2ne1

As you would have noticed from my websites entries of late¡¦I only blog about blog-worthy news¡¦and yes 2ne1 pulled me out of my kpop hibernation!

I love 2ne1¡¦they are now part of my kpop roster favorites!

Dara, I love how she reinvented herself. She has indeed redeemed herself with 2ne1!

Park Bom oh I love her since forever.

I have yet to pick my fave member but I know I already love the group¡¦

How about you who is your fave?

Band Website: yg-2ne1.com/

Sounds Like: The female counter part of Big Bang, but most definitely with their own flavor.

Real Name: Lee Chae Rin (ÀÌ丰)
Date of Birth: February 26, 1991 (age 18)
Height: 162cm
Position: Leader, Rapper, Vocal
Specialties: French, English, Japanese

Real Name: Park Bom Lee (¹Úº½ÀÌ)
Birth date: March 24, 1984 (age 25)
Height: 165cm
Position: Main Vocal
Specialties: English, Japanese, Piano

Real Name: Sandara Park (»ê´Ù¶ó¹Ú)
Date of Birth: November 12, 1984 (age 24)
Height: 162cm
Position: Vocal
Specialties: Tagalog, English, Chinese

Real Name: Gong Min-ji (°ø¹ÎÁö)
Date of Birth: January 18, 1994 (age 15)
Height: 161cm
Position: Rapper, Vocal
Specialties: Japanese, Chinese

Info lifted from myspace official page of 2ne1

¡®Female Big Bang¡¯ and Big Bang do ¡®Lollipop¡¯ together!

Fans will finally get to see ¡®female Big Bang¡® for the first time together this weekend!

With their group name not yet decided, ¡®female Big Bang¡® is a name that netizens gave the 4-member group under YG Entertainment 4 years in preparation.

They will released a digital single ¡®Lollipop¡¯ on 27th March through sites like Melon and Mnet, and on the 28th, they will appear in the CF for LG Electronics CYON. They will appear in a new ¡®Lollipop phone¡¯ MV for LG CYON. And they will be working together with fellow colleagues Big Bang for this project.

¡®Lollipop¡¯ MV will be revealed around end of March to beginning of April.

The members of this upcoming group consists of Sandara Park, Park Bom, Gong Min Ji and CL. YG Entertainment said, ¡°Big Bang GDragon has a part in the lyrics and composing for ¡®Lollipop¡¯ CF. And from March, the group will officially debut. Because of the amount of time into preparing this, we have many good songs for them and they will be promoting till the end of this year.¡±

credit: kbites

Picture credits: myspace, soompi, yahoo (just search 2ne1 and get loads of pic s from there.)

Fated to Love You

Cast:

Joe Chen Qiao En – as Cindy Chen Xin Yi

Ethan Ruan – as Steven Ji Cun Xi

Baron Chen - as Dylan Dai Jian Ren

Bianca Bai - as Anna Shi/Dai Xin Y

Other Titles:

You're My Destiny, Sticky Note Girl or Destiny Love

Number of episodes: 24 Episodes

Synopsis:

A hard working girl labeled as a sticky note girl (pushover) named Chen Xin Yi has the desire to tie down her back stabbing boyfriend, to be with her. She gets her boyfriend to go on a love cruise with her and begins to plan on losing her virginity and tying down her boyfriend once and for all. Xin Yi ended up taking cold medicine which made her drowsy and went by mistake into Ji Cun Xi's room.

On his side, Ji Cun Xi is the sole male heir to his family's company and has been in love with his girlfriend, Anna, for a long time. He planned to propose to Anna on the boat but she didn't turn up on the cruise. An islander of Jiang Mu Island added drugs into Cun Xi's drink and Cun Xi became disorientated and returned to his own room. Xin Yi and Cun Xi end up having a one night stand. Xin Yi later finds out that she's pregnant and Cun Xi's grandmother forces them to get married. Will a couple forced to marry for the sake of their unborn child find love with each other?

