for The Queen of Ambition, actor Yoon Si-yoon sings “I Want to Date You” for his drama Flower Boy Next Door, and Toxic released “Just a Man in Love” for Ad Genius Lee Tae-baek.
  • EXID‘s sub-unit Dasoni, which consists of members Solji and Hani, deliver strong vocals in their debut song “Goodbye.”
  • SG Wannabe‘s Kim Jin-ho released his first solo effort in nine years, his solo album Today. He also released the MVs for the songs “Do You Know” and “Family Portrait.”
  • BTOB‘s Peniel released his second vlog as a Happy Valentine’s Day gift for fans. He includes a skit where he and Sungjae (as “WOMAN”) present the lamest pick-up lines they know. It really must be a gift made with love because their acting, while adorable, is pretty awful.

 

A Miracle…

  •  The production company of the K-drama Five Fingers, Yein E&M, released a formal apology to T-ARA‘s Eunjung for removing her from the drama without notifying her or her agency first. Eunjung learned of her removal from the K-drama through media reports. This all happened during T-ARA’s bullying scandal and made an already bad situation for Eunjung, worse.  It’s good that the production company apologized even though it’s a tad late (and maybe legally induced).  Hopefully, Eunjung will be able to restart her once successful acting career.
  • I’d say that surpassing 1.3 billion views on YouTube in less than a year is a miracle–especially when about 90% of those watching never heard of you before.  To commemorate PSY‘s “Gangnam Style” accomplishments, YG Entertainment announced that PSY Gangnam Style postage stamps will be available for purchase beginning February 18th at post offices across Seoul as well as online at the YG e-Shop. (bntnews)

 

It Breaks Your Heart…

  • Superstar K3 winners Ulala Session were dealt a tremendous blow as their leader Lim Yoon-taek passed away on February 11th.  He had been battling stage IV stomach cancer for a couple of years with some even accusing him of making up his illness for pity points on the show. Condolences rolled in from throughout the Korean entertainment industry with even the Blue House posting a tribute to Lim. PSY, who became friends with Lim through Superstar K3 put his plans on hold so that he could return to Korea to pay his respects to Lim and his family.  It was also reported that PSY paid for all of the costs of Lim’s funeral.  (SSTV, @bluehousekorea, SportsDonga)

In Memoriam, here’s a beautiful performance that Ulala Session did on Immortal Song 2 called “Sadness.”

 

It Takes No Less Than Everything…

  • It’s probably no surprise, but B.A.P. has made yet another comeback with their mini album One Shot.  It’s their sixth album release since debut a little over a year ago on January 26, 2012: first was their debut single Warrior on February 2, 2012; second was mini album Power May 3, 12012; released on July 24, 2012 was the mini album No Mercy; a repackage of No Mercy, Crash was released on August 30, 2012; on October 23, 2012 they released the single Stop It; and finally One Shot was released on February 11, 2013.  These hard working boys in K-pop are definitely making the most of their “…one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment…”  I wonder if they like Eminem?  They go big time with the MV for the title track “One Shot” which was filmed between the Philipines and Korea on multiple sets for a whopping one billion won (over $900,000).