If you checked some Japanese news sites, you would know Korean actor Bae Yong Joon is a big boom in Japan now. I wrote about him before, I thought the boom hadd peaked at that time, but it has not ended even now. A few days ago, he came to Japan for this portrait exhibition in Roppongi hills. Over 3000 Japanese women went to Narata Airport to see him, and at Roppongi Hills, Japanese women were CRYing to see his photo.
In Japan we can see him in commercial of Sony Cybershot, Lotte sweets, au mobile phone.
How could he capture the hearts of so many Japanese women? I heard it is a topic discussed in Korea too. Actually now Japan is a big market for Korean Show biz. Since I did not see Winter Sonata or his other drama, I cannot say exactly what, But like I said before, he is a perfect match as a LOVE target to over 30s Japanese women. Recently Japanese pop culture has been too young/childish I feel. Then we are getting bored of seeing SMAP on everything. So Bae Young Joon's clean image, an adult image, and an orthodox LOVE story is very comfortable for them. At that point, I understand very well how he could be popular in this country at this timing. Well I think he is handsome actually...But that drama is such..... Since I am afraid to make anger some avid fan, today I will not make any ironic comments, hai. But at least I can tell this clearly, Japan has shown that we can be very open to Sounth Korean culture and appriciate and enjoy them without being nervous politic topic.
Anyway Regarding Bae Young Joon, I have another type of issue at my job. It is the theme song for Winter Sonata. Since a certain group insisted to have copy right of the theme song. We had to delete the theme and several Korean songs from our ring tone site. On the other hand, this raise a new question about the credibility of plagiarism for this song. Okay, You can listen to the theme song of Winter Sonata "From the beginning till now" here, good site. Then this is the Japanese old song AI HA KAGEROU (MIDI) which was released in 1980. Hmm what do you think?
Bae yong is a hearthrob even in Nepal. thousands of women are crazy about him and i m 1 among them. His winter Sonata is the best.
Posted by: Prasoon Bhandari | Thursday, August 09, 2007 at 11:17 AM
hi very very very very very good
Posted by: shams | Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 09:19 AM
I've seen Bae Young Joon so many times from the drama series here in the Philippines and I must acclaim him for being such a prolific and versatile actor. From all those I can say that he was an epitome of an actor who is not just a pretty face and a typical eye catcher because he seems to posses all the characteristics and aura of a true artist! And for that I end this comment with a phrase that "Bae Young Joon truly deserves the hude adulation of people around the globe.
Posted by: Joy Divine Reyes | Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 08:40 PM
hi I want to call u
Posted by: tom | Saturday, September 09, 2006 at 08:30 PM
Estoy enamorada de Bae Young jonn y quiero confesar que el es el mejor, es guapo, sencillo, carismàtico, buen actor, uyyyy y muchas cosas mas ....
Bae Young Jun Te AMO
Posted by: i love a Bae Young Joon | Friday, June 30, 2006 at 01:15 AM
the songs is very good.i love it.but i things the melodies make me sad.
Posted by: siuling | Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 05:23 PM
Not that anyone's gonna read this, but, what the hey. I feel picky today...
The songs are not the same. They both have different melodies. They sound the same because they have near-identical chord progressions. Also the intervals between the notes and their patterns are very similar (and tediously repetitive, IMO), but then again, this is true for many romantic love songs (old and new) in Korea and Japan--not just "Ai Ha Kagerou." That's why no one's tried suing or anything. Also, I don't see what's so special about the song. It sounds like every other theme for Korean romance-dramas. It's mostly just a simple progression of 7th chords--like a bossa nova w/o the rhythm.
Posted by: michael | Saturday, August 20, 2005 at 02:34 PM
I played the old song over the new song. They are in slightly different keys, but it is almost the same melody as far as I can tell. The only difference I could hear was the lyrics in the Korean song; there were none in the MIDI.
This would be a case for the judges, the lawyers, and the expert witnesses to decide, but that is more of an American thing, not something done much in Japan, I guess.
If I were the composer of Ai Ha Kagerou, I would be concerned about it, I suppose--people buy ringtones in Japan as they do here, ne? Having the ringtone available could make that song and the artist popular again, and perhaps everyone concerned could earn some money from it, kamoshirenai.
Posted by: Claire (クレア) | Sunday, December 05, 2004 at 10:34 AM
well..perhaps. If we could get Mari to produce an album..... ;)
Posted by: robert | Saturday, December 04, 2004 at 04:19 PM
i am also a bit a lost on why this became such a huge hit. when i was still staying in singapore, he came to town and i can swear that every female over the age of 40 in singapore was either stalking him, talking about him, waiting in line for him... exactly the same way F4, a taiwanese boyband conquered the teen world in most of Asia 3 years back because of Meteor Garden, a TV series. (I don't think they hit Japan but I did see Meteor Garden being shown on Japan cable when I was there last month).
Hmm, next time I want to see the guys go crazy over someone with the same level of enthusiasm. I think it'll be funny.
Posted by: cecile | Saturday, December 04, 2004 at 08:15 AM
Is the issue really over the lyrics or over the broadcast via phone ringtones ?
The Winter Sonata OST can be heard from many sources. The WHOLE album can be heard at
http://music.bugs.co.kr/Info/album.asp?album=6894
Posted by: Huang | Friday, December 03, 2004 at 07:07 PM
Hi! Here is David, from RunningTheEarth weblog. Nice to know you found my weblog rather nice... mostly because of the Winter Sonata song :) cool!
I've been downloading the full tv series, on bittorrent. And I've watched 1 and a half episodes, and I find it very funny. The music is great, and the scenery very beautiful!
Nice to meet you! :)
Posted by: David Costa | Friday, December 03, 2004 at 02:12 AM
maybe you could get an endorsement by the 80's group and then turn around and talk to that group about copyright infringement. in either case. I wonder about the validity of such issues. Does the copyright cover the tune? The lyrics? if they claim rights to both, then I would think they would have to prove authorship as would anyone. Listening to the MP3 and the midi there is clearly a similarity in the tune, which would seem to indicate the only thing being original is the lyrics..and therefore the only thing to which a copyright could be claimed (at least by this group)is the lyrics..which are not a part of the ringtone, I'd imagine. Greed makes people ugly and takes the life out of art and music. I would think that an artist would be happy to hear their music being shared.. but then I had used Napster back in the day, so who am I to talk. ;) I still give my music away..for now.. and if anyone wants to use it for a ringtone..talk to my agent..;p
Posted by: robert | Friday, December 03, 2004 at 01:13 AM