Joo Won, back to Dramaland with 'Nodame Cantabile'

Well, well, well. Look who's back to dramaland!

Joo Won just confirmed his participation in the Korean remake of the award winning Japanese drama, Nodame Cantabile. The drama was actually based on a hit manga and Joo Won will be playing the lead character, Chiaki Shinichi, who is a college dude and a musical genius. Ha, so another genius Joo Won, eh?

To be honest, I am skeptical about this one. The J-drama is so much loved that it will sure be hard to create a new version of it that can surpass or even equal the original one. Plus, Koreans tend to mess up their Japanese drama adaptations. It doesn't help that the production company behind this remake, which is Group8, was also the one that produced Boys Over Flowers, Playful Kiss, and the recent tragedy that was Pretty Man.

Given those reasons, I am supposed to be sad about Joo Won's casting but I missed Joo Won so much that any drama will do now. I want my oppa back on screen!

Good thing, Group8 seems to be taking the casting seriously. According to the news, actress Shim Eun Kyung has been offered to be the female lead, Noda Megumi. It actually took me some googling to recognize the name. I was actually shocked to see her filmography and her age! The girl is just 20 but has been acting since forever. It turns out, she's a child actress and has been in numerous movies and dramas. And she was in Sunny! I watched that movie, and it was very fun, mainly because of her character. However, although SEK has been successful in chungmuro, she has yet to prove that in dramaland. She has never led a drama before, at least not with a romance genre. She's a good actress though and can do comedy and melo flawlessly. She's also one of the few who doesn't care about image. She goes all out with her wacky expressions. She's basically fun which I think best suits for the Nodame role.

So now, I like both of them, I'm pretty sure they will nail their respective roles. One problem though: I can't seem to see these two as a couple! I don't know if it's the 7-year age gap or that I still see SEK as a child. Hmm, let's just see when this drama airs on October.