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omonatheydidTweet about Im Siwan's military service goes viral
Online communities in Korea are abuzz with a tweet about Im Si-wan, who is currently serving his mandatory military service. Twitter user Kimungdi posted that her sister’s boyfriend, who is also serving in the military, had been assigned to the same barrack as the actor. “In every letter he sends, he writes ‘Si-wan is handsome today, too’,” she wrote. The boyfriend also sent an autograph of Im with a letter. The post was re-tweeted over 30,000 times and has spread online.
“The King Loves” Cast Members Visit Siwan In The Military
(full size)
On September 18, actor Kim Jung Wook shared an image on Instagram of the cast members together visiting Im Siwan in the military. Girls’ Generation’s YoonA, Hong Jong Hyun, Oh Min Suk, and more are shown posing together in the photo with Im Siwan.
Min Young Won's insta:
Kim Jae Woon's insta the week before:
And lastly in actual news:
Im Siwan Receives Military Assignment For Rest Of Service
Singer and actor Im Siwan has been chosen as an assistant instructor for new recruits. According to his agency Plum Actors on September 19, “Im Siwan will be serving as an assistant instructor for new recruits of the 25th division.” The assistant instructors are chosen from among trainees that performed well, priority given to those who express the desire to take on the position. They will be in charge of training new recruits. Im Siwan enlisted in the military on July 11 to begin his 21 months of mandatory military service. He is scheduled to be discharged on April 10, 2019.
sources: kpopherald, imbc/kim jung wook's ig via soompi, min young won's ig: 1 and 2, kim jae woon's ig (the actual post seems to have since been deleted), naver via soompi
i'm the boyfriend
Online communities in Korea are abuzz with a tweet about Im Si-wan, who is currently serving his mandatory military service. Twitter user Kimungdi posted that her sister’s boyfriend, who is also serving in the military, had been assigned to the same barrack as the actor. “In every letter he sends, he writes ‘Si-wan is handsome today, too’,” she wrote. The boyfriend also sent an autograph of Im with a letter. The post was re-tweeted over 30,000 times and has spread online.
“The King Loves” Cast Members Visit Siwan In The Military
(full size)
On September 18, actor Kim Jung Wook shared an image on Instagram of the cast members together visiting Im Siwan in the military. Girls’ Generation’s YoonA, Hong Jong Hyun, Oh Min Suk, and more are shown posing together in the photo with Im Siwan.
Min Young Won's insta:
Kim Jae Woon's insta the week before:
And lastly in actual news:
Im Siwan Receives Military Assignment For Rest Of Service
Singer and actor Im Siwan has been chosen as an assistant instructor for new recruits. According to his agency Plum Actors on September 19, “Im Siwan will be serving as an assistant instructor for new recruits of the 25th division.” The assistant instructors are chosen from among trainees that performed well, priority given to those who express the desire to take on the position. They will be in charge of training new recruits. Im Siwan enlisted in the military on July 11 to begin his 21 months of mandatory military service. He is scheduled to be discharged on April 10, 2019.
sources: kpopherald, imbc/kim jung wook's ig via soompi, min young won's ig: 1 and 2, kim jae woon's ig (the actual post seems to have since been deleted), naver via soompi
i'm the boyfriend
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no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-21 05:12 am (UTC)then again this drama still airing so i will stay a little bit cynical about this whole reunion
(i have seen too much dramas with yoona to not recognize her fanservice mode)
Siwan passed one of the hardest test any trendy flower boys can face ... whoever manage to keep his good looks during active military service should get some kind of certification lol
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Date: 2017-09-21 05:56 am (UTC)but i got pictures of siwan in uniform looking entirely babely so i am definitely not complaining
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Date: 2017-09-21 04:45 pm (UTC)He really does look good, and I'm glad he got a nice position instructing recruits. I can just imagine the grandpa of ZE:A being in his natural element there.
I think Yoona said in an interview that they planned the visit all on their own with no agencies or managers, but yeah, it was obviously timed with intention. :D Hopefully Siwan gets other visitors and/or visits people who like to post to SNS whenever he's next on leave.
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Date: 2017-09-21 07:54 pm (UTC)Speaking Siwan and drinking, I read an interview where he said that he credited soju for his clear skin. You ever hear something so stupid you want to smack somebody in the head?
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Date: 2017-09-25 06:52 pm (UTC)part 1: https://www.facebook.com/SunHeeCouple/videos/220250718110864/
part 2: https://www.facebook.com/SunHeeCouple/videos/220261671443102/
Speaking Siwan and drinking, I read an interview where he said that he credited soju for his clear skin. You ever hear something so stupid you want to smack somebody in the head?
