A New Look For The Great King

I'm lost for words..... but I'm so into the new look.

My new Fave Pics

MILLION MILES AWAY
I'd love to make you mine
'Cause it's the only way to hold you In my wild imagination Still don't know how
To grab a chance and spend some time
In just a simple conversation

Refrain: Just give it a try
Though I'm like chasing rainbows in the sky
I wanna hold you in my dreams
And make believe that it's true
Although I know, I know that it's impossible to do
'Cause you're a star People love you as you are
You're a million miles away from me

Wished that you were here
'Cause it's illusions every time you're close to me
And sing my love songs
And it's the only way I could tell the whole world
I love you Although you're a million miles away

Refrain: Just give it a try
Though I'm like chasing rainbows in the sky
I wanna hold you in my dreams
And make believe that it's true
Although I know, I know that it's impossible to do
'Cause you're a star You're a star You're a star

Refrain: Just give it a try
Though I'm like chasing rainbows in the sky
I wanna hold you in my dreams
And make believe that it's true
Although I know, I know that it's impossible to do
'Cause you're a star You're a star
You're a star Million miles away from me......

April Snow... A love story?

Northstar and I had some downtime a few days ago while enjoying a cuppa at Starbucks and what else was there to talk about but the latest news we've been reading about BYJ. We are sad that the korean press has been coming up with rather harsh reviews of the movie in contrast to those coming from Japan and the critics at the recent Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

Taking aside those explanations by our sisters on the class system in korean entertainment industry, maybe they need a second watching before they understand the philosophical and psychological message that Dir. Hur infused in the movie. Northstar mentioned that DH is a graduate of Philo at Yonsei so it's no wonder how it influenced the kind of work he does. Since we are yet to watch the movie but has seen various clips and review we continued to discuss our own take on the movie. Is April Snow really a love story? is a question brought forward by my dear Northstar. Indeed can there be love between two people when you just found out that your partner cheated on you.

I went through the same agony of finding that the person you trusted most is cheating on you and by golly it's an unexplainable feeling. It's like having your guts pulled out from your body. There is that great need to lash on that person but like Insoo and So Young you cant do so. In my case, he left without a word so that frustration just adds up to the fire in you. You begin to live the next couple of weeks in a trance, physically present but emotionally detached. With issues still unresolved and then finding someone who share the same situation your into, it is normal that they gravitate to each other. Their need for an answer may have lead them to an intimacy but is it enough to be called love? I took me three long years to finally heal and start moving on so maybe it will also take Insoo some time to finally get moving with his life. Hence the last shot of him in the movie being alone eating ramen.

It was northstar who said that maybe, just maybe ... if April Snow will have a second part, it is where we will see love between them if and when their paths would cross again.

You Are Obsessed With BYJ and Anything Korean If......

1. You no longer talk to your old friends because they are not aware who Yong Joon is and they can't relate to you.
2. The national anthem in your home is the OST of WLS!
3. You are not aware of the new local dramas being shown because you are always watching Arirang.
4. You changed your current cable provider to one that carries more korean channel (KBS World, KBS2, SBS, YTN, etc.).
5. You know more korean artist than the local ones.
6. Your korean friends are avoiding you because you always beg them to translate news, vods, and songs for you.
7. You have more korean movies and cd's than your korean friends in your country.
8. You end us saying Aigoo! rather than Oh my gosh!
9. You express love by saying saranghaeyo instead of I love you.
10. You call your boyfriend oppa, your sister onni, your husband yeobo and your friend chingu.
11. Your day is not complete unless you have visited your fave fansite at least once a day. Ok twice a day....... so I do it at least 5 times a day.
12. You are a member of all his fan sites and they are all bookmarked in your pc.
13. You post and reply in all the said forums
14. Your hard drive is full of vods, pics, and clips.
15. You have to buy a new hard drive just for all your downloaded material
16. You've subscribed to a broadband internet connection because your dial up connection always fails on you.
17. You have created an e-mail address like byj_myman@hotmail or ilovebyj@yahoo
18. If you find your country and korea competing in one sport, you are at lost on who to support.
19. Ok......... you end up cheering everytime korea scores
20. You watch soccer even if you don't understand the bloody sport just to cheer Team Korea because BYJ also supports them.
21. You are now trying hard to learn golf for that slim chance of bumbing into him at a golf course near you.
22. When someone asks you where you want to go for a vacation, you quickly answer Korea without hesitation.
23. You enrolled in a korean language class so you can understand all those korean posting at his official site.
24. You also enrolled in a korean cooking class so you can prepare all his favorite food.
25. You feel guilty when your boyfriend kisses you because you felt you just betrayed BYJ.
26. Your meal is not complete without kimchee.
27. When you finally got a confirmed news that he's coming over to visit your country, you call all your friends to help you make a welcome banner.
28. You call them again to cancel their visit and instead opt to do the banner alone because it makes it more special.
29. You are already camped at the airport a day before his arrival.
30. You will not go to work or school during his entire stay in your country because you will spend all your waking hours stalking him.
31. You can recite all the vital information regarding BYJ with your eyes closed.
    
