JiJin Hee is one of my favorite K actors & can't wait to see this drama series! He doesn't seem to age at all -- i loved him in Jewel in the Palace & others. I sure will wait for this one after A Man's Story which is also interesting. Annyeong JJH!

Thank you Taohua and Belleza for listing all those Korean to Japanese productions. Hotelier is another one to add to that list. It appears, then, there is a fairly robust crossnational trade going on -- which is nice to see.

@Belleza: "In that regard, I do think it’s kind of a double standard. Asian properties are remade in Hollywood, and people cry bloody murder. When one Asian country remakes another’s, it’s acceptable because they fit under the “Asian” umbrella. (I’m a fan of remakes.)"

I think that the bloody murder cry is more because when Asian movies are remade in Hollywood, the actual original Asian movie rarely sees the light of day in mainstream America. That is, the Hollywood practice is often hegemonic in that the remakes are more like expropriations rather than remakes. The Asian remakes seem more the result of equal or equitable trade because the originals get released -- or have the legitimate space to be viewed -- in the remake country.

If, say, Romeo and Juliet the movie were made in America while the original Shakespeare version was made out of print and hard to access, then many would probably protest. But because both versions co-exist, travesties like "Ten Things I Hate About You" are palatable (personally I loved that movie -- all apologies to Billy).

Oh my God, plastic-face Uhm Jung-hwa again... Boooring! But I like the thought of seeing Kim So-Eun in a drama again because I loved her in BOF, so let's see how this drama will be.:3

@ belleza

In that regard, I do think it’s kind of a double standard. Asian properties are remade in Hollywood, and people cry bloody murder. When one Asian country remakes another’s, it’s acceptable because they fit under the “Asian” umbrella.

LOL :) I guess I was going to say the same thing as Nom Kitteh's post above.

From my personal experience, most of my friends in Asia will often watch both the remake and original. They basically become fans of the story.

Whereas a lot of the Americans I know tend to just watch the remake and completely dismiss the original as "inferior."

So it's the attitude that upsets me.

blah... doesn't seem interesting to me.

Kim So Eun needs to eat man. She looks effin frail in the pic with the dress....She's probably been too busy though :/

and Oh Uhm Jung Hwa, another poor victim of plastic surgery. Seriously, her face is practically screams of botox and cheek implants. At least try to get the cheeks to look natural man...

Uhm Jung Hwa= the next Joan Rivers

@Nom Kitteh,

"hank you Taohua and Belleza for listing all those Korean to Japanese productions. Hotelier is another one to add to that list. It appears, then, there is a fairly robust crossnational trade going on — which is nice to see."

Yeaahhhh, but frankly it's very strong in only one direction when it comes to drama/film. Korea has tried to adapt elements of the Hollywood model into both film and the overall Hallyu marketing scheme. (Which is, I guess, why I'm here.) There's both pro and con with that, which would be out of the scope with the thread. But one of the cons is they've copied the way Hollywood harvests, homogenizes "foreign product", and then markets back to the original countries. And there is a lot of resentment there too.

"I think that the bloody murder cry is more because when Asian movies are remade in Hollywood, the actual original Asian movie rarely sees the light of day in mainstream America."

The thing is, foreign and most independent movies don't have wide theatre distribution in the States except in urban areas and college towns. There isn't much that can be done there. But there's the niche in the DVD market, and in that regard if you see an American adaptation, the official American release of the original is already out. I don't blame Hollywood so much, as well the choices we actually have in theatres are surprisingly limited.

@Jessica,

"Whereas a lot of the Americans I know tend to just watch the remake and completely dismiss the original as “inferior.”"

I haven't seen that among my friends . . . but my friends don't mind reading subtitles. ;)

I don't mind the idea of remakes/adaptions, but I honestly can't think of any that can run tit for tat with the original (that is 'worthy' a material of a remake), it's not that I'm expecting the 'exact' experience, but at least...be decent/respectable.

And usu Hollywood remakes are too constricting in its confines when they have to go thro the whole bureaucracy that is Hollywood, the end product could be pronounced as a stillborn very early on even when big and respected names r attached. (note: The Departed)

I do think Asian remakes of originally Asian materials suffer less blatantly because they have similar systems.

I do agree with you, Belleza there are many pros in remakes to the original... but as a moviegoer, it's the end product that I'll focus on and I hate to be sorely disappointed when they will rape some amazing material such as Oldboy and I could not stop watching.

Ji Jin Hee!!!! Love him in Spotlight but eeerrrr...he wasn't that great in Ms. Kim's...
But maybe he'll do better in this comical role this time ;)

Anyway, I'm so looking forward to this! :D

@mookie,

"the end product could be pronounced as a stillborn very early on even when big and respected names r attached. (note: The Departed)"

I actually thought the Departed was much better than Infernal Affairs. The script itself was so rich with cultural details, "other side of town" characterization, and it gets really into the guilt and shellshocked mindset of undercover work. I liked Andy Lau more than Matt Damon; but I liked Leonard Dicaprio more than Tony Leung between the two versions.