I think he talked about that also in the Vlive panel he did for One Line. I remember because he pulled out this stuff about Eastern medicine and said his family has a body type that can't handle "cold" stuff like beer. IDEK, Azns, whatevs. :D
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Date: 2017-09-25 08:58 pm (UTC)I just found a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G9IJ8yDu6c) of Siwan dancing where he looks legitimately sexy. I am shook.
I need to rewatch his eps of Running Man. I love the one in the pool where he jumps those hurdles like a beautiful dolphin. Also this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxzoT2oM2u0) happens. Or I should see if I can find a subbed Siwan cut of Law of the Jungle.
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Date: 2017-09-25 11:11 pm (UTC)I do like his Running Man appearances but I feel like his first one, with the pool and the other idols, is his least manufactured, maybe because he felt he had less of a public image/reputation to maintain back then. Problem is there are so many other guests crowding the spotlight. Even though one of them is his now good friend Lee Joon, but I think they didn't know each other well at the time so they barely interact.
Speaking of fetus Hyungsik, for some reason today I watched this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28jx5PYsbN0) and laughed my ass off. He really was the baby of the group -- Dongjun by comparison comes off as so much older. :D
no subject
Date: 2017-09-25 11:47 pm (UTC)I remember being unreasonably proud of him for being the first one to figure out the weird clown thing in the winter episode. Also him ice fishing. I love the idea that he looks like this sweet, delicate child but is actually a smart, fully functioning, competent adult.
I have seen that clip on Hyungsik and on one hand, I find it so gross when hosts of shows are always making the female guests do sexy dances for their amusement but on the other hand, that clip is so very, very funny.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-26 02:10 pm (UTC)In the RM winter episode, I was actually kind of equal parts intrigued and disturbed by how much control he had during that "try not to laugh" challenge. I mean, he didn't even twitch! And then when it was safe, suddenly he was all smiles, like, did you really find any of that funny or are you just laughing now because you know people would expect you to? /conspiracy theorist
I also loved the whole RM cast calling him "Oppaaa!" when he was introduced. :D
To be fair to the Immortal Songs crew, they did turn it around and have Kevin do a sexy dance for Ailee, LOL: https://youtu.be/IXXNaxwAJYo?t=39s
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Date: 2017-09-26 09:07 pm (UTC)He was ice cold in the RM winter ep (ba-dum-tish). But yeah, it's hard to say how much of that stuff is staged. I certainly like to think it's all real but sadly I know it's not. I'm a pretty big Running Man fan too. That and Knowing Brothers are the only variety shows I've watched for the cast not just when people I liked were guesting.
That Siwan is older than people is still not really a concept I can grasp. I can hardly believe that Siwan is older than like 16 sometimes.
Umm...I haven't seen a lot of ZE:A stuff but Kevin is kinda sexy. About the whole variety hosts making women do sexy dances though, it probably wouldn't bother me so much if the hosts weren't almost always dudes. I say almost not because I've ever seen a woman do it but to leave the slightest sliver of a chance that somewhere a woman did. I think it's so weird that I hardly ever see female hosts on these idol shows that often seem like they're geared towards female viewers but maybe they're overall not as geared towards women as I think. Maybe it's just a consequence of me always watching for boy groups (and I guess when I say boy groups I mostly mean Shinee).
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Date: 2017-09-27 02:36 am (UTC)I haven't seen Knowing Brothers but I think Happy Together has a couple female hosts, or at least there have been female hosts on the episodes I've seen. Also Lee Hyori had Magic Eye for a little while which I guess was like The View? And there was that female host on Taxi. But agree it's not equal at all.
I recall there was some scandal recently though with Korea's SNL and like a hazing ritual where male idols got groped by the female cast members? Grossness abounds, apparently. :-/
Kevin is actually the most talented ZE:A member when it comes to idol stuff. He's got the singing, the dancing, he was writing songs -- and, being Australian, he's even got the English. I feel the most sorry for him these days because he could have been something great at any other agency, but he couldn't break out in individual popularity like Siwan/Hyungsik/Kwanghee/Dongjun so I guess he was useless to Star Empire. Now he's back in Australia working as a radio DJ, sigh.
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Date: 2017-09-27 03:57 am (UTC)Knowing Brothers is an all male cast but it's mostly watched by dudes. You can tell by the frequency of poop jokes and how much they bitch when the guests are dudes. I liked KB for a while but I was over it pretty fast. Heechul is still a variety god though. He's like pro-level comedian funny/snarky (he's also beautiful).
