Saturday, March 17, 2007

Jaime's Den - Desperately Seeking BYJ

Sorry for the delay. Jaime sent me this way way back, just got a chance to post it. Thanks Jaime for sharing. She posted it on Quilt, as usual.


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Dear sisters …… Do you have enough of this long stretch of silence from our handsome prince? Are you going nuts wondering what he is doing at this very moment? Are you missing him like fish without water, eating ramen without kimchi or Tiger Woods without his golf clubs? Well well midear, welcome to the club – the ‘Desperately Seeking BYJ Fan Club’.

I came in as a fan at the beginning of his hibernation period – Dec 2005, just after his whirlwind promotion tours for April Snow. Throughout the past year, even though there were numerous delays and denial of his appearances, there was still no shortage of his news, CFs and filming updates. We were kept busy and satisfied with his warm words, touching acts and gorgeous pictures.

They say ‘absence makes the heart grows fonder’, but if you are experiencing the following symptoms :

- Starring out afar with a blank expression as if you’ve been captured by aliens and released

- Walking like a zombie, keeps bumping into walls and getting all kinds of bruises that people thought you’ve just lost a boxing match to Rocky

- Following any 5’11”, pony-tailed, muscular hunk for several blocks and have a restraining order filed against you

then you are ‘certified’ missing him! Wait sis, before you completely pull

all your hair off your head or drown your pillows with tears, please allow me to offer a few remedies to keep that BYJ fire burning in these cold wintry days (hehe sorry for sisters living south of latitude 20N , you just have to turn your air-conditioning a bit higher).

For the couch potato :

It’s time to catch up or re-immerse yourself in his old dramas. You can check out all minute details, scrutinize the logic of every scene and pause at his handsome face for as long as you want. Believe it or not, I actually ‘fast-forwarded’ all 56 episodes of ‘A Sunny Place of the Young’ to swoon over the ruggedly handsome director Sukjue! ~@@~

For the neat freak :

Isn’t about time to organize those hundreds of drool-worthy pictures and videos that you have hastily downloaded onto your disk? Let’s see, should we categorize it in chronological order, by dramas and events, colour of his clothes, thickness of his chest or simply from handsome to handsomest?

What about those precious BYJ souvenirs that you’ve been collecting? Why not take them out of your treasure box and savour it once again? (just a reminder : please wear your white gloves to avoid any finger prints on the face of our handsome prince)

For the intellectual :

If you are in this group, you are in luck. There are thousands (I dare say thousands) of precious articles, interviews, analysis, fan fictions floating around various sites and blogs. You can start right here in Quilt and check out its fantastic collection of fan fictions. For a list of recommended articles, vods and everything else about him, I suggest start off with the first page of SOOMPI which liezle and frances have so diligently consolidated for us. To get an insight of his person, I suggest going into the forum of Joonsfamily, the famous ‘fumi analysis’ and magazine interviews all reside there.

Hehe, and then it’s almost impossible not to know about the famous happiebb blog which is like a CNN/Entertainment Tonight/Oprah all rolled into one. Not only that you can get all her insiders information, it’s so much fun to read her humorous writing and enjoy her warm hospitality. Oh oh, and while you’re there, please read her post picks and her ‘Follow YJ’s trail’ is more exciting than a biography! (um hm bb, I’ll be collecting my advertising fee later, ok?)

For the eager beaver :

If you are in this category, I have to make a ‘major’ Korean bow to you. Yours truly have attempted N times to sit in front of the computer and read Paintshop tutorial, study HTML hoping to measure up to other sisters and post something a bit more ‘sophisticated’ and ‘civilized’. But 5 minutes (I swear, 5 minutes) into the first page, my body will begin to have an allergic reaction to the English language – my eyelids become as heavy as lead, my neck becomes as soft as jello and my head will start bopping onto the monitor. This allergy can only be resolved by yours truly grabbing a big soft cushion and doze off in the couch zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

For the social butterfly :

Hahaha, you know who you are! The ones who constantly have that red ‘New Mail’ signal in their mailbox and spending all their time replying to emails. You are on every distribution list in the BYJ world, so you end up getting 50 copies of the same joke, and are ‘threatened’ to return or forward those sentimental messages to 5 more of your ‘true’ friends or else ….! I congratulate you if you are in this prestigious category, this means your BYJ sisters really love you and cherish you as a true friend. How about spreading your love and warmth to other sisters during this down time and build more friendships? You’ll be amazed at how much love you’ll receive in return. J

Any one of these interests you? No? OK, what about pursuing what you always want to do, maybe lose that extra 5 pounds? Tell me, who doesn’t have 5 extra pounds to lose? Maybe spring cleaning, a wardrobe revamp? Try to catch up on that book or craft you’ve been putting aside? In any case, I hope you dear sisters will have a wonderful, warm and safe winter. Please emerge when TWSSG comes out, see you in spring!

Where is the book

Saw this posting from Marissa a few days ago, still couldn't forget about it. I want to record it down here and work on it since it mentioned a book I am really interested in - People Who Love. I would like to get hold of this book, and hopefully it is translated into English or Chinese, a language that I can understand. Thanks Marissa again for sharing!!!


Books About Bae Yong Joon's Works Appear Rapidly In Japan


Despite his absence at the official press conference for the drama "The Legend," Korean top celebrity Bae Yong Joon's popularity is ever the same. As if to validate this, the recent publishing of a book version of the drama "Did We Ever Love" (Japanese title "People Who Love") is receiving much attention lately.

Beginning this month of March, the "People Who Love" had appeared in bookstores and it includes a present from Bae Yong Joon. Goto Yuko, who is a big fan of Bae Yong Joon, is so passionately enthralled with Bae Yong Joon¡¯s character Kang Jae Ho, that she made this book in order to spread and share the attractiveness of the story.

There is a detailed introduction about Jae Ho's charisma, the lessons learned from "People Who Love," the world of "People Who Love," the character relationships in the drama, Jae Ho's feelings, and etc. Afterwards, there are also thoughts about Bae Yong Joon as Jae Ho, Jae Ho's fashion, etc, as well as the on location reports of Jae Ho's house, college, and the seafood market.

Ever since a few years ago, books about the works in which Bae Yong Joon appeared have been published one after the other. Starting with the publishing of Fall in Love with the Prince of Smiles from "Hotelier" and "Winter Sonata," by novelist and reporter Mukoyama Masako a number of books are still being published about Bae Yong Joon. This year, Yahata Kaoru¡¯s "Yon-sama's Path" has become the best-seller on the Japanese Amazon website.

The Japanese fan's love for Bae Yong Joon can be seen in the internet fan-fiction novels such as "Winter Sonata By The Fans: The After-story From A Cell phone," and the "Korean Drama Creative Theater." Last year in June, the climax of this phenomenon reached after Satovic's "Yon-sama Theater."

Until now, among the dramas with Bae Yong Joon, there have been the most books published about "Winter Sonata," then "Hotelier", and then "Did We Really Love."

Source: BROASIA.com
http://www.broasia.com/lwboard/lwboard.php...pg=1&no=201

An Asian 007 to Be - Hotelier


Read a lot about BYJ agreed to appear in a Japanese version of Hotelier. It's a good news to me for I expect to see his short-hair appearance after so many years of long-hair-do since his Winter Sonata success. Another delight I am holding is that I expected the Hotelier to become an Asian version of franchise show like 007 or Star War. I've always believed that it is a good idea for BYJ to start an Asian franchise movie/drama derived from his success of Hotelier. Myself and other fans have been expressing this thirst a number of times. Check out my previous posting on Mr. Shin and Camille's posting about fan family's fantasizing of Hotelier. Also there is a dreamyj web site dedicated to collecting BYJ related fanfics, check it out.




It is said that the Japanese version of Hotelier was inspired by the original Korean drama Hotelier, where BYJ played a cold-minded M&A expert who found his true love during a Hotel merge in Korea. The drama was categorised as biz-war type. Will the Japanese remake of Hotelier start a franchise in Asian show-biz history? I think the biz-war love story fits the bill better than Asian 007 for BYJ. BYJ is smart in accepting this role. I just hope this time his role has more appearances in this version of Hotelier than the original one.

It's fun to share this episode written by Saphire on her fanfic of Detective Shin, isn't it cute? Aren't we all like her, losing sleep for Frank Shin?

Translation for Leo:

Boss, yesterday your big fan Saphire (might as well switch
that to me H) sent her letter again to our office. Aih, I
thought she needed our help, but who knows, she still
needed nothing from us. She just once more wrote you
another jolly long poem (how about replace that "poem"
to "blog posting" for H), I am so moved by reading it. Wow
... Basically that Miss Saphire (in this case Lady H) has no
longer been able to sleep at night now! Such a pitiful girl!



