I watched Korean monster action movie Sector 7 last night. The main character, Hae-jun, is played by Ha Ji-won. The reason I watched the movie (apart from the fact that Ji-won is in it) was the reference to this movie in the drama series Secret Garden that I watched recently.

The movie is about a crew on an off shore drilling rig… and then there’s a monster. No need to explain the plot in more detail . It’s Korea’s first 3D movie, but I watched it in 2D.

I wasn’t expecting much from Sector 7, and rightfully so . Ji-won looks great, but that’s about it. There’s a lot of CGI. It seems like there are almost no proper sets, just green screens and a few props. It’s kind of cheap looking CGI which takes a while to get over. I was hoping that the movie would be a little scary, but it wasn’t even close. It’s one of those movies where whenever the monster catches up to the main character it stops and roars instead of just decapitating its victim. The actions scenes at the very end were pretty WTF-inducing .

The movie had the ingredients to turn out OK, but it was kind of bad . I agree with the iMDB rating of 4/10. It’d be great to see Ha Ji-won in a better action movie, though.

Apart from the reference in Secret Garden to this movie, another link is that Hae-jun’s deceased father is played by the same actor who played Ra-im’s deceased father in Secret Garden. Ha Ji-won also did her own stunts in Sector 7.

SM released additional news about the upcoming mini-album Twinkle by SNSD’s new sub-unit TaeTiSeo (Tae-yeon, Tiffany, Seo-hyun). Before the physical release of the album on May 2nd, the album will be released worldwide on iTunes on April 29th (on Sunday). The title track will be a “funky soul medium-tempo dance music with an arrangement reminiscent of Stevie Wonder style music from the 70s and 80s in harmony with modern feel”. I have no idea how to paraphrase that , but it sounds interestingly vague .

They also released the album cover(?). The concept in that picture is a bit different/toned down from the earlier teaser photos.

source: facebook.com/smtown

Update: a Tae-yeon teaser video and another picture were released:

[…] there’s more! »

I saw this clip from SBS K-Pop Star earlier today. It’s a special collaboration stage where one of the three finalists, Baek A-yeon, is joined by Tae-yeon and Tiffany from SNSD in a performance of Lady Marmalade.

Tae-yeon, Tiffany & Baek A-yeon ~ Lady Marmalade Live@K-Pop Star 20120422

32MB 3:33 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

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Credit: source vid. from soshified

It must be discouraging to perform together with Tae-yeon like this . I don’t follow the show, so I don’t know how A-yeon has performed in the past, but it’s hard to shine next to Tae-yeon .

And yes, that’s BoA you see glance by as one of the judges . She’s representing SM Entertainment in the show.

Click for bigger image

A sub-unit of Girls’ Generation consisting of Tae-yeon, Tiffany and Seo-hyun has been formed. They will release a mini-album called Twinkle on May 2nd.

I’m pretty psyched about this actually. I think it has the potential to be really good. I’m expecting mostly ballads, seeing as how they’ve selected the main vocalists. It’s funny that when I first heard the rumour about a sub-unit consisting of Tae-yeon, Tiffany and Jessica I thought: “Jessica? Why not include Seo-hyun instead?” . I think Seo-hyun’s voice is a better match for Tae-yeon’s and Tiffany’s.

According to SM Entertainment, there are more sub-units in the works which will consist of different members depending on the concept and music style.

source: facebook.com/smtown

It feels like 4Minute, or rather their producers, are slipping. The title track from their latest mini-album is not what I had hoped for. Perhaps I’m biased, since I don’t like the sound of saxophones in general .

4Minute ~ Volume Up

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Credit: source vid. k2nblog

As for the video, it actually makes the song sound better. Ji-yoon looks great, especially in the leather jacket with red shoulders. I wish they’d tone down the “sexy dancing” and whatnot. I’d much prefer a proper choreography.

I’ve listened to the mini-album a bit the last couple of days and I think the ballad I’m OK is pretty good (apart from the whistles in the background). Better than Volume Up, even though it has grown on me a little. The verse in Dream Racer is kind of interesting, but the rest is… not.

Yesterday I attended UFC Sweden. The first UFC show ever held in Sweden. Mixed martial arts is pretty much the only sport I watch. I just don’t have much interest in watching other sports. Never have. I’ve never been to a live event before, though.

The whole thing felt a bit surreal. I saw a story in a daily newspaper about Swedish MMA fighter Alexander Gustafsson the day before yesterday and it said “[bla bla] at a sold out Globen”. Globen (Ericsson Globe) is Sweden’s largest indoor arena. It was nice to see some positive coverage of MMA in Swedish news, but it came as a bit of a shock to me because I had completely missed that the UFC was coming here! I don’t know how it happened, but it had completely passed under my radar.

[…] there’s more! »

I’ve started listening to Sistar a bit this year. First because they were performing at Music Bank in Paris. Now I’m watching Dream High 2, where main vocalist Hyo-rin plays the (smallish) part of Nana. I started listening to Miss A after the first Dream High, so I wouldn’t rule out the same thing happening with Sistar .

Sistar ~ Alone

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나혼자 (Alone) has a bit of a different sound from Sistar’s previous songs. I haven’t decided what to think about it yet. My favourite Sistar song so far is 가식걸 (Shady Girl). So Cool isn’t bad either.

This song was requested by Ex0rcist. Shinhwa debuted way back in 1998. Venus is from their 10th album The Return, which is their comeback album after taking a four year break while they all completed their military service.

Shinhwa ~ Venus

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Parts of the song sound a bit Eurodance-y.

Another Big Bang request . I’ve only listened a little to their latest mini-album, but I’ve found myself going “wow, fantastic baby”, “I’m still alive” or starting to hum Blue when I’m walking home from work recently. The following song hasn’t hit home with me, though.

Big Bang ~ Bad Boy

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Requested by Alex.

After finishing Secret Garden, I started watching Dream High 2. It takes place in the same art school as the first Dream High, but a lot has changed. The school has lost its status and is going down the drain when an entertainment company buys it out and sends its own artists, who have been banned from performing for violating a new law prohibiting under-age artists from performing late at night, to attend the school for the time being. It’s not entirely clear what the exact reasoning behind this is.

The actors are all different with the exception of JYP and a few cameo appearances by the original cast.

The main character is Hae-seong, played by Kang So-ra. I recognize her from the movie Sunny. She’s really cute and funny. […] there’s more! »