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As 2009 comes to an end, it is prime time to reflect on a year of heartbreak, love, betrayal, excess, unrequited love and of course “drama.” Thankfully I’m not talking about my own personal life but two of my favorite dramas of the year: Boys Before Flowers and Shining Inheritance. From these, two Korean drama actors emerged as heartthrobs (the bad boys turned good kind): Lee Min Ho (Gu Jun Pyo of BBF) and Lee Seung Gi (Sun Woo Hwan of Shining Inheritance). But who reigns supreme as the Korean Drama King of 2009?

Following Boys Before Flowers, Lee Min Ho picked up 9 commercial endorsements as a result of his work as the cocky but irresistibly handsome male lead. In addition, the F4 leader also won the Best New Actor award at the Baeksang Arts Award for his role as Jun Pyo (which oftentimes led to me resenting my own boyfriend for not taking me to New Caledonia for our anniversary). Boys Before Flowers definitely put Lee Min Ho on the star map but he has yet to do anything since BBF other than commercials (including a music video commercial with 2NE1’s Sandara Park) and print ads. But I’m not gonna hate (have you seen that Dunkin’ Donuts commercial? YUM!)

On the other hand, Lee Seung Gi had already established himself as a singer and as the loveable goof on variety shows before making the jump into acting. There was a lot of doubt that “huh-dang” Seung Gi could pull off the bad boy persona of arrogant, spoiled and emotionally closed off Hwan but Lee Seung Gi definitely had me throwing pillows at my television out of frustration with his character! In addition to starring in the drama, Lee Seung Gi kept himself busy with recording an album (released in the later part of 2009), filming hit variety show 1 Night 2 Days whose ratings boomed because of the “Lee Seung Gi Effect,” preparing for his comeback on the musical stage, and now co-MC’ing Strong Heart with 1N2D co-star Kang Ho Dong. Oh, and don’t forget the poor boy also got hit with swine flu.

In conclusion, the year definitely goes to Lee Seung Gi for taking the Korean entertainment industry by storm and showing no signs of slowing down. Lee Min Ho, you still have next year…so announce your next drama already!

Written by Vanessa Nguyen of Compassion in My Fingertips.

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This blog posting is part of The Ningin End of the Year Special.

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EoTY: The Top 10 MVs of 2009:

Definitely agree with Boa’s Energetic MV. She dances too well.

And wasn’t the MV for Doushite Kimi Wo Suki Ni Natte Shimattan Darou? (Why Did I Fall in Love With You?) released in 2008? No need to worry. I know the perfect replacement: Exile’s Yasashii Hikari MV. Ah, I love bittersweet stories. (I think I’m a bit of sadist)


Celebs that really blew our minds in 2009:

TOP 5 GIRL GROUPS
1) T-ara - common, I know I’m a biased fan but you know they’re great. Their Absolute album was just their FIRST ALBUM but sold over 500K in less than a week. Crazy? Probably, but they deserved it. Every song on the album is 5 stars!
2) SNSD - What first… who can forget the Gee craze? Would drive me nuts if you started singing it out of tune - is that possible? Then it was Tell Me Your Wish, and Chocolate Love. SNSD really gathered a lot of fans with their hit GEE. So much that STAND no longer stands, hah get it? :D
3) 2NE1 - these girls showed that they had a large fan base even before they debuted. Lollipop, Fire, I Don’t Care and their awesome album. No doubts on this one here! Not only that, but every girl group would be constantly compared to the almighty 2NE1 when they debuted. Trouble is… 2NE1 will always win the battle raspberry
4) After School - is it just me or did they just debuted this year as well? These girls have been through rough times… and what I mean by that is ‘been through so many member changes’! First it was meant to include Son Dambi with the other girls, then it went without her with only 5 members. After they made a comeback with a 6th member, UEE; and then SoYoung dropped out and Nana and Raina came in to make it a 7 member girl group. Confusing? Yes, but no mater what, these girls deserves some recognition. Love their most recent album. HOT HOT HOT!
5) 4Minute – alright, so I admit that I’m not a huge fan of 4minute. But I have to admit that the girls have worked extremely hard and improved A LOT. They recent single was definitely something I enjoyed and grown to love them more. I guess all those tears Hyuna shredded came in use after all.

TOP 5 BOY BANDS
1) 2PM – So I’m still not a huge fan, and I really don’t know all their names. But I can’t hide the fact that they deserve this spot. Losing a member caused some controversy and in fact might be thought as a publicity stunt, but who knows. Even without their 7th member, 2PM still made hits and continue their road to stardom, well done guys :D
2) MBLAQ – HOT HOT! They would make girls squeal from miles away! Anything else? YEAH YEAH YEAH! I’ll continue my fan girling some other time, but I just have to give it to them for being one of the best guy groups of 2009 smile
3) B2ST – of course where there’s MBLAQ, there’s B2ST. Hehe, pretty much the same as MBLAQ! *squeals* alright enough. Wonder what these guys have in store for us next year, “난 청말 MYSTERY MYSTERY MYSTERY OW ! ~”
4) SHINee – where’s Anabel? wink Hehe… they made quite an entrance to 2009 with the battle of the boy bands. They have done a wonderful job in maintaining our interests with the busy buzz of all the rookie boy groups. Well done, SHINee! Everyone say Key, everybody say CHICKIN’!!
5) Super Junior – Sorry sorry for leaving you guys to the 5th spot. But this isn’t in any order so be happy :D this will probably come in first place as one of the best songs of 2009; right next to gee gee gee gee geee!!!


