2015년 3월 19일 목요일

Tokyo dome still remember and celebrate the memories with 'Hallyu star' Ryu Si Won


Tokyo Dome, home of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team in Japan has a special plate. The so-called "Star Memorial plates' are composed of a plate honoring the MVP Player of the Yomiuri Giants and the plate honoring the singers performing at the Tokyo Dome.

This plate has pictures of Japanese baseball super stars and American pop stars such as Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson and picture of 'original Hallyu star' Ryu si won has been exhibited side by side with them.

Ryu's popularity soared in Japan. In fact, he is still getting much trust and support from the Japanese fans.
After his first solo concert in Japan in November 2005, Ryu held more than 30 concerts in 18 cities and has established himself as a leading Korean singer.

On december 23, 2008, Ryu successfully completed the 'Christmas for you' concert at Japan's largest concert hall, Tokyo Dome.
He was the first Korean artist to hold two live concerts at the Tokyo Dome.


However, as we all know, Ryu is not happy in current situation as before.
He and his former wife Cho married in 2010 and have a daughter but they were in messy divorce trial ever since 2012.
They finally got divored in January 31 this year but their legal battle still continues.

His fans are still remembering him filling the tokyo dome with 50,000 spectators and are anxiously awaiting his successful come back.




2015년 3월 17일 화요일

Who are the top 10 most beautiful Korean actresses according to Chinese media?


Who is the best Korean beauty entertainers recognized by Chinese.
Articles about “top ten Korean beauties” have recently become a hot topic in Taiwanese and Chinese media.
Recently, the major Chinese media such as t.people.com.cn unveiled the top ten most beautiful Korean actress list through Taiwanese entertainment site.

Kim tae hee was ranked at the top of list.
This site said, Kim tae hee is symbol of beautiful Korean female celebrity and she has beauty and brains. She is a graduate of Seoul University, the top University in Korea.
Also, she is natural beauty that all of the plastic surgeons in Korea agreed upon.

Runner up is Han ga in. She Had played a leading role in many of dramas since her debut in the entertainment industry as a model for Asiana airline.
She gained great popularity thanks to her elegant look and she has been married with actor Yeon jung hoon for 9years.

3rd place went to Son ye jin who stamped her presence through the last year's movie 'Pirates'.
She gained much popularity in China with films 'classic' 'Lovers' Concerto' in early 2000s.

She was followed by Jeon Ji Hyun, Lee Young Ae, Eugene, Song Hye Kyo, Moon Geun Young, Ko So Young and Kim Hee Seon.
They are heroines of dramas and movies which was popular in China such as "My Sassy Girl", "young bride", SBS "You who came from the star', MBC "Daejangeum" and "KBS2" Autumn in My Heart".


2015년 3월 16일 월요일

Korean movies coming out in spring 2015


Ticket revenue in the domestic movie market fell by 5.3 percent to 131.5 billion won (US$11.84 million) last month while attendance in theaters dropped by 10.2 percent to 16.67 million people, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) said in a monthly box-office report.
Hollywood movies like "King's Man: Secret Agent" and "The Imitation Game" continued to top South Korea's box office Since mid-February.
To make matters worse, highly anticipated new Korean movies failed at the box office recently.

However, Korean movies which released on 12th, March are showing signs of recovery from domestic film's recent sluggish ticket sales.

"The Deal"(2015) grabbed the top spot at this week's box office with over 80,000 tickets sold on opening day, beating King's Man: Secret Agent
"The Deal" is the film that focused on painful experiences of victims who lost his family to a serial killer unlike the typical crime thriller.
Starring well-known character actors such as Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Sung-Kyun and Park Sung-woong.

Movie "Socialphobia" made a meaningful start as well.
According to Korea Film Council on March 13th, "Socialphobia" brought 22,056 viewers to the theater on the first day. The figure surpasses the first day record of 'Han Gong-ju', which had been drawing attention thanks to the awards and invitations from several film festivals before its release.
Movie "Socialphobia" is a SNS chase film, in which the protagonists dig up the truth about the death of one person, caused by online bullying, as to whether it was a suicide or a murder.

