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.

I’m currently watching the Korean drama series Dream High. There are so many familiar K-Pop faces in this drama. There’s Suzy from Miss A, Taec-yeon and Woo-young from 2PM, Eun-jeong from T-ara and IU ♥. You can also see JYP as one of the teachers. I also recognize some of the actors from other dramas and movies. […] there’s more! »

Today I got the textbook for the Korean course that I’m taking this fall. The book is called Korean 1 (한국어 1) and is written by the Language Education Institute, Seoul National University.

The course I’m taking is an evening course with lessons once a week. It’s in a different city, which is a bit inconvenient and it’s going to be a bit expensive with the train tickets, but it’s no big deal. I’m looking forward to learning in a class where you get to practice speaking in a way that’s not possible in self-studies.

In the course information the textbook for the course was listed, along with the name of a book shop that sells that book. The price of 405 SEK for the book (including a 30% discount for taking this course) and domestic shipping didn’t sound too much… until I saw what the book costs in Korea. I got it for about 200 SEK including express shipping from Korea. I’m all for supporting the local economy, but I’m against paying twice the price .

I’ve finally started chewing away at the pile of Asian movies that I have, so I thought I’d post some short thoughts about some of the movies that I’ve watched.

[…] there’s more! »

Skyline is the big finale of the musical Midnight Sun.

Tae-yeon ~ Skyline Live@Midnight Sun Musical 20100605

31MB 4:50 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

I hope you’ve enjoyed Tae-yeon’s performance .

You can download the whole show here.

Here’s another one of YUI’s songs performed in Korean by Tae-yeon of SNSD in the musical version of Midnight Sun.

Tae-yeon ~ Good-bye days Live@Midnight Sun Musical 20100605

25MB 3:54 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

This time it’s without the guitar. The Korean version sounds really nice.

You can download the whole show here.

In this video Tae-yeon (of SNSD) performs YUI’s song It’s Happy Line as a part of the Korean musical Midnight Sun.

Tae-yeon ~ It’s happy line Live@Midnight Sun Musical 20100605

23MB 3:33 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

No, she’s not actually playing the guitar here. Not unless she found some kind of magic chord that sounds like a whole bunch of different chords . Her vocals are great though.

You can download the whole show here.

I know some of you guys have been waiting for Tae-yeon’s musical performance in Midnight Sun.

Tae-yeon ~ Midnight Sun Musical 20100605

406MB 1:14:55 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(torrent | status | preview)

Mediafire mirror (split into 5 parts, use 7-zip to recombine):
(part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Credit: source vid. cozy@jpopsuki

This torrent has the entire musical in PSP-friendly video. I think it’s the biggest file I’ve posted to date. The video is in Korean and does not have subtitles.

For those who don’t know, Midnight Sun (태양의 노래) is a Korean musical version of the Japanese movie (which is based on a book as I understand it) with the same name (Midnight Sun/太陽の歌).

Tae-yeon from Girl’s Generation plays the part of Kaoru […] there’s more! »

100 days with Mr. Arrogant (Naesarang ssagaji) is a Korean romantic comedy that I’d been meaning to watch for a long time, but I didn’t get around to it until last week. I know Kim Jae-won from the drama series Romance, but it was the first time I saw Ha Ji-won.

Ha Ji-won plays Kang Ha-yeong, a high-school senior who runs into Kim Jae-won’s character Lee Hyeong-jun when she, after having been dumped by her boyfriend, kicks a beer can down the street and causes a minor traffic accident where Hyeong-jun slightly damages his luxurious car. Since she doensn’t have any money he demands her to be his slave for 100 days to work off the debt.

[…] there’s more! »

As you already know, Tae-yeon from SNSD stars as Kaoru in the Korean musical version of Midnight Sun. Some audio and video has started to show up on YouTube and in the clip below you can hear (no video) Tae-yeon sing a Korean version of Good-bye days.

She sings very well and the Korean version is nice. But I had expected them to have original music in the musical, not just Korean versions of YUI’s songs

[…] there’s more! »