Stars Echo (별의 소리 / Byeolui Sori-Korean, あなたに逢いたくて / Anata ni Aitakute-Japanese -2004)

Starring:
Jo Hyun Jae as Sung-jae
Nakagoshi Noriko as Misaki
Lee Da Hae as Ji-young
Tanihara Shosuke as Suji
Kurotani Tomoka as Tomoko
Lee Joon Ki as Chan-gyu
Kim Yong Hee (김용희) as Min-suk

The Story is centered on the love between a musically gifted South Korean man, Sung-jae Jo Hyun Jae, and a Japanese woman, Misaki Nakagoshi Noriko. Misaki, who feels guilty over her boyfriend's death, is transferred to Korean and meets Seong-jae who helps her cure her wounds of the past memories with love.



Wow! For a Korean romance, this one was really good. I'm not a fan of Korean romances because the endings either have someone in the main couple split, die of illness, or they end up with someone other than their main love. So I was a little frightened watching this.

I'm glad I did. The flow was fast but corners weren't cut. The love triangle wasn't drug out to where you want to beat someone up or kill yourself. LOL! And it was a happy ending. Okay, I cried when her boyfriend died at the beginning. He was such a sweet guy. (I'd like to find out this person's name because I can't read Japanese/Korean in the credits and he's not credited in the review pages. Errrgh.)

This movie had me laughing at the subtitlers. Poor guys. The Korean and Japanese was switched off sooooo much that I'm sure it just made their heads spin.

Lee Jun Ki


Jo Hyun Jae

Nine Tailed Fox

Okay, I was going to give this high reviews until I got to the last 5 minutes of the last episode and I was not-a-happy-camper. The ending ruined it for me. *spoiler* After watching sixteen, one-hour episodes, I was just sure for a happy ending. Oh, hell no. I had to cry for an hour. Why? Why? Why? Eeerrgh!

The story goes like this. A boy and a girl both born on the same day of the same year under a full-red moon were destined for "greater" things. The girl, Hae-In/Si-Yon, was born to a clan of nine tailed foxes (and NO this story has NOTHING to do with the anime Naruto.) The boy, Min-Woo, is all-human. On their 12th birthday, both of them exchange lockets with pictures of each of them inside them. As the birthday party progresses, a group of specially trained "ninjas" come and kill the families of the boy and girl. The boy believes the girl was killed and the girl thought the boy was killed. Later on is the story, we find out that it was a planned kill to kidnap Hae-In.

Years later, Kang Min-Woo (Jo Hyun Jae) has grown up to become a cop. Yun Hae-In has changed her name to Si-Yon and is a specially trained warrior who helps protect the clan of nine tailed foxes. In this time period, the clan aren't too keen on humans. Only a specially select few humans know of the existence of nine tailed foxes. Nine tailed foxes need human livers once a month to eat, to survive. Well, humans don't want to give those up. Hence the dilemma. As Min-Woo investigates an organ smuggling ring, he comes across "Si-Yon" who was there to stop her clan from buying and selling of fresh, human liver. Which, by the way, was against the rules for they,the nine tailed foxes, are only allowed to eat the livers of human corpses so as to keep their identity secret. Min-Woo, believing Si-Yon (who at the time covers her face with a veil) and her group were apart of the smuggling ring, chases them through a junk-yard and fights Si-Yon. As Si-Yon pulls her arm back with sword in hand, sees the locket that her and Min-Woo exchanged as children and faulters. She then starts to wonder if her first-love was still alive. But then, her partner Moo-Young (Jun Jin), strikes Min-Woo and knocks him out. They are then able to escape.

The drama unfolds as bits and pieces of thier childhood comes back and how it is inter-twined with their adult lives and what part of fate and destiny becomes reality. Lots of action, suspense, drama, and, of course, romance.

Jo Hyun Jae

This is the first drama I've seen with this actor. I was pleasantly impressed and look forward to seeing more from him.

Jun Jin

OMG! I could not find an ugly picture of him. I'm putting him second in line to my Bi (Rain). Gorgeous. Mmm, mmm! Jeon Jin, Jun Jin, or however you want to spell his name is a member of the Korean supergroup Shinhwa. JJ played the part of Moo-young so well that I never would have guessed that he was actually a member of a boy band, let alone the rapper of the group. LOL! Wow! I'm hooked for this guy and I've already started my photo collection. *wink, wink*

Park Joon Seok

He was a little scary lookin' in the drama Nine Tailed Fox but as I viewed many a picture of him online discovered he is quite nice looking...hehe.

Uhm Tae Woong

I just did a search on Tae-woong and found some interesting shows I'd like to see from him. One, My Love, is a movie about 4 couples who fall in love. Anyway, Tae-woong played the role of Sa-joon in Nine Tailed Fox. His role was pretty much guardian/big brother to Si-yon. You couldn't help but feel sorry for him because of the part he was given. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. He had me convinced in his adversity to his duty and his friendship to Moo-young. He did a great job. And, yes, he was cute to look at too.