Credits: wikipedia

Full Summary: STOP READING HERE. SPOILERS START HERE.

This type of girl is called “sticky note girl”. She is plain, simple, law-abiding, wishes are simple, has never been a Somebody and has never aspired to be a Somebody. Their functions are small but indispensable; like a sticky note which can be torn away easily, inconspicuous and ordinary, but she will be around you! A “luxury cruise” journey let this ordinary girl encounter the most extraordinary events in history.

Since young Chen Xin Yi was afraid that people would not like her, so she tried very hard to be nice to people. As long as someone responded to her a little, she would fall in love with that person easily. Everyone called her a sticky note girl. Because whenever anyone needed her, they just need to tear her down and use her. If they don’t need her, they can just throw her away and it wouldn’t matter. But she was a fool who treasured relationships and her weak-willed character often caused her to soften during the times when she needed to make a firm decision. One day, in order to win back her philandering boyfriend Gucci, she splurged on a love cruise but accidentally entered the wrong room. When she woke up, she was stunned to find that she had a one night stand with a stranger, and subsequently discovered that her boyfriend Gucci had betrayed her and hooked up with a rich widow. Her boyfriend then dumped and left her, causing her to suffer a severe blow.

One month later, when Xin Yi saw her pregnancy test results, she regretted not jumping off the ship. A twenty-five years old staff at a law firm, because of a lousy man, had to bear a debt of two hundred thousand dollars and was carrying the child of an unknown man. This had to be the most ironic joke on earth. She took one month’s leave from her company and prepared to return to her hometown “Jiang Mu Island” to consider what she should do.

The stranger in the bed that day was called Ji Chun Xi. He was every girl’s prince charming, rich and handsome, young and capable. When he met the ordinary office girl Chen Xin Yi, he didn’t know whether this was the start of his troubles or the beginning of his happiness.

Because of the Ji family’s heredity illness, there are few males in each generation. Up to now, there was only one male heir for the past nine generations. This causes the matriarch of the family, Zhen Zhu Granny, to lose sleep with worry as she feared that this tiny family flame would be extinguished! Granny hoped that her grandson would be like the scions of other rich family and had many women. Unfortunately this grandson is decent and self-respecting. One day, granny accidentally discovered that Xin Yi is carrying Chun Xi’s baby. Maybe the Ji family’s ancestors had blessed her and finally gave her a “little golden great grandchild”. Therefore granny insisted that Chun Xi marries Xin Yi so that on the day she dies, she can face the Ji family ancestors. Granny forced Chun Xi to marry Xin Yi by threatening to call and tell his girlfriend of three years, so Chun Xi has no choice but to marry Xin Yi in order to fulfill her wish in life. But Chun Xi discovered that he could not face the fact of his marriage and couldn’t decide whether to run away at the last minute or pluck up the courage to take responsibility. At this time, he discovered that they must date and romance under his granny’s request.

Actually Chun Xi has a girlfriend of three years Anna. He had proposed to her many times before but was gently turned down each time. But Chun Xi continued to quietly wait for Anna to promise to marry him and leave everything behind. Anna did not want to marry because of her career and now he accidentally caused Xin Yi to become pregnant. But fortunately Anna was away on an overseas performance tour, giving him time to settle this mixed-up affair. Chun Xi, without his granny’s knowledge, secretly signed a pre-marriage contract with Xin Yi which states that they would divorce after the baby is born. Chun Xi promised to give Xin Yi a sum of money and after that they would have nothing to do with each other. Xin Yi agreed after careful consideration for the sake of her baby. Chun Xi’s plan was that, after the baby is born and Anna returns back after her tour completed, he and Xin Yi’s contract would be due and he can resume his relationship with Anna.

