Here’s your weeky recap of some of the biggest stories that occurred this past week in the K-popiverse. Which unfortuntey for some–is a place where everyone knows your name
News broke that soccer star Park Ji-sung would be marrying his girlfriend, SBS announcer Kim Min-ji next May. His reps denied the rumors, admitting that the two are planning to marry, but have not yet set a date. (TVDaily)
- Super Junior‘s Eunhyuk, Kangin, Kyuhyun, and Siwon held a lecture Super Junior: Last Man Standing at Oxford University on November 10th while in London for their Super Show Concert. The lecture was sponsored by Oxford’s Korea Society, Asia-Pacific Society and Oxford Union. They spoke about the business of making music in K-pop, showed concert footage and spoke of their experiences riding the popularity of Hallyu. (The Star Chosun)
- A hacker claiming to be the ex-boyfriend of Superstar K4 contestant Hwang Sul-lin admitted to hacking into the accounts of Super Junior‘s Eun-hyuk‘s Twitter account and Sung-min Cyworld mini-hompy and uploading nude pictures of Hwang Sul-lin for revenge. (wowtv)
In K-pop:
- Singer Lee Juck released fifth studio album, The Meaning of Solitude. He previousy released a special clip of album’s title song “Before Sunrise” featuring Jung In and released an MV for the song “Lie Lie Lie,” Big Brother released the MV for the song “Only One” featuring Gummy, Kim Ye-rim says “Goodbye 20,” and Davichi released two MVs for their latest song “The Letter.”
- G-Dragon‘s released his long awaited MV for the song “Who You” which he previously asked fans for ideas for via his Twitter account. The MV was compiled from footage shot by the 1,000 fans in attendance and shows GD in an enclosure filled with some of his favorite things as everyone watches. It’s a fun video until you start thinking about the possible meaning of the MV–portraying G-Dragon like a caged animal at the zoo or an animal on exhibit…
- There’s a lot that could be said about T.O.P.‘s “Doom Dada” but the biggest question in my mind is “why?” A fascination with Planet of the Apes, or evolution, or T.O.P. dissing other rappers who ain’t nothing but a bunch of monkeys? One thing I do know is that I prefer the MV–with my eyes closed.
- YNB Entertainment‘s rookie rapper Mato (aka Jung Joo-won) reportedly honed her skills underground before releasing her first mini album One’s Story. Her title song “December 1” features Cool‘s Lee Jae-hun and is a nice little slow jam–I’m excited to see what more she has to offer.
- Phantom‘s 19+rated “New Era” wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the close up crotch shots and the use of the woman as an erotic prop in the MV.
- Rhythm King dropped the smooth groove “Think About You” featuring Yenny from the Wonder Girls, Bumkey and Mighty Mouth‘s Shorry J.
- There’s one thing that you can count on from a Norazo MV and that is it’ll probably be ‘wild.’ Here’s their MV for “Wild Horses.”
- Proving that a too tightly planned concept can sometimes be a bad thing is nine member rookie boy band AlphaBat, with member names from A to I, and their debut song “AB City.”
- Wassup looks to comeback with “Nom Nom Nom,” and VIXX dabbles in more than a little black magic in their disturbing teasers for “Voodoo Doll.”
- Congratulations to Rainbow who celebrated their 4th anniversary since debut on November 14th.
- DSP Media will hold their first company wide concert DSP Festival, on December 15th at the Jamsil Arena. Their current roster of Kara, Oh Jung-hyuk, Rainbow and A-Jax will all be performing as we as some of their former artists like Eun Ji-won, former leader of Sechs Kies and Park Jung-min of SS501.
- The South Korean police are really cracking down on cyber crimes against celebrities with two netizens being prosecuted for making up a story about Davichi‘s Kang Min-kyung entertaining a ‘sponsor’ and finding the netizen that had been spreading false rumors about JYJ online. In the case of the JYJ perpertrator, who is a minor, went to the C-Jes Entertainment headquarters to apologize and ask for leniency, but the agency said that they did not accept the apology and proceed with the lawsuit. ( SportsDonga)
In K-drama:
- Bic finally released an MV for the song “I’m Loving You” from the Good Doctor OST, Park Hyo-shin released “It’s You” for the Mirae’s Choice OST, Park Shin-hye did a remake of Standing Egg‘s “Break Up For You, Not Yet For Me” and Moon Myung-jin sang “Crying Again” for The Heirs OST, Dal Shabet‘s Woo-hee sang “Towards Tomorrow” for the OST of her SNS drama Infinite Power, and Ji Sung contributed “Heights of Windstorm” to OST of his drama Secret.
- Speaking of Secret, it finished it’s successful run this week at the top of the Wednesday/Thursdays ratings. To thank the staff of the show’s lead actors, KBS and the production company all pitched in to pay for the staff to go on vacation to the Philippines.
Filming has begun for You From Another Star starring Kim Soo-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun in her first K-drama in 14 years. The show, in which Kim Soo-hyun plays an alien that has lived in South Korea since the Joseon era, also stars Yoo In-na, Park Hae-jin and Choi Min. The drama will take over the Wednesday/Thursday slot on SBS following the completion of The Heirs.
- The first teaser of Lee Bum-soo and SNSD‘s Yoona upcoming drama Prime Minister & I. In the drama he’s the Prime Minister and single dad of three kids and she’s a bumbling reporter turned nanny who saves the family–like Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music. The drama will debut on December 9th following the completion of Mirae’s Choice.
In K-variety:
- The beloved ‘Nation’s MC,’ Yoo Jae-suk, was involved in a minor car accident while filming the latest episode of Infinity Challenge. He dashed into a roadway at Cheonggye Creek after a quick glance, but ended up running into a car that was passing by. Yoo Jae-suk claimed he was fine and resumed filming after assuring the driver he was okay–although PD Kim Tae-ho wanted him to go get checked at a hospital just in case. Can you imagine being the person that hit Yoo Jae-suk? (MBN)
- Due to a the controversy over the alleged plagiarism of the Park Myung-soo/Primary song “I Got C” from the Infinity Challenge‘s 2013 Freeway Music Festival, Infinity Challenge has pulled the song from online music sites until the issue is resolved–if it ever is. (MBN)
- Actor Kim Min-jong and Beast‘s Kikwang will be on the new tvN show Moms’ World Experimental Project-Cluck Classroom. The show will follow the two ‘uncles’ as they go on trips with five kids from multi-cultural families. So, basically Uncle! Where Are We Going?
- It’s showtime, Exo Showtime. A preview of the group’s new variety show on MBC Every 1 has been released and it looks like fans will be able to see a lot of behind the scenes interactions of the boys–like they need more reasons to be crazy about the boys. The show will debut on November 28th.
- Congratulations to Park Jae-jung the winner of Superstar K5. It was a close race between he and runner up Park Si-hwan, with Jae-jung beating Si-hwan by less than 25 points in the judges’ scoring. Any one else think that Park Jae-jung looks like 2AM‘s Jinwoon?
In K-Films:
Super Junior‘s Kang-in will be getting back into acting with a starring role in the movie Cat Funeral which is based on a popular webtoon. Filming begins this month and the film is expected to be released sometime next year. (StarIn)
- Kim Woo-bin, Yu Oh-seong and Joo Jin-mo‘s Friend 2, the sequel to the legendary 2001 Korean film Friend, is breaking all kinds of ticket sales numbers. The film claimed the #1 spot on its opening day on November 14th with over 300,000 tickets sold breaking attendance records for a November debut. The film, which has a 19+ rating, also became the 19+ movie to reach 1 million in tickets sales the fastest. (NewsHerad)