I guess I'm not too sure on what the distinction is but I feel like Happy Together has a couple of female cast members as opposed to hosts and they don't seem to talk all that much from the eps I've seen. I love the woman from Taxi (she's also on Hello Counselor which don't watch unless you want to be angry enough to kill) but I feel like she spends most of her screen time being the butt of fat and unattractive jokes which pisses me off so much. I have seen some really funny female comedians on early days Running Man but I don't see them around anymore which is a shame. Hardly any of them seem to have wiki pages either so it's been hard to track down their work.
Yeah, the SNL thing was super gross. I remember seeing some other variety where it's not clear, either a woman or a dude dressed as a woman depending on what comments you read, grabbed Onew's ass super hard, like fingers in his crack, and held it for a long time despite Onew trying to get away. It was viscerally disturbing. I'm upset just thinking about it honestly.
I've read some stuff about Kevin and, yeah, he seems really talented. I don't really know the specifics of ZE:A's mismanagement (though every time I read about them someone mentions it) but I'm inclined to suspect that part of the reason he wasn't popular was because he's not as "physically attractive" or whatever. Korea seems to love their visuals and only vaguely care about talent/charisma. I truly do not get it, but I also seem to have distinctly un-Korean taste in men because I often find the visual in the group to be among the least attractive and the "ugly" ones to be the most. I do feel bad that Kevin's gone from being an idol to being a radio show host though. He deserves better.
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Date: 2017-09-28 02:54 am (UTC)I have seen a couple of Hello Counselor eps and yeah, there were a few people whose issues I genuinely didn't understand. But I chalked it up to the usual Korean cultural, ah, uniqueness. I haven't seen enough eps to see anything truly infuriating yet.
That is disgusting about Onew, my god.
I think you're right about Kevin, unfortunately. He doesn't have the clean, sharp lines and big dewy eyes that a lot of the more popular Korean idols seem to have, I guess. And he never had a very loud or outgoing personality either despite being great on-stage.
As for the mismanagement, I admittedly don't have the greatest familiarity with that aspect of kpop as the only other agency I've read much about is YG. But the fact that ZE:A released comparatively little content in all the years they were active would be bad enough. On top of that I think most fans were just baffled that they were never able to capitalize on the popularity of individual members to help the rest of the group. It seemed like they had a potentially all-star line-up but couldn't give the guys enough material, or material that was actually hit-worthy, or hit-worthy material that dropped at the right time. So people already thought the management company was shit for those reasons, but then there was a whole blow-up in 2014 when the group leader threw tons of shade about abusive practices on Twitter. He then deleted everything once they got their revenue split improved, which just made people more confused and suspicious.
Anyway, Siwan news! We have a release date for his duet with Jo Hyuna -- October 9! I'm glad he's still singing in 2017, and that he's written lyrics for, I think, all 3 of his non-ZE:A efforts. His voice isn't honey or anything, but he did start out in music and if he enjoys it, then good on him for sticking with it. Also, the $$$ benefits plus the creative outlet of song-writing have got to be fulfilling personally. :D
Did you ever see the post his new agency did for his enlistment day? Google translate does a hilarious job with it. Also, I read separately that Sol Kyung Gu said in an interview that he was actually there for the buzz cut and took some pictures, altho he doesn't show up in the post.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 05:40 am (UTC)Oh, I've only watched a handful of episodes but each one featured at least one person who was clearly abusive and they just kind of laugh it off in the end. A mom who kicked her daughter in the head for running away. A dude who was constantly making demeaning comments to his wife about how fat and disgusting she got after having his children and nagging her to lose weight (which, by the way, she was already trying to do). A dad who won't let his grown children or wife be out after dark. And then at the end they just say, "Oh well, this person apologized and said they'll try not to do that so much in the the future so it's fine," because apparently one half-hearted apology forced out of you on a national broadcast totally makes up for years of abuse. That show makes me want to kill.
It does seem weird that Siwan, Hyungsik, and Kwanghee (and Dongjun?) got so big yet the group is an afterthought. Everybody's basically forgotten that Siwan's an idol.
Oh, good. I was starting to worry the song wouldn't come out. His voice may not be amazing but I love the song he did for the Misaeng OST. I remember being honestly kind of confused when I found out he was an idol because he just didn't seem like the type and I guess I wasn't the only one cos I read a few interviews where he was asked about it and he kept talking about how much he wanted to do the singing and the acting so I'm glad he's getting to do at least a little bit of it. Though, uhh, he should maybe stick with the ballads. He seems a lot better suited to that.
