Moon Embracing the Sun (해를 품은 달)

Moon Embracing the Sun (Hangul: 해를 품은 달, also known as The Sun and the Moon) is a 2012 South Korean historical television drama series, starring Kim Soo-hyun, Han Ga-in, Jung Il-woo and Kim Min-seo. It aired on Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) from January 4 to March 15, 2012 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 20 episodes.
The series is adapted from the novel of the same name written by Jung Eun-gwol and directed by Kim Do-hoon and Lee Seong-jun. It tells of a secret, poignant love story between a fictional king of the Joseon Dynasty and a female shaman against the backdrop of Korean traditional palace; and the conflicts and conspiracy of vying political powers. This production marks Han Ga-in's first historial drama and return to television since Bad Guy in 2010.It also marks the second historial drama for Jung Il-woo following The Return of Iljimae in 2009.
The series won for Best Drama and Best Actor in the television category at the 2012 Baeksang Arts Awards, and multiple awards at 2012 MBC Drama Awards, including Drama of the Year.

Plot
Thirteen-year-old Heo Yeon-woo, the daughter of a high-ranking official, accompanies her mother to the royal palace to attend her brother, Heo Yeom's civil service examination congratulatory ceremony. By chance, she meets Crown Prince Lee Hwon in the midst of escaping to see his older half brother, Prince Yang-myung. They fall in love and Heo is chosen as the Crown Princess of Joseon. However the Dowager Queen secretly orders her death; in order to install Yoon Bo-gyeong, the daughter of a family clan, as Crown Princess in order to gain more power for herself. She orders head shaman Nok-yeong of Star Mansion to cast a spell on Yeon-woo to stricken her with an unknown sickness. Where upon she is returned home for the last remaining days of her life. Nok-young unbeknown to the Dowager Queen has promised her friend Ari, whom Yeon-woo's mother had saved before she was born, to protect her. So Nok-young secretly visits Yeon-woo's father and tells him how to break the spells. Upon being resurrected from her grave, Yeon-woo lives her life as a shaman but loses her memories. All believe her to be dead, including the Crown Prince Lee Hwon, who loves her and whom she was to marry. Eight years later, Yeon-woo returns as a shaman named Wol. She has not been forgotten by those she left behind, and her fate is still intertwined with Hwon, who is now the king. She must contend with the current Queen of Joseon, the Queen's Father, and the Queen Dowager in order to reclaim her rightful place as Queen of Joseon.

Cast
Heo Yeon-woo (烟雨）/ shaman Wol

'Moon containing the sun': Destined to be the first Moon, she was born in the interim of Ari's execution. The daughter of a noble family who is gaining power in the royal court, who is smart, bright and well-loved. Chosen as the Crown Princess, she mysteriously fell ill and passed away before the royal wedding ceremony. Just when she was believed to be dead, she was saved by Jang Nok-young, the head shaman upon the request from her late friend Ari. However, Yeon-woo lost all her memories. Eight years later, she returns to the palace as a shaman, who is named Wol by Lee Hwon. Lee Hwon must decide if he loves Yeon Woo or the female shaman Wol.

Filming locations
Most of the royal palace scenes were filmed on location at MBC Dramia located at Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si in Gyeonggi Province, where other historical dramas such as Dong Yi, Jumong and Queen Seondeok were also filmed. The House of Choi Champan was used as Yeon-woo's childhood home, and the Korean Folk Village was used for local markets, private residences of commoners, and night scenes.

Full House

Full House  is a 2004 South Korean television drama series starring Rain, Song Hye-kyo, Han Eun-jeong and Kim Sung-soo. It based on Korean manhwa series Full House by Woon Soo-yoon. It premiered on Korean Broadcasting System (KBS2) on 14 July 2004 and ended its' run of 16 episodes on 4 September 2004.

