While at work filming his current KBS series Three Dads, One Mom on May 11, Jae Hee was injured and required nine stitches. Ironically, the scene he was shooting took place in a hospital.
In the scene, Kyung Tae (Shin Sung Rok’s character) is stabbed and Jae Hee’s character rushes him to the emergency room. While waiting for his friend’s surgery results, he becomes overcome with anger and strikes a wall in frustration.
Apparently Jae Hee was a little too immersed in his work and hit the wall with too much force, “tearing his hand.” Luckily, he didn’t have to travel far to receive emergency treatment, and received nine stitches.
But rather than taking time off for his injury, Jae Hee continued with the shoot. Neither is this the first time he’s displayed his serious work ethic; previously, he’d injured an arm in a bicycle chase scene (lol) and continued filming despite it.
Jae Hee’s always seemed like an actor who takes his job extremely seriously (despite some unfortunate role selections), so I’m not too surprised to hear this, although nine stitches? In one hand? Yeesh. It’s just too bad the two actors immersing themselves into this drama can’t make up for the other two who aren’t.
Perfectionist: Poor Jae Hee! After reading this article, you have an idea on how professional he is! Aja! I love him. Though he's not yet a SUPERSTAR today, he would be, SOON! He's got the work ethics for it. :)
The actor recently starred in the film GP506 (which the above pic is from; it’s not a real army pic) and currently stars in the new drama Three Dads, One Mom (for which I’m holding off judgment till I see the second episode — I wasn’t wowed by the first, but first episodes are so unpredictable).
He recently began his military service on the 1st, but has now just been released from training after only four days. That in itself is not terribly strange:
“According to military service law, if one is found to be unfit for active duty following a physical examination, due to disease or mental or physical disorder, or requires more than fifteen days’ recovery time for said condition, said person may be dismissed.”
What IS weird, though, is the fact that is just becoming known that Jo Hyun Jae left in the middle of filming a drama to enlist in his military service — and upon his dismissal after four days, immediately returned to filming. Something’s fishy over in Three Dads territory. (I don’t know the specifics of Three Dads, but generally a drama begins filming anywhere from a month to several months in advance. A trendy drama that doesn’t require excessive preparation — unlike, say, an epic or high-budget production like Legend — may typically have about eight episodes completed when the series begins airing. It is definitely weird to have started military service in the middle of a project.)
The situation is starting to stir up lots of suspicion and criticism — if he suffers from a severe enough condition to prevent him from training, how can he be fit enough to film a drama? — which is not helped by the fact that the drama producers have offered “no explanation, and have evaded questions” about the topic. Furthermore, prior to Jo’s enlistment, the producers had been unusually hush-hush about his impending service date.
Some of Jo Hyun Jae’s fans are supporting their star, casting aspersions on the validity of the news reports, but a majority of them agree that things look suspicious.
The mandatory-military-service topic is always a source of major debate, and a definite hot-button issue. Everyone knows that effing around with draft-dodging schemes in Korea is serious, career-damaging (if not career-ending) business. Methinks he’s got some ’splainin’ to do.
Perfectionist: OMG. What is Jo Hyun Jae up to? This is my first time to read something like this. I think he should explain ASAP, and it should be a pretty good explaining!
Finally caught the first two episodes of the new KBS Wednesday-Thursday drama Three Dads, One Mom, and have a bit of a mixed reaction. On one hand, there’s a very cute quality to the drama, helped in no small part by its appealing cast — and while they’re not quite superstar-famous, all four main cast members are fairly established and known names.
There are some things I like about the series and the setup; there are other things I don’t. Right now, I’m not sure which way the balance tilts. Eugene is adorably gorgeous as the one mom amidst three possible dads, best-friend bachelors played by Jo Hyun Jae, Jae Hee, and Shin Sung Rok. Their interactions, laced with a healthy dose of good-natured male camaraderie, are one of the more appealing aspects of the drama for me. I’ll wait to see how things develop before making a final judgment; for now, I plan to catch a few more episodes.
Simple setup: Start with four best friends who’ve grown up together since childhood.
