Category Archives: 아름다운사람 (Beautiful People)

Spotlight: Park Min Young

Thanks to Healer, I finally get to discover Park Min Young: an actor so talented in inhabiting her roles that it is only now that I realize how often I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed her performances in a variety of kdramas over the past few years. Say hello, yorobun, to Park Min Young of Ja Myung Go, City Hunter, New Leaf, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and now Healer. She is also in Unstoppable High Kick and Dr. Jin, among others, but … Continue reading

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Hyeon Bin: “아름다운 사람…” s’all I’m sayin’….

So… the question remains: HOW is a person even allowed to be THIS beautiful? Reblogged: Esteeming: Hyun Bin – visit The Fangirl Verdict post and you’ll see what I mean…

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Yong-Joon-ssi

Dae-Gil, Lee Geon, Ddol-Bok, Go-Ni, O-Joon, Ki-tae, Ji-Koo, Joon-Ki Do-Hyun, Moon-Soo, Kyeong-Su, Min-Soo, Gi-Seo, Chul-Min, Hyun-Woo, Myung-Woo… A multitude of different lives, each quickened by a single soul; His tempered voice the song of Faith, His hooded eyes the face of Hope. A tear, a smile, a rumbling sigh that let us stop for just a while to watch with love as Park Jae-Young claims his right to be 무영 (無影) Mu-Young … Continue reading

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The Perfection of 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You)

School of Comedy After the finale of that most enchanting of romantic comedies, 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You), I found myself, like many fellow aficionados who had been absorbed in the story of Lee Geon and Kim Mi Yeong, uninterested in watching any other productions despite KDrama’s abundant offerings, including titles on my “to watch” list. I remember something like this happening once before when, after my initial introduction to, and frenzied consumption of KDrama, my appetite for … Continue reading

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Love in 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You)

Every once in a blue moon something comes along that has you so entranced, so engaged, so… moved… that it leaves you at a loss to comprehend just what is happening to you. As you try to make sense of it, it sparkles and shines with every gesture. Words issuing from it are musical pearls of poetic truth that imbue the very air with a richness never before imaginable to your dopamine-saturated mind. Thus … Continue reading

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Pragmatic Altruism vs. Noble Idiocy in 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You)

I have long wanted to examine pragmatic altruism in KDrama narratives, a trope which exemplifies certain Confucian ethical tenets, yet is repeatedly deprecated as “noble idiocy” at interweb oases where KDrama aficionados gather, including DramaBeans, the go-to resource for KDrama news, recaps, and commentary. Finally compelled by this summer’s revelatory 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You), a romantic comedy at once loud and subtle, playful, sly, culturally erudite and deeply moving –whether in mirth or in woe– … Continue reading

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When words r jjust not enough…

…to accurately describe 운명처럼 널 사랑해 (Fated to Love You)…

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Fated to Love You: Princess Snail and her Odd Prince

When you can’t reblog, maybe a link to the original post will do… Fated to love you: Princess Snail and her odd prince Storytime with Lee Geon and Kim Mi Yeong courtesy of Drama Fan @ “Stuck On Hyuk” 🙂

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김수한무 거북이와 두루미 (A Fable)

“김수한무 거북이와 두루미 삼천갑자 동방삭 치치카포 사리사리센타 워리워리 세브리깡 무두셀라 구름이 허리케인 담벼락 서생원에 고양이 바둑이는 돌돌이“. So the story goes: A long, long time ago, a man who was descended from a long line of only sons per generation became father to a baby boy. So he consulted a name-specialist to give his only son a name symbolic of a long life. But no matter what the name-specialist suggested, the man insisted, “longer… make … Continue reading

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시크릿 가든 (Secret Garden)

I had no idea Binnie was such a fantastic singer! 1) 그 남자 (That Man) – Hyeon Bin 한 남자가 그대를 사랑합니다 그 남자는 열심히 사랑합니다 매일 그림자처럼 그대를 따라 다니며 그 남자는 웃으며 울고 있어요 얼마나 얼마나 더 너를 이렇게 바라만 보며 혼자 이 바람같은 사랑 이 거지같은 사랑 계속해야 니가 나를 사랑하겠니 조금만 가까이 와 조금만 한 발 다가가면 두 발 도망가는 널 사랑하는 날 지금도 옆에 있어 그 남잔 … Continue reading

