omonatheydid | The 5 most overrated and underrated in K-Entertainment

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We all know those people or dramas or movies that everyone loves but you don’t quite like. And there are always our beloved actors that no one likes but you couldn’t live without. Here I give you my highly controversial list of who I think are the most underrated and overrated people or things in the Korean Entertainment scene.

5. Dong Bang Shin Ki -Yeah, I said it. Yes, most of the guys in this group can sing, yes Junsu has a bubble butt, yes, Yunho is a great dancer, and okay, I concede that Jae Joong is really good-looking. (Oh, and I guess the other two are okay too). They are the Gods Rising in the East, they have the biggest fanclub in the world and if a bad word is said about them you better watch your butt because a Cassie will be on you before you can put a period on that sentence. Why are they overrated? For a group with so many fans, so much popularity and immense super stardom in Korea and Japan, I’m waiting for music that is something better than the SM manufactured, over-produced, fake sentimental stuff that they consistently put out. For a group with such loyal fans I’m waiting for Yoochun and Changmin to exhibit a reason for why they’re irreplaceable.

4. Super Junior - Yeah, I said it. Super Junior has 13 guys, they have 3 very good singers, they are spread all over the entertainment world, acting, VJing and the likes. They have grown a strong fanbase through their antics and, not excluding, the subgroups they’ve garnered an extremely loyal fanbase. Why are they overrated? Sorry, Sorry but they have 13 members, only 3 of them are good enough singers to be paid for it, people buy their albums because they’re cute or funny or (insert adjective that has nothing to do with music here), they have a strong fanbase of the most butthurt fans to walk the face of the earth. Jesus’ disciples weren’t even as butthurt after the whole Judas betrayal thing as the average ELF would be if you called Shindong fat. I will be skinned alive for it but Super Junior is not. that. great. Dancing is great, so is being funny, so is kissing boys for “fan service” but at the end of the day do they really need to be in a 13 member group making their forgettable music?

3. Kim Tae Hee, Kim Ah Joong and other CF queens - They are two of the most famous CF queens in Korea and arguably the prettiest. They has done what some only dream of doing (and many more actually do) which is minimal acting and skating through your career living on CFs. This is amazing. Why is Kim Ah Joong overrated? Besides “200 Pound Beauty” not being that great she also hasn’t exhibited any impressive acting either, charming and passable isn’t quite Oscar worthy. Why is Kim Tae Hee overrated? Yes she’s pretty but last I checked she couldn’t actually act. We’ll see how she fairs in IRIS and I’m hoping for my sake that she has learned how to act in the years she spent selling everything from Ice cream to kimchi fridges.'=

2. Ahn So Hee - She is in the most popular girl group in Korea (Wonder Girls), and she is the most popular member in that group because she’s cute and looks like a dumpling. Why is she overrated? She can’t sing and her dancing is questionable, (critics are split over the actual quality of her dancing skills). All I needed to prove (or disprove) singing or dancing ability was her lovely rendition of “Single Ladies”.

1. Boys Over Flowers - Haha Oh YES, I said it. The number one overrated thing in the K-Entertainment scene recently is the third re-imagining of “Boys Over Flowers”, “Kgot Boda Namja”. The drama is the most popular weekly drama of the year so far, it had a huge legacy to follow and, if you go by the ratings, it lived up to the hype. Gu Hye Sun and Lee Minho had great chemistry and are fine actors in their own right, Kim So Eun, was perfect as Ga Eul and endearing as an actress, Kim Joon earned his stripes and Kim Bum was consistent. Why is this drama overrated? Where should I start…. Hyun Joong used this drama more like an acting class, learning how to act while the drama went on. The music was horrid and overused, the script was a handful of clichés, the editing could have been done better by my house plants and socio-cultural implications of the drama left my brain numb. I don’t want to be too dismissive of the drama by calling it bad but I believe the negative points outweighed the positive to the nth degree.

