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Iron Man’s hero and his literal knives of pain

I knew that the description of upcoming KBS drama Iron Man had the hero’s character, played by Lee Dong-wook, somehow painfully sprouting knives from his body—I knew this, all the articles said so—and yet, I was still clinging to the hope that maybe, just maybe, those knives would be a figure of speech. Say, they could be references to the heart-wounds inflicted by revenge-fury, or shards of angst held close to one’s figurative bosom. You know, a metaphor.

I guess they’re not.

Here are the drama’s teaser posters and videos, wherein Lee Dong-wook is the man whose body harbors actual knives of pain, who learns about the emotion called love and gradually matures through his relationship with the kind heroine played by Shin Se-kyung. What that has to do with spikes shooting out of his trunk, I have no idea. (I’ll harbor a guess—and this is only my guess!—that the knives could somehow be physical manifestations of his emotions, like his version of the Hulk going green and bouncy. But who knows.)

Ironically (?), there are stills of Lee Dong-wook at a boxing gym below because the character “throws punches and kicks and adds curses on top to cover up his scars.” It seems there’s a quicker way for Knife Man to cut down (hur) his opponents than fists and feet, but maybe efficiency isn’t his goal.

According to the producers, it should become quite clear why the drama is titled Iron Man once the show starts, as it is very appropriate to the story. (Please just don’t tell me he’s Iron Man because the knives are made of iron. Please be more clever than that!) The drama will premiere on Wednesday, September 10, and airs following Joseon Gunman.

Via Star News

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I smell a disaster from a mile away.

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I caption the first photo, "Does this mean we can't go dancing? "

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Nope. Don't believe it for a minute. This has got to be a spoof reel from a comedy sketch show.

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More like, "Does this mean we can't have cliche angsty backhugs?"

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I guess not..
Maybe suicidal backhugs ?

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More like, "Does this mean we can't have cliche angsty back hugs?"

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Toss up whether this show or LDW's last stinker Hotel King will be the bigger disaster.

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Hotel King was a stinker and a disaster, but the average rating for Hotel King will be higher than the average rating for Fated To Love You.

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Wtf does this argument have to do with FTLY? It's most certainly a better drama anyway.

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Hotel King may be a stinking disappointment but it at least had the DongHae pairing. Here he's with one-noted Shin Se Kyung, so I wonder how much chemistry these two will have to somewhat try and salvage this show. It will very funny if we're all wrong and this is the drama hit of the year. Very unlikely but the thought is just as humorous as these teasers.

Btw, how do we go from a summer of three strong, awesome Wed-Thurs dramas to a fall lackluster pack? I'd be more excited if Rain wasn't in an idol drama, and if My Spring Days wasn't melo-but hopeful. I guess fall's Mon-Tues lineup will be where it's at with Secret Door and Tomorrow's Cantabile, if it lives up to expectations.

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I'm just thankful that for this fall I still have some decent jodramas to watch plus another 20+ episodes of the drama of the year Yoo Na's Street. YNS still pulling super strong cable TV ratings in Korea, much much higher than other cable dramas like My Secret Hotel and Surplus Princess.

Hope more beanies will give Yoo Na's Street a chance with the summer season winding down. You won't regret it.

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Been meaning to catch Yoona's Street but the drama is proving to be a bit more elusive in terms of watching access.

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@ madame kim, a beanie in Europe mentioned that she was able to watch YNS on myasiantv.com in HD streaming. Maybe that might work for you.

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Yu-na's street has been a pleasant surprise and can be watched on darksmurf ....

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@Logan5 I wanted to come back and thank you for the information about darksmurfs. I have been marathoning it for the last couple of days and am really liking it :)

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All my hope for this show went out the window with the trailer. I cant do this i really really really can't........... why wookies why ??????

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I don't see a problem. Spikes are the new sexy since wolverine. And iron man has more. Much more. I guess the concept artist values quantity over quality. he looks like a cute hedgehog. Haha, my stomach, it hurts from loling.

