Gu Hye-sun becomes a pilot for Take Care of Us, Captain

She’s jumping from the world of musical theater to the friendly skies; Gu Hye-sun plays an airline pilot in her upcoming drama Take Care of Us, Captain, which will air soon after her currently airing series The Musical wraps.
The role explains her uniformed appearance in this batch of stills from the SBS drama, where her character, Han Da-jin, graduates from the “Redbaron Airline Academy of Sanfrancisco,” per the fake diploma below. Urg, bad English in Korean dramas is one of my pet peeves; you’d think they’d have somebody on hand to correct them, especially with the pictured shoot taking place at the Yangpyeong English Village in Kyunggi-do. Approximately 100 Westerners were brought in to play extras in the graduation scene filmed on November 17.

The drama follows Da-jin’s personal and professional growth as she becomes a co-pilot along with series lead Ji Jin-hee, who’s her older, more experienced co-pilot. Also her love interest, along with Lee Chun-hee. Other cast members include Yoo Sun, Honey Lee, and Sean Richard.
Take Care of Us, Captain premieres on January 4, making it a Wednesday-Thursday drama following current sageuk Tree With Deep Roots.

Love Rain, literally

Looks like they’re taking the title literally for Love Rain, with series leads Jang Geun-seok and Yoon-ah meeting in the rain in the above still.
The multigenerational “premium melodrama” from melo king PD Yoon Seok-ho (he of the Season dramas) has already pre-sold to Japan, no doubt owing a lot of its hype to the two stars, both of whom have heightened profiles abroad as well as home. The drama has been filming since September, starting with the earlier 1970s period; it’ll then cover the following decades and resume with their children’s generation. The analog-versus-digital dichotomy is one of the main motifs, in addition to the youthful-love-and-angst melo plots we’ve come to expect from PD Yoon.
The drama is planning for an early 2012 broadcast, which means a good amount of it will be pre-shot. That’s probably for the better; it’s hard to maintain “premium” levels of quality when you’re mired deep in the live shoot.

Scenes from newly premiered KBS drama Brain

Neurosurgery drama Brain began its run today on KBS, and while I haven’t gotten around to checking out the premiere yet, here are some posters and stills to mark the series launch.
The posters do a pretty good job of telling us that this is going to be a Serious Medical Drama — rather than, say, romance central a la Grey’s Anatomy — with a rivalry driving it. Actually, make that multiple rivalries: In the top poster, Shin Ha-kyun (The Front Line) faces off with Jo Dong-hyuk (Yacha), but in the one

Kim Soo-hyun takes the lead in fantasy sageuk romance

Casting has been revealed for the upcoming sageuk drama Moon That Embraces the Sun, which is adapted from a novel by Jung Eun-gwol, the writer who wrote The Lives of Sungkyunkwan’s Scholars, the novel that gave us Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Phew, that’s a mouthful. Basically: Sungkyunkwan Scandal v.2.0 in the works? Yes, please!
Kim Soo-hyun will take the lead role of Lee Hwon, a fictional king of Joseon who falls in love with a female shaman, to be played (as previously rumored) by Han Ga-in. The drama will be a fantasy romance about young love and coming of age in the Joseon era, set against the backdrop of the palace. So that’s good news if you were a fan of the addictive Sungkyunkwan Scandal, since tonally it seems to share a lot of similarities.

Since we’re dealing with a fictional king rather than a historical figure, my bet is that we’ll be seeing an alternate-universe version of Joseon; this is not your father’s sageuk. Who cares about historical accuracy when you’ve got a delicious romance to root for? And with Kim Soo-hyun finally getting the girl (he’d better), yeah, it’s gonna be delicious.
I’m sure the drama’s title is a reference to the nature of the romance — two entities that Cannot Be Together fall in love anyway — which is reflected in their names. His contains the character for light, and her name, Wol, means moon.
Kim Soo-hyun has had a string of memorable performances playing teenagers in dramas like Giant, Will It Snow For Christmas, and Dream High, but this is his first adult leading role. It’s probably because he’s played younger than his age that he seems so much younger than Han Ga-in, but they’re actually just six years apart; she’s 29 and he’s 23. Already he’s got wonderful presence and tons of talent; watching him is engaging and often stirring.
Kim is currently wrapping up filming on his movie Thieves, the Oceans Eleven-esque caper about a team of thieves led by mastermind Lee Jung-jae. Can’t wait for that, either.
Moon That Embraces the Sun is written by scriptwriter Jin Soo-wan of Capital Scandal and directed by PD Kim Do-hoon of Royal Family. It is preparing for a January broadcast on MBC.