EXO successfully wraps up Bangkok concert.

Hallyu group EXO has definitely warmed up the nights in the city of Bangkok.

On March 19th SM Entertainment said, "EXO has successfully hosted EXO PLANET # 4 - The EℓyXiOn - in BANGKOK (Exo Planet # 4 - Deaconion - in Bangkok) at Impact Arena, Bangkok.'

             

The showcase was held in Bangkok for about a year and six months after the third solo concert in September 2016.


Concert tickets went on sale on early February were sold out for all three performances within five minutes! EXO did the opening stage with 'The Eve' in this performance, is a hit song such as 'Growl', 'Call Me Baby', 'Lotto' 'Ko Ko Bop', 'Power' 'Tender Love', What You Do?

The album included songs including "Touch It," "Boomerang," and an ending song, "Angel,"  went on for about three hours. The press conference before the start of the 17th March concert included the broadcasting of Thai Channel 3's famous Morning Show 'Rueng Lao Chao Nee', channel 7, channel 9, 'Thai Rat', ' Daily News', 'TrueID' (True ID), and 'Kka Pook'

Wanna One debuts after 8 months...Golden Age begins.

Leader Yoon Ji Sung has said, "Even though it's been only 8 months since we debuted in the industry, but there are still a lot for us to show to the audience. We have released an album and do our best we can."

The project boy group Wanna One has been formed via mNet's Produce 101: Season 2 and has released a new album entitled '0 + 1 = 1' at 6 pm on the 19th March.

At the press conference held at the hotel in Sangam-dong, 11 members of the group said, "The Golden Age is starting. Member Lee Dae Hwi said, "Last year I stood boldly on stage, now I wanted to show how I've matured musically and outwardly this year."

This album titled I PROMISE YOU, is a promise that Wanna One will make this year a golden age. The theme tracks for the electro trap genre-  "Boomerang," as well as a special theme track, "Promise Me" (I.P.U.), including seven songs are featured in the album.

           

In less than a year after their debut, Wanna One has been showing monstrous power of a rookie boy band. Their debut album, '1X1 = 1' and repackage '1-1 = 0', sold more than 1.4 million copies and swept new awards at various music awards. This album has an order of 700,000 copies. Thanks to their huge popularity, they are gradually getting rid of it. Ong Seung Woo said before his debut, he doesn't know how to express his charms and feelings but now he knows fan services. Main vocalist Kim Jae Hwan wanted to sing songs coolly from the time he was a trainee. He is now delighted to be able to perform great songs and stage with the rest of the members.

Wanna One members are from various agencies. By the end of the year, they would go on separate ways but high probability the max of extended period of two years. As a result, fans were voicing out that the members should extended their activities. Dae Hwi mentioned at this time is the most important. Boomerang is the new title song and he's working harder to perform at his best. He doesn't want to think of the end as yet.

With a strong base consisting of female fans, Wanna One seems to be reciprocating back the love given to them via this album. The title song 'Boomerang' reminds us of the main scene that actor Kwon Sang Woo threw a boomerang in the drama 'Stairway to Heaven' (2003) and said the famous phrase- love will return. 

Kang Daniel promised his fans that he will put all his love for them. 

Wanna One will participate in UNESCO's Girls Education Campaign 'Wanna One X Girls Education' during this period  and will donate a total of KRW$ 100 million won.

Hyori's Bed & Breakfast: S2 ratings increased.

When actor Park Bo Gum appeared in the recent episodes of Hyori's Home Stay Season 2, the viewers ratings exceeded 10%.

According to Nielsen Korea, the ratings on the 19th March under JTBC entertainment program 'Hyori's Min Bak 2' (directed by Jeon Hyun Min, Ma Gun Young)  recorded the average nationwide audience ratings of 10.8%. This is the first time that 'Hyori's Home Stay Season 2' has recorded double-digit ratings since its first broadcast on April 4th 2017. Even in the first season of last summer, only once that it has exceeded 10% of audience ratings (10.0% of 9 times).

            

Park Bo Gum arrived at Hyori and  Lee Sang Soon's villa in Jeju-do during the winter season and will be working as a part time worker along with Girls' Generation Im YoonA. The bed and breakfast villa accepts public guests and even treats them to snacks, food and warming home stay for their short holiday at Jeju-do.

Bo Gum was seen helping around with housework, chatting easily to guests, chaffeuring guests to destinations and running errands to buy groceries at the local market...etc.
Female guests were rather excited to see the handsome part time worker at their home stay.

Shall We Live Together takes over from My Golden Life weekend drama.

It has been a pleasant start for Shall We Live Together for KBS weekend drama.
First episode recorded 23.3% viewers ratings where it took over the spot of the famous My Golden Life drama.