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Imagine if they are selective, like certain knives comes out of certain body parts under specific circumstances.

"It's not a boner, it's an effing knife!"
"No, I don't have a tail!!
"Weeeee, I'm a unicorn!"

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Lee Dongwook already looks heavily constipated in the teasers. I wonder if he and Shin Sekyung would compete on who could emote less.

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I was wondering why LDW would sign on knowing that Shin is the leading lady. Your comment---LOL.

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Why am I running towards this disaster? I can't stop myself!

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No Pain No Gain!!! LOL

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This Motto gotten on a new whole level...hope they include it at least once in the hero speech :D

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jesus h christ who came up with this idea...

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Wow that looks utterly ridiculous.

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Just seeing the spikes makes me itch. Wish they could've come up with a better concept.

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Is it bad that the first thing I thought looking at the first picture was...

'Oh please! Give him a huge back hug and let's be done with it!'

Oh and, wow, it that towel a little low or what?! LOL

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Oh and show, if there is going to be some sort of illness I suggest skipping the anemia/blood-related variety because I still want to believe that the writer, ya know, has more imagination. That is my delusion for now.

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Maybe he is cursed,said the knives manifest only when raining,so maybe he got cursed ...u know Scrooge got the ghosts he got something more fashionable and more proper for the melo

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If said iron knives only manifest when it rains, he should be called Rust-man instead....

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@mysticmalady thank you for making me laugh xD

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His towel being low was the best part!

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This towel thing that SSH started and now being picked up by LDW and others is starting to look like a race to the bottom. Or maybe some of you punsters have something better to offer.

Is this the Korean male actor equivalent of showing cleavage? Will double stick tape for towels be mandatory wardrobe equipment for every Korean male fashionista? Will the Korean TV censors come up with ruler measurements on towel placement? And when will the producers start to PPL the towels, i.e., name brand towels, ads on towels, etc.?

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Yay! Been looking forward to this one because I have needed a good laugh for a while and I'm sure this one will deliver. Unintentionally of course, but that's what makes it great.

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I don't think this one is going to provide any laughter even the unintentional sort, what I foresee is the grey matter of viewers turning into gooey mush and bleeding through every opening in their head while trying to make sense of this drama or better yet, viewers throwing heavy objects at their screen in annoyance.

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Why is bowser popping up in my head when I see spikes on Lee Dong Wook's back...

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Maybe the knives are only for the teaser, and won't physically be in the drama. It might just stand for emotional pain.

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Maybe the producers are trolling us.

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I can't take this seriously at all

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The fact that LDW looks so serious in this already very serious drama makes it gloriously hilarious.

I always knew that product placement funded a lot of the drama, but sheesh. Way too overboard with the kitchen knives.

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This is ridiculous, yet a man that has metal claws come out of his hands (Wolverine) is not?

You know, I'm kinda hoping that K-dramas would go into the superhero genre more.

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Totally not the same thing...plus, Wolverine's claws are BONE - they were plated with adamantium sometime in the 70's as a military experiment, but his body does not produce metal.

Also, there is internal logic in the best superheros (not all, obviously). While I will hold off judgment until the show starts, from the comments I read no one is dismissive because it's supernatural or out-there - they are dismissive because we can't see any reason/point/internal logic to the set-up.

Beleive me, if Wolverine's backstory said "And he just started sprouting metal claws as an expression of his internal angst and deep suffering...." Well, I don't think he'd have fans. LOL

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what.

that´s like a mutant clone version of edward scissorhand
that is so wrong. yet it COULD turn out so camp it is awesome.

it is like someone saw my idea for Kostchey the deathless with barbed wire around the heart in the tower and a stone for the heart not to feel anything, and they saw that and just thought lets make scrambled eggs