Synopsis

Han Ji-eun, an aspiring script writer, lives in a house called "Full House" built by her late father. One day, her two best friends trick her into believing she has won a free vacation. While she is away, they sell her house. On the plane, she meets a famous actor named Lee Young-jae. Through comedic events, they get acquainted during her vacation and when she returns, she discovers her house has been sold to him.
Though they don't get along with each other as she is messy and he has a bad temper and likes cleanliness, they agreed to live with each other. At first, Ji-eun works as his maid in order to buy her house back, but because of Young-jae's wish to make the love of his life and Kang Hye-won jealous, they get married. They set up a contract for the marriage to last six months. During that time, complications arise and Ji-Eun and Young-Jae become attracted to each other.

Cast

• Rain as Lee Young-jae

Young-jae is a popular Korean actor, especially around girls. Though appearing to be egotistical and stubborn, mostly to maintain his pride, he has secret unrequited feelings for his childhood friend, Hye-won. But later on, Young-jae falls in love with Ji-eun. He also has a fragile relationship with his father, who is a doctor. Young-jae also had a sister who died as a child. Though he can be selfish, he cares deeply for his friends. He starts to realize his feelings for Ji-eun when she starts to date Min-Hyuk. He is seeing Hye-won at the time and is extremely jealous of Min-Hyuk and Ji-eun. After talking with Hye-won he realizes that he is in love with Ji-eun and thus Hye-won and Young-jae end their relationship. He ends up proposing to Ji-eun and she says yes.

• Song Hye-kyo as Han Ji-eun

Ji-eun is an optimistic and cheerful girl, loyal to her friends. Though naive and not very smart, she is shown as a character with spunk and a good heart as displayed in her efforts to be a writer. She lives in a beautiful home named Full House, which she inherited from her late parents. Her only friends before she meets Young-jae are Yang Hee-jin and Shin Dong-wook. She accepts a "free trip" to China, Shanghai, during which Yang He-jin and Shin Dong-wook sell her house. On the airplane, she sits next to and meets Young-jae. The meeting does not go well and ends up with her throwing up on him. Upon her arrival at the hotel, she meets Min-Hyuk and he helps her attain a room. During her stay, she realizes that she has no money and no way of going home and goes to see Young-jae and tricks him into lending her money. When she arrives home, she finds out that her house has been sold to Young-jae. They end up deciding to get married and making a marriage contract. Once they divorce, Ji-eun would receive Full House. During the marriage, she ends up becoming a maid and cook to Young-jae. Along the way she starts to develop feelings for him. She ends up getting hurt many times by Young-jae because he believes he is in love with Hye-won. He ends up leaving and spending time with Hye-won and leaving Ji-eun waiting and hurt. She ends up getting hired by Min-Hyuk as a writer and spends time with him. After some time, Young-jae ends up "seeing" Hye-won and Ji-eun ends up "seeing" Min-Hyuk. She divorces Young-jae and ends up dating Min-Hyuk. Near the end, Min-Hyuk ends up proposing to Ji-eun but she says that she has not been divorced long and he tells her to think about it. The next episode, Young-jae proposes to her and she says she will think about it. In the end, she ends up accepting the proposal to Young-jae and ends up getting married to him once again, this time for real.

• Han Eun-jeong as Kang Hye-won

Hye-won is a close family friend of Lee Young-jae, knowing them since childhood. Working as a fashion designer, she also designs most of Young-jae’s clothes. With her rich family and attractive appearance, she is accustomed to attention from men, but has ever only loved Yoo Min-hyuk. She can be very selfish, saying that she loves Min-hyuk but she can not let go of Young-jae.

• Kim Sung-soo as Yoo Min-hyuk

Min-hyuk is a ladies' man. He is smart,rich, skillful and respected, but remains detached from most people because of his busy lifestyle. He is also close friends with Young-jae, who confides in him his feelings for Han Ji-eun. Min-hyuk is a director of a large media company. Like Hye-won, he is attractive and used to attention from women. He develops feelings for Han Ji-eun, and tries to get her to like him. Eventually, he sees that she love no one else but Lee Young-jae.

