While I’m no longer a huge fan of Corean pop culture, I do like to check in on it occasionally just to see what the latest Coreazy trends are, where it’s going, or who’s coming to America.
For instance, pop singer Rain is going to be in the Speed Racer movie. He isn’t part of the ad campaign in American markets though.
I’m no expert but Hyori (or Hyolee as she’s calling herself now) seems to be way overexposed - even from my casual vantage point. She was never my favorite FinKL member, but she is stretching the envelope of sexuality these days (NOT a euphemism for a vagina, just to clarify)
Ha Ji Won’s eyes look subtley but frighteningly different now than they did when I first laid eyes on her, a commonality among Corean stars who feel more surgery=better. Seeing your favorite faces change overnight always made me a little sad regarding my favorite Corean stars. (I used her face for my Coreana Venger drawing.)
The American remake of the Corean blockbuster My Sassy Girl finally has a trailer out. The part of the sassy girl in question is played by Elisha Cuthbert, which isn’t a bad choice. Like Jun Ji Hyun in the original, she can go from intensely cute to dropdead sexy in 0.6 seconds (Jun Ji Hyun’s best time is 0.3 seconds). The trailer feels a little flat though. Corean film makers are some of the best at physical comedy and melodramatic romance and the chemistry in the original cannot be duplicated. My Sassy Girl will always be on my list of greatest movies of all time (oops, have to update my Facebook). The classy list I mean, not my Ultraviolet/Mortal Kombat list. Anyways, I’ll see it out of curiosity, but I’m sure it will be like seeing someone who reminds you of someone else you used to know and would rather see.
I’ll always adore my gateway drug to K-pop music, Lee Jung Hyun. Her body of techno music and videos still makes me feel like a K-pop crazed hapa secretly hoping someone would invite me… I mean, him, to a Corean karaoke bar. Jung Hyun was a creative original, a manic genius, a rare find among the cookie-cutter corporate K-bands now (at least her first five albums were). I read she’s focusing her singing career in China now. A few years ago, I would have been thinking “traitor” but now I get it. Especially after the scene lately.
She turned 28 last month (I just found that out - I haven’t been keeping track, honest!), or 29 in Corean-years (you are one year old when you are born, in Corea). I thought she was older, purely because of her longevity in K-pop. Maybe I just imagine her older when I’m drawing her as my Medea Sin.
Someone once equated Corea’s modern culture to 1950’s America at least in regards to women. It’s gotten better. These days it seems more like 1950’s plunged into the 2010’s. But what do I know, I’m not there, in mind nor spirit anymore. Obviously (ad below taken from here) there’s still a long way to go, baby.
Maybe when I’m retired I’ll finally draw my little Medea Sin comic book, starring an older Lee Jung Hyun as the title character (and a cameo by Ha Ji Won as a hyper-myosin-ated Coreana Venger, sans eyelid surgery). Deadly smart and true to her heritage, at least the fair parts. I’d even market her in the American ad campaign. I’ll always be a little Coreazy like that.
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Number of times the word “Corean/Corea” is in this entry: 14
Number of times I was April fooled: Once. By Rachel and her clit ring.
Congrats to my dongseng on a new found freedom.