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Oh god!
I like LDW, but I don't like him enough to make myself sit for 16 hours to watch him sprout knives from his body while SSK looks at him with a melancholic expression. This looks like a potential hot mess, however would love to be proven wrong!
I wanted to watch a decent LDW drama, I skipped Hotel king because it was heavy on the melo side to now see him playing this character.
Why do I feel like we are going to have a loot of scenes where the leads will try to be intimate and knives will come sprouting out of his body, and the kind and gentle lady is going to help him through his pain. It sounds absolutely cheesy OTL
Anyways it's just me ranting here. (LDW stans please don't kill me) :p

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I'm a LDW fan and this looks absolutely awful. Then again, I would have given the show a shot if it had been any other actress other than Shin Se Kyung. Yew.

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SSK is like an expressionless plastic of some sort.

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This sounds like even beyond awful.

And I wonder, will all those knives sprouting from his body be blurred out?...

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Probably not. Then we wouldn't know if he's Iron Man or Dust Bunny Man.

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Is this going to be another 'Dr. Jin' ?

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Let's hope 4 wookies sake it doesn't .... Even though I love hos acting I don't think he could recover from this trauma like Dr.Jin

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It's all ridiculous and everything, but at least Lee Dong-wook is looking hot amidst of it all. bright side is not knifed...

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Aaaahhh so another one to ignore *throws confetti*^^
My 'currently watching' list is going to shrink a little more (MBC's upcoming Wed-Thu drama's gonna be ignored as well^^) and thank god it does :D Gives me some time to finally catch up with Yoona's Street!

I will watch the first 2 eps of Iron Man though just to see how ridiculous it really is but tbh the teasers had me in stitches and not in a good way :P

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You know, I wasn't inherently against the idea of a hero with knives of angst sprouting from his body and a woman helping him learn to love. Honestly, I'm a sucker for those stories (but the knives are usually metaphorical), stories of broken hurt bad boys and the love that heals them, etc. But, and tell me if it's just me asking for too much- but could they have made the knives look a little less photoshopped? Like they're almost TRYING to make it look stupid...

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@Hugepuffball, honestly the knives (the look) are the least of the problems but upon seeing the posters, I thought: couldn't they at leat make the knives look cool. Lol. I think I might check the first couple of eps just to see how the story explains all this.

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I don't like her.

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agreed - same facial expressions in every drama - I had to do a double take with her laughing picture above.

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They cannot be serious with this, it looks so unintentionally funny like where can this plot line even go!?

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how about a man finds out that he has extraordinary powers when he is young, and tries hiding it from his peers so they won't see him as a freak. He finds a girl that can accept him what he really is. It's like a Beauty and the Beast scenario. Maybe not.

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Seriously guys, you can't take this seriously, yet the idea of girl falling in love with a half fox demon is alright, or how about a alien that lived for hundreds of years falling in love with a girl that looks like a reincarnated girl that he first saw when he came to this planet.

Double standards in comic book fantasy?

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Well, you have a good point. My opinion is that some of these ideas could be really fun and interesting but they just don't translate well on television. Love From The Stars worked out fine cause it dealt with characters who all looked like normal people. Gu Family Book was really disappointing to me though cause the angry gumihos just looked rediculous. If it had been a big budget film with amazing special effects then they could have done better justice to the story. So this knife guy thing isn't a completely horrible story line but I think it won't be possible to make it look believable in a drama. And poor sweet talented LDW will act his heart out trying to portray the character in a serious light... it'll be impossible for me to ignore the shortcomings of the production and take the story lightly. If only he wouldn't try so hard in this one - but you know he will. That's why I love him AND why he shouldn't have done it. Sigh!

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I don't think you can really call it a double standard. All of the premises sound equally ridiculous on paper. The difference here is in the execution. If you watched the teasers, particularly the first one with LDW climbing up a wall, it just looks utterly absurd.

The second teaser did throw me off a bit, though, because now it looks like they are going for the comedic angle rather than strictly the melo angle that the plot description depicts. If they make it campy than it could be entertaining, but if they play it straight it will be entertaining in a completely different way (if you know what I mean).