32. You change your pc wallpaper everytime a new one is posted on the forums you visit.
33. You always on the look-out for seminars and exchange programs that is being sponsored by your company in the hopes that there's one for korea.
34. You actually participate and vote in all polls that is being posted in the various sites you frequent.
35. You know the owner of the korean convenience store nearest you.
36. You get discount from them because you are one of their best customers.
37. You take time to chat with their customers and find ways to include BYJ in your conversation.
38. When you see a new vod, clip or photo you immediately download them and post to the other sites that you visit.
39. If reincarnation is possible, you would wish to be born as a korean.
40. You are smiling while reading because you see yourself doing some if not all that is written here.
    

A Loooooooong Korean Lunch

Last Saturday, I got a call from Northstar inviting me out for lunch since she has this craving for korean food and ask me to contact 2 othe baesisters who lives/works in Makati to join us. Since I have nothing scheduled for that day, I agreed to meet with her and called Tricia and Christy if they are available. Only Tricia confirmed and since she has a VIP card at Dong Won Restaurant (a real nice grill house) we set a date for 1:00pm. Punctuality is one of the nicest trait of my lunch companions so immediately after placing our order of grilled beef and chicken and a stew that has pulled noodles in it (sorry, can't remember the name of the dish) and a dozen side dishes we immediately launched into an animated discussion of what could be happening with our baesisters attending the bunggae that day. We let our imagination get the best of us and between mouthfuls of delectable korean food we talked and talked about the movie April Snow and tried analyzing the interviews given by Yong Joon after the premier. We got a call from another baesister Jobel at around 2pm and after some persuasion she decided to join us all the way from Cainta (about an hour during week-end). So while waiting for her, we decided to order soju just to complete the meal. We are well into our third hour of lunch before Jobel made an appearance so it took us another hour of chatting while having a fruit platter for dessert before Northstar looked at her watch ---- it's 5pm around 6pm in korea. The bunggae has started and counting the hours we spent in that restaurant (4 hours), we could have taken a plane bound to korea and be there for the buggae. Anyway, we just sent cheers to our baesisters by finishing one last round of the soju.

But it was not to end just like that, reluctant to go home Northstar, Jobel and I headed to Starbucks in Rockwell with an excuse that we have to counter the effects of soju with coffee. We all had caramel macchiato (a fave of BYJ) and when the barista asked for the name to be written on the cup I blurted our BYJ and then we giggled like teens. The clueless guy confirmed if he would really write BYJ so I said yes, and made a lame excuse that's it's our initials combined. So with a soothing jazz music as our background, we spent another hour making small talk about OUR MAN before calling it a day.

A Surprise from Wisey

What a great picture to start my morning right, good thing I did not see it last night of I would have spent the entire night chatting with fellow BYJ fans about it.

Heavy 'Snow' Makes for Good Drama

seldom do I read unbiased reviews for April Snow so I felt I must keep this in my blog

By Joon Soh
Culture Editor
Korea Times

Bae Yong-joon, foreground, and Son Ye-jin in a scene from the film “April Snow”

Given all the hype surrounding Bae Yong-joon, it would be easy to assume that the new movie ``April Snow'' would be nothing more than a lightweight cinematic vehicle for the mega-popular actor. After all, Bae even sports the shaggy-haircut-and-glasses look that's suspiciously similar to his fashion sensibilities in ``Winter Sonata,'' the TV melodrama that made housewives all over Asia swoon and propelled the actor into superstardom.
But once one looks past the (probably intentional) evidences of Bae's commercial appeal, he or she will find a film that's surprisingly complex and vastly different from the cardboard sentimentality of ``Winter Sonata.'' Within the first half hour, it becomes plain that it's director Hur Jin-ho, not Bae, who is setting the tone for ``Snow.''

