#song ju ha

[scorbleeo]

Drama Gossip: Jazz for Two

Source: Google Images

Han Tae Yi lost his will to live after the death of his older brother, who was a genius jazz pianist. To Tae Yi, transfer student Yoon Se Heon is truly an uninvited guest. Se Heon has been playing jazz that reminds Tae Yi of his brother since the first day he transferred to school and gets on Tae Yi’s nerves.

Se Heon also suspects that Tae Yi has a suspicious relationship with his friend Seo Do Yoon. Se Heon, who longs to play jazz freely and escape the eyes of his strict classical music professor father and Tae Yi, who wants to give up everything, was assigned to the same group for joint performance evaluation.

As they practice together, they find themselves developing complex emotions for one another. However, just as their relationship begins to deepen, Song Joo Ha, a senior student who was suspended from school, returns to school, and his presence begins to stir up things between Tae Yi and Se Heon.

Source: MyDramaList (2024)

Takes the Throne for Glossing Over Everything

Tell me why this show couldn't have done an hour per episode or give Jazz for Two more episodes? Is it due to budgeting? Because boy did this drama fall short thanks to how rushed it feels.

I actually enjoyed this drama. I really did. Unfortunately, I needed more.

For example, we really glossed over Doyoon and Juha's relationship. Juha saved Doyoon from some bullies. Okay, but why? Especially if dude's a bully himself too? Juha started bullying Doyoon. Okay, but why? Was it internalised homophobia? Something he was not aware he had until Doyoon made his move? That whole part where Juha practically called Doyoon disgusting was self-explanatory. However, Juha started feeling lost because Doyoon ignored his existence and he just do a 180 flip? The locker scene touched parts of my heart but Juha rationalising his previous actions was hella weak. And for Doyoon to immediately fall back into Juha's arms? Don't get me wrong, I freaking love the both of them. I just couldn't take how half-assed their story felt.

Unfortunately, the main couple's story felt glossed over at times too. Seheon's relationship with his father? The fact that his father was so strict with him yet when Seheon blew up and let it be known that he liked jazz over classical music, the father though strict, let Seheon do what he wanted. And then his father was never talked about again.

Also, Taeyi and his trauma? Or the final episode, that whole festival subplot.

Jazz for Two could have been a five-star watch if glossing over shit was not a strategy used constantly in the show...

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)

More BL productions from South Korea here: Love for Love's Sake | Love Tractor

[buttercup-barf]

This has to have been done a hundred times by this point, but. Regardless. I think I'm very funny.

[tuituipupu]

imagine k just cracks out the voguing on his toiset verse at böle

[roadtophantom]

Christine and her puppies (one more rabid than the other) - Cho Seung-woo, Song Eun-hye, and Song Won-geun

"After the war with House Phantom" - Son Ji-soo and Kim Ju-taek (aka House Phantom)

Son Ji-soo and Cho Seung-woo would master a photobooth.

Christine and a serial killer - Song Eun-hye and Choi Jae-rim

Giant Raoul things - Hwang Gun-ha and Son Ji-soo

Favorite candid shots from Phantom of the Opera Korea

[andaniellight]

don't wanna include context so they can seem like high school girls giggling to themselves after their crush reciprocated their hello-s

[glindaupland]

New POTO Korea pro-shot clips in this video from Daegu!

There's short interviews with fans and actors Kim Ju-taek, Song Eun-hye, Hwang Gun-ha, and Han Bo-ra The song clips are of Kim Ju-taek & Song Eun-hye (POTO/MOTN) and Song Won-geun & Song Eun-hye (AIAOY)

[temporarypenintraining]

found out that in the japanese dub of Veggietales, Larry has the same VA as L from Death Note. I will not be using this information wisely.

[somanykdramas]

MIDNIGHT ROMANCE IN HAGWON

GENRES: Drama, Romance

SUMMARY: How would you react if someone from your past reappeared and completely changed your future?

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Livingroom desks, casual hibachi, underground garages, textbooks, professional backstabbing, overwhelmed educators, first loves, Gangnam skyscrapers, SKY universities, beaches, and secret rendezvous.

HOT TAKE: This show's production is like no other kdrama I've watched before. The pace is deliberately slow, perhaps even drawn out at times, showing the viewer every small piece of a situation. Sometimes it works really well and makes you feel like you are watching real people in real situations--sometimes it hinders the experience completely, leaving you wondering why the PD left in 15 whole minutes of classroom lectures.