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And without a doubt when the heroine makes the lead guy into a better man with a good heart and make up for what ever he might have done in the past or doing good stuff now the knifes will leave him

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Nahhhhhh, I'm still interested, lol. And am I the only one who never thought it was a metaphor?? Lol, it always sounded like they were really going to have knives sprout out of him.

It looks like a campy super-hero/sci-fi mix type thing and now I want to watch it even more. I want to see how they tackle the sci-fi aspect if at all. As for the special effects, I don't even mind. I wasn't expecting James Cameron type CG as I'm sure the expenses for such a power must be more than what they may even be paying the actors, lol. I also like that second poster a great deal. To be honest, it'd be really cool if he could learn to control the knives to pop up in isolated areas of his body.

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"I’ll harbor a guess—and this is only my guess!—that the knives could somehow be physical manifestations of his emotions, like his version of the Hulk going green and bouncy. "

'Ya think? LOL

Maybe they could do something interesting with this and have the knives turn to gropey octopus tentacles when he learns to love again?

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I would totally love to see pervy octopus tentacles. That would not be suitable for younger audiences though.

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Galaxy Quest was rated PG. Just sayin'. :-)

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Wow Shin Se - kyung was so animated in teaser 2. Is this a comedy??

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This is a show that practically begs HeadsNo2 to recap it.

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When I saw that towel shot, all I could think was, "Oh, does this mean that our Dong Wookie is going to be on another restrictive diet again?" I felt so sorry for him on Roommate when he was filming Hotel King and wasn't allowed to eat normally -- everyone else would be eating, and he'd be sitting there looking sad and hungry, but trying to make the best of it.

The Photoshop on that top photo is AWFUL. It makes him look like he is hunchbacked and missing an arm. If the drama does involve literal knives coming out of his body (I'm still hopeful that it's a metaphor), then I hope they do a better job with the special effects.

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So he has been on restrictive diets? I know that this is not uncommon for actors so that they can look better onscreen. But for Lee Dong Wook, I really think that it may be great for his abs or whatever but seriously bad for his face. I first noticed the change in him in Scent of A Woman, he seemed to have aged a lot although it's just 2 years in the army. I thought he looked good in Partner. I hope he puts on some weight because he looks emaciated.

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Yeah, while he was filming Hotel King, he talked on Roommate about how he was on a diet (which seemed to involve eating hardly anything) and working out a lot to lose weight for the drama. I saw somewhere a before-and-after comparison of him at the start and finish of Hotel King and there was a marked difference in his appearance (and not in a good way, IMO), probably from both the diet and workout regimen and the stress of filming.

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Wouldn't it just be more ridiculous if they censor the knives ala Cruel City? Then we can only see Lee Dong Wook's handsome face.

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Oh my god that would be so great if they were blurred! It would just add another layer to the crazy! lol

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If that is really what I see it is (the knives literally) then... they have much to lose with this one ...! Like ... kisses in the rain (the knives will rust!), showers (the same reason), back-hugs, back-carrying, hand grabbing from behind (anything back-related, really), hospital scenes....

It looks like a comedy... Not because of the idea but because of it's execution in the trailer and posters... If that's not a comedy and that's not a metaphor, I hope they got the money to make it look more decent in the actual series...

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( . . . )

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Oh. My. God. I need a moment...
*still staring at the screen in disbelief*

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ahhahhaa....wuht.........?! the photoshopping is so bad too...

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HAHAHAHAHAHA*cough*snort* ah, it's just too funny!

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When I saw the posters the one and only thing that came to my mind was Damn he looks like a porcupine. LOL

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Hahahaha. Though watch this drama do really well...

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What a waste to have Lee Dong Wok in this mess, plus with Shin Se kyung! What was he thinking when he accepted this role?