The unknowing Xin Yi moved into Chun Xi’s house and began to learn to get along with Chun Xi. The two strangers, from being unable to adapt initially, learned to get used to each other. This is a very subtle change, of the two people who lived under the same roof but has nothing to do with each other, slowly started interacting due to the trivia matters that happened in their lives. Xin Yi moved into Chun Xi’s bedroom under granny’s request and Chun Xi then went to the guest room to sleep under a pretext. But he slowly discovered that he doesn’t like the loneliness of sleeping alone and would often go back to his original room in the middle of the night. After some time, sleeping with someone by his side became a habit. The Chun Xi who doesn’t like to return home for dinner started to return home regularly and the Chun Xi who vowed not to help in anything also started to shop for baby’s wallpapers and children toys.

When they thought that they are happy, the ticking time bomb Anna who had been kept in the dark returned. Chun Xi never thought that his unresolved relationship with Anna would hurt Xin Yi, who disappeared after leaving behind a divorce agreement. He had thought that this would be the best ending, but Xin Yi had unknowingly captured his heart. He vowed that if he can find Xin Yi again, he would start over and pursue her; and this time it would not be the way a father treats the mother of his child, but as a man treats a woman…

SPOILERS END HERE

What I Think:

After a hundred years (just exaggerating!) of silence I am back to post some really nice series I have grown to love. Good enough to bring me back from my non-posting status quo. ^_^ Let us start the review on Fated to Love You rolling!

Chen Qiao En – She has come a long way since her 5566 series days…she is such a talented actress! She may not look as downright pretty as Zhang Ziyi or as frail as Barbie Xu or as regal as Gong Li but yup she is awesome! I have long since resigned to the fact that yes I really like Joe Chen Qiao En. She has this different kind of acting she looks so angelic and so innocent…she moves me!

Ethan Ruan – now I know why some fans have gone bonkers over Ethan Ruan! Between that distinguished tilted chin, his charisma and undeniably good looks you would go loco over this guy!! He is so handsome! I will pick him over Dylan in a heartbeat anytime!

I love episode 9 where Cindy said her birthday wish that Anna and Steven would reconcile so he would not be lonely for the rest of his birthdays…I so cried! I am so hopeless. And cried some more when Steven said why would you waste your precious birthday wish on someone?! I like the fact that Cindy is very unselfish. Darn it I was bawling like a baby in this birthday wish scene!

I love everything about episode 17.

The thing with Taiwanese drama and the main reason why I have almost lost interest in them is they seem to stretch to 30+ episodes where it gets to dragging and the sort. When the producers think their drama is a hit with viewers they start stretching the episodes more and more. That is what happened here in Fated to Love You. There are some scenes where you can skip and still feel you are on track and did not miss a thing. Weird! I do not know if it was the chemistry of the lead actors or Ethan Ruan’s handsome face that made me last until the last episode.

Rating: 9 Taiwanese Taicha out of 10

Other Stuff:

*Opening Theme – 99 Times I Love him by Shorty Yuen

 Ending Theme – Sticky Note with Wishes by Quack Wu and Shorty Yuen

* 2008 highest rating Taiwanese drama – broke official records set by The Prince who turned into Frog

* FATED TO LOVE YOU OST TRACKLIST

01. I Love Him 99 Times - Yuan Ruo Lan
02. Sticky Note Wish - Yuan Ruo Lan / Quack Wu
03. Ban Qing Ge - Yuan Ruo Lan
04. Qi Bu Zou - Quack Wu
05. My Happiness - Duet
06. I'm OK - Yuan Ruo Lan
07. Wind - ²Ü¸ñ
08. Diu Zhe - Yuan Ruo Lan
09. Sticky Note Wish - KALA (Instrumental)
10. Ban Qing Ge - KALA (Instrumental)
11. I Love Him 99 Times - KALA (Instrumental)
12. Qi Bu Zou - KALA (Instrumental)
13. Ban Qing Ge (Instrumental Version 2)
14. Sticky Note Wish (Instrumental Version 2)
15. I Love Him 99 Times (Instrumental Version 2)

 credits: yahoo image

Why Why Love

Cast:

Rainie Yang as Tong Jia Di

She is a hardworking girl who comes from a poor family. She is the elder daughter in a family consisting of her mother Liao Cai Juan and younger brother Tong Jia Hui. Her father passed away when she was still a little girl. Together with her mom, they make a living by selling vegetables on the streets. She will do anything for money in order to help settle the family debts. She also has an uncle who makes unwise investments, leading to the accumulation of debts, burdening the family even further. Jia Di is so dedicated to her family and work, she refuses to fall in love and have high hopes that way she feels no disappointment. Jia Di is best friends with Jiang Xiao Nan. They work as part time workers at the Huo's Family Emporium. In addition, Jia Di has many part-time jobs such as working at the petrol station.

Mike He as Huo Da

A rebel and the second heir to the Huo Co. Huo Da is also nicknamed "Devil Boy" due to his reputation of pranks and rude attitude. Huo Da loves Yan Shu but she loves Huo Yan, Huo Da's elder brother. Jia Di fulfills her roles in accordance to the "angel-owner" service coupon, He enjoys bullying and making fun of Jia Di but because of her pure and kind heart, he slowly fell in love with her. He was able to win Jia Di's heart but unfortunately he soon discovers that he has Wilson's Disease. He is reluctant to tell Jia Di since he doesn't want her to be lonely when he dies

Kingone Wang as Huo Yan

He is the General Manager of their company and the elder brother of Huo Da . He is the exact opposite of Huo Da . Everything about Huo Yan is impressive. Huo Yan is also nicknamed "10th Guy". At the beginning, Huo Yan and Jia Di were interested in each other and often talked and helped each other. But when Huo Yan realizes that Jia Di has feelings for Huo Da he agrees to let her be with Huo Da after he lost to a motorcycle race for Jia Di's love. Huo Yan has a bad childhood memory, his mother sold him to the Huo family because she was unable to cure Huo Yan's heart weakness. But after his mother selling Huo Yan to the Huo family, for years Huo Yan hated his mother, but when it came to his mother's death they patch things up.

Supporting Cast:
Judy Fukumoto as Yang Yan Shu
Chen Yan Xi as Jiang Xiao Nan
Ge Wei Ru as Liao Cai Juan
Xu Shi Hao as Bo Zi

Credits: wikipedia

Synopsis:

Mike He, Rainie Yang, and Kingone Wang team up again since "Devil Beside You" in this new idol drama. Rainie plays Tong Jia Di, a poor girl working hard to pay off her family debts and who doesn't dare to dream. When her best friend, Jiang Xiao Nan (Chen Yan Xi), comes up with an idea to sell redeemable raffle tickets at a charity fair, the wealthy heir and kind manager, Huo Yan (Kingone Wang), of their company draws the lucky raffle that can be used to exchange for Jia Di's love. However, to complicate things, the devilish younger brother, Huo Da (the devilishly handsome Mike He), also draws a raffle coupon - one that can be used to exchange for a week of servitude from Jia Di. Who will Jia Di fall in love with?

Credits: spcnet

What I Think:

Ranie Yang – She has always been one of my fave Taiwanese actresses. She looks so cute and her hairstyle suits her, cute bangs she got here. Ranie, when you first look at her looks small, frail and fragile to a point, but mind you in Why Why Love, this was intense. She can act out intense emotions and holds her own against her male co-stars.

Mike He – As much as I like Ranie Yang, Mike He for me has just always been so-so, blah level. I don’t know. People thinks he is gorgeous, just think he is okay looking. The acting…is just good too. I am kind of tired seeing him in this devilish look and mode. Seriously. But you know I have give him credit because he delivers his stuff well, he has mastered the bad-guy-turned-good-guy role. But I have to give it up for Mike He and Rainie Yang they have absolutely great chemistry!

Kingone Wang – Now he is more my kind of guy hehehe! I know this is not just me but I was thinking why do good guys who look absolutely delish like Kingone do not end up winning the girl! His acting here was way better than Devil Beside You, he has much more gusto and more emotions here whereas he has the tendency to look like a log in some scenes in Devil Beside You.