I've seen the pictures but I never read the rest of it (though I suppose I still haven't lol). Google translate is so useless with non-European languages. I do like reading articles about Kang Ha Neul though because his name always get translated as River Sky.
Sol Kyung Gu being there is giving me some real emotions. (Sidebar: I somehow left The Merciless with a little bit of a crush on SKG and I find this unsettling.) I love when cast members bond and I want Siwan to have lots of good hyungs to take care of him. I hope he's still in contact with Lee Sung Min and Kim Dae Myung. Sales Team 3 was the truest love I have ever known.
Ooo, apparently The Merciless, Sol Kyung Gu, and Jeon Hye Jin all got nominated for the Seoul Awards (https://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/21233089.html).
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Date: 2017-09-28 11:38 am (UTC)Apparently he and other high profile soldiers are rehearsing for some kind of performance, I suppose for Armed Forces Day which was technically yesterday so maybe more will be released of the performance itself. Cute that Siwan is with Joo Won, who is dating BoA, who Siwan made out with kinda heavily in Waiting for Love, lol. (And where is Kwanghee actually, like he's in the army band even...)
Happy for The Merciless crew getting noms! And I saw Kim Dae Myung on the list too, right? I agree about wanting Siwan to keep up with his sunbaes and hyungs. It can only help him personally and professionally. I know there were photos of him hanging with Sales Team 3, and also Song Kang Ho, well after productions had ended, and he's spoken about staying in contact with the latter. Like above all, Siwan, DO NOT lose Song Kang Ho's number. Everything that man touches is gold.
I think Yoo Jae Suk's status means he just naturally, and also is expected to, act like more of a host than the others: being in the physical center, interacting with guests more, doing the welcomes and the thank you's. He does it in Running Man, Infinite Challenge, Come to Play, Happy Together, I Am A Man, literally anything I've seen him in. Which I don't mind because I love him so I suppose I expect it of him as well.
It's too bad if other hosts or cast members don't speak up as much but I think as a default they defer to YJS and then fight each other for the rest of the available screen time. They even openly say they're doing these things so it's no secret to viewers. (There's even a running gag with Park Myungsoo always having to be on YJS's immediate left (right on camera) in the shows they're in together, lol.) Kwanghee had a horrible reputation on Infinite Challenge for fading into the background, because he never quite fit in with the cast, and he was by far the youngest. I guess if female members are quieter, it says something about either the cast dynamics or, I wouldn't be surprised, Korean cultural expectations of female decorum even on talk shows and variety shows.
Yeah, those Hello Counselor stories sound gross. The only one I really remember disagreeing with is the mom who wouldn't stop acting physically affectionate and lusty with her husband in front of the kids, and everyone told the kids to just get over it, heh. I've been thinking of trying more eps of talk shows like maybe Healing Camp but it requires finding subs. Return of Superman can be pretty fun in the bits I've seen, but I sometimes get weirded out about these kids' lives being all over TV.
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Date: 2017-09-28 10:22 pm (UTC)Yeah, Kim Dae Myung got a nomination too though I haven't seen the thing he's nominated for. I'll be rooting for him as well. I remember him being pretty adorable on the Misaeng Taxi special. I've still only seen the first half with subs though. You don't happen to know where I can find the whole thing do you?
I haven't watched more of Healing Camp than bits of the ep with Hyungsik and Siwan. I have definitely enjoyed bits of Return of Superman. All the kids I've seen are really young so I don't really feel like they'll be weirded out about it when they get older (except, I guess, for people recognizing them in the streets and whatever) but every time I think about the parents selling out their kids' lives for money it feels kind of sketch. That said, some bits of RoS that I enjoyed: Minho meeting Daebak, Seola, and Sua (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX0mpQ0_UZQ). Nobody is better with children than Minho. It makes me swoony and I kind of hate children. Yonghwa running into Seojun and Seoeon (https://youtu.be/Mpoc0I8OLqI) and having to carry one of them back to their house because he absolutely refuses to wake up. There's another one where one of the kids knocks over a bag of popcorn literally bigger than she is but I can't find it no matter how hard I try.
Oh god, I just got reminded of the time I dreamt I adopted a pre-teen Hyungsik and Siwan after ZE:A disbanded (because idols need to be rehomed like pets after their groups break up, I guess). That was actuall a really sweet dream.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-28 11:57 pm (UTC)http://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=109&aid=0003628557&lfrom=twitter
/end ETA
I think the black beret helps but he looked good on his first day with the shaved head. Might also be thanks to him beefing up so much -- I think this is the most muscular he's been in his entire public life. You saw those shoulders in that blue T-shirt, yes? :D Anyway, I'm glad it seems he's easily slipped into military life now. Hopefully it means they're treating him well.