The romance between the MLs is indeed as 'adult' as they are promoting it, but I can't say that I fell for their chemistry as quickly or as hard as I have for others. I also feel like this show could have used at least a few more episodes to really give the viewers a proper close to the plot they spent so much time meticulously developing.

[bells-of-black-sunday]

♪ ♪ ♪

Music Inspo | Accepting

Hounds

And I will find Myself alone again And all my fears Become the dreams of other men

Pretty Lavinia

Mr. Pearl Akin Found in the penny fish carts Split wide open with salt upon his parts There's his top hat There's his waistcoat Where's the bank note? Pretty, pretty, pretty Lavinia

Take Me Back To Eden

My, my, those eyes like fire I'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre Come now, bite through these wires I'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired Reset my patient violence along both lines of a pathway higher Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire

[thefoooconspiration]

du är där när jag vaknar

baby, allt som jag önskat få

vet jag har inga svar

för du är allt jag vill ha ;

[yumenosakiacademy]

last night i found out tht 4 some reason listening 2 music slows me down i think?? part of me was thinking "well its prob bc i picked up my phone n had 2 select a song, n thus the weight n concentration etc etc of Using The Phone (which i already know inhibits me) is the causer of it. but then id take out my earbud after a song fails 2 autoplay n put it down n suddenly id b faster?? n w less pressure on my foot as well. so its like. will i lose the 1 thing tht i hav going 4 me on my walks now too. cant read or watch anything anymore n now no music either?? wow. i love being alive. i love existing. i love a huge chunk of my day being Missing as i walk in circles alone w my thoughts tht all scream tht this all isnt fucking worth it.

[roadtophantom]

Phantom of the Opera Korea nominated at the 8th Korea Musical Awards

Rookie (Male) - Kim Ju-taek and Hwang Gun-ha

Rookie (Female) - Son Ji-soo and Song Eun-hye

Leading role (Male) - Cho Seung-woo and Choi Jae-rim

Ensemble

Producers

Excellence Award (Musicals)

[quiltedlovers]

unfortunately every memory comes on when i hear that old song that we used to sing with the words all wrong and i remember the faces and familiar places and i sing along but acadia is gone

[glindaupland]

The Phantom of the Opera | Seoul, South Korea | October 8-14th, 2023 [REVIEWS]

Wow it's about time I posted these reviews that I kept lying about (this week! tomorrow! in 10 years!) Better late than never?

In this post I'll drop a few general things about the production, but the performances are analyzed in my reviews linked here. I recommend reading those all in order since I revisit points about actors I've made previously along the way to avoid repeating myself. Also leaving a disclaimer that these performances are from October so there are some changes in what the actors are doing now (with the exception of Jeon Dong-seok since he left in November) Apologies in advance for my wordiness, but this is more of a "release my feelings for my sake and if anyone else likes it that's cool too" kind of thing? Listen - I wrote a lot of notes on my performances there. So just go in knowing this is the more coherent version of my insane looking notes app!

Before I start I want to thank a few lovely friends who helped me out with this trip because it wouldn't have gone as well as it did without them!

Thank you to @lucygold95 for helping me so much with planning over the past months and for giving me the best time in Busan. Thank you @capitanogiorgio for all the shenanigans we went through and the most special time going to the 1500th and meeting Yoon Young-seok. Thank you to @fadinglandtragedy for the fun talks and the good advice before my trip! The best part of things like this is making friends of course! : )

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

| October 8, 2023 | October 11, 2023 | October 12, 2023 | | October 13, 2023 (M) | October 13, 2023 (E) | October 14, 2023 |

STAGE & THEATER

This was as close to the original staging as possible. So I was able to take it in one more (or I guess 6 more?) times post-Broadway closing. The Charlotte Theater is a lot smaller than the Majestic so every view was pretty solid in my opinion, even the second to last row. I took a video of my view from 4th row under the chandelier during the exit music on October 11th so you can see! The angel and chandelier are shown halfway through. I'd say 5th row was almost the cut off for the chandelier drop (that was my spot next day) Broadway seats in this area were always too expensive for me so I'm glad I was able to grab these spots for this production

There were photo zones you can take pics at which you've probably seen. One was a large rose wall, the other was the cute statue of their mascot 오유령. People also take forever lining up for the cast boards for photos and yes I was one of those people. Here's a comparison of the cast boards from the second season (pictures I found when reading old reviews on Naver) and the cast boards now (I forgot to take a photo of one on the top floor though)

I found this review where someone took more detailed clean photos than I did if you're curious about the layout and decorations!