^ ARGHHHHHH...u just killed me..... *sob*

I read it twice and I so hope it was my lack of sleep
....and by Departed u mean IA; Andy Lau u mean Tony Leung (and vice versa)...
I don't mind all the rich, cultural details, it's a nice touch, but the plot was BLAND with the story told to service an ADHD kid. What works for IA (for me) is the intricately woven time-line of events. Departed minced it up and spit it out in an easy to please mush.

but yeah, we agree to disagree...as I made peace with my friends who share your opinion.

sorry for the OT, I do love JJH, but there are just so many elements that's worrying me. Remancing it up Kdrama style, making the Man 'likable' and thus sacrificing his eccentricities, and Uhm as love interest (and worst a triangle with Kim So Eun). The magnificant Kang Mae didnt make BV watchable for me.

"I don’t mind all the rich, cultural details, it’s a nice touch, but the plot was BLAND with the story told to service an ADHD kid. What works for IA (for me) is the intricately woven time-line of events. Departed minced it up and spit it out in an easy to please mush."

To me, it's not even close. Infernal Affairs is good, but Departed was bona fide pulp fiction. I loved the therapy scenes and the Mametian bravado in the office.

"sorry for the OT, I do love JJH, but there are just so many elements that’s worrying me. Remancing it up Kdrama style, making the Man ‘likable’ and thus sacrificing his eccentricities, and Uhm as love interest (and worst a triangle with Kim So Eun)."

The main problem I see with the project is that it just invites the writing to go really solipsistic about 40-something independence, as a way to rationalize the supposed eccentricities of the main character with the viewing audience and establish the inevitable relationship story. I felt that "9 Ends and 2 Outs" (by the same writer as Man Who Can't Married) was kinda weighed down by that.

This might work better as a Korean sitcom, because then you adapt a more episodic style and just do weird-for-weird episodes.

All the same, I'm going to treat this show on its own merits. I just won'tr be surprised if Ji Jin Hee hooks up with Kim So Eun in the end. (19 is the new 27 in K-drama! ;) )

^ For the love of KimSoEun, I don't want to see her devoured ALIVE claw by claw by Miss Uhm *who seriously looks like a lioness/tigress/ligress

Why do they keep copying each other dramas, can't they have ideas for themselves? By the way, Jung Hwa is going to look like Micheal Jackson won't be long! :) what do they do to themselves, they don't look natural anymore, just sad!

Oh, seriously... Samsooki's Idea rocks. Now, where that e-mail address of KBS2 where I can send his story to and ensure that it does become reality (In dramas kind of reality).
I REALLY REALLY WANT TO WATCH IT!

@64, peeps.

Alas, I fear nothing will come of anything that I do, based on my personal experience. My roommate (and closest friend) when I was in law school were really into script-writing when we thought we could be the next Matt Damon/Ben Affleck script writers turned actors. We wrote out movie treatments for the Green Lantern (the comic superhero) and another sci-fi movie (my idea - a guy with only short term memory who never has enough time to finish his ideas, constantly finding himself shifting from independent lines of thinking that are slowly reaching a confluence together). Neither made it past treatment stage.

The Green Lantern idea was loosely based on the original comic, the idea was for a Green Lantern (for those who don't know, there are hundreds and hundreds of Green Lanterns mostly alien beings who patrol the universe for peace and order, making up the Green Lantern Corps) to have lived and died on earth a thousand years ago, and since earth was far too primitive, this particular GL lived as the legendary and unbeatable masked Emerald Samurai in Edo. The main character Kyle Rayner, a freelance comic artist goes to Japan to study and learn about the Emerald Samurai at the Toyko National Museum to be a character in a new comic, when through a series of events, the samurai costume falls into his possession, along with the Green Lantern power ring that Kyle accidently activates, which sends reverberations throughout the galaxy...bringing to earth the evil supervillain Sinestro, among other aliens... and so begins the epic adventures of the last Green Lantern, and fate has seen fit to bring together the last Green Lantern and the the horde arch-supervillains who covet the last GL power ring... seems like a great idea right?

...unfortunately, none of these treatments were made into movies, and the real Green Lantern movie with Hal Jordan (rather than Kyle Rayner) was greenlit and the opening is set for December 2010. Sigh.

Such is life. All we can do is live it and be as happy as we can.

If I can develop my Epic Binnie Revenge Love Story In Space for Hyun Bin, Nam Sang Mi, Lee Da Hae, Oh Ji Ho et al., I guess that would be an adequate replacement for my one-shot at Matt Damon/Ben Affleck style glory which failed...