Ahahahaha at your dream. I'm sure you took good care of them, Umma!
Both parts of that Misaeng Taxi special are here -- http://haminwu.tumblr.com/post/128206900647/goojunniepyo-engsub-150102-tvn-taxi-misaeng -- check the second set of links. It's not my fave. The show ran an actualfax tournament between all the cast members to find Kang Sora's "ideal man" and it's cringe-y as fuck. Byun Yohan is clearly not here for it which just makes it worse.
I've only ever seen Yonghwa in random reality shows but every time my eyes just drink him in like water. I really should check out his band because he seems super talented. I DIED at little man falling asleep in his ice cream and bread. So adorable. Will check out the Minho one later. Always had a soft spot for him since he worked with my longest running Kdrama crush Ju Jihoon, altho sadly their drama was too boring to finish. Btw, who's your bias in SHINee?
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Date: 2017-09-29 02:44 am (UTC)Yeah, he really put on a lot of muscle for The Merciless. I assume he just kept it on. But I loved him when he was just a little string bean too. There's a special place in my heart for guys who look like I could cram them into a locker.
The dream was so goofy. Siwan was the quiet, fragile one who just wanted to be loved (sorry, Siwan, you're forever Jang Geu Rae to me). Hyungsik was the angry, ill-adjusted one. Hyungsik was refusing to eat the cupcakes I made them because he didn’t want to, I can’t make him, and I am not his real mom. Siwan was yelling at him to eat it because he knew I was trying and he just wanted everything to work out. (For the record, the cupcakes looked amazing. The fight was not about cupcakes; the cupcakes were a metaphor.) This quickly escalated into a full on shouting match and eventually Hyungsik stormed off and I had to calm Siwan down and tell him to let Hyungsik go. Afterwards me and Siwan were sitting on the steps and I was trying to convince him that Hyungsik would come back and that everything was going to be okay. He was so sweet and scared of being abandoned again and my heart was fucking bleeding for that child. Also, somewhere in this dream though I can’t for the life of me figure out how it fit in, Siwan was apparently amazing at skateboarding. Anyway, I woke up feeling embarrassingly warm and fuzzy. I love my dumb children I guess.
The Taxi special was goofy as fuck but basically all the interviews of idols and young actors I've seen have been like that. I like watching Kang Ha Neul fall all over himself. I love his reactions and how hard he laughs at everything. He was so adorable on Youth Over Flowers. There was one part where one of the other guys is telling a funny story and KHN laughs so hard he has to get up from his chair walk across the room, sit down in a different chair, get back up, and go back to his first chair. All while laughing. It is so goofy. I love him.
I've seen both of those videos you linked me. I guess I meant second episode. It's been a long time since I went hunting for these and I forgot what I was talking about apparently. Sorry. The assistant managers did the interview in the car thing that Taxi usually does. I never found subs for that.
Minho is the absolute softest with children. I have a friend who loves Minho and we just talk about hanging children off of him the way you hang Christmas ornaments on a tree. I bet he could hold a lot of children. He just fucking loves them.
I don't know even know who my Shinee bias is anymore. Taemin was the first one I ever saw, just randomly on that episode of Running Man he did. I was so enamored with the tiny bit of dancing he did that I looked him up, saw the video for Sayonara Hitori, and absolutely lost my mind. I'm not the biggest fan of pop, Korean or otherwise, but his albums were solidly enjoyable. Then I looked into Jonghyun's solo stuff. He has two regular albums and then the two Story Op albums which are songs he made for the radio show he used to host. The regular albums are great and super accessible to non-kpop people (even my husband likes them) and then I heard Skeleton Flower off Story Op 1 and nearly cried, not just because it's beautiful and haunting and sad, but because I thought he just wrote sex jams and I felt so bad, like I needed to personally write him an apology for underestimating him like that. From there I basically moved through all of them so I guess I'm an ot5 person now.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-29 11:31 pm (UTC)I think it's awesome but not surprising that he's so great at army. The dude is just unflappable. I remember him saying once that he didn't find the ZE:A trainee days difficult. This despite all the sadness in the documentary shows about their pre-debut days: guerrilla concerts around the country where they had to round up their own crowds, sleeping in tents and saunas and eating one ramen pack a day because they were living on less than $100 a day for the whole group. And their CEO was known to express his displeasure with physical slaps and such. Maybe this is all normal for kpop, I don't know, but I think every single member was shown breaking down in tears at least once, whether for themselves or simple empathy for their fellow members, but never Siwan.