MERCH AND GIFTS

The tickets had these designs! If you booked on Yes24, you received a special envelope and a ticket holder with the face of the Phantom performing for that show

I only didn't receive a second Ju-taek because that was booked on another site - Interpark (bottom middle ticket). I also received paper masks with printed autographs every day I went to commemorate the 200th performance of the run/100th for Seoul and the 1500th overall Korean performance. We used them for the curtain call photos on those two dates (with Jeon Dong-seok then Kim Ju-taek). There are multiple versions of the program book and at the time of writing this I have all except the Daegu one. The first Busan program book was pretty bare and only had the teaser pictures - the same was the case for my Les Mis program book in Busan. -There are different photos in each one, so to me it was worth grabbing them all. My third version signed by Kim Ju-taek is currently on display as you can see below! (The writing says "내 노래를 날게 해 주오 - Make my song take flight") Once again thank you to Lucy for this! 🥹❤️

Here's some of my POTO merch (including a spare cupsleeve from the coffee shop next door, I also had a keyring, but I forgot to show it) RIP to the second program book I sacrificed for scans I still have the pages stored/displayed though! I'm not wasteful! I'll have more to post soon after sharing these reviews

TRANSLATION

Let me emphasize this: my Korean abilities are limited, so don't look to me as the expert on this at all. But I'll still share my notes and perspective as an outsider who's studying The lyrics have changed quite a bit since 2001-2. There are still lines kept or songs that are mostly similar. MOTN had a lot of similarity to 2009-11 even with its changes, STYDI was identical to 2009-11, but Angel of Music was pretty different from even the last season, etc etc. The Phantoms all have unique lines sprinkled here and there, mainly in MOTN (this happens sometimes in Korean musicals). You get some things like random single line changes in some parts depending on the actor or different order/wording of the same lines as well. Just tiny diversions from the script. This is the case for the Christines and Raoul to a lesser extent. Additionally, actors are often permitted to do some occasional improvisation/ad libs. Some unique lines are pretty normal parts of their interpretations now, some appear depending on the feeling of the performance, some are one time only events. I'll mention some of the actor-specific ones and such in their actual reviews, but I have been trying to mark down all of the differences like these for example

Of course, some things obviously have to be adjusted to make sense because of cultural / linguistic reasons. So one example would be the "Wrote...written" line in Notes I. Firmin speaks rudely and informally, but quickly tries adding a more respectful ending particle 요 after Raoul and André give him a shocked 'what did you just say?' kind of look. So "대체 뭘 썼다고 하는 건데...요!" is pretty much like "What the hell are you saying I wrote?" André would look so embarrassed by this each time 🫣

퇴근길 / STAGE DOOR

Stage door doesn't really work the same as it does in places like New York, London, etc. Most of the time if an actor comes out it's more like a quick greeting or chat with the fans. Some actors (not in this case) might sign or take photos in designated spots, but it really depends and it's not so common. It's gotten more restricted ever since COVID as well. 퇴근길 -> "way home from work" is literally what this is called. Dong-seok did wave at us a few times happily after the 200th performance, Gun-ha briefly came out to thank fans after the 1500th while Ceci and I waited to meet Young-seok who had agreed to meet us. I did not have the time (or strength) for the Seung-woo mob, but he usually greets fans after shows.

I literally asked Yoon Young-seok directly on Instagram if Ceci and I could meet him and give him gifts because I figured it didn't hurt to try! When he agreed, my anxiety was not necessarily about meeting an actor, but more about my ability to express my thoughts in another language. But he was truly the sweetest guy and incredibly patient. I think he got that I understood everything he said, but that replying was a whole other challenge. I'm glad I was making enough sense that he was able to get my points and helped me finish sentences if I looked stressed about it 😂 I basically told him I had been planning this trip since the cast announcement because it was too perfect to miss and that I came for 6 shows. I really like to listen to his Phantom on the cast recordings and I thought he made the shows I had seen so far so much fun.