Yes to your top ten. I dunno though I think Arashi should be in there. :D They pretty much owned Japan this year not to mention it was their 10th anniversary.


No Gackt? :\


Wowow interesting stories


my top albums are:
2ne1 - first mini
G-Dragon - heartbreaker
Brian - Manifold (even though it came late in the year)
SHINee - Y.O.U. and Juliette
4minute - 4 muzik
SNSD - Genie mini album


yep SM definately covered all spectrums this year lol


yess! kingdom hearts <3


EoTY: Best Video Games of the Decade:
Fantastic list Alexa. You bring it!
Like I said before, if you have had a chance to play Ff9, that was indeed one of the games of the decade! (2000)

I havent played Disgaea. Is too hard? Tactics is too hard for me


I agree with Jinra… needs more G-Dragon. :D


i wish SNSD the best on next year
and i miss jaebum :( i wish he came back


EOTY Albums: Good choices, its tooo easy to agree with all of those smile


LOL at the Epic Failure one. XD


These Random stories are crazy-especially the one in Malaysia. That man must have been freaking out majority when he woke up.


My top 10 Kpop songs of 09:

1. Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra...I love me some sexy hip swaying. Plus this song gave them the attention that BEG needed. They are quite talented.
2. Kim Tae Woo - Love Rain
3. 2pm - Heartbeat
4. After School - Ah & Because of You...I agree with Siralop. After School (along with 2NE1) is doing something different compared to other girl groups. and I like it, a lot!
5. 2NE1 - Their whole mini-album (EP). I love it.
6. Park Bom - You and I
7. SNSD - Tell Me Your Wish...Hell of a lot better than Gee. plus, the short shorts help wink
8. FT Island - I Hope. FT Island is pretty amazing. Thank god they can actually play instruments~
9. G-Dragon - Heartbreaker...despite the controversy, I can’t stop listening to this.
10. Suju - It’s You. At first Sorry, Sorry was the only Suju song I liked. But to me, It’s You was much better

If I were to include non-idol music, this list would be totally different :D


KPOP

1. Brown Eyes: Their whole third album is amazing and they never get the attention they really deserve. Still recognized but under the radar nonetheless. I am so happy they settled their differences and came back together as a duo (even though I like their individual projects too). Flawless voices, tight harmonies, dedication (worked on one song per month for this album for a total of 14 tracks), and hard work into making this album one the best Korean albums of 2009.

2. Brown Eyed Girl: Abracadabra-I was SO happy when BEG came out with this song after a good amount of time not getting their “15 minutes of fame.” They are finally getting it and it makes me smile since they definitely have the talent to make it.

3. 2PM: Again and Again-This song really grabbed my attention and caught me off guard. I really don’t care for male singing groups so when 2PM put this song out, I wanted to know more about them and now I like them. smile

4. After School: First Mini Album-This group is definitely different and offer things other than whatever other female groups are coming out with. I feel that they bring out the mature and fun sound while showing the sensual dancing that only Korean Female artists are supposed to be known for and change things up. I’m looking forward to see what they have next.

5. Chae Yeon: Shake-I don’t think Chae Yeon gets credit for her talent and it’s a shame because she makes all females performers step up their game, particularly when singing live.

6. 4minute: Hot Issue-I don’t care what people say, I like 4minute and this is a better song than Musik. They bring the word fierce into KPOP for female groups and are unapologetic about it-that works for them.

7. SNSD: Tell me Your Wish- I was wondering when SNSD was going to make me happy and come out with a song that I would actually like. Then after the annoying Gee song and all of the other ones that make me mad because I don’t see their potential, comes Tell Me Your Wish. I hope they make more songs like this and prove me wrong.

8. Son Bam Di & After School: Amoled- I was excited for this though I had to leave this song alone and come back to it because I was into some other music at the time. Nonetheless, I like this song and collaboration. They should do this more often...then again I wish cell phone commercials were like this in the US. It would help our economy.

9. f(x): Chocolate Love- I like both versions but f(x) had the better of the two. Plus I do like f(x) and what they are coming out with so far.

10. Jang Yoon Jung: Oh My- I love this song-especially when Kara sung part of this during the Cheosuk Special this year. I haven’t heard the song in a while and had forgotten the artist and the title so when Kara did it, I searched, found it, and have been singing and humming to this ever since. I know it’s an old song and it’s trot music but one can never appreciate music without listening to music that is in the past or is older-particularly if it’s from one’s originally country. Without that old type of music, we wouldn’t have KPOP today.


karens2 - 12/28/09 3:33 am
JinraIlustrisimo - 12/27/09 9:21 pm

Aw man, needs more G-Dragon.

True

Who would you have on your list Karen?


JinraIlustrisimo - 12/27/09 9:21 pm

Aw man, needs more G-Dragon.

True


there are sooo many to list X]
i like After School too and Brown Eyed Girls


ooo, spending the last few days summarizing the history of kpop in 2009 :]. I’ll “Stay Tune” [x


Aw man, needs more G-Dragon.


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