Ju Hwan and What's up

By KCOMMENTS

Im Ju Hwan in What’s Up would likely be my surprise Korean actor this year. Not sure how many times I’ve watched this Stupid Cupid, mostly because of  Im Ju Hwan’s range of expressions. From a bad boy on the street, captured by music. His eyes were so expressive, harmoniously in tune with the music scores. You have to see when he cried. I wondered why I didn’t notice him before. Can’t wait to hear him sing, his friends are wary now that he wouldn’t sing, so THAT is interesting!

 

But this is not to be mistaken with the drama itself, still not sure how I feel. One thing though, the vocals in this drama seems pretty solid and that’s the benefit. It’s too early to tell, so still hang in there. Tonally, it’s realistic and bittersweet imo.

 

And this is  probably the coolest of the year for me. Take a look at the cinematography, the editing, the acting/singing/dancing. Aww…just love.  Like a dream sequence of a talented young man who can’t seem to get pass his nervousness in public. Why so cool?

What’s Up Press Conference

What’s Up premiered this past weekend on MBN, a new cable channel that’s trying to take a slice of the Big Three Broadcasters’ pie. I’ll save my thoughts on the first two episodes for another post, but here are some photos from the press conference. While usually the press conference is done a week before it airs, it looks like this one was recently held – on December 6 in the afternoon, Seoul time.

As for the man of the hour? Looks to be Daesung, who’s making his first big appearance since his car accident back in May. Oh Man Seok, Jo Jung Suk, and Im Joo Eun attended to represent the actors with screenwriter Song Ji Na and director Song Ji Won.

What's up

Profile

• TV Show: What's Up?
• Revised romanization: Watstcheu Eop
• Hangul: 왓츠 업
• Director: Song Ji-Won
• Writer: Song Ji-Na
• Network: MBN
• Episodes: 20
• Release Date: December 3, 2011 -- February 5, 2012
• Runtime: Sat. & Sun. 21:00
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea

What’s Up posters are finally out

Finally! “Now Is Our Time,” indeed. (Now is past time, I’d say.)

What’s Up has been in stasis forever, and even though it’s premiering this weekend — yup, tomorrow — we’ve seen and heard very little from it. Posters are out now, though, so at least there’s a teeny bit of movement in the promo front, which has been practically nonexistent for months.

The drama set in a university musical theater department is taking up the weekend prime-time slot on new cable station MBN, and will air episodes on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Given that its rocky production road has pushed back its premiere by over half a year, the drama has long since completed filming and will be 100% pre-produced. While pre-produced dramas haven’t had much luck hitting the popularity jackpot with the public, they do tend to boast higher than average production values. (That doesn’t mean pre-produced is automatically better — that’s dependent on writing quality — but it usually means pretty.)

Get a Glimpse of What’s Up

By silkyjade

December 3 can’t come any sooner. As an unswayed member of Team Park Kyu (more on this later), I am so looking forward to the forever-anticipated musical drama What’s Up, hence the google search on the broadcast date confirmation. After several clicks of rummaging, I came across a video of Arirang’s interview with the cast on set. PARK KYU!!… ehrm.. Im Joo Hwan Oppa!! How I miss you much! (I’m so embarrassed writing this as I’m not used to this fangirly side of me, but what can I do? I can’t help it when it comes to my forever love PK). After watching “Tamna the Island” in its entirety, I completely fell in love with PK the character and of course IJH the actor, natch, though to a lesser degree (IJH’s part of PK, after all. He portrays PK marvelously. Sometimes you just wonder when one ends and the other starts. This kind of actor-character duality never fails to bemuse me).

What’s Up finds a new home on cable

Score one more for new cable channel MBN, which will open with a bang this December with a number of projects, including the much-neglected What’s Up, which has struggledto find a home on broadcast television for the better part of a year now.

The drama set at a theater and performance arts department of a university features a line-up of rising stars, headed by Im Joo-hwan (Tamra the Island), Daesung (of Big Bang), and Im Joo-eun (Hon). What’s funny is that early buzz was all about the Ims and Daesung, but now the focus has shifted to include another newbie, Kim Ji-won, who’s made a splash recently in High Kick 3. It’s always interesting to watch projects out of the order in which they were completed, because Kim was given hardly any attention in the first go-around and will now likely overshadow some of the secondary leads like Jang Hee-jin (that spoiled brat princess from Myung-wol the Spy) and Lee Soo-hyuk.

