Looks like my prediction came true that Korean dramas could potentially break into the huge Indian soap opera and film market. Here´s an excerpt on my reply to Popseoul´s survey on 20 June 2007: “…I am swayed by Hallyu! That´s why I think Kdramas have done well in Latin culture, i.e. issues revolving around family, love, beauty, etc… and if properly marketed Kdramas would do well in the Indian subcontinent as well!”

I made this assessment last year and wrote about it in my article on the quiet invasion of Hallyu during the 4th quarter of 2006 that I have republished in my blog; www.kwfong.com.

Source: The Star, 15 July 2007
NEW DELHI – Korean films and soaps are the rage in India’s north-eastern Manipur state and when young romancing couples SMS each other, they write “No-rul sarang ha” – Korean for “I love you,” a newspaper report said on Saturday.
A militant call to ban Hindi films in Manipur has led to the growing popularity of Korean films which are possibly closest to the high action and drama of Bollywood flicks, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
Posters of reigning Bollywood stars such as Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai have been replaced by Korea stars Gweon Song-woo*, Cha Tae-hyun, Jeon Ji Hyun and Jung Da Bin.
Young Manipuri men and women are messaging snatches of Korean like ”Cho ah hey yo (I like it)”, or “Kwen chah nah yo (Its okay).”
“I love using such phrases because our elders won’t know what we’ve written,” 16-year-old Gary Th was quoted as saying.
Korean hits in Manipur include the films My Girl and I, You are My Sunshine and Wolf’s Temptation.
Korean television shows on cookery, culture and music are also popular.
The DVDs of Korean soaps and films are usually smuggled across the state’s border with Myanmar.
Note:
Manipur is an Indian state located in the North East of the Indian sub-continent bordering Myanmar
* I think they mean Kwon Sang Woo!

Pic: above from top: Ji Seong, Yoon Gye Sang (in military fatigue), Yoon Gye Sang (in cheesy pose) and Park Jae Sang aka Psy

Some Korean entertainers try to escape military conscription by pledging medical conditions making them unsuitable for conscription while one other Korean entertainer knowing he has a knee injury but still went ahead with conscription for the fear from accusation of using his medical condition as an excuse. Most Korean entertainers under 35, try very hard to maintain their registration as students, thus, bidding time to further their careers.

It was rumoured that Rain changed university recently so as to maintain his status as a student. Kangta who is another due for military conscription is holding on tight to his student status. Last month, Kim Rae Won has requested for the second time to defer his military conscription because he has just starting with shooting of his new drama. Apparently, his first notice of conscription was received while he was filming another drama then but he did not know what happened to the notice and continue with his career.

While Jo In sung who was thrown out of Dongguk University a couple of months back for not meeting the minimum number of hours, has also been rumoured to be conscripted by end of this year. Rumour has it he received his conscription after filming A Dirty Carnival last May but he started going back to school. Looking at Jo In Sung´s schedule from since he finished with the above 44th Daejong nominee for Best Film category, he has not committed to any film or drama to his fans´ consternation. His ardent fans are hoping he would act in a drama s to tie them over his impending two years in the mandatory military service.

Song Seun Hun (from Autumn Tale or Autumn in my Heart with Song Hye Gyo, Summer Scent, Happy Together fame) had to apologise to his fans for trying to dodge military service but his fans have since forgiven him with a resounding welcome back meeting last year. Fans from all over Asia went for the meeting, even a sole representative fan from Malaysia flew there for the meeting.

However not all Korean entertainers are/were dodging the dreaded military service. Yoon Gye Sang, formerly from the boyband, G.O.D; Korean drama: My 19 years sister in law (with the late Jung Da Bin) and Korean movie: Flying Boys (in which he won the best newcomer in 2005 Paesang Art Award) did not defer his responsibility even though he was signed on to work with the perennial favourite Korean actress, Lee Young Ae then. He even earned a star for good marksmanship and received a citation from the division commander after completing his boot training and was despatched to a reconnaissance company as a sniper. On his release, Yoon Gye Sang acted in the SBS drama “Crazy for Love” aired on Feb. 3, 2007.