Compared to all that, the army is probably only slightly more stressful. /only half-sarcastic
Actually, as I'm writing this, I realize I've got some thoughts about Siwan, the person, crystallizing. I think that while it's funny to call him the "grandpa" and "forever Jang Geu Rae" and all that, to me he comes across as very controlled, and maybe a bit emotionally distant from like, life in general. You can always see him thinking about the words he's going to use next, even more than the typical Korean celebrity. In such a reserved and conservative industry he's actually known for being extra-polished. But the thing is, the sheer amount of polish on him even in his trainee days means nothing sticks -- there's nothing "rough" or "raw" about him so to speak.
I only gestured at this briefly wrt the Running Man episodes but the more I learn about him, the more I feel like he's always playing a character called Siwan rather than simply being guarded about the real Siwan, if that makes any sense. Like, I guess a degree of role-playing is to be expected of any public figure but seeing him in such stark contrast to his members, I wonder how far it extends to his real life. He's obviously a well-regarded guy and he's kind to people and has close friends. But he's clearly also very intelligent and observant, and to me, he just gives off a vibe that he's operating on a slightly removed level from the rest of us normal folk mucking around trying not to screw up at life too much.
Anyway, I'm doing the conspiracy theory thing again but I think it's been interesting during this period of stan-dom trying to detect what parts of Siwan are crafted versus genuinely in-the-moment (aside from irritation at Kwanghee). Like the Rubik's cube thing is a cute quirk and most fans think, what a lovable geek, but he admitted once that he only picked it up to make himself seem well-rounded. And he stores beer that he knows his sunbaes like in his car trunk. This dude does very little by accident and a lot with forethought, is what I'm saying.
Not that there is anything wrong with all of this! I personally find it intriguing and thus, I expound at length.
So I suspect if I were to dream about Siwan, my subconscious would give me a version a little different from yours. :D I like that he wanted Hyungsik to appreciate your cupcakes, though! And apparently he does skateboard: https://www.soompi.com/2014/03/23/son-dambi-and-zeas-kwang-hee-and-siwan-go-on-a-skateboarding-adventure/
Speaking of Hyungsik, his star keeps rising so I think it might be time to try one of his dramas. It may be a while -- I palate-cleansed TKL with a re-watch of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo and now my husband wants to try Six Flying Dragons so never mind my reservations, I'm diving into an epic sageuk. But I guess SWDBS could be a light-hearted palate cleanser after that? (I briefly thought of trying Heirs since I know Kang Ha Neul has a part in it, but I hate Lee Min Ho's everything and I'm starting to resent Kim Eun Sook on principle.)
I don't know that much about SHINee as individuals but I'm taking notes from your comment! I've always been impressed that they do these Japanese releases. I'm depressingly bad at languages so these bilingual and trilingual idol productions are so cool to me.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-30 05:03 am (UTC)Gah, early ZE:A days sound awful. I am forever surprised at how much shit is legal in Korea. So much of their entertainment industry ends up sounding like human rights abuses. I am forever wondering if liking kpop is ethically sound or if I am just supporting an industry I hate.
The most of Siwan out of character I've ever seen was his appearances on Running Man so I don't really have enough information to make a composite on what his personality is actually like. Honestly, I usually prefer to keep it that way with actors. I'm very well aware that I didn't fall in love with them, I fell in love with whoever they were playing (and often times that character is better than the truth anyway). I usually try not to cross that line too much unless they seem extremely nice/interesting/whatever.
I'm not really surprised about Siwan though. He has an air of quiet competency about him. I do remember Kang So Ra basically saying that Kang Ha Neul and Siwan have the opposite of what you would think their personalities would be like. Siwan looks like you need to protect him but actually had a very manly feel, KHN is the reverse. And I've seen enough of KHN's interviews/variety appearances to know that he is either the biggest, sweetest puppy or an extremely good off the cuff actor with an incredible PR team. (If you haven't seen his Running Man appearances, you should. They are hilarious.)
So here's the thing about SWDBS. I didn't get why people were into Hyungsik, like I'd seen pictures but didn't find him particularly attractive...until two minutes into that show and I was done for. But aside from him and Park Bo Young being great, that show was kind of garbage (that I for some reason hate-watched until the end). SO many homophobic jokes. You think that maybe they'll ease up after a little bit but they never do. They even bring on another character halfway through the show so they can make more homophobic jokes. It was enraging. And the writing was mostly dumb, Jisoo was not good in it, and I am still confused about what seems to be a domestic violence joke that they later pulled back on when they decided maybe it wasn't funny. It is definitely one of those shows that you watch only because you like someone in it. Just so you know. (Also, everything I've heard about The Heirs was that it was monumentally bad. Sorry to be raining on your parade like this.)