@belleza

"Hmm . . . I guess I don’t see the resemblance."

No resemblance at all?

Have a look at these pix:

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8797/kse.jpg
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9138/kse1.jpg
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9730/kse2.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4084/kse3.jpg

Surely there are some similarities there right? hmm...maybe we just see things differently :)

@66, Kobe,

Hard to say.... can't see the resemblance either?

You know what though?

When I looked at kse.jpg (pic 1), I thought "Hey! Kobe is right! That COULD be Nam Sang Mi when she was younger!"

But then I thought about it (and I looked through some old galleries), and based on what I remember and what I've seen, when Nam Sang Mi WAS actually younger, she didn't really look like that....

So maybe the resemblance you are seeing is the same thing that I thought originally, sort of backwards extrapolating as to NSM at an earlier age, except that NSM never really looked like that when she was younger?

You know, I can see the resemblance now, esp. when NSM was still uljjang. When both smile, their eyes really widen. It also creates more of an illusion of "heart-shape" face.

Actually, seeing Kim So Eun in BBF convinced me that Park Min Young would have been a perfect fit for the show.

am i the only one anticipating uhm jung hwa here? XD whoa yoo ah in!!
im always excited for remake drama and movies, japan to korea vice versa,
but the whole time they always dissapoint me. from the very recent hyd remake, mawang, my sass girl, my boss my hero, they all sucks in my opinion. old boy doesnt count, i guess, its adapted not ramake
i agree wholeheartedly with mookie, jack nicholson in as good as it gets, very good comparison!
lets just cross our fingers and hope this wont crash and burn

I am really looking for this drama because I have seen the Japanese one and it was really funny and great. Considering that Koreans are really great when it comes to content and story this will surely come up to my expectations.
Besides that I like KIM SO EUN..... The only thing which makes me crazy to watch it is because of her.. I have this dream that one day she will star in a movie or series with Soeulmates.....

Isnt that guy from Jewel in the Palace???

WOOSH, watched a few eps of the japanese version, and i'll have to say that the dog is my favorite character.

jung-hwa... i see her plastic-ness everywhere. why do i need to go through with her being in the same drama as KSE?! oh no.

heres wishing there's going to be a good soundtrack to this, if there is one. hopefully it will live up to the orig story, and become a hit. i'm glad ji jin-hee is in here. he's one of my mom's faves.

and wait, do i see that dude from chil woo? he's a cutie :D

does kim so eun end up with ji jin hee?

It's okay for Plastic Surgery actually, because not everyone is born with a perfect face you see. What if you are born ugly and you wants to be famous in the entertainment industry?

The only way to get better face is to go for Plastic Surgery right? Do you rather get insult as the ugliest actress in the whole of entertainment industry? Well, come on! Look at yourself before judging others by making fun of them as Plastic Face.

Plastic Surgery isn't 100% made up of plastic, you get it? If you are the one with Plastic Surgery done, are you okay with these kind of useless remarks like "Oh my God, plastic face again!", "Jung Hwa is going to look like Micheal Jackson won’t be long!". That will only show how childish you are by saying those kind of remarks. Just keep those remarks to yourself.

At least after Plastic Surgery done, Uhm Jung Hwa has become prettier than many of you that jugde and insult her, the most reasons of why you guys insult and make fun of her face is because you guys aren't satisfied the fact that she is pretty now, especially when she's prettier than most of you.

In the future, just keep those useless remarks to yourself. Because besides Uhm Jung Hwa, almost all of the female in the Entertainment Industry had plastic surgery. I'm very sure that Kim So Eun have her face done as well. Just that you guys kept telling yourself that only Uhm Jung Hwa did Plastic Surgery because you guys like Kim So Eun and so you are okay with Kim So Eun having Plastic Surgery because you like her.

If there's people that insult Kim So Eun, I'm sure you will say the same thing as me and help her talk for her rights. I admit that I'm a fan of Uhm Jung Hwa, and so I'm helping Uhm Jung Hwa. But what I'm saying is all true, it doesn't mean that it is wrong for Uhm Jung Hwa to undergo Plastic Surgery when you dislike her. And please don't write anymore bad remarks on Plastic Surgery because of jealousy as Uhm Jung Hwa is a Famous Singer, Actress and Movie Star. But that what's her dream, so to fulfill her dream, she have to look better. If not there will be lack of supporters and fans, hope you guys will co-operate. Thankyou!

Uhm Jung Hwa, FIGHTING! I'll support you forever!

i just finished episode 2 but i decided to stop watching... at least for now... after reading a post that says Uhm Jung-hwa is the leading lady. i can't bring myself to watch the next episodes... because i want Ji Jin-Hee and Kim So-Eun to end up together. i feel sad. =(