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아름다운사람

And now this, from 내 이름은 김삼순 (My Lovely Sam Soon): 아름다운사람 서유석 작사 : 서유석 작곡 : 서유석 편곡 : 서유석 장난감을 받고서 그것을 바라보고 얼싸안고 기어이 부숴버리는 내일이면 벌써 그를 준 사람조차 잊어버리는 아이처럼 오 오오오 오 오 오오오 오 오 오오오 오 아름다운 나의 사람아~ 당신은 내가 드린 내마음을 고운 장난감처럼 조그만 손으로 장난하고 내마음이 고민에 잠겨있는 돌보지않는 나의 여인아 나의 사람아 오 오오오 오 아름다운 나의 사람아   … Continue reading

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49일: An Exploration of Empathy

“There is a pain that you cannot truly understand until you have experienced it yourself…” So runs the dominant theme in the beautiful, unexpectedly humorous, yet haunting  49 Days featuring the exquisite Lee Yo Won and the blithe Nam Gyu Ri. Indeed, it is empathy, or the lack thereof, that is at the core of each of the stories woven together to create the tapestry that is 49 Days. It is through empathy that the … Continue reading

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선덕여왕 (The Great Queen Seon Deok)

“Chess” may be the word best suited to conveying the drama of open-faced intrigue and gamesmanship that is 선덕여왕 (The Great Queen Seon Deok). The war between Princess Deokman (the future Queen Seon Deok) and the formidable Mi Shil for control of Silla is the stuff of epic. And perhaps because our contenders are both women, heroic prowess is here not framed in terms of brute force and naked aggression, but rather through strategic craft … Continue reading

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황금의 제국 (Empire of Gold)…

Among all the sins a man might commit, betrayal – a species of fraud – ranks among the most ethically abhorrent. The key to understanding the gravity of the sin of betrayal, and the crime of fraud, is the fundamental role of trust in the organization, function and governance of society. In Aristotle’s model of the ethical spectrum whereby human relationships range from the primarily transactional (business and trade) to the largely … Continue reading

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I ♡ 무정도시 (Heartless City)… truly… sadly… deeply…

…by the end of the first chapter I could already tell that things are not going to end well for our protagonist. When we first meet him, it is the middle of the night in Seoul and Jeong Shi Hyeon is standing on the roof of a tall, tall building from which an undercover police officer who suspected he had been made has apparently just plummeted to his death in the street below. … Continue reading

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Notes on 자명고 (Ja Myung Go)

There is so much to say about Ja Myung Go, the first of which must be that it is beautifully complex… and also rather narratively intricate at the beginning. The complexity is wonderful: it is in the characters, in the political intrigue, in the lost history of Naklang, in the legend of Prince Hodong’s tragic love(s). But the initial narrative intricacy can be disorienting, especially since the significance of what happens in the … Continue reading

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Playing Favorites… the KDrama and Film ‘Must See’ List

Long overdue is the time to tip the nib of my (virtual) pen to those dramas and feature films to which I have been awarding my highest rating, three stars.  If you wish to see a comprehensive list of titles I’ve explored since setting off on this adventure, you may find it in “Curio in KDramaland… (or, Through the Sageuk Lens)“. You will also find the key to the asterisk and numeric annotation. … Continue reading

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Curio in KDramaland… (or, Through the Sageuk Lens)

I have been contemplating the virtues of the well made sageuk and what its persistent appeal to me (and maybe even to other viewers) might mean. Surely, something… It turns out that while I apparently have watched only one third as many sageuks as contemporary fictions (from comedies to melodramas and everything in between), I am more disposed to want to collect historical dramas than I am contemporary fictions. When it comes … Continue reading

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Island in the stream…

The summer after I received my diploma in Romance Languages and Literatures and struck out into the world as a Medievalist, I happened upon I know-not-what Korean Drama on hulu and I could not take my eyes off the 16-episode tale so woeful that it wrung from me every last tear my lacrimal glands could produce, leaving me quite spent. Then I discovered DramaFever and for six months after that I drank … Continue reading

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