Also, several Korean films due for release this spring such as "Twenty", "Salute D'Amour" and "Chinatown" are raising expectations among Korean movie fans.
Starring hot young actors such as Kim Woo-bin, Junho, Kang Haneul, movie "Twenty" comes from writer-director Lee Byung-heon (not the actor) who has co-writing credit on Sunny and Speed Scandal.
"Twenty" promises to be a cheerful, realistic story about the “shining, immature” loves and friendships of three boys as they turn twenty together.


2015년 3월 15일 일요일

Which countries have fastest hotel wi-fi?


When you are traveling oversea, it's convenient to have good quality and wide availability of in-room Wi-Fi at hotels.

Hotel WiFi Test has released a new report that ranks cities, countries, and world regions by WiFi quality. Two characteristics of hotel WiFi are considered: the quality of the WiFi and whether in-room WiFi is free.
According to HotelWiFiTest, the best country to use Wi-Fi in the hotel rooms is South Korea with 92 percent of Korea’s hotels offer quality Wi-Fi, followed by Japan (84.9 percent), the Ukraine at 82.1 percent, Switzerland at 79.8 percent and Romania at 78 percent. Ranking just below those countries, in order, are Hong Kong, Sweden, Norway, Taiwan, Hungary and Russia. The U.S. comes in at 40th place worldwide (35.9 percent), just above Malaysia, Turkey, Spain and France.

The report found that the opposite trend holds true for availability of free in-room Wi-Fi, however, with that amenity provided at 85.4 percent of U.S. hotels — about the same as Ukraine, Taiwan and Turkey, but still behind Norway (92.4 percent), Sweden (91 percent) and Russia at 90.1 percent.
Rate of free wifi hotel in Korea was 73.8%.


2015년 3월 14일 토요일

Two Sexy Korean Actress Caught Up in Controversy


Sexy actress Lee Tae-im reportedly cursed and yelled at singer Yewon while she was shooting a reality TV show MBC's ‘Tutoring Different Generations’
This episode was filmed on February 24th at Jeju Island, and Lee Tae Im caused filming to be halted after she swore at Kim Ye Won for no apparent reason. Lee Tae Im then stepped off the program, and it was accepted by the program team.

Lee Tae Im’s agency initially claimed that the actress had left the program because of health issues. But the truth eventually got out, and Lee Tae Im bore the brunt of the controversy. The program team of ‘Tutoring Different Generations’ said in the aftermath that Lee Tae Im’s scenes will be edited out from the episode, and the broadcast confirmed their statement.
Lee Tae Lim had apologized to the singer but she still got harsh criticism because she is ‘a sexy star with vague identity’.
Most celebrities overcome a crisis by showing their professionalism in the field, but in case of sexy stars, this do not work.

When Lee Tae-im filmed other varity show SBS 'Law of jungle', she received criticisms for revealing her body too much which did not go with the flow of the show. It’s hard to recover her image when she wastes her sexy image.

Clara has shown how a sexy star could plummet in an instant. She garnered much attention with her glamorous body, and actively pursued her career on music and acting. However, she did not achieve any remarkable result.
Recently clara has filed a suit to negate her exclusive contract with Polaris Entertainment, citing sexual harassment from their CEO through text messaging via Kakao Talk.
As a result, Polaris Entertainment had released the text messages to the public to prove their CEO’s innocence, as this accusation is hurting his image.
On top of this, her small and big lies kept snowballing. Now ,she is branded as a ‘liar’ and Entertainment Management Corporation put a restriction on her activity.

Initially they got more attention with their appearance and sexy marketing rather than their actiing career and two actress are paying the price for it.



2015년 3월 11일 수요일

First thing that comes to mind when think of South Korea.


Recent survey revealed that 'K-pop' was the first thing that comes to mind when think of South Korea.

Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange(KOFICE) conducted survey of 5600 people in 14 different countries and 17% of respondents chose K-pop as image which represent Korea.
No.2 is Korean food with 10.5% and No.3 is IT with 10.4%.
IT was the first place on the same survey a year ago.

Also, 43% of respondents picked Korean food as the most popular Korean cultural content followed by music (36.4%), fashion (35.3%), movies (29.7%), drama (28.2%), games (26.9%).


How much animal actors get paid in Korean drama, movies and TV shows?


"Three Meals a Day," is a South Korean outdoor cooking-reality show with self-sufficient organic life which airs on tvN.
Ratings with more than 6% for a Korean cable television channel are very rare and Three Meals a Day has been getting more than 6 % in ratings since third episode was aired.
Its leading roles are  actor Cha Seung-won and Yoo Hae-jin but various animals like Sanche (dog), Bee(cat), Rodriguez (chicken)are drawing viewer's attention.

In addition to "Three Meals a Day", there are many TV varity shows with animals as lead role such as SBS 'TV Animal Farm' and MBC 'Sunday Night-Animal's'

To cut to the point, some untrained animals(Three Meals a Day)are not getting paid at all because these animals are just pet of staff and trained animals which appeared on various TV shows and dramas usually get paid US$100~500 per episode.

SBS 'TV Animal Farm' is animal reality show which focuses on animal news and stories and quite a bit on animal welfare.
Many animals appeared with a variety of stories on different episodes for more than 15years.
However, the crew of program does not pay money directly to animal owners.
Commonly they only give gift certificate worth of US$100~1000 as a sort of reward to animal owner for their cooperation and DVD containing their animals's part in show.

When you watch television, or a movie, and see a monkey folding laundry, a dog leaping a bike, or a horse opening a gate, you're seeing the results of hours of work between the animal and an animal trainer. It's tempting to assume that the animal or his owner is earning big bucks because the animal is in a production, but usually this isn't the case. In fact, some animal actors and their trainers earn less than the owners spend, making animal acting more of a hobby.

10-year-old Labrador Retriever, Dal-yi was named as one of TV's highest paid animal actors in Korea.
She first played Maumi in the 2006 film “Hearty Paws,” which was also her screen debut.
In Maumi 2, the sequel to Hearty Paws, Dal-yi plays a devoted mother dog who embarks on a journey to find her puppy, who is kidnapped by villains.
In “Maumi 2,” she was known to paid more than US$ 50,000.

2015년 3월 9일 월요일

"Kill me Heal me" craze are getting intense among Korean fans and drama lovers.


Even though MBC's drama "Kill Me, Heal me" only left 2 episodes before series finale, Kill me Heal me craze are definitely getting more intense among Korean fans.

It's a romance drama about a rich heir suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and enlists the help of a first-year medical resident to heal him by killing off each personality one by one.

Pairing of Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum, their chemistry was great in drama and 'Kill me, heal me' syndrome among fans even has shed new light on the two actors's previous dramas including “Secret.”,surprise-hit melodrama which they first appeared together in 2013.

Also “Kill Me, Heal Me” has joined the ranks of dramas like “Master's Sun” and “My Love From The Stars” in spawning numerous parodies.
Hwang Jung Eum was ranked No.1 on the internet real-time hit list due to a fan-made comic parody which combined the look of a her from previous drama "High Kick Through the Roof" and "Kill Me, Heal Me”.

'Kill Me, Heal Me' OST has been getting a lot of attention lately as well.
The intriguing theme song “Auditory Hallucination”(Feat. NaShow) continues to remain on the top 10 songs real time charts, since its release on January 14.
Official OST album for 'Kill Me, Heal Me' which was released on March 5th made online music chart top 20 as only drama ost on the list.

2015년 3월 6일 금요일

Korea's favorite brands survey 2015


On 5th, according to the survey of 1,700 South Koreans aged 13 and older, conducted by Gallup Korea on the subject of the Korean's most favorite brand, 46% of respondents chose Cass as their favorite beer brand, followed by Hite(29%), OB (10%), Capri (2%), Max-Dry d (1.4%), Kloud (1.3%) and so on.