Filming locations
The location of the titled house, Full House is a house built specially for the series. It is located in the Gwangyeok-si area of Incheon, near Incheon International Airport, and is a ten-minute boat ride from Sammok Harbor. The house, made mostly of wood, cost approximately the equivalent of one million USD to built. The beach front property looks out onto open waters. Nearby sightseeing locations include Jogak (sculpture) Park on Modo Island; a bridge connects these two islands.
The first episode was shot in Shanghai near The Bund. In later episodes some parts were filmed in Thailand.

``Sido Island``"Full House" Shooting place

Tour Course:Sammok Ferry Warf(삼목선착장)-Sindo Ferry Warf(신도선착장)-Sido Salt Field(시도 천일염전)- Drama Shooting Place(드라마 촬영지)-Modo island(모도)

Full House Setground

Full House Setground

YG Entertainment

YG Entertainment  is a record label and talent agency founded by Yang Hyun-suk and based in Seoul, South Korea. It specializes in producing R&B and hip hop music. YG stands for Yang Goon and are also the initials of the chief executive officer, Yang Hyun-suk.^[2 Records release through YG Entertainment's distributor, Mnet Media. Avex Entertainment and YG Entertainment have recently formed a new project in Japan called YGEX.

Once the home of hip-hop groups Jinusean and 1TYM, its current roster of recording artists includes K-Pop idols such as Big Bang, 2NE1, PSY, Se7en, Epik High, Lee Hi and Gummy. Artists under the agency had grown to be the front runners and leaders of Hallyu and the Korean music itself around the world. Videos of YG Entertainment and its artists have cumulatively more than 3 billion views and are subscribed by over 5 million users in YouTube alone, making them the most viewed and subscribed artists and entertainment agency in Asia-Pacific.

Since the early 2010s, the record label and management agency has earned worldwide recognition after BIGBANG edged out Britney Spears to win Best Worldwide Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, fuelling YG Entertainment's rise to one of the "big three" K-Pop record labels in South Korea alongside SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, both of which have strong market share and whose international operations have helped spread the Korean wave across the globe.
In 2012, YG Entertainment's share prices saw a year-over-year increase of more than 50% due to the increase in publicity following the numerous achievements of its music artists in recent years.^[5]

S.M. Entertainment

S.M. Entertainment  is an independent Korean record label, talent agency, producer, and publisher of pop music, founded by Lee Soo-man in South Korea. Initially, "SM" was an abbreviation of the agency founder's name, but now stands for "Star Museum." Its current CEO is Kim Young-min. The label is one of the "big three" record companies of Korea along with YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment because of strong market share and international operations. SM is credited for starting and leading the Hallyu Wave throughout Asia and internationally.

Once the home to the original Korean Idol groups like H.O.T., S.E.S., and Shinhwa, its current roster of recording artists include Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, TRAX, The Grace, Super Junior, Zhang Liyin, Girls' Generation, J-Min, Shinee, f(x), and EXO, all of whom enjoy great success both domestically and internationally. It is also home to actors like Go Ara, Kim Min-jong, Lee Yeon-hee and Kim Ian. SM Entertainment also co-publishes Avex Trax releases for Japanese artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Koda Kumi, as well as Johnny's Entertainment acts like Arashi and KAT-TUN.
In 2012, the company's market capitalization rose to ₩1.38 trillion (US$1.24 billion), reaching the status of a mega-corporation.

PSY`s "Gangnam Style"

PSY, PSY also spelled Psy, original name Park Jae-Sang   (born December 31, 1977, Seoul, South Korea), South Korean singer and rapper. Although he was originally known in his country as a controversial and satirical hip-hop artist, he achieved international fame in 2012 with the music video to his humorous pop song “Gangnam Style,” which ultimately received a record-setting one billion views on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.
Park Jae-Sang was the son of a successful business executive and grew up in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam (or Kangnam) district south of the Han River. He became interested in music as a teenager but, ostensibly as preparation to follow in his father’s footsteps, went to the United States in 1996 to study English before beginning business studies at Boston University in 1997. An admittedly indifferent student there, he transferred after a semester to the Berklee College of Music (also in Boston). He left without graduating and returned to South Korea in 2000 to pursue a music career. Taking the stage name PSY—a reference to his concept of himself as slightly “psycho”—he made his debut as a hip-hop artist in 2001 with the album PSY from the PSYcho World! Like many of his subsequent releases, it drew controversy because of its raw lyrics. The following year, after an arrest and brief detention for marijuana possession, PSY released the albums Ssa 2 (“Cheap 2”) (which, after a legal challenge based on its “inappropriate content,” was restricted to sale to adults) and 3PSY. He had a hit with “Champion,” a single from the latter.

