Momo Watch: Will Han Ye Seul be Sukkie’s Owner?

credit as tagged. Shared via Dramabeans.

According to Dramabeans she’s been offered the role and shown interest but is yet to formally accept it.

Will she make a good  Iwaya Sumire?

Credit: Excerpt from Manga              Credit: Image found @ Korean Video Girl Blogspot

Since I’ve never seen her in anything I really can’t guess but I’ll have to say she really looks the part!! If she’s as tall as she looks in her pics and they put her in heels, they might even be able to address the height issue (Iwaya is supposed to be taller than Momo). Plus it seems she is also a fluent English speaker just as Iwaya is in the manga (Need to confirm this).

I only hope she and Sukkie have the right chemistry to make this film the hit the dorama was in Japan.

Credit: MangasAddict @ Crunchroll

Shooting starts in June!

I have no idea how I’m going to be able to wait till I can see this movie!!!

Waaaaahhhhh!!!! Need more Sukkie Work Now!!!!!!!!!!

Random Sukkie image just because ^____^

credit as tagged. Shared via Eels Usa Facebook Page

Kimi Wa Petto, Sukkie and the Noonas.

If you’re familiar with Kimi wa Petto and also with Jang Keun Suk, then I probably don’t need to follow up my post header with an article. This smilie should suffice:

🙂

But I’ll do the article anyway.

Fangirl world is a mystical place.

It all started with the josei manga “kimi wa petto” (by Yayoi Ogawa) which has been on my must read list for the looooongest time. It’s a story about a beautiful, independent career woman with a not so great life who finds an injured bishounen and adopts him as her pet. For goodness sake, the first chapter of this manga is called ‘How to Raise a Bishounen” so anyone that knows me immediately gets this book was obviously written for me, right?

Only thing is fate keeps me and this manga apart. Every time I want to start it I’m having an internet blackout period or I’m completely buried at work. So years pass by and I more or less forget about it.

Then this year I discover (as the Taiwanese Press call him) Korean flower boy Jang Keun Suk or (as international fans like to call him) Sukkie. After seeing most of his work and more or less binging on his media exposure I immediately transformed into a shameless fangirl of what would be referred to in Korea as the Noona variety.  And I quickly found out I was not alone. Most of the other shameless Noona fangirls out there seemed to be thinking the same thing. We would adopt Sukkie as a pet in a second.

Then when Sukkie (calculatedly?) expressed the desire to act the role of a young man in love with a noona, after much waaaaaaahhhhhing!!! and kyaaaaaaaaaaaaing!!!, visions of kimi wa petto danced before our eyes and some of us even dared to hope that  we may see with our eyes what our minds had long fantasized.

But it had already been announced that the show was going to be remade in Korea and that precious role was to go to  cute Kim Hyun Joong of Kpop boygroup SS501. So the truth was we were being unrealistic.

But then this morning, like our cups of joy were not already full from images and footage of Sukkie’s truimphant fan meet in Taiwan, the news arrived and our cups officially runneth over!!! Lol!

Sukkie will be Momo (the pet bishounen) and all is right with the world.

He’s already been playing with the mop like hairdo. We know he has the acting chops and the charisma to pull off the role though the general consensus is that he has big shoes to fill in following Matsumoto Jun’s reportedly outstanding performance in the japanese dorama version. My only worry is the ballet but we’ll see, I guess.

I’m reading the manga now and will follow up with the dorama then i don’t know what I’ll do to contain my anticipation!!! I guess go on forums and natter on endlessly about it.

But for now, I am purring in contentment.:3

UPDATE: Wow! Almost forgot to mention. The sensational news was broken by the dramabeans blog, a good source of all things Kpop and Dorama!

"You’re Beautiful" or My name is Neogogo and I’m a Suki-holic!

For some reason, this year, I’ve really been all about doramas as well as K and J movies. Despite all odds (that’s my country; All Odds) I managed to watch a few which fed the craving but also encouraged it. They really are like good chocolate!

Anyway, I plan to write reviews of all of them overtime so anyone can decide if they want to see them too, but this post in particular is dedicated to the K-dorama, “You’re Beautiful,” which just finished airing on Korean TV, end of last year (Also sometimes known as He’s Beautiful or She’s Handsome).

(bottom right is actress Park Shin Hye! You could tell, right?)

Like most doramas, this one flows like a shoujo manhwa (I say manhwa as opposed to mangas cos the Korean stuff has a sense of humour that I feel is a lot closer to ours and some of that is evident in the show.) It’s a gender-crossing romantic comedy starring cute, multi-talented Park Shin Hye as a Novice (about to be a nun) who has to fill for her identical twin brother as a new member of the hottest, boy band in the country, A.N.Jell.

(“Boys” of A.N.Jell)

Her brother is of course absent for most of the show and we get to watch Shin Hye’s hilarious attempts to keep her gender a secret from the rest of the band and it’s management team. Attempts which mostly fall apart by episode 2. The cuteness factor is ramped up by how adorable she looks in her boy disguise most of the time and her and the rest of the boys’ androgynous wardrobe is actually worth watching the show for. That and the love rectangle!

But the real reward for watching this show is its lead bishounen, the ridiculously charismatic, real life idol, Jang Geun Suk (or Jang Keun Suk) who’se image is currently gracing my laptop’s desktop. He plays the character of cold, arrogant and anal retentive band leader, Hwang Tae Kyung and he plays it with aplomb!

