Korean Dramas/Actors

bmwracer wrote:
It's pointless to download the HD versions if you don't have an HDTV and down have a PC to support that resolution.

True, but I assumed ralphm1999 has a computer that can handle HD files, seeing as how he mentioned he's a "quality freak."
I personally recommend getting the 720p versions over the ental versions. Ental versions can be very 'pixelated' during fast moving scenes and Swallow The Sun is an "action" k-drama, so there's probably lots of explosion scenes or 'chase' scenes.

Jav_sol wrote:Swallow The Sun is an "action" k-drama, so there's probably lots of explosion scenes or 'chase' scenes.

That doesn't sound like a drama that Ralph would watch.

bmwracer wrote:
That doesn't sound like a drama that Ralph would watch.

I didn't like it, I stopped after like 10 eps. But I'm not a "Sung Yu Ri dedicated fan" like he is.

We seem to have a misunderstanding in this discussion. I am only downloading the SUBTITLES, not the video.
When I go to:
http://www.haru2subs.com/archives/swallow-the-sun

Then click on "ENTAL', I simply get a subtitle only download. I'm saving these subs in case the DVDs I ordered from Hong Kong are Engrishy so that I can re-author the dvds.

ralphm1999 wrote:We seem to have a misunderstanding in this discussion. I am only downloading the SUBTITLES, not the video.
When I go to:
http://www.haru2subs.com/archives/swallow-the-sun

Then click on "ENTAL', I simply get a subtitle only download. I'm saving these subs in case the DVDs I ordered from Hong Kong are Engrishy so that I can re-author the dvds.

No misunderstanding on my part, I knew what you were saying. I just gave the link as a back up, in case you didn't like the quality of the vids you ordered.

But I stand by my comment regarding the ental vids. I have seen enough ental and han vids, that I can say that the han are better quality. However, haruharu has only released subs synced to the ental version, so if you do get the han vids, you'll have to resync the subs.

One Fine Day is turning out to be One Fine Drama. Ep 7.

Great acting from the etire ensemble cast. Now for a few words regarding Sung Yu Ri. Admitedlly I was first attracted to her by her great beauty.... now I'm seeing the evolution of a just simply fine actress.
She will undoubtedly dominate the Korean acting environment. I'm still amazed how this once so shy member of the Kpop group FINKL has become such an outstanding actor.
She still remains in a certain character niche..... but I can see her expanding to more intense roles as she matures.

:bow: :woot: :good: :smitten:

Jav_sol wrote:

No misunderstanding on my part, I knew what you were saying. I just gave the link as a back up, in case you didn't like the quality of the vids you ordered.

But I stand by my comment regarding the ental vids. I have seen enough ental and han vids, that I can say that the han are better quality. However, haruharu has only released subs synced to the ental version, so if you do get the han vids, you'll have to resync the subs.

I don't mind resynching the subs if necessary. I'm just glad I have a back up in case the Hong Kong version turns into an Engrishy disaster.

One Fine Day ep 14.

This is heading for a 10/10. I'm totally immersed and stayed up till 2:30 am watching 5 eps in a row. Will finish today. So far I highly recommend it but better wait until I'm done in case the writers throw a monkey wrench into what so far is a topnotch story, acting and set design.
Not to mention that it is brilliantly sharp and colorful. :applaud:

Spoiler — click to reveal

In googling Sung Yu Ri to find out which one is her boyfriend in her real life, I'm amazed to discover it's the guy who plays the heavy. In fact he plays it so brilliantly that I'm having trouble seeing him as her real life love. I keep thinking how bad is her taste to fall for such a lunatic jerk. :banghead:

OK. I'm done with One Fine Day.

My final is a 9/10. Had to take off one point - the ending though OK was kind of lackluster. Nevertheless, this was an emotional romantic roller coaster. If you like romance and an undercurrent of mystery with admitedly one of the prettiest Korean actresses, Sung Yu Ri, then this is for you.
:applaud:

It's fate. Finished One Fine Day yesterday and right on time "The Swallowed Sun" arrived today. :dancing:

It's all I could ask for. Perfect English subs, brilliant sharp 16:9 picture. It has an HD watermark but doubt if it is. Don't think they could fit 25 hours of HD on 8 discs. And best of all another 25 episodes of Sung Yu Ri. :woot:

Hey, ralph, good for you! :woot: Now that you're done with your hors d'oeuvres and are about to dig into your entrée, you may want to consider ordering HONG GIL DONG for dessert. It's funny and breezy and action-packed and all those things. Methinks you'll have a blast watching Sung Yu-ri stuff her face with all those red bean buns. :mrgreen: (FYI, did you know that you and Sung Yu-ri share the same country of birth? It really IS fate! :dancing: )

yaney wrote:2. kim sam soon: they said that it was the korean version of bridget jones' diary. very funny. the lead actress kim sun ah have to gain a lot of weight for her role

Yeah, Kim Sun-ah packed on the pounds just for the role. I've seen her in two of her films (S DIARY and SHE'S ON DUTY, both co-starring Gong Yoo) and she was super sexy! :mrgreen: I so enjoyed KSS, which arguable had the best older woman/younger man dynamic in a K-drama. Great chemistry and all that. That half-drunken kiss by the piano => woah! :nut:

yaney wrote:6. season dramas (endlesslove)- i love all them all, from autumn fairytale, winter sonata, summer scent, and spring waltz. for me winter sonata and summer scent tops my list!

Among the Season Dramas I only liked WS, which in a way remains a sentimental favorite of mine, because it opened me up to the wild, wacky world of Hallyu back in '03 (and indirectly, J-dramas). I'm SO over Yonsama and Choi Ji-weepy, though. :sweat:

yaney wrote:8. memories of bali: very controversial ending they say! this is drama where i fell inlove with the charms of my ultimate korean crush jo in sung! you got two eye-candies here, one is jo in sung and the other is so ji sub.

Oh, so Jo In-sung is your K-ichiban, eh? :mrgreen: Have you seen FROZEN FLOWER? :naughty: :twisted:

Geezer wrote:Ender's girl
I'm not sure when Yamaguchi got married. I keep myself sane by reading as little as possible about the stars I admire or fall in love with.

:rofl: Not a bad way to live...

Geezer wrote:Re: her husband, Karasawa Toshiaki (One of Japan's better actors, and a darned good song and dance man.)

He made a stir about 10 years ago when he wrote what was supposed to have been a very funny book about "Living With A National Treasure". The title was something like; "Mr. Yamaguchi Tomoko".

:lol: Lolllzzzz I had NO idea he was calling himself that when I dubbed him "Mr. Tomoko!" Wry humor + self-confidence + ability to poke fun at himself + enough literary/grammatical skills to author a book + good looks (lol) = Okay, I like him already! :P

BTW, have you seen the Fuji TV 50th Anniversary Special, shown earlier this year? SMAP hosted it, and Karasawa Toshiaki was among the stars who graced the event. Funny thing happened: Yamaguchi Tomoko was unable to attend, so she sent a video greeting instead. When her clip was being shown during the LONG VACATION tribute (gosh, she's still SO beautiful after all these years!), El Hubby gave a little wave at the giant screen that had the whole studio dissolving in laughter. Tee-hee! Funny man! :hehe:

Geezer wrote:After staring in a dozen successful series of his own, and appearing in a string of very successful movies (He was one of the stars of "Rajio no Jikan" aka "Welcome Back Mr. McDonald" - one of my all time favorites) he was still known everywhere he went as Mr. Yamaguchi Tomoko.

Eve wrote:Then you haven't seen Toshiie TO Matsu. My all time favorite historical drama. Karasawa Toshiaki is fabulous and I was a big fan of his before I knew she existed.

Sankyuuu for the recs! :victory: I've seen him in 0 dramas and 1 movie, namely 1995's FLY BOYS, FLY!, in which Karasawa Toshiaki (gotta get used to saying the name! :bonk:) trains a squadron of kamikaze pilots that includes Kimura (heh heh, why else would I have seen this flick, heh heh) and, er, Mr. Nanako. A very draggy movie, but since it was made in 1995, I guess that's forgivable. :grumble: But but BUT I canNOT wait to watch SHIROI KYOTO, yo! :woot:

Ender's Girl wrote:Hey, ralph, good for you! :woot: Now that you're done with your hors d'oeuvres and are about to dig into your entrée, you may want to consider ordering HONG GIL DONG for dessert. It's funny and breezy and action-packed and all those things. Methinks you'll have a blast watching Sung Yu-ri stuff her face with all those red bean buns. :mrgreen: (FYI, did you know that you and Sung Yu-ri share the same country of birth? It really IS fate! :dancing: )

Well then no wonder Sung Yuri is so beautiful... :naughty: I had no idea where she was born.
HONG GIL DONG is on my list.
BUT... I'm a little leery... I saw this review and wonder if this is another star dying ending.... I steer clear of those kinds of useless depressive endings:

"Moreover, Hong Gil Dong began with funny and joyful ideas but ended in tragedy with many surprises that made audience disappointed."

