20130622_seoulbeats_eomkijoon_leesiyoungIt’s officially summer and with the start of summer the slew of releases and news in the K-popiverse continues.  What also takes an upswing in summer is the amount of celebrity photo shoots and their ensuing magazine photo spreads. My fave pick of the week? Eom Ki-joon and Lee Si-young‘s dark and twisted spread for Vogue Korea promoting their movie Killer Toon which premiere’s on June 27th.

 In Love:

  • I believe that most fiction is based on some fact and it looks like the Korean news media got a couple of their facts twisted when it came to news of Korean soccer great Park Ji-sung dating.  News last week was that he was dating and getting married to actress Kim Sarang which she denied, but he didn’t say much about until this week. He admitted to dating SBS television announcer Kim Min-ji since May of this year in a press conference on the 20th, but also said they have no plans of getting married yet. (Yonhap)

In K-pop:

  • 20111209_seoulbeats_ygfamilyFans of YG Family know to take comeback and release date announcements with a grain of salt and YG Entertainment, until recently was notorious for only promoting one group or person at a time, but they’ve become more ambitious.  While Daesung just wrapped up his solo tour in Japan and G-Dragon continues his solo world tour, CEO Yang Hyun-suk was a font of information this week dropping a ton of tidbits about what will be happening for the rest of the year in YGE. First off, 2NE1 will be dropping a new song at the beginning of July with a new song being released every month until their new mini or official second album drops in October. YG’s long awaited girl group will debut in October–not as a group though, but as individual artists and when YGE sees that the public likes them they’ll move on into their group work… uh, okay? Superstar K2 contestant Kang Seung-yoon will make a solo debut on July 15th with the pre-release of the song “Wild and Young” (isn’t that GD’s tag line?) and a mini album to follow. YGE actually has two new boy bands in the works, training groups A & B, who will be battling it out to debut through a reality program called WIN beginning in July (Kang Seung-yoon and K-pop Star contestant Lee Seung-hoon are members of Team A) . The survivor debuts as WINNER and the losing team gets disbanded or has its members reshuffled. The release of this bit of news hasn’t been totally positive, but if I was the losing team I may not feel too bad because at least I won’t be called WINNER.  What is YG thinking?  It’s all a bit ‘twisted’ to say the least. (yg-life)
  • Things got a lot twisted in Lee Hyori‘s latest MV for “Going Crazy in which one of Korea’s most beautiful women cross dresses as a man.  In the MV she’s a player that flirts with the season 4 contestants of OnStyle network’s Challenge Super Model Korea and comedienne Ahn Young-mi added her voice for a narration in the song.

  • Rookie group 2EYES debuted with “Don’t Mess With Me,” in their latest come back Dal Shabet wants boys to “Be Ambitious“which might not be exactly the right message to be sending to rabid fan boys, Sunny Hill are the “Darling Of All Hearts” featuring Hareem, Rainbow released the dance version mv for “Sunshine,” LEDApple want to be “Bad Boys” featuring Kang Yebin–I wonder if that is bad as in bad or bad as in good?, BTS also released a dance version for their song “No More Dream,” the hip hop duo Takers from Superstar K4 released their debut album Ourself and the MV for the title track “I Miss You,” Lee Sung-chul released an MV for “My Love” from his 11th album, Jang Seok-hyun a former leader of the group S#arp released his solo effort ” 아주 좋아,” the Heart Rabbit Girls released an MV for “Round and Round,” and Kye Bum-joo released “The Ceiling” featuring  Moowoong of Baechigi. 

  • A-Prince jumps on the pre-release band wagon dropping an MV for “My Lady” ahead of their come back, Crayon Pop made a comeback with “Bar Bar Bar” ad recently released a dance version/practice video that’s pretty funny, Koyote released their latest single “Marry Me,” Beast released a behind-the-scenes type MV for their latest pre-release to their official comeback “I’m Sorry,” Kim Yerim part of Superstar K3 contestants Two Months released the MV for her debut song “All Right” she has a funky voice and indie vibe, Baek A-yeon loves “A Good Boy,” Boys Republic released the dance version of their song “Party Rock,” and AA‘s Joowon is leaving the group to pursue acting and to say goodbye the group released a special MV for “2nite 3x” they will be adding two members to take his place.
  • An MV was released for Lee Hyun-woo‘s “Glory of Youth” which is his contribution OST for Secretly and Greatly, the blockbuster movie based on a popular Korean webtoon he stars in with Kim Soo-hyun and Park Ki-woong.It’s a good song and the MV worth watching if you don’t mind some scenes from the movie–actually it’s definitely worth watching for certain scenes of Kim Soo-hyun.  I wonder if that’s why this movie is such a big hit?

https://youtu.be/Ayl_BL7cvX0

  • Girl’s Day continue to push their sexy image with the teaser or “Female President,” Sweet Sorrow signaled their comeback with a teaser for “못견디게 좋아” which will be released on June 27th, Roy Kim teased fans for his next release “Love Love Love,” B.A.P. released a teaser for their 3rd mini album Coffee Shop and will promote three title songs the first of which will drop on the 28th, and Ulala Session released pre-released the song “Fertilizer” and a teaser for “Memory” off of their upcoming album of the same name, their first since the passing of leader Lim Yoon-taek, which is sure to be a heart tugger.

https://youtu.be/1ClvnbjUndU

  • Rookies LC9 are following in the footsteps of groups like LEDApple and Lunafly who have been uploading covers to their YouTube channels to get a little more exposure.  This week they took on One Direction‘s “What Makes You Beautiful” and it’s a good little MV for the summer.
  • Congratulations to the girls of 4Minute who just celebrated their 4th anniversary having debuted on June 18, 2009.
  • In a bit of a twist, Kara members each donated rice wreaths to the needy in the name of their fans and Teen Top donated ramyun and rice wreaths given to them by fans to the less fortunate. (MTN, MBN, newscj)

In K-drama:

  • Things got a little twisted in Wednesday/Thursday’s ratings king I Hear Your Voice as our favorite public defenders had to defend twin brothers accused of murder–except no one knows which twin did it.  The actors are real life twin brothers Han Ki-won and Han Ki-woong whose appearance on the show is generating a bit of press for them which will hopefully result in more acting roles for the both.
  • The Queen’s Classroom released an MV for “2nd Drawer” SNSD‘s Sunny‘s contribution to the drama’s OST and SHINee will also appear on the OST with “Green Ratio” which was teased at the end of the last episode.

  • Actor Choi Jin-hyuk released an acoustic version of “Best Wishes To You” for the OST of Gu Family Book a song previously done by The One for the OST.  The drama is #1 in ratings for the Monday/Tuesday slot and will air its last two episodes this coming week.
  • Actor Kim Jae-wook recently finished his military enlistment and will make his comeback in tvN‘s new drama Who Are You? which will debut after the completion of Dating 20130522_seoulbeats_NineAgency:Cyrano. Also starring in the drama are 2PM‘s Taec and actress So Yi-hyun who plays a woman who awoke from a coma after 6 years and can now see ghosts. (SportsWorld)
  • Finally some casting news about the sequel to the hit 2012 drama Answer Me 1997, the currently referred to Answer Me 1994. Apparently Go Ara is being courted for the lead female role with actors Yoo Yeon-seok, Jung-woo and Kim Sung-kyun playing a trio of college students living at a boarding house owned by Go Ara’s character’s parents. (MyDaily)
  • Everyone’s reflecting on the first half of 2013 and drama critics are no exception. Their pick for the best K-drama so far in 2013? tvN’s Nine: Nine Times Time Travel starring Lee Jin-wook.  The drama didn’t have high ratings, but critics didn’t have much to criticize about the drama that had a great story good direction and awesome acting.  Man, I gotta finish watching this. (kukinews, DailySports)

(Vogue Korea; wowstar; YG Family; YouTube [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]; tvN)