Others who have done their tour of duty last year were Jang Hyuk (Korean movie: Windstruck and recently ended 2007 Korean drama: Thank you), Go Soo (Korean dramas: Green Rose, Marrying a Millionaire, Piano fame), etc. And of course, So Ji Sub (Sorry I love you, What happen in Bali fame) done his entertainment brothers proud by completing his, two months ago in April. Looking back, these korean actors are very much in demand after doing military service. Jang Hyuk and So Jib Sub were immediately recruited to act in new korean dramas. So perhaps, they should view the compulsory conscription as a blessing in disguise as they immediately become hot properties on their emergence from the two years forced absences. Ji Seong (aka Ji Sung) who has just completed his tour last week has in a minor role in a movie.

Kim Jeong Hoon who so far, as the only actor who publicly said that he dreaded military service after acting in DMZ in 2004, should be due for national service anytime.

(Oh, I am saying the following in jest, please do not quote me) He might be a Thai citizen by then! I wonder how are dual citizenships viewed in Korea? Any idea?

Written by Kwfong exclusively for Shenyuepop.com
Source: The China Press, Jeff Chung (KFPD), KBS Global.
Picture Source: mnklove (Cyworld), Hankooki, Hancinema, etc.
DO NOT REMOVE ORIGINAL CREDITS AND ADD OTHER CREDITS

Yoon Kyesang while still with G.O.D. – as long as you love me

Kim Jeong Hoon’s DMZ Haircut Video

Song Seung Hun YTN STAR NEWS 01/08/2007

Source: The Korean Herald, 5 June 2007
Psy quizzed over army draft evasion

Popular singer Park Jae-sang, better known as Psy, was yesterday questioned over his alleged evasion of military conscription at a seoul prosecuters’ office.
“I’ll fully cooperate with the prosecution interrogation,” said Park wearing a gray suit as he entered the Seoul Eastern Prosecutors’ Office.

Prosecutors suspect Park, 29, neglected his duty as a worker at a high-tech company in Seoul, where workers are exempt from the country’s 24-month-long mandatory military duty.

“We’re currently verifying various suspicions, including whether or not the singer Psy actually has the special skills as a computer programmer that exempted him from military conscription,” said Han Myong-kwan, a senior prosecutor.

Park was hired to develop computer software at the information technology firm, but prosecutors have doubts of his capability of doing the work given to him.

“We’ve heard that he is bad at handling computers,” Han said.

The government exempts technology researchers and professional skilled workers with special expertise under the condition of working for some 18,000 companies designated by the Seoul Military Manpower Administration.

However, when asked about his slackness at work between 2003 and 2005 by reporters, Park denied the allegation, saying “yes” that he worked properly from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 30 months.

Prosecutors are also investigating the alleged bribery charges between Park’s uncle and the company Park had worked.

“We will soon summon his uncle as well,” Han said.

Since April, prosecutors questioned two other popular singers who were exempted from conscription after they were hired by a computer game development company.

They also summoned some 20 officials from six companies and 10 soccer players in the same case. Those companies are alleged to have violated the rules, and some allegedly hired company executives’ relatives and acquaintances.

By Annie I. Bang

(aibang@heraldm.com)

Source: The China Press. June 3, 2007 17:46

(Bangkok) Li Jun Ki is in Thailand shooting ´Time between Dog and Wolf (개와 늑대의 시간)´. In the morning of the day before yesterday, Li Jun Ki who in his own website replied to his fans´ greetings, while on the subject of being in Thailand, he wrote an emotionally heartfelt message. He said, “Having only left Korea for less than a month, I already feel homesick. In the evenings I begin without reason to feel melanchony.”

He denies wanting to be a singer.
The cute Lee Jun Ki to “staff who are seriously working hard in the film in Thailand” deliberately signed to make his fans happy through his message by also saying, “Although I have grown a year older, but after leaving my homeland, I miss everything (at home). His working schedule within his own country is hectic but compared to the shooting in Thailand, it is absolutely more difficult.”

Apart from this and on leaving his message, he also touched upon the rumour that he wanted to be a singer, to which he denies, “the rumour of wanting to be a singer is not accurate, my priority now is to earnestly act. After the shooting in Thailand, I will return immediately. Wishing everyone the best of health. Wait for my return.”

Translation: Kwfong @ Shenyuepop.com
credits: www.ShenYuePop.com
DO NOT REMOVE ORIGINAL CREDITS AND ADD OTHER CREDITS

Kim Seung Youn, chief of Hanwha, being taken to jail in Seoul after his arrest over an alleged assault on behalf of his son. (Jo Yong-Hak )

SOUTH KOREAN CONGLOMERATES IN FOR A MAJOR RESTRUCTURING:

The chairman of a South Korean conglomerate faces assault charges
International Herald Tribune, Published: May 24, 2007

SEOUL: In an abandoned building site on the night of March 8, the chairman of a South Korean conglomerate, flanked by bodyguards and hired thugs, bashed four cowering nightclub workers with fists, a stun baton and a steel pipe, the police say.

Later, according to the police, he drove to a bar in downtown Seoul where, as he and bodyguards watched, he let his son beat a man up in an eye-for-eye revenge for an earlier assault on the son.

Now, Kim Seung Youn, chairman of Hanwha, South Korea’s ninth-largest conglomerate, languishes in jail, having become the latest in a parade of prominent South Koreans, from presidents to tycoons, whose reputations have been besmirched because of what Koreans lament as “excessive parental love of children.”

From President Roh Moo Hyun to taxi drivers in Seoul, South Koreans called for a thorough investigation of the case, all the more so because it involved one of the country’s chaebol – family-controlled conglomerates – whose uncurtailed power has raised eyebrows in a country more ready than ever to scrutinize its rich and powerful.

“I hope there will never be a foolish father like me again,” Kim, 55, said in a news conference shortly before his arrest May 12.

Kim, a dapper businessman with trademark slicked-back hair, was reduced to slurping $2.70 meals and sharing a TV set with petty-crime suspects in a police lockup, while officers fine-tuned six charges of assault, abduction and confinement against Kim and 23 other men, including his chief bodyguard, who was arrested, and his son, a Yale University student.

The son has not been arrested, because he was also a victim, both the police and Hanwha officials said. The bar worker who allegedly beat him was not arrested either.

Kim, handcuffed, was transferred last Thursday to prosecutors’ custody for indictment. In South Korea, an arrest is made only with a judge’s approval and almost always leads to indictment and trial.

Korean parents have been known to take their dedication to their children’s well-being to extraordinary, and sometimes illegal, lengths. Widespread among parents until recently was the practice of giving schoolteachers envelopes containing bribes – euphemistically called chonji, or “a token of appreciation as humbly small as a finger joint” – to ensure that their children are treated properly at school.

Such an attitude, social commentators say, may explain why two successive presidents of South Korea, Kim Young Sam and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kim Dae Jung, were both humiliated toward the end of their terms because of their sons.

A son of Kim Young Sam went to jail for bribery. All three sons of Kim Dae Jung were convicted of crimes. Ordinary South Koreans lamented that even the visionaries who made fighting corruption a cornerstone of their rule lose their wits when it comes to coddling their wayward children.

In the corporate world, top executives at Samsung and Hyundai, the two biggest members of about three dozen conglomerates classified as chaebol, are fighting criminal charges in court that stem from the fathers’ alleged attempts to bequeath their companies’ wealth illegally to their sons.

Kim’s case “shows that some of the rational mechanism of a modern society remains crippled in South Korea,” said Cho Hae Joang, a sociologist at Yonsei University in Seoul. “Problems that must be dealt with through public means are handled through unofficial, private and family networks.”

While some observers dismiss it as a case of a fatherly love gone wrong, critics say Kim’s alleged crime reflects an entrenched problem in corporate Korea: a top down, command-and-compliance culture pervasive at South Korean conglomerates. The critics say that dictatorial whims of the “owner families” often go unchecked.

When a chaebol tycoon returns home from an overseas trip, a throng of executives and bodyguards greets him at the airport with a deep, collective bow – a scene people often associate with an Asian crime gang.

Last week, Lee Taek Soon, the national police chief, called Kim’s arrest “proof that law and justice are alive and kicking” in South Korea. For years, South Koreans have complained that prosecutors and judges do not punish convicted chaebol chairmen harshly enough, citing their “contribution to the economy.”

Chaebol, which means “rich clans,” spearheaded South Korea’s rise from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to become the world’s 11th-largest economy. Today, a South Korean housewife may live in a Hyundai apartment, drive a Hyundai car, fill up at a Hyundai gas station, pay the bill with a Hyundai credit card and shop in a Hyundai department store.

Samsung, the largest chaebol, generates 20 percent of the country’s total exports, selling everything from semiconductors to supertankers.

But the chaebol road to wealth and power was paved with corrupt deals with politicians, brutal suppression of labor, allegations of opaque bookkeeping and extortion of parts suppliers, and tales of ashtray-hurling “one-man dictatorship” at corporate boardrooms.

Even if Kim is convicted, few doubt that he and his family will keep a tight control on his corporate empire, which includes the country’s second-largest life insurer, chemical and construction companies, hotels and a professional baseball team.

A typical chaebol family controls its empire with interlocking subsidiaries through cross-share holdings and by installing yes-man executives known as kasin, or “vassals,” as chief executives.

During a parliamentary hearing in 1997, Chung Tae Soo, a chairman of the bankrupt Hanbo Steel Group, who was imprisoned for bribery, said about his executives: “What do they know about the master? They are just servants.”

Kim’s case “revealed the backwardness of corporate governance at Hanwha and Korean chaebol in general,” said Kim Sang Jo, director at Solidarity for Economic Reform, a civic watchdog on big businesses. “All this results from emperor-like management style of chaebol chairmen.”

Kim Seung Youn’s trouble started on March 8, when his 22-year-old son, Dong Won, fell while scuffling with off-duty nightclub workers outside a karaoke pub and returned home with a facial injury that required many stitches.

The senior Kim – described by South Korean media as an entrepreneur long in charisma and business acumen, especially in mergers and acquisitions, but short in temper – went out looking for his son’s attackers.

He brought along with him the son, several Hanwha bodyguards and, the police said, at least one organized crime boss along with 11 “outside men” mobilized through Hanwha subsidiaries.

What followed has been the talk of the city. News media carried sensational details, some unconfirmed, of Kim’s alleged violence in front-page news for days in a row. Commentaries called Hanwha an “organized crime chaebol” or “Han-whack.”

Hanwha, a household name here, is short for “Korea Explosives.”

One news channel showed footage of Kim with the theme song from the American mobster movie “The Godfather” playing in the background.

“You beat him too!” the police quoted the father as telling his son when they found the son’s main attacker.

The case came to light only in late April after rumors spread through the Internet and some of the alleged victims talked to media. Kim at first denied any violence. He wanted his son, rather than taking the matter to the police, like a wimp, to “get an apology like a man,” Hanwha officials told media.

As the media hounded him and more witnesses stepped forward, however, Kim later admitted that he and his son had attacked the victims. But he denies using weapons, hiring gangsters, and taking the victims to a hillside construction site for a mob attack. These are serious charges that, if upheld in court, could lead to a lengthy prison term.

“The incident is the chairman’s personal problem,” said Ju Cheol Beom, a Hanwha spokesman. “But we are worried that it is hurting the brand image of our group.”

All the six alleged victims have agreed to accept financial compensation from Kim, said Choi Young Jo, a Hanwha vice president.

Choi declined to give further details. Such financial agreements are usually taken into account when a court gives a verdict on similar cases.

My apology for not being able to display the rest of the story due to subscription violation if I do so.

Source: Wall Street Journal (May 18, 2007)
By Evan Ramstad and Lina Yoon

SEOUL, South Korea — At the end of a night of drinking in a karaoke bar here in early March, Kim Dong-won, a 22-year-old college student, got caught up in a fight that left him needing 13 stitches on his forehead.

The next night, his 55-year-old father, chairman of one of the country’s largest conglomerates, exacted revenge, police say. They say the father, Kim Seung-youn, directed three associates who rounded up 12 people, including a former boxer and an organized-crime figure, and took the men involved in the fight to a construction site outside Seoul. There, they were beaten by …