Now to the Most Underrated people or things in Kpop:

5. BoA’s “Eat You Up” - Everyone, myself included, was slightly taken aback by this single. There was a lot of: “Um, what’s she saying”, “Eat You Up? Right…” “OMG BoA must have lost her mind”. The lyrics were silly and the incoherence permeated it in parts (specifically the “I’ll eat you up, your love, you looOooOve” part). But after more and more listens of the song, the good pop sound of it comes out more. The hot beat, the falsetto, the dancing in the music video it all comes together for a great summer hit.

4. Rain - In some circles (or maybe just the ones I run in), Rain–I’m sorry, “The Rain”–being brought up in conversations is usually to set up some kind of joke. He has embarrassed himself plenty in his transition to the United States entertainment scene. Why is he underrated? Well, this guy has achieved so much in the past two years. He was in that flop “Speed Racer” but because of “Speed Racer” Rain is in the public eye. The Wachowski Brothers love him and he is now starring in the Comic-Con geek wet dream, “Ninja Assassin” (coming soon to a theater near you). He released his world album and despite trouble with dumb censors and his “magic stick” he had a hit single at the end of last year. Oh and he has mastered the English language. Rain, as silly as he can make himself look at times, is going no where but up.

3. Jung Il Woo - He had the bad luck of being in the second drama reworking of the Iljimae legend (following Lee Junki’s super-popular “Iljimae”) and even after the moderate success of that he isn’t quite the superstar like his good friend Lee Minho. But this guy is a good actor, he’s humble and he doesn’t seem to have fallen into the pitfalls of fame in Korea, i.e. making an ass out of yourself by cross-dressing, doing lame advertisements and kissing boys for fun.

2. Dong Bang Shin Ki - Oh, what’s this? Yes, DBSK is one of the most underrated groups in Kpop. Their music for the most part is uninspired, falling on the bad side of the pop spectrum and they have some of the more annoying diehard fans in kpop (ahem, yes Jaejoong diehards, I’m talking about you). But why are they underrated? These. Boys. Can. Sing. Well, not all of them can sing as well as my stilted phrase before implies but let’s start with Junsu. Amazing, amazing voice. My soon-to-be-uber-famous friend thinks he sounds like a dolphin. I think he has one of the strongest voices in Kpop. If Junsu wasn’t in DBSK, I wouldn’t care about the rest of them, but he is so here’s the rest of them. Jaejoong has a strong versatile voice, Yunho’s voice has finally come into it’s own and he is now the third best singer in the group (and seriously, who would have thought that was possible?) Changmin has a voice but he still doesn’t know how to use and Yoochun is capable of singing but does not have a great voice. But overall, when together and everyone is on top of their game, these boys are GOLD. So let’s give them credit for being talented, ja?

1. Brown Eyed Girls, Big Mama, Park Hwayobi, Gummy and all the other female singers in Korea that don’t get enough love - These women are some of the best singers in Kpop. Yes, there are good singers in SNSD, but they have nothing on any of the women listed above. And, okay, Sun Ye is a good singer, but as much as I love her and Ye Eun from Wonder Girls, they’re no where near as disciplined as Park Hwayobi or Gummy or Ga-In of Brown Eyed Girls. Call me conservative but I don’t care if you can dance or are good looking if you can’t sing. If you are releasing albums as a singer you should be able to sing, and sing well. Big Mama, undebatably amazing singers, is better any day than most of the pop-fluff that the youngens waste their parent’s money on. They depend on talent, not distracting concepts and images to sell records. Brown Eyed Girls needed these same idol tactics to have their talent even marginally noticed and Park Hwayobi and Gummy are still on the fringe because they stuck to their roots and released music that showcased their voices and not lollipops, miniskirts or fake virginal personas.

But that’s just my list. Who or what do you think are the most overrated or underrated in Korean Entertainment?

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So, DBSK is both underrated and overrated? Is anyone else confused? I refuse to accept that BOF is overrated, especially with the awesomeness that is Prince Song.