We both said where we were from (the US and France) and he was amazed. He was also shocked when I pulled out my original Korean cast recording (I still laugh thinking about the way he said "와, 세상에!" like "Wow, oh my god!" and enthusiastically took it agreeing to sign when I was mid-way asking him haha) I also thought it was funny when he asked Ceci if she saw his Phantom last season. We wish! But she mentioned she had gone to Busan a few times and he looked very touched and appreciative that we went to multiple performances 🥹 This poor man was tired he signed our things with November (11.13) though and he also spelled Ceci's name wrong first time, but it was the 1500th show though okay. And if he says it's November...who are we to question him? Ceci should also legally change names so he isn't wrong. Anyway, ramble over you can find the art we made for him in this post

OTHER

Here's just bonus fun I had that I will manage to connect to POTO despite it not being POTO because I love doing that. I mean I went because I like these musicals as well (otherwise I would've been foolish enough to go see Ben-Hur but I have, uh, standards for my plots sorry to Park Eun-tae 😭), but it's fun to point out these things. I'm happy to share my show experiences in a different post if anyone's interested in my thoughts on those

Rebecca

I went to see Rebecca, mainly focused on seeing a scheduled date for 이지혜 Lee Ji-hye (Ich) and 장은아 Jang Eun-ah (Mrs Danvers). The whole cast was fantastic. Some Korean musicals have special encore bits they do where the leads sing a part of a song from the show during bows so that was really fun. Unfortunately, we don't get to have fun at POTO like that haha

Lee Ji-hye was in Y&K Phantom as Christine in the same cast as Jeon Dong-seok (Erik), Yoon Young-seok (Gérard Carrière), and Lee Sang-jun (Cholet). Two other cast members in Rebecca were in Y&K as well - 에녹 Enoch (Maxim) who was Philippe and 신영숙 Shin Young-sook (Mrs Danvers) who was Carlotta. Sadly, they had such few shows this season due to a busy schedule, so I couldn't see them (when will trot give Enoch back to musicals). Original Korean ALW Raoul and Y&K Erik 류정한 Ryu Jeong-han was also on rotation as Maxim, but I picked another day for my show so I didn't see him either

Les Misérables

I went to opening night of Les Mis in Busan! It was the Dream Theater, same place POTO played at before. As many of you already know, Choi Jae-rim is playing Jean Valjean at the same time as the Phantom.

I could recognize him easily as the Phantom, but honestly when he appeared at the very start of Les Mis it took me a minute to process that it was him! While I did enjoy his Phantom a lot, I think I enjoyed his Valjean performance a little more. It was only opening night, so curious to see how things develop!

The actor who played Javert that night, 카이 Kai (stage name), was a former Y&K Erik for two seasons too. So many Phantoms!

Frankenstein

On the last day I got to see Dong-seok and Ji-hye once more in a concert for the musical Frankenstein which they have been in together. So have some pics I took without a mask blocking his face!

Ending Note

Thinking back to December 2022 when I said: "Maybe I'll go to Seoul and see Dong-seok once or twice and that's it, I can have my first international POTO" That was funny. That was really very very funny and silly of me to say. 9 performances and 6 of those were POTO! But I'm so grateful and I have zero regrets about it. This is one of the best experiences I've had even if it might look ridiculous to some people to do something like this...I don't care! I hope my crazy essays can help paint a good picture for you!

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Psy - Gangnam Style 2012

"Gangnam Style" is a K-pop song by South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter Psy, released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album, Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1. The term "Gangnam Style" is a neologism that refers to the nouveau riche lifestyles associated with the Gangnam region of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip, and exude a certain supposed class. Psy likened Gangnam to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended the title as a joke, claiming that he has "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and music video is far from high class.

"Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on South Korea's Gaon Chart, receiving generally positive reviews, with praise for its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dancing during live performances and in its music video. The song and its music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide. In the US, "Gangnam Style" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time, was the highest charting song by a South Korean artist. By the end of 2012, "Gangnam Style" had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the UK. The music video won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards that year. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first Youtube video to reach a billion views. As of January 2024, the video is the eleventh most viewed video on Youtube, having reached over 5 billion views.

Psy's dance in the music video itself became a cultural phenomenon. He revealed that South Korean fans have high expectations about his dancing, so he felt a lot of pressure. In order to keep up with those expectations, he studied hard to find something new and stayed up late for about 30 nights to come up with the "Gangnam Style" dance. Along the way, he had tested various "cheesy" animal-inspired dance moves with his choreographer Lee Ju-sun, including panda and kangaroo moves, before settling for the horse trot, which involves pretending to ride a horse, alternately holding the reins and spinning a lasso, and moving into a legs-shuffling side gallop.

"Gangnam Style" received a total of 77,2% yes votes!