With films like ``Christmas in August'' and ``One Fine Spring Day,'' Hur has become one of the masters of the drama genre, and he certainly doesn't disappoint here. Known for weaving tightly choreographed love stories that are slightly off-kilter, Hur decides this time to push his characters far over the edge. The result is his darkest and most emotionally elusive film yet.

The movie opens with a beautifully shot image of a near-blind drive in a snowstorm, which, given the characters' desperation, turns out to be an apt analogy for the entire film. In-su (Bae), a lighting director for concerts, is called away from his job in Seoul to a small-town hospital where his wife (Im Sang-hyo) lays in a coma after a car accident. There, he meets Seo-young (Son Ye-jin), whose husband (Kim Kwang-il) was in the same car and is now also comatose.
Soon, it becomes obvious that their respective spouses were having an affair with each other before their car crash. This fact at first produces shock from In-su and Seo-young, but that reaction is followed quickly by a melancholic resignation that shows they both may have already had their suspicions.

In-su and Seo-young are then left to their private hell of grief and anger, which plays out in the near-empty hospital and their separate motel rooms. (Curiously, very few family members or friends are around for support.) Gradually, In-su and Seo-young begin to gravitate towards each other, first to exchange information about their spouses and later to look for an outlet for their emotions.

What they find in each other, however, is hard to pinpoint. At times, their relationship seems a substitute for grief counseling, while at other points it seems similar to love. Then again, as In-su hints at during one conversation, perhaps they're out for revenge.

``April Snow'' is as uncomfortable and fascinating a film to come out of the domestic movie scene this year as any, and very different from what might have been expected from the combination of the star actors and director.

Credit goes to Bae for signing up for a film that may not necessarily go over well with his throngs of fans. With ``Untold Scandal'' two years ago and now this film, he has chosen two challenges rather than resting on his commercial laurels. The same, in fact, could be said for Hur, whose two previous films were both solid box-office hits.

Despite the draw of Bae and Son, however, ``Snow'' might end up being too grim to have longstanding mainstream appeal. That would be a shame because the level and complexity of emotions Hur succeeds in bringing out here is some of the best that the drama genre has to offer.

Pictures, pictures and more gorgeous pictures.......

Film 'Oe Chool(April Snow)' sold out already!

from Joanne of BYJ Quilt

I just have to post it here since the news made me feel happy. I know the korean media has been critical with the movie so I'm counting on our korean family to show them that we think otherwise. I hope the good showing will continue until next week.
==============================================
Film 'Oe Chool(April Snow)', set out simultaneous openings in Asia with domestic release on 7 as a start.
The film 'Oe Chool(April Snow)'(Director-Hur Jinho/Producer-Blue Storm) featuring BYJ & SYJ are putting up a good fight as it took the first place not only the theaters on the first day of release but also on the on-line pre-sale rate.

The 'Oe Chool(April Snow)' is a melodramatic film with the story that two man and woman who came to know their spouses' affair from a traffic accident came to love illicit love like their spouses. Particularly, this is the work they show deep interests in not only domestically but also from the various Asian countries with only the fact that top Korean Current star BYJ appears in. The photos is an appearance of pre-sale electronic board at the Seoul Theater at Jongro-Ku, Seoul at 1200 on 7.

Reported by Lee Hyogyoon,hodol@newsen.co.kr , www.newsen.co.kr),newsen@newsen.co.kr copyrightⓒ Newsen

A Special BAE day in Japan

Mammoth crowd follows him anywhere he goes. Just looking at the pictures above leaves me in awe on how much the japanese people adore him. With all those people lining up in the streets on a week day, makes me wonder if a lot of businesses has skeletal staff on those days with most of their female employees taking a leave of absence from work, hahaha.

It must have taken IMX a lot of sleepless nights to plan the event and prepare for the security. Honestly I felt releaved that the official promo schedule is done and all that's left are interviews. I hope that he can enjoy some time away from the prying eyes to enjoy what Japan the country has to offer.