According to Nielsen Korea on 18th March, "Shall We Live Together", which was broadcast the previous day recorded a nationwide audience rating of 23.3%. It is 3.6% higher than the 19.7% recorded in the previous drama 'My Golden Life' when it was first aired and slowly climbed up to 40%.

Shall We Live Together is about a shoemaker Park Hyo Seob who has 4 children. His second daughter Park Yoo Ha (played by Han Ji Hye) who has lived as a chaebol's daughter in law decided to divorce her husband after the family wanted to send her five year old daughter abroad. 

Xiumin, Max Changmin, Mark appear in Life Bar.

The Road of SM- EXO's Xiumin, TVXQ's Max Changmin and NCT's Mark were guests in the variety show Life Bar hosted by emcee Shin Dong Yub.

In the most recent episode featuring the "Visual Party" of SM, co-hosts Super Junior's Kim Hee Chul was rather tensed up. Max Changmin made Hee Chul laughed by admitting he was good looking when he debuted in the music industry. 

        

NCT's Mark has became an adult this year and had his first shot of alcohol. He got to finally taste makgeolli (rice wine) and beer this year. He reckons rice wine has better taste! True!

Between the conversation, there's EXO Xiumin who came out with a secret reason why he actually entered SM is due to TVXQ. Huh? He noted that Changmin is his favourite while NCT Mark is his favourite junior. When he first Changmin in the company, he just came to a pause mode. With Xiumin's fans on edge of war with Changmin left him speechless and shocked.

Changmin added EXO is not a global leader group. He is proud to have a friend whose dream became a singer came true. 

Xiumin later on added Changmin has a strong personality on and off stage. He is charismatic and very warm hearted person. TVXQ is still very active in Japan. Their recent performance in Japan especially in Tokyo Dome was filled with fans. EXO was recently featured in the closing ceremony of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. It was an honour and glory for Xiumin.

The tense was there but the cold wind was no joke to the members. It was freezing.

Everyone was enthusiastic about the gorgeous pelvic dance created by Xiumin entitled '으른댄스' (Eu Run dance) which became a hot topic for EXO fans.

Meanwhile Mark, Changmin and Kim Hee Chul showed off their figure in the Eu Run dance.

Shin Hye Sun and Lee Jong Suk in new drama.

Actress Shin Hye Sun (29) will be meeting actor Lee Jong Suk (29) after 6 years as their last drama they starred together was in School 2013. At that time, Shin was quite a newbie and wasn't in the main lead while Lee was already gaining lots of fame and attention.
Now Shin is one of the hottest actresses after her weekend famous drama My Golden Life has broken record of 40% viewers ratings. 

Now the two are collaborating together in SBS single play drama entitled 사의 찬미 written by Jo Soo Jin and directed by Park Soo Jin. The title is literally translated as Praise of the Company (??).

Praise of the Company is a famous late soprano singer Yoon Shim Duk. The late Yoon was born in Pyeongyang 1924 and became a school teacher at Wonju. When she was in Japan studying music, she fell in love with an English Lit. and drama student Kim Woo Jin who was already a married man. The two lovebirds somehow cannot be together so they boarded the ship and jumped off - drowned. Yoon died at the young age of 29.

Her life story was made into drama and musical. It was a coincidence that Shin happened to hear about the tragic love story between Yoon and Kim on the radio. This is a good opportunity for her play that beautiful role in her life.

The special drama re-examines the cross stared lovers Kim and Yoon in that era. Shin Hye Sun will be playing as the late Yoon Shim Duk while Lee Jong Suk will play the role of Kim. The two part mini special episode will start filming next month but airing date and time have yet to be determined. 

Master in the House trains with Olympic hero Lee Seung Hun.

Yook Sung Jae was the first to arrive at the spot with PD telling him to board the bus which is waiting in front of the filming location. He somehow didn't feel too right but saw Lee Sang Yun arriving too. He noticed that Sang Yun doesn't dress up anymore as he couldn't care less on his appearance after episode 2. Next thing they knew someone humming is none other than Yang Se Hyung followed by Lee Seung Gi. PD tells them their new Master is a hero in the recent 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Given their Master's dairy written when he was 10 years old, Sang Yun started to analyse that it's a man, in early twenties and very matured thinking. 

