Monday, June 9, 2008

On Air (Drama - 2008) - 온 에어


SBS, 21 episodes

Synopsis
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Top actress Oh Seung-ah (Kim Ha-neul) refuses to accept the Best Actress award at an awards ceremony after finding out that she is to share the prize with another actress. In the process, she makes a fool out of Seo Young-eun (Song Yun-a) who was there to hand out the award.

Seo Young-eun is an extremely popular writer who has written corny dramas that have gained top ratings. But now she feels a need to change. She wants to write a drama series with depth. So she chooses to write about a drama that centers around a mental hospital. To get ideas for her script, she visits a mental institution only to run into Lee Gyeong-min (Park Yong-ha). Gyeong-min is conscious about the strange woman who keeps looking at him. He may look like someone from a well-to-do family but only the opposite is true. His family is very poor, and he’s the only breadwinner in his family. He had come to the hospital to borrow some money from his friend.

During a meeting with the production team, Young-eun’s proposal for a drama based on a mental hospital setting is dismissed. Young-eun is about to go crazy because of the head of the drama department keeps insisting that she write a romance piece about a girl in love with a rich man, only to catch a chronic illness. Moreover, the writer is seethed with anger after finding out that the main lead will be played by Oh Seung-ah.

Seung-ah feels that she’s unable to grow as a serious actress because the CEO of her management company is corrupt and too greedy. The one thing she’s been thinking about is to sign a contract with a different company once her current contract comes to an end. So she seeks out Jang Gi-jun (Lee Beom-su) who remembers Seung-ah. It was Gi-jun who had helped Seung-ah avoid a fraudulent scheme seven years ago when she was in her senior year in high school. Gi-jun company is on the verge of going under when Seung-ah decides to join his team. Seung-ah is intent on becoming a serious actress.

Young-eun meets up with Seung-ah with a new proposal for a script. Young-eun criticizes Seung-ah for being a terrible actress. On the other hand, Young-eun is also criticized for having axed the director. Young-eun bumps into the young director, Gyeong-min, for the first time after seeing each other at the mental hospital, creating an awkward moment. They agree to work on a drama series together. And Seung-ah is to join them!

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One of my favourite dramas in 2008.  Park Yong-Ha has since committed suicide, after acting in this drama.  So sad. 


Sunday, February 24, 2008

Hokkaido 2008 (Feb 14 to 20)




I just returned from my vacation in Hokkaido with SA Tours. The trip was wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable. The tour guides Connie, Steven and Kenny were helpful.

4 of the hotels we stayed in Hokkaido have hot spring baths and tatami rooms. We spent a night in Tokyo (return trip) and the airport hotel served the best breakfast during the whole trip, it had a wide variety of food! 

It was snowing from Day 1 to the delight of every traveller to Hokkaido. On our trip along the mountain range back to Sapporo, we experienced blizzard which slowed down our travelling! Gosh, it was interesting to see so much falling snow. The coldest termperature we experienced was a -14 degrees celsius and that's in Sounkyo Gorge - that's where we see the Ginga no Taki (銀河の滝, waterfall of the galaxy) and Ryusei no Taki (流星の滝, waterfall of the falling star).  Too bad that both waterfalls were frozen due to the freezing temperature in winter.

We even spent over an hour (in a -10 degrees celsius temperature) walking on the frozen Lake Akan: by joining a march around the lake (each participant holding a big stick lighted with fire), taking photos, watching a fireworks display and a concert performed by the Ainu natives.

The food (full board) was great and we had mostly seafood (including the famous Hokkaido Hairy Crab). We tried the famous Hokkaido Ramen. Simply delicious and a wide variety to choose from.