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I know right...I love him, but its not enough to put up with SSK's bad acting...just like I had to give up on When a Man Loves, b/c Song Seung-Heon is total eye candy and I would almost watch anything with him, but I just could not watch that series with SSK...good luck to LDW, hope he do a better project soon.

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When do the knives come out? Are there set rules, like Buffy, where Angel gets all vampy during sexy times?

And why are they only sprouting from his back? Is he Godzilla?!

LOL'd at the backhug comments! Something tells me this may not be the wisest project LDW has ever done...

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That photoshop just made me laugh so bad, oh lordy... Not even Lee dong Wook's abs can save this hahah

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Yeah, the frontal view is fine fine fine, but then you look at the back and it's ROFL!

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I'm happy to see that Shin Se-Kyung seems to have improved judging from the second teaser.

Truth to tell, I don't understand why posters on this site always bash her so much. Not all humans display a wide range of emotions so why should actors be an exception to that? The emotions actors try to evoke in viewers are the product of not only the facial expressions, but also our ability to empathise with the character in that given situation.

Maybe it is because I'm autistic, and thus can empathise greatly with animals and select human populations i.e. asians, that I never had any trouble recognising the emotions SSK tried to convey.

The knives do look awful though so I'll reserve final judgement until I watched the first two episodes.

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I agree with your statement about humans not displaying a wide range of emotions. In reality, people hide their emotions, not show it. People don't go around wearing their heart on their sleeves all the time, that would be tiring. In real life, most people try to hide what they are feeling so I don't understand why most viewers expect actors to make overt facial expressions to convey what their character is feeling.

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My problem with SSK posing...I mean acting, is not about reflecting the emotions on her face, is more about not feeling anything at all. The difference about acting and posing is knowing how to portray the character emotions and mental state using for example, just a stare, it's all about the feeling. People usually don't show their feelings, we are use to mask what's really going on, so I just expect that an actor makes me feel what he's feeling and know what he's thinking without having a face convulsion or a narrator. Have anyone seen Forrest Gump? Because that a good exmple of what acting is all about.

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The knifeless man is a lifeless man, they say ;)

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HAHAHA.

They're taking themselves seriously... And I'm dying.

That trailer is just... I'm honestly not the kinda person who'll watch crap just for the laughs. I couldn't laugh through Dr. Jin or Dr. Stranger. But maybe this will be my first. It looks so bad, it's actually good. On a side note, from just the trailers, I see that SSK is the only actress I know who hasn't improved a micro bit in 2345 projects. Even Suzy does better in that department!

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I really don't understand Lee Dong Wook's career choices.

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Lol......looks very funny....hope they get their way around it though...

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Okay. I am going to watch this. Just for all the times I thought the drama was going to be fantastic--and it reeked. (Yeah, I'm talking to you, Gunman.)
If IRON MAN just doesn't suck, it will already have surpassed my expectations.
And by not sucking it will heal my soul of all the times I wanted excellence and got drivel.

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Oh man. Are they for real? I might just watch this out of pure curiosity cause this drama is just seems like coocoo coconuts.

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This just sounds SO bad. I might have to check it out.

And Shin Se-kyeong's looks are so unfortunate. It looks like she has mumps, poor thing.

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Can I ask... is iron less strong than stainless steel? For knife purposes?

And thinking what Wolverine was supposed to sprout. Wasn't his even better steel?

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iron would just rust much earlier with all that water it constantly has to touch (cutting veggies, meat, fruits, etc). Stainless steel is basically iron, but it's not prone to rusting.

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actually the plot itself is better than the 2nd teaser which filled with Shin Se Kyung

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LOLOLOL @ that towel tho!!

I think I'll watch BECAUSE it's going to be so deliciously terrible.

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Maybe Lee Dong Wook has a mental illness and he is only imagining the knives in his HEAD. PLEASE ANYTHING BUT THIS. (I think I've watched too much It's Okay, That's Love...lol)

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Who is the writer?
I'm really curious who came up with this idea and who's writing the script.
And how did they get Lee Dongwook to agree to do this?

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