What they didn't expect is the daily schedule of their Master shocked them seeing 3/4 of his routine is high intensity training! They can never forget what they went through with baseball player Lee Dae Ho at the hard core gym training! The bus arrives at the stop where their master is dressed in black track suit showing off two medals- gold and silver he won at the winter Olympics. Their eyes grew big when he turned around - he's the speed skater Lee Seung Hun became the national hero for winning two medals. Everyone was in awe inspecting the medals. Now back to work, Se Hyung pointed out his daily schedule is too much for them. Lee decided to tone down various segments since it's off season for training. High intensity becomes low intensity with Sung Jae suggesting there should be NO intensity training.
The four butlers started talking to Lee on his dream when he was 10 years old, how he went through the hard training at Taerung Training Centre and winning the medals up to today.
Lee suggested to have snack time at night since he craves for it. They clapped with joy.

  
The bus arrived at Taerung Training Centre where butlers were happily snapping photos within the campus ground and admired the main banner stating- "I am a Korean, representing the country". This gives a full sense of duty for all athletes training all these years to work harder. As they were shown around the dormitory where they will be spending a night with their master. They passed the hallway of athletes rooms and Lee brought them to his own room. Se Hyung joked if Taerung is some Prison Break as scenery outside the dorm is just pure nature and wild animals. Lee admitted some athletes tried to escape because training was too difficult to endure and they wanted to give up. Four butlers changed to track suits and headed to the cafeteria to fill their grumbling tummies. They were amazed with the amount and variety of delicious food served for the athletes and staffs. From Korean food to Western, Chinese and Japanese- it was like a buffet heaven for the butlers. As they started filing their plates, Sung Jae noted Lee's plate was half the amount of what they have taken. Lee admitted at first, it was hard to resist the food but soon they got used to it as they have to burn up the amount they have eaten. Uh-oh! As speed skaters, they have to maintain their weight. Sang Yun went for second serving while the rest were surprised with the amount he has taken. Lee said the amount Sang Yun is eating are meant for heavy weight lifters! 

After dinner, it is light training where they go to Wolgye Hall (gym) to jog around. They saw the rope climb and Lee shook his head saying where skaters do not use it. Phew! But their warm up is starting to get vigorous after few crouching and jumps. Lee demonstrated basic warm up where he was light as a feather. Now we know why one shouldn't eat so much because it's too difficult to jump and run with full stomach! Seung Gi and Sang Yun struggled with one leg jump however Sung Jae did well in the corner belt training. Corner belt training is done with one person dragging another person's weight on one side - that's the rhythm they have to do when they corner skate at a fast speed with body weight on another side. Somehow the tug and pull belt training between Se Hyung and Sung Jae became a joke where Seung Gi lamented the two looked like idiots! That gave Master Lee a good laugh. With the basic warm ups were even torturous for the butlers. 

It was 8 p.m, so Lee brought them to the skating rink.It was so big that they were amazed with the size. While preparing their gear, they admired Lee's skates which he used in the Olympics. It is custom made and the blades make a clicking sound on ice. Lee decided to warm up first and goes for a round the rink. The butlers just admired the posture, speed and gust of wind when he passes them. Average male skaters speed at 60 km p/h- it's like driving a car! Sung Jae praised that Lee looks like a dove flying on ice while Sang Yun cracked up. Master Lee decided to test them for a one round. The strong determination in everyone's' eyes scared Se Hyung. On the mark...go! Se Hyung and Seung Gi started off strongly. Somehow Sang Yun was out of the picture...he was staggering along with Master following him behind. Commentator saw Sung Jae slowly picked up the rhythm where he just passed Seung Gi and Se Hyung in a blink of an eye. Seung Gi is determined not to lose. Se Hyung struggled behind while Sang Yun is purely learning skating with Master behind.

                        
Sung Jae smiled happily as he reaching the finishing line while Seung Gi blew his chance when he tumbled over with Se Hyung also falling over. Hah! While this is not the end of it...
Second episode will feature Master Lee training the butlers harder to skate better with determination not to lose. 

So Ji Sub, Park Shin Hye, PD Na in new variety show.

Actor So Ji Sub (41) and actress Park Shin Hye (28) have confirmed joining PD Na Young Suk in the new variety show entitled 'Small House In the Forest- 숲 속의 작은 집'. 

According to the two actors, Salt Entertainment agency has confirmed both are starring in the new documentary show which features new artistic 'Small house in the forest 'by cable channel tvN and are they are currently filming it. 

Under the concept of 'voluntary isolated documentary', this program will draw people who will be living in a remote mountain where no one lives, through So Ji Sub and Park Shin Hye. This work is attracting lots of attention because it is a new concept show by PD Na Young Suk.

The two celebrities have demonstrated self-sufficiency in the mountains where electricity is not available. This program will be filmed on Jeju Island very soon. 'Small house in the forest' will be broadcast after 'Yoon's Restaurant Season 2'. The exact timing of the broadcast has not been decided.