As far as light-hearted palate cleansers go, if you haven't already seen it, I might try Chief Kim. Do you remember those teasers for Misaeng they put out that made it look like it was going to be a quirky office comedy? Chief Kim is actually that show. It's about a very nice but crooked accountant who gets a job at a big company with the intent of embezzling enough money to leave the country but instead accidentally ends up rooting out a bunch of corruption and saving people's jobs. It is super zany, incredibly funny, has a good message behind it, and pretty much all of the female characters were great (and the couple who weren't weren't bad, just forgettable). I very highly recommend it.
I'm pretty sure everyone from Shinee is competent to fluent in Japanese. Key is also fluent in English though and funny in all three languages which I feel like is a feat. As someone who's taken a lot of languages but remembers basically none of it, I envy him.
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Date: 2017-10-01 04:28 am (UTC)Re: maintaining the line with actors, personally I just get too interested in my celebrity crushes and do the sponge thing with a majority of them. I've always been like this with Western celebrities and now I think there's an added element of learning Korean culture along with everything else. I'm still in the stage of being generally fascinated and digesting everything and wanting to know more. Having a celebrity vehicle for that makes it even more fun and enticing to just keep watching videos, reading articles, etc. :D
Re: Siwan versus KHN, Yoona during TKL promotions made the exact same comparison between Siwan and HJH. I wonder if that's like a typical sort of answer for drama promotions with multiple male leads, or just history repeating. Also, ZE:A members would call Siwan manly and cite him being from Busan and all that. Maybe he encourages them behind the scenes a bit too, trying to counter his flower boy image, heh.
(Seriously tho, in his trainee days he dressed a lot flashier and even shopped at women's clothing stores. But once he started acting, he toned it down and now wears much more muted colors and traditionally masculine fashion. More crafting of image, I guess.)
I may still give SWDBS a try as it's on Netflix now, but it does sound like it'll be painful. I know it's been popular with inetz though, or at least it seems to have awakened a legion of Hyungsik fangirls judging by the comments on ZE:A videos these days. I've heard of Chief Kim too and you've sold it well, so that'll go on the list.
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Date: 2017-10-02 02:08 am (UTC)I think my (up until last week undiagnosed) ADHD makes it pretty easy for me to keep the line with actors. Even if I'm curious, unless they're really interesting and their interviews/backcatalog/etc are very accessible, my curiosity wanes pretty fast. I also have basically zero interest in acting so it's hard for me to get too excited about an actor's IRL life.
Maybe Siwan is just surprisingly manly so he gets that comment a lot lol. I remember him getting touted as the "fashionista" of ZE:A but his look was a little Hot Topic-y for me so I'm not too sorry to see it go. Not to sound like an entire asshole, but he should try fashion again when he's a little older and hopefully his closet will look a little less like mine when I was 16.
Not only was SWDBS popular with inetz, it got huge ratings in Korea. Not unlike Descendants of the Sun I guess, which I even enjoyed, but was still kind of a garbage show. But Hyungsik was undeniably dreamy in it. He even got a genuinely hot kiss scene which are few and far between in dramaland.
I've abandoned Netflix for kdramas despite that being where I watched my first one. The timing on their subs fuck up so often. Someone will have a long sentence, the subs won't pop up until right at the end, and then they just flash on and disappear again. Makes me crazy. I go viki > maybe dramafever > dramafire > and then kissasian if I can't find it anywhere else and the fact that I have this all worked out makes me think that maybe I've been watching too many kdramas.
Oh! According to my favorite bilingual Siwan stan (https://bodashiri.tumblr.com/), apparently there's a bunch of Korean fanfic for The Merciless that I can't read because I don't know Korean and I am so sad about it. But they did at least post this fanvid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_s8HUyq3H0&feature=youtu.be) and that youtube account has a bunch more of them too. And The Merciless got a bunch of nominations for some other awards thingy so good for them.
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Date: 2017-10-02 07:27 pm (UTC)That's good to know about SHINee and money! That was one of ZE:A's issues. Their leader revealed that it used to be 70% of the split going to the agency until he kicked up a storm on Twitter about abuses and stuff. Then apparently all the members negotiated together and got the split reversed, or at least made more fair. But, of course, the content they produced after that fell off a cliff, so it's probably fair to assume this was a big reason why Star Empire had little use for them anymore. :-/
Siwan's fashion back then was so godawful and he was so proud of it, too. LOL. Cut to 2015 and you get Kwanghee ragging on him for wearing a boring striped sweater on Hyungsik's Healing Camp. In fact, a lot of his 2017 fashion was a little too ahjussi-ish in my mind so I think he could stand to swing the pendulum back toward flashy, just a bit.