Translatoin for Frank Shin:

Dong Hyuk looked out at the road scenes of cars flying by
the window of his limo, the corner of his mouth was lifting
a line of mild smile, it looked like a tad blissful gladness, or
like a tiny self mockery. Is it really like what Leo has been
chattering about from day to day? There are so many girls
in this world losing sleep for me Shin Dong Hyuk. They
must all be pure, innocent, artless, lovely girls.


It's gonna be a busy 2007 after Japanese Hotelier and TWSSG are airing. Stock up your sleep!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Yes I Saw Him!

Ok, got to write this down. It happened on Monday 3/12/2007. Had a gathering lunch with friends and colleagues. It was an extra long one, thank goodness there was a TV program airing. I have not been a TV viewer, especially after I got to know BYJ, I have not been watching TV for about 2+ years. Why? No more time, got to be selective. I'd either watch the DVDs that I rent or bought, or go online to watch the program that I like. Mind you I have only bought a couple of dozen DVDs in my life and they are exclusively BYJ's, as for online TV program, there is only one I ever being watching from time to time - EWTN. A "narrow-minded" person I am, I am happy to accept this title, since I know I have limited energy and time for being more versatile. What else time I can have after family, kids, work, community service, BYJ internet viewing/chatting after limited eating and sleeping time?

Now this was a Korean restaurant and it always has a TV turned on. Each time I go, I either sit facing back to it, or if it was in my sight, once in a while I'd threw a brief glance at it mindlessly.

This time around, God knows, I sit right in front of it, and since the lunch was super super long long, I started glancing at that TV more frequently. All of a sudden, OMG! there appeared that only man who can fix my eyeballs - our prince! Boy that was a nice surprise! I've never ever expected that! Now what do I do? I am afraid my colleagues would be questioning why my eyes were staring at the TV so intently, Hahaha... I have to be skillful at pretending paying not much attention to that screen but at the mean time, really paying intensive attention to that heavenly-given TV 'cos I knew it's gonna be swift for such news.

The sound was muted, but even if it was on, I would not be able to understand, it's a Korean TV program. Now I am wondering what channel it was. That will be my question to the owner for my next visit. I can tell she is delighted to see me each time I went there, ever since I tried my only Korean word "Kangmesonmida" (I am pretty sure the spelling sucks).

No need to understand what the reporter was talking on that TV, I was certain it was about BYJ's appearance in the Hallyu Expo Opening ceremony. Our prince entered the site, spoke to the reporter, and was revealed on the stage in that "magic show". I have seen the pics and vods on various bae-sites for the Hallyu Expo Opening ceremony. I have seen our prince almost everyday on the internet. But seeing him on a live TV program, the feeling was completely different. Can understand that? It's almost second to seeing him in person. It is one step further to see him as a real person comparing to watching him in the dramas/movies from home DVD, or from the internet on the PCs. I guess if I don't see him in person in my life, Monday's "TV encounter" would be my most significant "real-life" encounter moment so far.

Thinking about it, my second most significant "real-life BYJ encounters" were seeing his Winter Sonata posters in the trains of Tokyo subway and the Flavono with his pic on the wrapper in a supermarket close to Kikuna station of Yokohama. I still vividly remember my brain surge when I saw his pictures in the train and the supermarket in Japan. I envy our Japanese sisters who can see him so easily almost everywhere in their daily life. Seeing him on TV, in concerts, reading books about him is only a dream to me, but so reachable for them. As for Korean sisters, I don't even try to envy them, they know the language our prince speaks. They get all the chances to see him as they wish. They get direct news about him on TV, OMG, I don't want to think any more. It's better to maintain my peace of mind and be contend of what I can enjoy right now.

My "Monday TV Encounter" was a precious moment in my life time, worth mentioning in my journal, it must sound pretty silly to some people. If I say BYJ is the very person who successfully humbled me, no one would ever believe! I am so happy to live in such a silly state ever since this man enters my heart.

Now speaking of "narrow mindedness", if I were living in Japan or if BYJ is popular enough to be shown in the US TV program, I am afraid I would be a TV addict in addition to a PC addict today.

This is one of my favorite clips on youtube, a collection of BYJ's CMs, his Flavono CM is in. I like his unique hand-waving in the Lotte CM at the begginning of this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfAQAXnCu4

Saturday, March 10, 2007

TWSSG Gold&Silver DVD Segments


Check these out, if you have FLV Player, downloading the .flv file will be convenient to watch these clips from cafe.daum.net/byjfan, posted on baidu .