If you are a big Ranie-Mike fan or an even biggie Ranie-Kingone fan (me!!) then you have to watch this series. I like the background songs too. It kept me glued on my seat and watch the series until the end it was that good and that is already saying something.

Rating: 8 Taiwanese taicha out of 10

Miscellaneous:

*Memorable Lines:

"If I said it three times, it means that's true" - Jia Di and Hou Da

"This is your circle, and I, the Devil Boy wants to come in" - Hou Da

"I can exchange lots of coupons if you just stay by my side" - Hou Da

"If there are a hundred things I hate about you, they will, quickly turn into the hundred things I love the most" - Jia Di

"I am the only person on this earth with the power and the capability to give you a liver, this only proves one point, that in this earth, I am you brother" - Hou Yan

Love Phobia

Cast:

Jo Seung Woo – as Jo Kang

Kang Hee Jung – as Ari

Geon-Tae

Jin-Yeong Jeong

Ju-Yeon Byeon

Shin-Il Kang

Synopsis:

One sunny day, a young boy named Jo Kang meets a curious young girl, dressed in a bright yellow raincoat. Jo Kang instantly becomes friends with Ari, and falls instantly in love with the beautiful but rather strange young girl - only for her to one day disappear!

The story jumps to ten years later, and Jo Kang is now in high school. One day, completely out of the blue, Ari contacts him and asks to meet again. Although they have not seen each other in a decade, they have a wonderful time together, and the love between them begins to grow once more. But then, Ari disappears once more, leaving Jo Kang devastated.

Can Jo Kang track down his true love? Will he ever discover why Ari keeps disappearing? Will he be able to do anything about it?

Source http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr

What I Think:

Kang Hee Jung – This is the first movie that I have seen her act or maybe I have seen her act in other projects before just have not noticed her or something. I have seen her on tv receiving awards. She is talented and beautiful! She has this certain charm that I cannot seem to pinpoint; she has this fragile aura like Im Soo Jung. Kang look so pretty! No wonder she has been raking in awards, her acting talent is impressive. I would be looking out for this girl in the near future.

Jo Seung Woo – I cannot help but like this guy. He is undeniably a great actor. He was impressive in The Classic and he did not lose his charms in this movie. He had undeniable chemistry with Kang Hee Jung. It does help that when they did this movie, they were really dating in real life. He does not look so bad himself. He is quite a looker too, I just think he is vertically challenged though. Hehe...

The musical score, wow I love the background music in most scenes. It helps you get in the mood for the scenes; it makes you happy and sad and mushy and happy kind of sad mode. I just love the music.

Then the child actors, young Ari wearing her yellow raincoat—oh how cute could she get!! Korean kids are just the cutest aren't they! Young Jo Kang too was equally adorable and they look cute together too.  The storyline though I have seen this story a million times but I guess we all love a bitter sweet light-hearted drama. All the bad luck that happened to all the people who touched Ari I guess was not true there is more to the girl that Jo Kang cannot help but love her.

Rating: 9 Korean Kimchi out of 10

Other Stuff:

** Kang Hee Jung and Jo Seun Woo were dating when they shoot this movie, she was only 23years old.

With The kid actors:

Cute little Ari: I think I have seen this kid before, in a drama..Fashion 70's?

credits: hancinema, spcnet, mysoju

Son Tae Young 5 Months Pregnant Photos

Photos of Son Tae Young were uploaded onto various Korea portal sites recently with the post title 5 months pregnant Son Tae Young.

From the photos, we can see that Son Tae Young doesn’t quite look like she is 5 months pregnant, with her tummy still looking quite flat. Since returning from a vacation in Australia with her husband Kwon Sang Woo on 11th December, Son Tae Young has been staying at their Samsung-dong most of the time, awaiting for the arrival of their baby in Spring 2009. Many fans left comments, praising Son Tae Young for looking so radiant still and wished her all the best.

Credits: coolsmurf

So does this mean that she was already pregnant right before they got married?