It’s kind of a bummer that What’s Up won’t be seen on broadcast; I know that for most of us fans outside of Korea, it doesn’t really matter where a drama airs as long as we get to see it. But at home, it’s a difference of ratings around 1% and ratings anywhere from 5% (for the dismal) up to teens (modest success) to 20% and 30% (bona fide hits). I would have thought that screenwriter Song Ji-nah’s name would have been enough to guarantee a pickup (she wrote some mega hits like Legend and Sandglass, as well as early campus drama KAIST and one of my favorites, Story of a Man). But there are no absolutes in showbiz, apparently.

Furthermore, with Im Joo-hwan now serving out his military duty and Daesung’s car accident marring his public image (even if he wasn’t the drunk driver, the death of an involved party is bound to darken the mood), I wonder if publicity will be muted for the show. That said: At least we get to see it!

What’s Up will air 18 episodes total, at 60 minutes each. The first episode airs on Saturday, December 3, on MBN.

From: Dramabeans

'Heart trouble' Im Joo-hwan stationed at TI&E

Actor Im Joo-hwan was admitted to military in May and suffered from heart trouble and is now stationed at TI&E.

STYLE H

Ju Hwan in the military hospital for 'heart problems'

It seems that Im Ju Hwan has been in the hospital for 3 months due to heart problems since his admittance into the army. However, he's not considering early discharge from the army.

Im Ju Hwan - the enlistment day

Im Ju Hwan reported for his two-year mandatory military service on May 17. He met with reporters and fans to say goodbye outside the gates of the Nonsan training camp in South Chungcheong Province. He wore a black jacket and cap, but he doffed the cap to display his new military haircut.

Ju Hwan enlists for the military

On May 16th, Im Ju Hwan left one last message for his fans before his military enlistment today.
Through his Twitter, he wrote, “In 12 hours, I’ll be enlisting in the army. I’m so sorry towards everyone I won’t be able to see, and I’m thankful for the fans who love me. The day after my enlistment is my birthday, and I feel like this will be an opportunity for me to start fresh. Anyway, I’d like to say goodbye to everyone. Please be healthy!”

In response, fans commented, “Thank you for leaving a message”, “By the time you come back, ‘What’s Up’ will have hit jackpot and you will be worth billions”, and “I’ll wait for you while watching ‘What’s Up.’”

After five weeks of basic training, he’ll be serving as an active duty soldier for the next 21 months. His drama, “What’s Up“, is currently waiting to go on air.

Credit: http://www.allkpop.com/2011/05/actor-im-joo-hwan-enlists-for-the-army

Favorite Male Lead Character

By Xiaoxin

For the people that know me, this should be a no brainer answer. If you’re my friend and you got it wrong…….    My Favorite Male Lead Character of ALL time, be it may a drama or movie of ANY language, is…

Lim Ju Hwan’s PARK KYU in Tamra Island

What’s Up hits airwaves in March

Probably. A few media outlets are reporting that musical drama What’s Up is a “strong contender” for a March 21 premiere, while another announces it as a done deal. Take that as you will.

In either case, the good news is: After more than a year in pre-production, we’re finally close to seeing the anticipated series, which boasts a pretty solid cast as well as a very strong writer in Song Ji-nah, who wrote Story of a Man, Legend, andSandglass. Two of those are in my all-time top list, while the other…was interesting, despite not being my particular cuppa tea.

And while I am completely into Dream High, I have hopes that What’s Up might even do it one better, because in addition to the similar music-school setting, What’s Up has focused its casting on actors who can act as musical students, rather than using idols with limited acting experience. (And if I must nitpick Dream High for a fault, it’s that the acting sometimes falls short of emotionally convincing. It’s a minor quibble in the scheme of things, but still — imagine if the rest of the cast were up to Kim Soo-hyun’s level. How awesome would that be?)

With What’s Up, we have two very charismatic budding stars in Im Joo-hwan (Tamra the Island) and Im Joo-eun (Hon). And while I’ve yet to see pop star Daesung in anything, I’m hopeful about him; he conveys a personable vibe and has been beefing up his acting skills with musical-theater experience.

The proposed timeslot is SBS’s Monday-Tuesday 9pm hour, which, funny enough, was just announced as a cancelled slot. If the drama airs as suggested, it’ll follow Paradise Ranch. However, according to other reports, SBS is still deliberating whether to slot in a drama or new variety programming in that 9pm hour.

What’s Up is currently 90% done with filming, and will be entirely pre-produced by the time it hits the air, whether that’s in March or (gulp) later.

From: Dramabeans.

Mnet Viewer Gratitude Event (04/02/2011)

“Mnet Viewer Gratitude Event“ was carried out live on February 4th at Tokyo’s Shibuya CC Lemon Hall.

At this 3rd annual event,  Im Joo Hwan and orther artists such as Girl’s Day, Supernova, Smash, Japanese artist Mogendanshi (Forever Man)  showed up to showcase themselves.