It’s funny because when I first started the show, I didn’t think he was that cute. He was always sneering, smirking or just looking pissed off. I liked Kang Shin Woo (the sweet and sensitive type back up guitarist) and “Jeremy” (the blond quirky drummer) better. But I was very fascinated by his ultra, ultra bishounen idol hair and wardrobe and I also loved his walk or, for lack of a better term, swagger.

(sure she doesn’t look much like our idea of a boy. But in Asia, few boy idols do ^-^)

As the show proceeded and he and Go Mi Nam’s (Park Shin Hye’s) relationship grew, my admiration for this actor seriously climbed. He managed to bring an unbelievable amount of charisma and humour to a very bitter and anal character so much so that by the middle of the show, I had eyes for no one but this arrogant bastard. And when he finally smiled……..HUGE pay off!!!!!!!!

(me? bitter? anal? A behind the scene smile from Sukkie.
Watch the show to see the one there ;))

That’s why I’m currently a Suki-holic. I think he’s filled up the sad space in my fan girl heart that Tony Leung left and since he’s just 22, he’ll probably be there for a while! ^________^

Despite his age, Geun Suk has charmed the ladies via TV and Movies for the last 18 years. I had seen him in Do Re Mi So Fa Ti La Do where he was also a musician in a band before this Show but I didn’t even know it was him because he looked and seemed so different. The charm and the huge performance were the same though prompting me to feel that this guy is really someone to watch out for.

In addition to his acting career he is a musician, a DeeJay and a hawt model. What more could a girl ask for in a real live bishounen, I ask you?

(Multi-talented Seuk on the Turn Tables!)

Anyways, look for Jang Geun Suk in You’re Beautiful, Beethoven Virus, DoReMiSoFaTiLaDo, Baby and Me and The Itaewon Murder Case, his latest and most gritty to date (goodbye squeaky clean, idol image). Also catch the songs he’s done for Promotional purposes. You won’t believe how catchy and listenable they are, kinda like Black Eyed Peas! Currently on repeat on my mp3 player: “Drag,” “Toucholic” and “Black Engine.”

(Images from “Toucholic” (Sukiholic? Geddit?) and Black Engine Vids)

This guy is my favourite right now and if you check out his stuff, I’m pretty sure he’ll be your favourite too!

Eh-to…atashi-wa, Neogogo-chan. Suki-holic desu!

My Screen Caps from the Show

(Discover the Mystery of Pig Rabbit!)

(Hyung-nim does not like to be touched)

(My favourite hairstyle. Bishounelicious!)

**Disclaimer: Most of these images were pilfered from sites giving news of or praise to Geun Suk. I am very grateful to them for their work but I have lost the credits and I hope they will forgive me for reusing these pics pleeeeeeeeeeze! Just trying to spread the love on my side of the globe! Go Fighting Eels!! ^_^;;

Dorama Love #^_______^#

Are there Nigerians out there that like K and J doramas as much as I do?

For the uninitiated, Kdorama or Jdorama are simply slang terms for certain sorts of TV dramas that come out of Japan and Korea.

The Dorama is a very wide genre encompassing everything from serious to somewhat bizarre or perverted but the type I’m referring to tends to follow certain patterns: melodramatic, mushy romance or silly, comical, romantic comedies. Characteristic features include, high school life, swaggering pretty boys, clutzy but cute or spunky heroines, bullying, love triangles, jealousy, fights, possessiveness, emo posing, angsty brooding, heart breaking misunderstandings, dramatic confessions, bitter sweet endings and syrupy sweet j or k pop sound tracks.

Of course there are variations. Some of them feature older, working types and therefore slightly more mature stories but the end product is the same. Something to massage your heart strings. They are literally shoujo mangas (japanese comics aimed at girls) on TV. Quite a few of them are based on mangas or manhwas (the Korean equivalent).

I have recently discovered that those shows are like crack to me! I mean it’s a good thing we don’t have an Asian TV channel in Nigeria cos I don’t think I would be able to leave the house!

Why do I love them so much? They are predictable, manipulative, derivative, saccharine, frequently unhealthy…but I could say the same about chocolate and I love that too.

The truth is that a good J or K dorama gives me the warm fuzzies. You know that feeling that you get when you realize that you’re smiling despite yourself? Even when you’re alone? They also make me tear up despite myself and make me laugh despite myself.

I love when the school idol (usually a pretty boy, tough guy that all the girls, including myself, squeal at and all the boys fear, see bishounen) cracks his icy cool armour and falls hard for the (insert predominant quality – shy, quirky, spunky, clutzy, average) girl and starts to indirectly woo her. I love it when competition rises in the form of another pretty boy tough guy that’s a foil to his type. If our main guy is rowdy, this guy is a cool customer, if our main guy is chill, this guy is wild and happy go lucky. Like a mugen and jin (samurai champloo) situation.

I love that the shows never try to be clever. They are what they are and are unashamedly so. I love the online communities of soft hearted fan girls that spring up around and as a result of these shows.

Doramas remind me that there is a place and a time for everything. Sometimes you want something deep and thought provoking. Sometimes you want something that challenges your imagination. Sometimes, you just want something thats fun, can only described in squeals and awwws and gives you warm fuzzies.

I guess that’s why I’m addicted to doramas and I wish other Nigerians or West Africans would be interested in them too because that would influence the supply around here! Right now, it’s not worth it to my DVD supplier to get them 😦

Will do my best to post about some of the dramas I have been enjoying so you can check them out too. Mean while, some good places to start introducing yourself to the genre include here and here.

UPDATE: On further exploration, other really good sites for getting into all sorts of doramas are Soompi and Dramabeans. These guys give really exhaustive reports and very satisfying breakdowns on shows and pop culture in general.