So Ji Sub has mentioned that everyone is going to dream of a time when he will be away alone from all of them. He wants to make a program that has that healing and comfort concept just by having a simple meal and relaxing time in a small house in Jeju Island. He was rather touched and wished he could forget the frivolous daily life for a while for pure relaxation.

My Golden Life ends with 45% viewer ratings.

KBS weekend drama My Golden Life has concluded with 45% audience ratings.

According to Nielsen Korea, the average audience rating was 45.1% for the finale.
In Daegu itself, it scored 48.7%  while in Seoul and metropolitan area recorded 42.3% and 44.3% respectively. The highest audience rating was at 44.6%.

My Golden Life is about a hardworking woman, Seo Ji An who tries to get away from poverty and sees an opportunity to rise to elevated family when she was mistaken as a chaebol's long lost daughter. For the final episode, Seo Tae Soo (Cheon Ho Jin) passed away from stomach cancer while Choi Do Kyung (Park Shi Hoo) promised to wait for Seo Ji An (Shin Hye Sun).
The rest of the family members have their own careers and family living happily. 

                    

My Golden Life was first aired on last September with first episode at 19.7% and has steadily rise with great expectations from viewers as the story unfolds more secrets. Since then the drama has broke the record at 40% ratings since December remaining one of the highest weekend dramas. The new drama Shall We Live Together to be aired from March 17th  will replace My Golden Life. Starring Yoo Dong Gun, Jang Mi Hee, Han Ji Hye, Lee Sang Woo, Park Sun Young, Yeo Hwi Hyeon, Geum Rae Rok...etc 

Lee Seung Gi opens up in his works roles.

Vertical, horizontal, open mind...

These are the words to describe singer/actor Lee Seung Gi (31) after his discharge from military.
                                              

Last year after his discharge on 31st October, around in December he was offered the role as the main lead 'Oh Gong' (Monkey King) for the fantasy genre drama 'Hwa Yoo Gi (Korean Odyssey)'.  Not long he was also one of the permanent cast for the entertainment program 'Master In the House'. His most recent work is the film 'The Princess and the Matchmaker' which is currently airing on local cinemas.

He hasn't rested for even half a day after he's been discharged from army. However for this year he will try to take some time off to recuperate.

On 8th March, we meet up with Lee Seung Gi personally. He has a vibrant personality, filled with jokes and even mentioned Yang Se Hyung might say something when he sees the interview. In the previous episodes of Master In the House, the other three casts were getting tired of his continuous stories in the army. 

Lee said military has definitely changed him...as in a lot! Even though he's now in his thirties, he only looks as if he was still in his twenties. It may be due to his face has changed a lot before going to army. However his performances in dramas, entertainment was something he has done all his years. 

'I was already an entertainer when I was at a young age. I had everything at my side. When I needed something, someone will fill it up for me. But when I was in the army, I have to do everything on my own. Laundry, cleaning up- I have to do everything by myself as it was my first time doing so. But I felt I could do this on my own. I do have the same confidence as others.' 

In the past he has been surrounded with comedian Lee Soo Geun, MC Kang Ho Dong and PD Na Young Suk. This time Seung Gi is taking the road alone. There are no other comedians or seniors in Master In the House program except for comedian Yang Se Hyung. In the absence of Kang Ho Dong and PD Na, Seung Gi is challenging himself as a main emcee in the program. This may also be another aspect of the confidence he has brought through his military life. It'd probably more stable to have his elder hyungs along with him. He has been agonising a while whether he will last long in Master In the House whereby he might not be able to meet everyone's expectations. He has tried very hard and learnt many things along the way. There was not much time to prepare for Master In the House, he's glad many people liked the show.

He had his fun times with Kang Ho Dong and PD Na. If there is a good opportunity arises, he will not hesitate to join them again for variety shows. There has been a controversial issue regarding this status whether he's a singer or actor or entertainer- probably due to his active participation in various fields. He reassured nothing has changed at all.

He hasn't been doing as much as he wants to. Possibility of releasing an album this year.
During his twenties period, he had so much trouble but now is not a problem for him.

" I think I'm just an entertainer. Whether it's singer Lee Seung Gi, actor Lee Seung Gi or entertainer Lee Seung Gi; I just want to try out different things under my name so that I won't be that awkward. But I am thinking whether which name to suit me better. You can't say it's just Celebrity Lee Seung Gi." He laughed... 

It has been 15 years since he debuted and it's time to let go. Seung Gi wants to try out everything he wants. It could be a drama, movie, variety or music show. I am sure his fans would love to see him enjoying his work.

'I am heading to my 30's now. I'm going to do my best to minimise the troubles I had in my 20's.
Seung Gi is not bothered at all what character he is now.