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PKK Web Roundup: 04/07/09

 Time for another round:

• Boys Before Flowers has (finally!) ended, so Dramabeans compiled a list of current K-dramas to try. I'm leaning toward Return of Iljimae or Kim Sun-ah's City Hall, which starts April 29th.

• Megchan (who scanlates Saint Oniisan) has excellent taste. She's started translating two new series: Yasha, by Banana Fish creator Yoshida Akimi, & Kodomo no Kodomo, about an 11-year-old who gets pregnant just as her local PTA debates sex ed for elementary schools. Both the manga & the recent movie adaptation handle the subject sensitively, and it's an important, if disturbing, subject (one of my classmates dropped out at age 12 to have a baby, so it's not far-fetched).

• Complex Blog examines 6 Korean stars' crossover potential.

• Fox News fired columnist Roger Friedman for reviewing the pirated rough cut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. For all the talk about how "reprehensible" his actions were, I don't think Fox cares about the ethics of reviewing pirated material. Instead, Fox honchos are furious that their movie leaked, and they want blood. By not only reviewing the movie but also bragging about how convenient it was to download the pirated content, Friedman basically stood in front of the angry bull and waited for it to gore him.

• Big Bang & 2NE1's CF song "Lollipop" joins Super Junior's "Sorry, Sorry" in the "what's wrong with me, I can't look away" category. It's an unholy (but oh-so-catchy) combination of Willy Wonka, the 1980s, "Gee," and a teeny bit of Dr. Seuss:

Be sure to hit the HQ button (lower right hand side) before playing.

PKK Web Roundup: 03/25/09

MUSIC

• Epik High's new bilingual site is up, with full song samples, band member blogs, and lots of other goodies. Their latest album, Map the Soul, will be available on iTunes March 27th.

• Several other K-pop artists (like Tasha & g.o.d.) will also get global iTunes distribution, thanks to an agreement with DFSB collective. Seoulbeats has the full list of artists & albums.

MANGA

• John Jakala at Sporadic Sequential made my week with this tip: save money on manga by shopping at Tower.com. I work at a bookstore part-time and my employee discount is 33% before sales tax, but Tower had certain titles for 37 to 45% off, no sales tax. In the words of Kyoko Mogami:

• Manga Xanadu pointed me to this photo comparison of manga in print & on a Sony E-Reader.

DRAMAS & MOVIES

• Twitch has a trailer for Joe Odagiri's latest movie, Plastic City.

• Antique (right), the Korean film based on Fumi Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery, is finally out on DVD. I'm still writing my review, but the short version is SEE IT. It's hysterical and worthy of the manga.

• Dramabeans has a good take on the Jang Ja-Yeon scandal [Jang Ja-Yeon was a young actress who committed suicide after debuting on the top-rated Boys Before Flowers].

• Dramabeans also has info on two promising new drama series: Kim Sun-Ah's (My Lovely Sam-Soon) new drama City Hall and Sandglass writer Song Ji-Nah's new series, Story of a Man.

• Finally, just because: a fan combined Boys Before Flowers footage with the Antique trailer:

PKK Web Roundup: 03/09/09

A few more:

• My favorite Asian drama ever, Nodame Cantabile, will get a 2-part theatrical movie release (and IamsoexcitedOMG). The movie will pick up where the special episodes left off, and will come out late 2009 & early 2010.

• Se7en's first U.S. single, "Girls," officially comes out March 10th (listen to it here). It's catchy without being much good. Even so, I'm pulling for him: Se7en's one of the most promising crossover acts out there, with his pouty lips, strong vocals, and dance skills (plus, he can speak English).

• Speaking of promising crossover acts: Epik High's next album will be bilingual (English & Korean), and they'll do a short U.S. tour in May (schedule TBA this Thursday).

• Finally, Omona They Didn't has a wonderfully shameful fan service post (excerpt below):