2007 in review: The War of the Koreanovelas
Jumongversus
The year 2007 saw the fiercest war ever to hit Filipina Soul, between the Jumongers and the PH’ers.
GMA’s Jumong and ABS-CBN’s Princess Hours were popular Korean televonelas that aired in the Philippines last year. Viewers from both not only followed each show religiously but also staged their own ‘forums’ here at Filipina Soul. Of course, since the two shows came from rival networks, it wasn’t long before fans were at each other’s ‘forums’ and out-doing each other! The posts even had resident ‘experts’ chiming in with their reviews and takes on the shows. All in good humor… (well, uhmmm, we did have to referee some comments for, let me just say, lack of niceness.) Roxy , one of the most outspoken Jumong fan, actually became go-to person for the show.
The Jumong posts won the ‘battle’ with 1280 comments here and 516 in another, and counting, while Princess Hours got 849 comments. Fans asked us and one another for favorite episodes, reviews, summaries, emails of cast members, DVD and pictures. Some of fans probably are friends now, if they haven’t gotten some face time yet.
Now that the two shows are over, I wonder if there will be another set of telenovelas that will be in the likes of Jumong and Princess Hours in fan following. … Marimar, maybe?
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POSTED IN: Arts and Entertainment, General: Philippine Culture
January 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
@Grace, thanks a lot! I am soooo touched with this review.
Well, the fight has almost went to a truce, since there are still kapamilya ranters lurking unjustly.
BTW… we should look forward for the Lobbyist, even though it got so lame. Anyway, Song Il-gook is not the only one who experienced the same lameness. Kim Jeong Eun—-popularly known as “Vivian Kang” of Lovers in Paris—-experienced the same thing. Both of them went tragic. Why? First, to KJE. She came from a Monster hitting and multi-awarded drama, only to end up in a lame rom-com series with a super-flopsy ratings. Come to think of it: you’ve started in a decent 20something ratings, only to end up with a pathetic 8-11%? Aaaaarrrgghhh!
Meanwhile, for Song Il-Gook’s case, it’s just way SBS spent billions of won for that series only to end up earning a meager 10%-22% ratings with a somewhat lame story to boot despite movie-like quality? It also didn’t win him an award in the last-held SBS Drama Awards 2007. Sigh~! Moreover, at least it is not as tragic as JJH’s THE DEVIL.
Well, Kim Jeong Eun is still higher than that of Song Il-Gook’s 51-52% peak rating. LIP, BTW… has 57% highest…almost tied-up with Jewel in the Palace.
Lastly, we should wait for Bae Yong Joon’s THE LEGEND.
Special FX? Storyline? Acting? CG? The Legend can absolutely kick wuxia drama producer’s @sses and even ABS-CBN fantaserye producers. I am pretty sure that once GMA get this, fans of ABS-CBN will fall flat on their faces for bashing this movie-quality TV series. Adding the fact that it has BAE YONG JOON to boot.
Is there anyone here know BAE YONG JOON? He is the star of Winter Sonata fame together with CHOI JI WOO… and the said series even won the hearts of Japanese lady fans just like Jumong recently… and BYJ called “Yonsama”.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
hi Roxy, I will definitely wait for The Legend to come out. Let me know when, ok, and hang in there. Koreanovelas rock!
January 20th, 2008 at 2:31 am
BTW… grace, what country do you recently staying right now? because THE LEGEND is currently available in your nearest tiangges nationwide, and I am having that one right now.
Well, why don’t you feature COFFEE PRINCE of GMA? Do you know, it currently rocks the primetime after the first 4 local series? It’s set on a later sked but still rockin’ way better than Princess Hours, and even got 30%something as its highest.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
hi!!!
April 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
My girlfriend is crazy about Koreanovelas. Trying to understand what’s so good about these koreanovelas, I agreed to watch My Name is Kim Sam Soon. It was OK but still couldn’t understand why so many people are hooked.
I first got a glimpse into the korean craze when my girl friend bought Full House and asked me to watch it ahead to see if it was any good because she didn’t like the lead actor back then.
I was so hooked to Full House that I watched it 18 hours a day stopping only to eat and do the number 1 and 2.
It was then that I knew why a lot of people get hooked with koreanovelas.
Now, I am so hooked that I blog hop jumping from one blog to another finding blog posts about Koreanovelas.
If you’re into koreanovelas and want to find nice reviews about past and upcoming series like The Jumong and Princess Hours, you should check out this blog called, Han Mania (http://hanmania.blogspot.com)
It’s nice.