Congratulations to the winners of the 44th Annual Baeksang Arts Awards

It's kinda late, but here are the list of winners for the 44th Annual Baeksang Arts Awards which took place last week on 24 Apr (click here to see the full nomination list in my previous post).


FILM SECTION

Best Film
Forever The Moment

Best Director
Lee Chang Dong (Secret Sunshine)

Best New Director
Na Hong Jin (The Chaser)

Best Leading Actor
Im Chang Jung (Scout)

Best Leading Actress
Kim Min Hee (Hell Cats)

Best New Actor
Jang Geun Seok (The Happy Life)

Best New Actress
Han Ye Seul (Miss Gold Digger)

Best Screenplay
Kim Hyun Seok (Scout)

POPULARITY
Kwon Sang Woo & Kim Jeong Eun,

TV SECTION

DaeSang
Kang Ho Dong

Best TV Drama
SBS (War of Money)

Best Producer
Lee Byeong Hun (Yi San)

Best New Producer
Lee Yoon Jung (Coffee Prince)

Best Leading Actor
Park Shin Yang - SBS (War Of Money)

Best Leading Actress
Yoon Eun Hye - MBC (Coffee Prince)

Best New Actor
Song Chang Ui - SBS (Golden Bride)

Best New Actress
Lee Ji Ah - MBC (Legend)

Best Screenplay
MBC - Thank you

POPULARITY
Kang Ji Hwan & Sung Yu Ri

Here are some selected photos of the star studded guests at the awards ceremony.

Hong Gil Dong and Yi Nok in contemporary costumes


The ever stunning Son Ye Jin

Yoon Eun Hye, all alone as Coffee Prince - Gong Yoo - is in the military camp

LEE JI AH! Need I say more

Money War's Park Shin Young and Park Jin Hee

Han Ye Seul

War of Money

A few weeks back, I touted War of Money (click to read the previous post) as potentially a great Korean drama standing tall among classics such as Alone in Love and Flowers for My Life. The chemistry between the leggy Park Jin Hee and Park Shin Young more than sizzled the pixels on my lcd tv. Two weeks, and 10 episodes - the last half of the series - later, I am writing a post which is likely to sound like a major 'panning'.

The ingredients for a good, if not great, Korean drama are (in our view) as follows:

• Good and well written storyline
• Witty scripts with a dash of humour or a load of reflective thoughts
• Great cinematography - watch Alone in Love if you want to know what I mean
• Beautiful cast - preferred but optional
• Moments of tenderness/Tears (Korean dramas ain't right without them)
• Romance between the male/female leads

Money War had all the above in the first 10 episodes. The story was both tight and progressed at an exciting, yet believable, pace. The producers did well in bringing together the Parks who fleshed out their roles well. Like I said earlier, the chemistry was almost tangible in my living room as I watched the drama.

Filming/cinematography was ok as the sets were quite nicely done and the on-site locations gave the entire series a feel which related well with the theme of the drama. Park Jin Hee with her super long legs dominated the looks department while at the same time picked up the 'slack' from the rather normal looking, but extremely charismatic, Park Shin Young. There were definitely moments of TLC - tender, loving, care, between the leads, tears and sobs included.

So, what went wrong?

Both Mydaemon and I agreed on ONE thing. It's none other than the fact that the storyline and the feel of the entire series veered sharply, so sharply that we even suspected the scriptwriter(s) has changed, midway through the series. The dip, to put it nicely, in quality of the story and script was so bad they we almost gave up watching the drama. We stuck to it only because we wanted closure.


SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

(scroll down only if you want to read more)


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Things started turning for the worse when Park Shin Yang discovers that the mean loan shark bully whom he works for was the same guy who pushed his debt-ridden dad to suicide and causing all manners of family havoc in his life. Finding out the truth is actually expected, but how he dealt with it was inexplicable.

Park Shin Yang with his 'boss' in better days
(Image Source: sbs.co.kr)

First, he wanted to clobber the guy with a golf club, chasing him all over a public bath. He subsequently mulled over this fact and decided that he can let bygones be bygones as long as his loan shark boss pays him for the work done. How he overcame his anguish and hatred to make such a decision was never explained. There were some lines which I suspected was written to help viewers understand his decision, but they were vague to the point of being irrelevant. If anyone managed to decipher the 'coded' script, please enlighten me!

The chemistry so tangible between the leads was totally diluted by the meandering manner which they relationship developed. Hints were dropped now and then about a potential romance between the two Parks, pun not intended. But these hints only remained as hints. There were no serious attempts are nurturing the great chemistry into a lovely relationship. Instead the script writers decided the leads must be in love.