Clip 1 :

Guessing it's about the King shocked at the finding of the situations of the poor in his early times.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=6lTcLs0SVGM$&scrapable=no

http://211.233.40.58/daumblog/1001/24/3126924.flv


Clip 2 :

No BYJ, but I think the guy on the right is the eccentric guy who was trying to kidnap Kim Yun-hee in the Hotelier.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=NWvNiuXsk2g$&scrapable=no

http://211.39.137.119/daumblog/1001/32/3126932.flv


Clip 3 :

Love the song and the voice of the singer. Love this clip, YJ is absolutely grand!




http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=mImwkm-oSU8$&scrapable=no

http://211.233.40.58/daumblog/1001/2/3127002.flv


Clip 4 :

More action scenes.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=0YSQyYbNRrc$&scrapable=no

http://211.39.150.182/daumblog/1001/97/3135097.flv


Clip 5 :

Don't know what they are talking about, but the King's voice rocks!

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=_MtEjzn0OMQ$&scrapable=no

http://121.254.164.41/daumblog/1001/4/3135104.flv


Clip 6 :

Action scene, quite real comparing to some recent "flying" action movies.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=Y9pdlA90Mjs$&scrapable=no

http://121.254.164.36/daumblog/1001/13/3135113.flv


Clip 7 :

BYJ fell from the horse, hope he is all right.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=AWYJXbLE2wc$&scrapable=no

http://211.39.136.167/daumblog/1001/42/3135142.flv


Clip 8 :

The King on the horse, fighting scene.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerIn.swf?vid=X9unB6DF_x0$&scrapable=no

http://211.39.147.49/daumblog/1001/54/3135154.flv


Clip 9 :

A short version of TWSSG, must see! Quite long. Recommend download the .flv file and download the flv player.



http://www.mgoon.com/Player/Mgoon_Player.swf?VID=435297&PlayerType=1

http://121.254.164.58/mgoon/20000/73/228373.flv


And I love these pictures :






















Monday, March 05, 2007

BYJ's Virtues 101 - Prudence

Recently have no luxury of reading and writing for long. Thought might as well just write down whatever is on my mind at the moment.

The other day I ran across bb's blog and overheard some unpleasant comments made in KOB. This made me think about BYJ again. Of course, everyone knows by now that it is yet another BYJ syndrome of mine to relate any events, big or small, to BYJ.

What made BYJ popular? Some would say it's his heavenly look. Some would say it's his sensual body. Some would say it's his perfecting performance. Some would say it's his fascinating work. Or maybe it's his luck, or his charming personality. All of these are true, but one thing I would like to point out, is one of the keys to his success - PRUDENCE!

In my past education I was taught that there are four cardinal virtues in life - Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. And all the other virtues are derived from or grouped around them. The very first one of the four is Prudence. See how pivotal it is. Our BYJ mastered it by heart. By the way,take a good look at BYJ and you'll see that he has demonstrated all of the four cardinal virtues in his life.

A simple definition of Prudence is "right reason in action", writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. We need to dispose good practical reasons in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it. In another word, we need to think thrice before we take an action or say anything.

BYJ himself once commented about his success, was mostly due to his prudence (translated into Chinese is 谨言慎行). He has been prudence in selecting his roles, prudence in accepting CMs, prudence in commenting on political events, prudence in explaining morals of his movies, even prudence in answering questions in interviews, such as why he stopped eating spicy rice cakes. He is often viewed as slow in speaking, but I would think that is because he has been fast in thinking and prudence in examining what words and expressions would be proper to be released out of himself.

What makes a person popular? A simple answer would be a person who makes people happy. A person who does not hurt others. Imagine BYJ being judgmental, critical, negative to people around him, will he stay popular? I am sure as smart as BYJ, he knows this deeply. Why does BYJ smiles all the time? Won't he be tired of it? I've got an simple answer - because BYJ is prudent - courtesy is always welcome. No matter how tiring it takes, BYJ will always smile to his fans. Now matter how badly we fans begged him to stop smiling and do whatever he wishes to do, BYJ will always smile to his fans. Why? He answered "because I am happy", but I say Prudence! Even that answer was out of prudence.

Note prudence is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation.
It guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. BYJ's smiles are coming out of his Loving heart + Self control! They are all governed and measured by the prudence - careful thinking and control of his actions and speeches. One hurting word, one frown, will erase the effect of a thousand smiles. BYJ knows it clearly and he will never let it happen!

Can we learn something from him? We are all smart people. It will just take a little more effort of us to learn a little bit from the man we set our eyes on, then it is hopeful that this world may be a little happier.

Sounds like a pretty good lecturing, huh? Yes, it has been H's habit of lecturing herself since she has memory.