PSY performed his mandatory national military service from 2003 to 2005. After his discharge he released Ssa Jip (“Cheap House”) in 2006 and began gaining more popularity with his appearances on television game and talk shows. His career was interrupted, however, after officials determined that PSY had neglected his duties while in the military (he had held concerts and performed on television). He was required to serve another term, which lasted from December 2007 to July 2009. Afterward he signed with one of South Korea’s largest talent agencies, YG Entertainment, on whose record label he released his next album, PSY Five in 2010.

In July 2012 PSY released his sixth studio recording, PSY 6 Part I, which contained the single “Gangnam Style,” a lighthearted dance song that mocked the pretensions of people wishing to be associated with that area of Seoul. The video for the single featured a deadpan PSY performing a distinctive comic “horse-riding” dance at various incongruously unstylish locations, including a horse stable and a parking garage. Although other, more-mainstream South Korean acts such as Girls’ Generation, Rain, and Big Bang had achieved international success, none of them had broken through to the level of becoming household names. PSY’s song, however, quickly and unexpectedly caught on with a wide audience. Internet users popularized the YouTube video throughout the summer and fall of 2012 via multiple social media platforms, including Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. It ultimately became the most-watched video in YouTube history to that point, and sales of the single and the album took off as well.

With “Gangnam Style” a viral video sensation and the song topping international music charts (peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100), PSY spent the second half of 2012 traveling around the world making public appearances and giving live performances. He signed a record deal with the U.S. label School Boy Records in September.

Lorraine Murray

Korean wave

What is the Korean Wave?

The Korean wave, by definition, is the sweeping popularity of South Korean popular culture mainly in other Asian countries. "Korean Wave" is the translation of the Korean word "Hallyu," and Chinese journalists were the first to use this term in mid 1999. It has since been used to describe the recent surge of popular South Korean culture. This phenomenon intensified following the 2002 FIFA World Cup that highlighted Korea's national image.

Korean Drama & Movies

Drama

After the popularity of Winter Sonata, Korean dramas immediately started to gain airtime on television channels in Asian countries. Following this trend, a number of Korean actors and actresses made their debut in neighboring countries and gained recognition not only in Asia but also in Europe. Lee Young-Ae, who starred in the most popular Korean drama of all time, Daejanggeum (Jewel in the Palace) is now an international figure, dominating the Korean drama market in Asia.

Movies

Following the massive hit of the movie Old Boy by Park Chan-Wook, there has been growing interest in Korean movies, and film studios from all around the world began to buy the copyrights of South Korean films to produce remakes of them. Hollywood studios have bought over 10 copyrights for Korean movies, including My Sassy Girl, A Tale of Two Sisters, Old Boy, Phone, and My Wife Is a Gangster. Recently, a major Hollywood studio has bought the remake rights to the Korean hit-film, The Chaser.

Korean Pop (K-pop)

Korean pop music became a significant model for youth culture throughout Asia over the last decade. There are many artists and groups, such as BoA, Rain, TVXQ, Wondergirls, Girls Generation, Super Junior and Big Bang that have become popular in most Asian countries. The popularity of Korean pop stars has led to widespread imitation of Korean styles and fashions.

Korean News

Who is your most favorite? ''Korean Star: Entertainment Now!'' brings you the latest news in entertainment and music. You can check upcoming Korean dramas starring famous Korean stars along with the latest Korean singers and their dynamite concerts. You can also get information about well-known Korean stars as well as up and coming new Korean stars. Check this news out to know all about Korean stars.