Despite growing into vastly differing personalities, the four have stuck together all these years into adulthood.
SUNG MIN was the first to fall in love, and married his sweetheart NA YOUNG (played by Eugene). He’s perhaps the most emotionally mature of the four, and also the sweet-tempered one. He dotes on his wife, and she returns his affection wholeheartedly. Both have had somewhat tough childhoods, which heightens Na Young’s desire to become a mother and have a loving family of her own.
Sung Min’s best friends are all single and live together in their messy bachelor pad: SU HYUN (Jo Hyun Jae) is the good-looking, money-obsessed financial manager working in stocks and bonds. He’d like to marry and settle down in theory, although he’s never met anyone worth settling down for. Stingy bastard.
KWANG HEE (Jae Hee) is a manhwa artist who doesn’t believe in settling down and is always seeing one woman after another. Smooth (and fast) talker, somewhat irresponsible.
KYUNG TAE is the hotheaded cop, a little dumb on the outside but softhearted on the inside. He goes by two last names, Na Hwang, in a strange (to Korea) practice of observing his mother’s maiden name (Hwang) along with his father’s family name (Na). That should tell you all about him right there. He’s the sloppiest eater and the messiest dresser, but the kindest in heart.
THE STORY
Na Young mostly likes her husband’s three best friends, but they try her patience constantly by making a mess of her home playing poker all night, dragging Sung Min out with them drinking, and generally being well-meaning but insensitive. And vice versa — the guys like her and think she’s a good match for Sung Min, but she’s kinda naggy.
Na Young desperately wants to become a mother, but attempts at conception have failed. Lately her frustration has her fighting with Sung Min because while he’s accepted that they’re probably not going to be able to have children (he’s sterile, having no sperm), she wants to exhaust their possibilities and see doctor after doctor. He’s being realistic, but she interprets it as not taking her seriously.
Sung Min talks over his problem with his friends, who offer suggestions. They could adopt, or go to a sperm bank, but those are deemed out of the question. Sung Min off-handedly mutters that it’s too bad he can’t use his friends’ sperm… which gives him the brilliant idea to use his friends’ sperm. He knows them all personally and can vouch for their character. They won’t tell Na Young, naturally, and the baby will be raised as his. He won’t make demands afterward or dump them with fatherly responsibility. Furthermore, nobody will ever need to know whose sperm of the three was used. No burden. Su Hyun, Kwang Hee, and Kyung Tae — cheerfully drunk — agree. When they sober up, they’re horrified because they don’t really want to go along with it.
Sung Min, feeling desperate (Na Young is growing despondent, and he doesn’t want to lose her), pleads with each in turn go along and donate his sperm. Finally, they’re guilt-tripped into agreeing, and drag their feet to the clinic to make their donations. Sung Min has told Na Young he wants to see the doctor for one more try at insemination, and she happily agrees.
After the friends leave the clinic, they brood — each has the fear that fathering a child now will come back to bite them later, despite Sung Min’s assurances to the contrary. They call Sung Min and tell him they can’t go through with it: Rescind the decision! Sung Min concedes, to their relief — but then grimly progresses with his plan.
Na Young becomes pregnant (I’m assuming in vitro fertilization), blissfully unaware of the baby’s true parentage. Sung Min’s friends are suspicious about the timing and demand to know if he used their sperm; Sung Min insists (nervously) that the baby is his own, which is why they’re calling her/him Ha Sun, “gift from heaven.”
But about six months into the pregnancy, Sung Min is killed in a car accident, leaving behind a bereaved wife and three devastated friends.
For once, the guys think of Na Young’s welfare before themselves — she’s alone, pregnant, and completely overwhelmed. She has a hard time keeping herself together, much less taking care of closing bank accounts and official death-related administrative tasks. The guys promise to handle everything for her, and find among Sung Min’s things a DVD. It’s labeled for his unborn baby, and the friends watch Sung Min’s self-videoed clip. Onscreen, the three friends interrupt the video; after they’ve left, Sung Min resumes taping, now a little tipsy.