As for ramen brands, Shin Ramen(43%) was most popular, followed by Samyang ramen (13%), An Sung Tang Myun, Jin ramen (each 9%), Neoguri ramen (7%), sesame ramen (1.3%).

For a luxury brand, Chanel ranked first (17%), next came Gucci (16%), Louis Vuitton (13%), Prada (7%), Daks, Burberry (4% each), Ferragamo (1.6%), MCM (1.1%), etc.

Most popular coffee shop chains in Korea are Starbucks (25%), Caffe Bene (11%), Angel-in-us Coffee (10%), coffee bean, ediya coffee(each 7%), Two Some Place (4%), and Hollys(3%).

Korean's most favorite apparel brands are Bean Pole (6%), Indians, Nike (each 5%), Daks, Uniqlo (4% each), Crocodile (3%), Galaxy (3.0%), The North Face (2.9%) and Olivia Lauren (2.7%).

1404 survey respondents who use internet choose Naver(71%)as their favorite potal site followed by Daum(19%), Google(3.3%), Nate(2.5%)and Yahoo(1%).



Samsung UHD TV Keep Leading North American Market with 59.7% Market Share


Samsung Electronics exceeded 50% UHD TV market share last year and recorded highest ever market share in North America.
On 5th, according to a market research group NPD Display Search, Samsung Electronics’ market share reached 59.7% this year, took over half of the UHD TV market in North America.

Samsung posted market share of 51.0% in last January and maintained its top spot for 10 consecutive months.
Last year the total flat-panel TV market share also increased by 4.0% to 36.4% over the previous year.

Samsung is planning to strengthen its market leadership in the region with 'SUHD TV' this year.
Samsung held the North America Dealer Summit event from 2nd to 5th, March(local time) in Orlando Hilton Hotel and introduced new products, including the 2015 line ups of SUHD TV. The event was attended by 500 people, including more than 230 major US dealers.



2015년 3월 4일 수요일

Hot Korean actors to watch out for in 2015


Hottest new Korean actors such as Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Woo-bin, Song Joong-gi, Lee Jong-seok are all taking some time off from acting now.
However, there is heightened anticipation for new dramas and movies after the recent reveal that these actors are candidate for the lead role.

Kim Soo Hyun is currently considering his next drama project, lead role in the upcoming KBS drama "The Producer." and lead role in a supernatural MBC drama titled "Night Strolling Scholar."
It has been sometime since his mega hit drama “My Love From The Stars,” ended so fans have been anticipating his next project.
However, Kim Soo-hyun agency Keyeast Entertainment hasn't confirmed whether Kim would take the role or not.

Kim Woo Bin has officially been offered the leading roles in the upcoming Hong Sisters drama, tentatively titled Jeju Gatsby.
If Kim Woo Bin accepts, it would be his first full-length drama since Heirs in 2013. Since that time, he has acted in three movies (Friend 2, The Technicians, and the upcoming Twenty), and he had a cameo in the fun web series Love Cells.
The Hong Sisters, known for writing quirky romantic favorites like The Master's Sun, My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, You're Beautiful, and Greatest Love, have only stated so far that the upcoming series will be a romance set on Jeju Island.

Lee jong seok's past dramas including “Pinocchio.” “School 2013,” “I Can Hear Your Voice,” and “Doctor Stranger” have yielded positive ratings making him a desirable star in the Asian market.
According to Sports World, a source within his agency thinks that Lee may be interested in Chinese dramas.
In the Sports World report, the source stated, “Lee Jong Suk has recently received many offers of work in Korea and China.”
The source went on to explain that interest in the actor has greatly increased in China, where he is currently receiving offers for movies, dramas, endorsements, and fan meetings.

Song Joong ki (Nice Guy, Wolf Boy) will be out of the army on may 26th, 2015 and is already looking at projects to return to drama scene.
He’s reportedly been offered the leading role in Kim Eun-sook’s newest drama 'Descended From the Sun', her first non-SBS show, to be directed by PD Lee Eung-bok of Secret and co-written by Kim Won-seok (Queen’s Classroom).

Among even the hottest new stars, fans are most curious about Won Bin's next project.
He has yet to announce his comeback project. His last work was the 2010 blockbuster hit film “The Man from Nowhere.”




Seoul in world’s top 10 most expensive cities to live


Seoul and Hong Kong ranked 9th in the top 10 most expensive cities to live in the world list.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a new survey, 2015 marks the debut of South Korea's capital on the list as its cost of living now matches that of Hong Kong.

In particular, the price of clothes and groceries in Seoul turned out to be the highest in the world.
CNBC reported that Seoul hold the highest price tags for everyday food items. For example, 1 kilogram of dried pasta costs $4 on the website of popular Korean supermarket Homeplus, double the price on American retailer Walmart.
The report found that a 750㎖ of wine in Seoul cost an average of US$27.66, compared to US$2.70 in Singapore, while a one-kilo loaf of bread in Seoul cost an average of US$13.91, compared to US$3.54 in Singapore.

Reporter also said "The clothing price of Seoul is 50% more expensive than New York, This is the most expensive place in the world for cloth along with Singapore."

Singapore retained its title as the world's most expensive city for the second consecutive year while weaker yen pushed Tokyo to 11th spot, which was traditionally one of the top 10 most expensive cities.

2015년 3월 3일 화요일

Top Five Tablet Vendors Worldwide in 2014


According to figures published by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide tablet shipments recorded a year-over-year decline for the first time since the market's inception in 2010.
Although the fourth quarter witnessed a decline in the global market, shipments for the full year 2014 increased 4.4%, totaling 229.6 million units.

"The tablet market is still very top heavy in the sense that it relies mostly on Apple and Samsung to carry the market forward each year," said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. "Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still wasn't enough to spur iPad sales given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones. Meanwhile, Samsung's struggles continued as low-cost vendors are quickly proving that mid- to high-priced Android tablets simply aren't cut out for today's tablet market."

"Despite an apparent slow-down of the market, we maintain our forecast about tablet growth in 2015," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets. "Microsoft's new OS, a general shift towards larger screen form factor and productivity focused solutions, and technology innovations such as gesture interface that could be introduced in tablets will help the market maintain positive growth in 2015."


Apple's efforts to maintain iPad momentum have fallen flat so far as the latest generation of the iPad Air and mini offer very minimalistic upgrades over their previous versions. Cannibalization at the bottom from the iPhone and at the top from the Mac appear to be a serious issue for the iPad.

Samsung was able to achieve its goal of 40 million tablets in 2014, up 1.1% from 2013. Samsung's Tab 4 series has been well received and its recent announcement to focus on mid-high tier tablets should help the bottom line though market share will likely continue to struggle.

Lenovo (4.8%), ASUS (4%), and Amazon (2.3%) rounded out the top 5 although only Lenovo managed to grow annually when compared to Q4 2013. Lenovo maintained its tight grip on the Asia/Pacific market thanks to its massive scale in the PC business and the success of its low-cost tablet offerings




2015년 3월 1일 일요일

Once-famous foreign family restaurant chains are rapidly disappearing in Korea.


American family restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse has closed 34 stores over the past three months, reportedly due to quality control plans.

"We came up with plans to focus on store quality and developing menus rather than business expansion," a company spokesman said.

But industry experts blamed the closures on the prolonged recession, the increasing number of single households and changing dining habits.

As the Korean consumers are swayed by health and wellbeing trend nowadays, Korean salad bar buffet with seasonal vegetables and green foods are replacing high-calorie foods rich in family restaurant chains.

Outback Steak House, established in 1987, entered the Korean market in 1997.

Other major family restaurant chains such as T.G.I. Friday's and Bennigan's have closed down more than 50% of their stores in 2013.
Its competitors Marche and Sizzler, the first generation of family restaurants in Korea, recently went out of business as well.