I curiously looked up the SWDBS kiss scenes and the beach scene was lovely! They seemed to have great chemistry. The piano scene was good too -- giving me some Gong Yoo vibes with that lifting, Hyungsik! And you know, I generally don't care about height in guys but I can't deny that it can be primally swoony to see a tall dude bending down toward a girl....
DOTS, my god. It was actually entertaining enough for most of its run, if not good, but the ending, WTF? He's presumed dead but is really an NK captive but when he finally gets out he shows NO TRAUMA WHATSOEVER and it's immediately back to funny banter and shenanigans followed by "let's rescue Song Hye Kyo with badassery" ugh, such a waste.
We had the same issues with Netflix subtitles when watching with Roku, but we recently switched to a MiBox and have had no complaints. I think watching on mobile devices has always been fine, too. But yeah, it drove me crazy back then and the only reason I'd persevere was so Netflix would collect our data and hopefully we could contribute to a demand for more Korean content.
I generally prefer Dramafever because I feel like the HD is often better and we get easier-to-see yellow subtitles, which are totally shallow reasons, but I do like the depth that Viki subtitles give. But I'll go to the gray market sites like KissAsian for movies and certain dramas -- like with Reply 1988, Dramafever apparently didn't have licenses to even show album covers or book titles a lot of the time, and would just straight up blur them out if they appeared onscreen. It looked ridiculous, so I used KissAsian for that show.
I'm so glad The Merciless has a fandom which sees the slash potential, haha. That was a well-done vid. And yay for their nominations! I'm suspicious whether Siwan's lack of noms this year (not even for TKL, really? like really, you went with Yoona? really??) is because he's in the military and can't attend. I speculate that most of these award shows are a lot closer to, say, the MTV awards than Academy, iykwim.
EDIT: We were talking about celebs and kids -- here's fancam of Siwan and Hyungsik with the kid of one of their staff members (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35zSx1JQ0-o ). I have been known to accidentally drop a wriggly toddler in my younger years -- he's fine tho! /o\ -- so I totally empathize with the clumsy way Siwan handles this one.
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Date: 2017-10-03 06:16 am (UTC)DotS was cursed with terrible writing but blessed with an extremely charismatic cast. They absolutely carried that show but it starts getting hard when your main character is in a life and death situation at least twice an episode. Song Joong Ki is nearly dead in one scene and then like ten minutes later jumping through windows and doing hand to hand combat in a fucking parking garage. Don't even get me started on poor Onew who midway through the show is given nothing to do but cry every episode for weeks on end. I know a lot of people talk shit about his acting on DotS but I can confidently say I didn't see this through Shawol lenses because I didn't even know what Shinee was at the time, but he was fine. He was not amazing, I wasn't writing home about him, but he was fine. Then they made him cry all the time and gave him no story to support it. He did the best he could but he was not the broader part of that disaster.
For whatever reason, I love to compare Siwan and SJK (I think just because I find their faces very similar). I used to say, 'mark my words, Siwan's gonna go into the army and come back out SJK hot,' but I had to stop saying that when The Merciless came out and it became clear Siwan already was SJK hot but if he can learn how to look at someone the way SJK looked at SHK in DotS, Siwan will fucking kill when he gets back.
Huh. I always watch Netflix through googlecast. Never thought it might matter what you're watching it with. Weird. I really enjoyed the brief second Hulu was licensing kdramas through Viki because I got Hulu's nice HD (I refuse to pay Viki or Dramafever) with Viki's lovely subs (sorry, I think the yellow Dramafever subs are hideous). But even without paying Viki, will let let you use googlecast with no commercials so I kind of love it. And I love the notes they sometimes put in. Apparently there's a learning mode too where you can get the hangul and the translation at the same time. I might start using that as my Korean gets better.
Well according to bodashiri's post about the Grand Bell Awards (whatever those are), Siwan and KHN are both excluded from nominations because they're currently serving. I don't know if that applies to all awards but it seems likely that it might be the general rule. I suppose I could ask if I wanted.
Wow, Siwan looks good in that video. He's got really, really beautiful hands. Minho should give him baby handling lessons. Babies love Minho. Just watch this one adopt him. (https://youtu.be/w7BIqTmjOos?t=28s) He's got dad material written all over him.
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Date: 2017-09-21 09:42 pm (UTC)he looks so well
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Date: 2017-09-21 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-22 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-22 03:52 pm (UTC)