Sung Min tells the video that the baby’s three “uncles” are his best friends, people whom the baby should consider with the same regard as a father. He alludes to the uncles’ “priceless gift” without which the baby never could have been born — and they realize with dread that Sung Min must have used their sperm.
Perhaps as a corollary to this discussion of why ratings are important, for better or for worse (usually for worse), here’s an article that discusses one such ramification: actors who come attached with high price tags that the drama then is unable to recoup when a drama flops in the ratings.
(One thing to note: Despite the high numbers listed, Korean actors find most of their paychecks going to management companies, as actress Choi Jin-shil recently gained attention for mentioning. In the U.S., agents are only allowed to take 10% — though more fees get siphoned off to managers, publicists, lawyers, and the like — but that percentage is much higher for Korean celebs.)
Even if a drama flops, stars’ asking prices continue to soar. It’s not as though market theory applies, and those prices keep rising, defying logic. Even when a drama meets with crushing failure, hurting the production company behind it, a star’s fee still climbs.
However, fees for actors cast in lead roles still skyrocket. These days, star actors are earning close to hundreds of millions of won per episode. A drama role that earned a star 2 million won [approx. $2,000] per episode in 1997 now brings in anywhere from 20 million to 100 million won [$20,000 to $100,000]. At an increase of ten to fifty times its former price in the last ten years, this is an astronomical pay hike.
For a star with a moderately recognizable name, a per-episode fee can be from 30 to 50 million won [$30,000 to $50,000]. For top stars, that number now is in the 100 million [$100,000] range.
Recently, Park Shin-yang attracted much attention for his asking price. He’d demanded his fee for War of Money up front from production company Lee Kim Productions for the drama’s four-episode extension, a total of 620 million won [$620,000]. This amount converts to a per-episode price of 155,000 million won [$155,000]. That may be the fee for bonus episodes, but the fee for each episode [in the rest of the series] is still more than 100 million won [$100,000].
Thus stars’ fees continue to climb without regard to how well a drama performs. Of the dramas this year, there have been far more flops than successes.
Robbers, Who Are You?
These days, the production environment for dramas is sliding into extreme decline. Although the star fees rise, there is a rapid decrease in those willing to invest or enter into product placement agreements.
Furthermore, production costs are shooting up, and aside from a few exceptions, there are numerous dramas that pull in ratings still in the single digits. For that reason, there are some outside production houses that produce one or two dramas, then die out. Here are symptoms of Hallyu beginning to wane, and our drama structure is heading toward deterioration.
In such a serious situation, our film and then drama markets may fall into decline, giving rise to the argument that the drama market is headed for crisis point.
Kim Seung-soo, secretary-general of the Production Company and Drama Producers Association, said, “We can no longer handle these soaring actors’ fees. If we let this problem continue, the drama industry will collapse. We’re even discussing among our membership if we can figure out a way to bind the fees for actors to 20 million won [$20,000] per episode.”
It seems that the general consensus is that star fees are too high. Recently, a poll on a portal site posed that question, and among the 1,621 respondents, 95.3% felt that the prices were too high, 2.7% felt it was reasonable, and only 1.4% felt they were low. from dramabeans
Perfectionist: Awww. Does that mean that there would be less Korean dramas produced??? Andwe!!!
The first video is a photo shoot for the poster of Three Dads, One Mom. And the second video is a clip from their press conference. Oh God! Jo Hyun Jae is mighty hot and cute!!!
Out of boredom and fascination,
I give to you my reflections, thoughts and frustrations about Korean dramas. Don't we just love them?
Or if you don't then I guess you think you're so cool then?
You would also find in this blog, stuffs related to Korean dramas.
My favorite Korean actresses are:
Han Chae Young,
Lee Da Hae,
Han Ga In,
Song Hye Kyo and
Jeon Ji Hyun
For Korean actors, I love:
Jae Hee,
Jo Hyun Jae,
Lee Dong Wook,
Dennis Oh and
Daniel Henney
So don't be surprised if you see lots of stuffs about them here at my blog.