To elaborate, Park Jin Hee was kidnapped by the baddies in the show, the other Park risked his life to rescue her. After the rescue, the couple decided that they were indeed in love. The decision is once again inexplicable. What's more the romance started with a 'lip-locking' moment in the rear of a lorry. The attempt at making the rear of a lorry romantic totally did not connect nor evoked warm or mushy emotions. It felt surreally weird!

Shin Dong Wook trying to look sauve with his greasy long hair
(Image Source: sbs.co.kr)

The story became even more muddled as Park Shin Young competed with Shin Dong Wook over the purchase of a company by the name of "Blue Angel". The last five or so episodes focused on the posturing between Park Shin Yang And Shin Dong Wook. Frankly, the scriptwriters overenthusiasm in fleshing out this part of the story was in my opinion a mistake. The airtime could have been put to good use in developing the characters of the two leads, as well as their budding romance.

Now comes the spoiler of spoilers. Read on at your own risk...

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Sad endings are not uncommon in today's dramas or movies. Flowers for My Life and Alone in Love fared really well in putting across the poignant message that life does not end happily everafter for everyone. Doubts and sadness are issues which everyone deal with some point in our lives. Kudos for the manner in which these two dramas handled the rather sad ending to the story.

War of Money had one more inexplicable twist to the story at the very end. Well, we have already come to accept the 'inexplicability' of almost every development in the War of Money, but nothing really prepared us for what was to come in the last episode.

We all know that last episodes are usually the reserve for tying up loose ends and giving closure to any subplots which could have been forgotten when stories developed. The scriptwriters did well to show that Park Shin Young defeated Shin Dong Wook in wresting over the control of Blue Angel. Yay! The two Parks finally decided to go all the way with a beautiful wedding. Yay! Yay! Friends and enemies of Park Shin Young made peace with him at his wedding. Yay! Yay! Yay!

Happy Ending? NO WAY!!!
(Image Source: sbs.co.kr)

You'd have thought, "Ah, what a beautiful ending!" That's precisely my thought till the Park's mean ex-loanshark boss turns up at the wedding. Everything seems ok as he handed Park a gift. But in a spilt second, the guy uses his walking stick to bash the brains out of Park. The drama ends with the scene of blood gushing out of Park's head wounds as he lay dying on the lawn of the church where he's getting married.

Yup, that's it.

This is definitely one of the worst ever endings for a Korean drama. While Park Shin Yang had it coming, us audience deserve a better ending. Guess that's the difference between great scriptwriters (Flowers for My Life & Alone in Love) and mediocre ones who penned War of Money. It left a bitter taste in my mouth to see the potential of a great drama to only have it end such a undignified manner.

44th Annual Baeksang Arts Awards

Here are the nominees for the upcoming 44th Baeksang Arts Awards. This award ceremony will take place on 24 Apr 2008 and will be broadcasted on SBS.

For the film section, the nominees are...

BEST FILM
Secret Sunshine
Forever The Moment
The Chaser
Happiness
Splendid Holiday

Secret Sunshine

BEST DIRECTOR
Kim Hyun Seok - (Scout)
Na Hong Jin (The Chaser)
Lee Myung Se (M)
Lee Chang Dong (Secret Sunshine)
Lim Soon Rye - (Forever The Moment)

BEST NEW DIRECTOR
Kim Mee Jeung (Shadows in the Palace)
Kim Tai Sik (Driving with my Wife's Lover)
Na Hong Jin (The Chaser)
Ra Hee Chan(Going by the Book)
Jeong Beom Sik and Jeong Sik (Epitaph)

BEST LEADING ACTOR
Kim Yoon suk (The Chaser)
Im Chang jung (Scout)
Byun Hee Bong (The Game)
Song Kang Ho ( The Show must go on )
Ha Jung Woo (The Chaser)

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Kim Min Hee (Hell Cats)
Kim Yun Jin (Seven Days )
Kim Jung Eun (Forever the Moments)
Lim Soo Jung (Happiness)
Jeon Do Yeon (Secret Sunshine)

BEST NEW ACTOR
Kim Jun Sung (West 32nd)
Kim Heung Su (Hellcats)
Jang Geun Seok (The happy Life)
Yoo Gun (Kidnapping of Geanny)
Jeong Il Woo (My Love)

BEST NEW ACTRESS
Lee Bo Young (Once Upon a Time in Corea)
Lee Yeon Hee (M)
Lee Ha Na (Le Grand Chef)
Jeong Ryeo won (Two Faces of My GirlFriend)
Han Ye Seul (Miss Gold Digger)

Han Ye Seul having men for lunch in Miss Gold Digger

BEST SCREENPLAY
Kim Han Min (Paradise Murdered)
Kim Hyun Seok (Scout)
Na Hyun (Forever the Moments)
Na Hong Jin (The CHaser)
Lee Chang Dong (Secret Sunshine)

And the nominees for the TV section are...

