Random Notes - Vol 2, No. 2

Some random notes from around the media about Korean pop culture:

• 200 POUND BEAUTY is now officially the 10th-biggest Korean movie of all time, beating out JSA for the No. 10 spot. Does it have what it takes to surpass MY BOSS, MY TEACHER? 200 POUND is still selling around 45,000 tickets a day (during the weekdays), but starting yesterday, a lot of new competition hit the screens.
  
  
• Boa is now five for five in Japan, as her latest album there has gone No. 1. Too bad she is not selling much in her homeland any more (her last album, in 2005, was just the 14th-biggest seller of the year). Also funny that the reporter called her the "Korean Britney Spears". Too many inappropriate jokes there to even know where to start.
  
  
• Singers Se7en and Rain both seem to be going through rough patches at the moment. Seven's new TV drama, GUNG S (aka PRINCE WHO), has kicked off with less-than-stellar ratings (remember, you can always read the cached version of any Korea Herald article, even after the link turns into a for-pay archive story). And Rain apparently did not impress several journalists in his recent swing through Singapore and Hong Kong. I can echo those comments. Rain came to the press club here in Seoul back in October to talk about his tour, but he was so vague, evasive and inarticulate in this answers, he really annoyed most of the foreign journalists who showed up. Nice of him to take the time, but if he is going to take the trouble, he really should come prepared.
  
  
• Bae Yong-joon paid the most taxes of any Korean entertainer in 2006. Last year he made over $15 million (it is unclear in the article if they meant overall or just in Japan), despite not appearing in any movies or TV shows. Not bad for a down year. Look for his taxes to soar in 2007 as he appears in LEGEND (or what the KT calls "The Four Guardian Gods of the King Taewangsasingi"), beginning around May-ish. LEGEND should be the most expensive TV show ever made in Korea (topping $40 million), and a good chunk of that will be for the cast (of course, a much bigger chunk will go to sets and special effects).
  
  
• Incheon airport the world's best? I think not. Nor do I put much faith in any survey that calls the desolate hole that is Narita the world's No. 7 airport. Incheon Airport is certainly clean and modern, but it has a lousy selection of restaurants (compare it to, say, O'Hare, which has a Wolfgang Puck's, Pizzeria Uno's, Quiznos and more), and ridiculously bad immigration queues. Nothing like waiting in one of the three huge lines for foreigners while Koreans zip through in one of 20 empty rows. Certainly lets you know your place in a hurry. Extra-annoying because it is such an easily solvable problem.
  
  
• Too much negativity in today's post? Sorry about that. So do yourself a favor and check out the new Lee Sung-gang animated film, YOBI (or YEUWOOBI, depending on who you ask). It is a little childish, but, still, Lee Sung-gang does good stuff.