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Actress Bae Doo-na on Tuesday held an exhibition and press conference to celebrate publication of her third photo essay book, “Doo-na’s Pastime in Seoul” a collection of photographs she took while traveling in Seoul with her friends for the last five months.
Bae has published two previous photo essay books on London and Tokyo.
“Even though the background of this project was Seoul, where I live, the city often came to me as a very unfamiliar place. I often felt as if I was alone in this place. Choosing which pictures to put in the book was a very difficult task,” Bae said.
She expressed her love for the city she lives in, saying, “When I was traveling in other countries, some foreigners who didn’t even know it well made belittling remarks about Seoul, and I felt really bad every time. After traveling extensively overseas, I haven’t found any other city that is as wonderful as Seoul.”
Bae’s book on Seoul is different from her previous work as it portrays her everyday life.
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Singer BoA performed shoulder to shoulder with pop stars like Chris Brown and the Pussycat Dolls at the “Jingle Ball” concert at the Anaheim Honda Center last Saturday.
The K-pop superstar sang her American debut song “Eat You Up” and “Look Who’s Talking” from her first album slated to come out next year, and drew an enthusiastic response from the audience.
After the performance, she said she was “happy” to appear in the show, which followed her debut on an MTV special titled “BoA Live in New York.”
Rihanna, Katy Perry and Jesse McCartney also made an appearance at the concert, which marks its ninth anniversary this year.
Actor Bae Yong-joon, also called Yon-sama, and Park Jin-Young, dubbed a star-maker, will reportedly cooperate on a world project, according to Sports Hankook on Thursday. The newspaper said that the two Korean entertainment stars had agreed on a secret plan to found a joint-corporation targeting overseas markets, including the U.S. and Japan. Bae and Park will each invest at least W50 million (US$1=W1,340).
Bae and Park plan to nurture entertainers with global potential based on their expertise. Bae Yong-joon, figurehead of the so-called “Korean Wave,” has established a firm bridgehead for the Japanese entertainment market through BOFi, a Japanese affiliate to the KOSDAQ-listed KeyEast, in which he is the largest shareholder. Meanwhile, Park Jin-Young secured a foothold in the U.S. market by launching JYP USA, the American division of JYP Entertainment, in New York in 2007.
Bae and Park are said to have each produced at least W50 billion worth of added value last year through creation of content. The industry expects their venture will generate at least W100 billion worth of additional added value, the daily reported.
It may come as a surprise that Choi Ji-woo has made her first appearance in a period drama in her 14-year acting career with the role of a traditional entertainer or gisaeng. But it happened in the new, contemporary melodrama “Star’s Lover.” The SBS show started on Dec. 10, and Choi plays a role of top actress Lee Ma-ri.
It is, in other words, only a role within a role. The scene sets off her beauty in traditional clothes and a folding screen with ume flowers. With her hair braided up, Choi looks like a painting that has just come alive. Production staff said Choi looks as if the legendary Chosun-era gisaeng Hwang Jin-yi came back to life.
Although Choi only appears only for a few seconds in this outfit, she spent three hours in makeup and getting dressed. “It was a bit disappointing as it was such a short scene, but now one of my dreams has come true: I’ve made my first appearance in a period drama,” Choi said.
The Chinese have crowned actor Ju Ji-hun one of the 10 most handsome men in the world. In a recent survey by major Chinese portal site 163.com, Ju earned a total of 138,131 votes, and ranked fifth.
Other Korean stars on the list were Jang Dong-kun in 12th place with 11,813 votes, Hyun Bin in 15th with 10,979 votes, and Rain in 16th with 10,458 votes.
Japanese star Kimura Takuya came seventh with 50,010 votes, and Wentworth Miller, the hero of American soap opera “Prison Break,” was in ninth with 14,451 votes.