BEST TV DRAMA
KBS (Likeable or Not)
SBS (My Man's Woman)
SBS (The War of Money)
MBC (Coffee Prince)
MBC (The Legend)

First Shop of Coffee Prince

The Legend

BEST PRODUCER
Woon Goon Il (SBS, Golden Bride)
Yoo Cheol Yong (MBC, HIT)
Lee Dook Joon (KBS, Likeable Or Not)
Lee Byeong-Hun (Yi San)
Jung Tae Yoo (War of Money)

BEST NEW PRODUCER
Park Hong Gyun (MBC, New Heart)
Lee Min Woo (SBS, Bad Couple)
Lee Yoon Jung (MBC, Coffee Prince)
Han Joon Suh (KBS, Capital Scandal)
Ham Young Hoon (KBS, Evasive Inquiry Agency)

Capital Scandal

BEST LEADING ACTOR
Kang Ji Hwan (KBS, Capital Scandal)
Park Shin Yang (SBS, War Of Money)
Bae Yong Joon (MBC, The Legend)
Lee Seo Jin (MBC, Yi San)
Cho Jae Hyun (MBC, New Heart)

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Kim Hyun Joo (KBS, In Soon is Pretty)
Kim Hee Ae (SBS, My Man's Woman)
Park Jin Hee (SBS, War of money)
Bae Jong Ok (MBC, Woman Of Matchless Beauty)
Yoon Eun Hye (MBC, Coffee Prince)
Han Ji Min (KBS, Capital Scandal)

In Soon is Pretty - in real life too!


My Chan!

BEST NEW ACTOR
Kim Ji Seok (KBS, Likeable or Not)
Song Chang Ui (SBS, Golden Bride)
Lee Philip (MBC, The Legend)
Han Sang Jin (MBC, Yi San)
Ha Seok Jin (SBS, Happiness)

BEST NEW ACTRESS
Park Min Young (KBS, I am Sam)
Park Shin Hye (MBC, Ggak-du-gi)
Yoo In-yeong (KBS, Likeable or Not)
Lee Ji Ah (MBC, The Legend)
Choi Yu Jin (SBS, Golden Bride)

BEST SCREENPLAY
SBS, My Man's Woman
MBC, Thank you
MBC, Coffee Prince
KBS, In Soon is Pretty
MBC, New Heart

Highlighted in Purple are those supported by Hellohallyu! :)

War of Money

SBS has a knack for producing dramas that many normal folks can readily relate with. For example, people who are seeking, or struggling, to understand the meaning of love will greatly appreciate the way SBS broached and explored this issue in Alone in Love.

In War of Money, SBS has once again touched on a topic which we would have read about in the newspapers. This drama takes a close look at how people, their families, and loved ones, are affected when loans taken from loansharks pushes them over the edge.

A very down and out Guem Na Ra (Park Shin Yang)
(Image source: SBS)

In War of Money, Park Shin Yang plays Geum Na Ra, a successful financial broker who had everything going for him, but only to see everything crashing down around him after his father committed suicide hoping to spare his family from a spiralling loanshark debt. The story focuses on the ups and downs in Guem's life and how he himself became involved in the loansharking business.

War of Money is a really good drama. I am totally hooked after watching the first episode. Don't expect the usual Korean drama fare with extended scenes in the form of long emotional gazes and soft tender loving moments. This drama, with its fast paced storyline, puts into sharp focus the frustrations and anger faced by the protagonists, Park Shin Yang and Park Jin Hee, in dealing with the debts incurred by their family members. The actors bring across the emotions through fine acting rather than the much touted Korean cinematography, read - extended scenes described earlier.

I am not sure if SBS has a thing for casting the 'normal' looking blokes as the male leads in their dramas, but I do see an interesting similarity between the choice in casting Park and Gam Woo Sang in the dramas - War of Money and Alone in Love respectively. Both are not your typical Korean idols, given their more than normal looks. But both possess a certain charismatic quality and a repertoire of acting skills, which I find lacking in the young idol types. Sometimes looks just go so far in adding to the entertainment value of a drama. Experience and screen presence is priceless.

The beautiful Park Jin Hee
(Image source: SBS)

Apart from Park Shin Yang, War of Money also introduced me to Park Jin Hee. Park Jin Hee reminds me a lot of Sung Yu Ri. For some reason, I think they look really alike. To Mydaemon, she reminds her of a young Lee Young Ae. Hmmm, guess there's something common in the facial features of beautiful women.

Enough said, I am looking forward to tonight's episodes. For Singaporean fans, War of Money is running on Starhub's VV Drama on channel 56 every Sunday from 10.30pm to 12.15am. Catch it if you can!