@ ENder's Girl- Be sure to check out Love COmplex with Toshiaki and Sorimachi. Tremendous, different, fun and complicated drama.

Sorry for being off topic.

OT: Checked out first ep of Lovers in Paris.
Looks fun and big budget! :victory:

@ ralph: We-ell... *squirms in seat* :sweat: The gloom 'n' doom won't show itself until the drama's close, so no worries for the first 22 out of 24 eppies. :victory: Try to watch for as long as you can. My guess is you'll be hooked on the comedy and action (and SYR :beaten:) early on, that you'll actually see it through despite the... potential outcome. :mrgreen:

@ Eve: Wow, thanks! I used to think they were the same age, because they seem to have ruled the pre-KimuTaku-Era Jdorama scene. Turns out Toshiaki is much older, while Sorimachi is a year younger than Kimura. :bonk: But thanks a bunch, I will check out your rec for sure. :)

You'll probably enjoy the Cinderella-ishness of LiP. Very engaging drama. But my heart went out to the second fiddle (Lee Dong-gun). :puppydog: Most of the drama is set in Korea, but yeah, the production values are impressive. And Paris looks sooo purty... :dancing: I had a scream watching (male lead) Park Shin-yang speak French. At least, it had to be French because of the setting, but may just as well have been Klingon for all intents and purposes... :twisted:

Finished first 2 epis of The Swallowed Sun. I'm finding it quite interesting despite Sung Yuri only making very very brief appearances so far. It's a bit more violent than I care to watch... but the violence so far is short lived. I enjoy the intrigue that is slowly building in the story. In other words it has my attention even without Sung Yuri's presence. So when she gets going it will be like catching the merry go round ring.
:muack:

What Eve say is right. i bought Love in Paris drama.First episode is very funny.You can also try watch Biscuit Teacher & Star Candy.

The Swallowed Sun ep 8.
:dancing:
This is a great drama. The episodes are passing by too swiftly. It has amazing scenery. The plot is mesmerizing with high stakes intrigue. The actors are all first rate.... No phony expressions or inconclusive emotions. There is violence which I normally abhor, yet here it is fitting as an integral part of the plot unlike the gratuitous violence in

Spoiler — click to reveal

shows such as Summer Snow where the writers for no apparent good reason kill off the beloved star at the end leaving the female lead bereft and grieving the rest of her life and depressing the audience. :bleh:

Need I mention that Sung Yuri reaches new heights of role interpretation in this excellent kdrama. Even without Sung Yuri this would have been a smashing success.
:bow:

The Swallowed Sun. Ep 11. Yikes. The honeymoon is over. All of a sudden they got one of the worst subbers ever. That person changed all the characters names in some kind of pigdin Chinese I think. I don't know who anyone is reffering to. But what does that matter since no sentence makes any sense. :banghead:

And the Haru subs are only up to ep 14. :sweat:

:fingerscrossed: Haru will switftly finish the rest of the subbing.

And even worse the story is becoming ever more engrossing and exciting. :beaten:

Guess I'll go to play gold now and beat some golf balls to death. :twisted:

ralphm1999 wrote:The Swallowed Sun. Ep 11. Yikes. The honeymoon is over. All of a sudden they got one of the worst subbers ever. That person changed all the characters names in some kind of pigdin Chinese I think. I don't know who anyone is reffering to. But what does that matter since no sentence makes any sense. :banghead:

VEry annoying. :patpat:

@inamoto-yo- Glad your enjoying LIP. Look forward to hearing your review.

Eve wrote:

VEry annoying. :patpat:

Good news. The Haru subs are in perfect sync with my Hong Kong version of The Swallowed Sun. I resubbed ep 10, 11, 12 and am rewatching them now. What a difference when you can understand what they are saying. :victory:

Now I will resub ep 13 and 14 and then wait patiently for the next release of Haru's subs. Even if I have to wait a while, it's OK. This drama is so good I can watch it from the beginning without getting bored. :dancing: