Lee Byung Hun, widows, and romantic angst. What more can a girl want? Well, subtitles, perhaps

[dangermousie]

Oh great, this is going to end well.

I am now simply obsessed with watching Beautiful My Lady, a 1997 angsty romantic drama starring Lee Byung Hun and Shim Eun Ha. I hold this MV fully responsible:

Click to view

Even though it's a classic kdrama, so I know very well how it will end and I object in principle to Lee Byung Hun dying on my screen. Even though I

Comments

[walkwithheroes]

I know I was really surprised when I saw there were no subtitles for this one. But, looking at his dramawiki page, LBH has several dramas from the early/mid-90s that aren't subbed. Most of them cannot even be found online.

Out of all his dramas - he's done twenty-three - only four or five have English subtitles.

- Happy Together (1999) had several "names" from early in their careers. Song Seung Hun, Jo Min Soo, and Kang Sung Yun play LBH's stepsiblings. Jun Ji Hyun plays their younger half-sister. Plus, Kim Ha Neul is the elementary school teacher who finds herself in a love triangle with LBH and SSH's characters. Han Go-eun pops up as the 'other woman' to SSH's character. And, Cha Tae Hyun is a low-level gangster whose in love with Jun Ji Hyun. Basically, the whole cast is a 'whose who' of big names or character actors. Check it out if you haven't.

- Beautiful Days, ALL IN, and IRIS are also subbed. Other than that. . .I've come across nothing.

For films: He was in HERO, the film based on the Japanese television series. A Bittersweet Life is subbed. As is The Good, The Bad, and the Weird. Plus, there's I Come With the Rain and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Plus, Jungdok aka Addicted.

Oddly, for such a big name, very few of his dramas are subbed in English. Most are actually unfindable. And the films? Most aren't subbed.

[dangermousie]

Happy Together is at the top of my netflix queue.

I also have Addicted. Must watch soon.

I guess most of his dramas are from 1990s and those are haaaaard to find subbed. (Though YA seems to be putting out some older dramas now and then so that small number may increase). The other 1990s drama I wanted to check out recently, Love Is In Your Embrace (or its various title alliterations) is not even in drama wiki and it was huge in 1994. It kinda sucks. I think prior to 2000 pickings are really slim. I mean, I was even having a horrible time finding Eyes of Dawn and it's a super famous one (got my hands on it at last, all the way from Australia).

Grrrrr.

[walkwithheroes]

I watched Happy Together within a week. It's a great show, but I'll admit that the main love triangle bored me. You will want to slap half the characters by mid-series.

YA is putting out a ton of older ones from the mid-1990s to early-2000s. You should ask if they could get any of his older shows. He is becoming popular in the states thanks to his English roles and Addicted. Before 2000, not many people fansubbed and not many stations sold their shows to English-speaking countries. So, yes - hard to find.

I saw Eyes of Dawn at aja-aja, but I don't think it had subs. I'm glad you got your hands on it, though. It reminds me that there are many awesome shows that we'll never get to see, because there are no subs for them.

[dangermousie]

If you want to know where to get EoD with subs (this seller has burned dvds at reasonable prices) let me know, and I'll pm you.

I do want to write to YA and see if they won't do some of LBH's earlier stuff - I am dyyyying to watch Beautiful My Lady, positively dying. And I don't think they'd have to pay too much to the station for it. No harm in asking.

I am sort of on a kick of older dramas now, for some reason (watching Goodbye my Love now and then plan to watch Star in My Heart) - for some reason they remind me of the serious twdramas which makes me happy.

Yeah, I think LBH is the first Korean actor to get noticed in any way in the US, due to GI Joe. Which - is all right with me :)

[walkwithheroes]

Please do PM me. I am always on the look-out for older Korean and Japanese dramas with good English subtitles.

Ask! I know that the last time I emailed them, the people at YA said they were going to have a lot of newer dramas out in 2010, but it wouldn't hurt to ask about older ones.

Goodbye My Love is in my nf que. Most of the older YA series are in my que. They really are just addicting. And, a lot of times more solid dramas. I'm still annoyed that Glass Slipper was taken off my que, because the first volume discs have been lost.

[dangermousie]

Will do!

GML is so very good - I agree, I find older dramas really addicting. In some ways, they feel less stylized, and I love that.

[walkwithheroes]

Thanks for the PM!

I think I like the older dramas (both from Korea and Japan), because they are less stylized and less cliched. There's a formula to dramas now and back in the mid-90s to early-2000s, that formula either wasn't there or was very new. So, it feels less like a cliche and more interesting. You never really know what will happen with certain characters, and I like that.

[dangermousie]

I think I like the older dramas (both from Korea and Japan), because they are less stylized and less cliched.

Exactly.

It's even more stark for me with jdramas - when I look at 1990s ones and recent ones, it's like a different world. While kdramas have become often more stylized but not as badly - there is still plenty quirky/grown-up stuff around.

[walkwithheroes]

when I look at 1990s ones and recent ones, it's like a different world. While kdramas have become often more stylized but not as badly - there is still plenty quirky/grown-up stuff around.

Exactly.